Subject matter
This Regulation lays down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 850/98 as regards the determination of the mesh size and the assessment of the twine thickness of fishing nets by Community and national inspectors.
Definitions
For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
(a)
‘mesh gauge’ means a mesh measurement gauge with two jaws, which automatically applies longitudinal forces, in the range of 5 to 180 Newton (N) to the meshes with a precision of 1 N;
(b)
‘active gear’ means any fishing gear for which the catch operation requires an active movement of the gear, including in particular towed gears, encircling gears, trawls, Danish seines and similar towed nets;
(c)
‘passive gear’ means any fishing gear for which the catch operation does not require an active movement of the gear, and includes gillnets, entangling nets, trammel nets, trap-nets, lines, pots and traps;
(d)
‘N-direction’ for knotted netting means the direction at right angles to the general course of the netting yarn, as shown in Annex I;
(e)
‘T-direction’ means:
(i)
for knotted netting: the direction parallel to the general course of the netting yarn, as shown in Annex I;
(ii)
for knotless netting: the direction at right angle to N-direction;
(f)
‘mesh size’ means:
(i)
for knotted netting: the longest distance between two opposite knots in the same mesh when fully extended as shown in Annex I;
(ii)
for knotless netting: the inside distance between the opposite joints in the same mesh when fully extended along its longest possible axis;
(g)
‘diamond mesh’ means a mesh as shown in figure 1 of Annex II, composed of four bars of the same length where the two diagonals of the mesh are perpendicular and one diagonal is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the net as shown in figure 2 of Annex II;
(h)
‘square mesh’ means a quadrilateral mesh composed of two sets of parallel bars of the same length, where one set is parallel to, and the other is at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the net;
(i)
‘T90 mesh’ means a diamond mesh from knotted netting, as shown in figure 1 of Annex II, mounted so that the T-direction of the netting is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the net.