Closure periods for purse seine vessels for tropical tunas
1. To implement the fishing closure for purse seine vessels, each Member State shall:
(a)
inform the Commission by 15 June each year of which of the two closure periods from 29 July to 8 October, or from 9 November to 19 January, shall be applicable to their vessels. The Commission shall notify the IATTC Secretariat of the applicable period of closure by 15 July each year;
(b)
inform all interested parties in its tuna industry of the closure;
(c)
inform the Commission by 15 June each year that these steps have been taken;
(d)
ensure that for the entire duration of the closure all purse seine vessels that fly its flag do not fish in the Convention area.
2. Where a Union fishing vessel is unable to proceed to sea outside the applicable closure period referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1, due to a force majeure event consisting of disabling the fishing vessel in the course of fishing operations by mechanical or structural failure, fire or explosion, during a period of at least 75 consecutive days, the Member State may send to the Commission an exemption request for the closure period, together with the evidence necessary to demonstrate that the vessel did not proceed to sea due to force
majeure . The request shall be sent to the Commission at the latest two weeks after the cessation of the cause of the force
majeure . The Commission shall assess and, where applicable, forward the request to the IATTC Secretariat for consideration by the IATTC at the latest one month after the cessation of the cause of the force
majeure .
3. Where the Commission notifies the Member State of the approval by the IATTC of the request referred to in paragraph 2:
(a)
in the event that the vessel has not observed a closure period in the same year where the cause of the force
majeure occurred, the vessel shall observe a reduced closure period of 40 consecutive days in one of the two closure periods of that year instead of the full closure set out in point (a) of paragraph 1 and the Commission shall immediately notify the IATTC Secretariat of the chosen period of closure; or
(b)
in the event that the vessel has already observed a closure period in the same year during which the cause of the force
majeure occurred, it shall observe a reduced closure period of 40 consecutive days the following year in one of the two closure periods for that year, to be notified to the Commission no later than 15 July of that year.
4. Any vessel that benefits from the exemption provided for in paragraph 3 shall carry an authorised observer on-board.
5. In addition to the closure referred to in paragraph 1, the fishery for tropical tunas within the area of 96° and 110°W and between 4°N and 3°S shall be closed from 9 October to 8 November of each year.
Prohibition of fishing on data buoys
1. Masters of vessels shall ensure that their vessels do not interact with data buoys in the Convention area.
2. It shall be prohibited to deploy fishing gear within one nautical mile of an anchored data buoy in the Convention area.
3. It shall be prohibited to take on board a data buoy, unless a Member State, a Contracting Party or the owner responsible for that buoy specifically authorises or requests to do so.
4. If fishing gear becomes entangled with a data buoy, the entangled fishing gear shall be removed with as little damage to the data buoy as possible.
5. Scientific research programmes formally notified to the IATTC may operate Union fishing vessels within one nautical mile of a data buoy, provided that those vessels do not interact with the data buoy or deploy fishing gear, as set out in paragraphs 1 and 2.
Fish-aggregating devices (FADs)
1. FADs shall be activated exclusively on board Union purse seine vessels.
2. A FAD shall be considered active when it is deployed at sea, starts transmitting its location and is being tracked by the vessel, its owner or its operator.
3. Union fishing vessels shall report daily information on all active FADs to the Commission at intervals submitted with a time delay of at least 60 days, but with a time interval of not more than 90 days between each report. The Commission shall immediately forward that information to the IATTC Secretariat.
4. The operators of Union fishing vessels shall collect and report any interaction with FADs to Member States. For each interaction they shall record the following information:
(a)
position of the FAD;
(b)
date and hour of deployment of the FAD;
(c)
IATTC FAD identification (i.e. FAD marking or beacon identification; type of buoy; or any information allowing identification of the owner);
(d)
FAD type (such as anchored FAD, drifting natural FAD, drifting artificial FAD);
(e)
FAD design characteristics (dimension and material of the floating part and of the underwater hanging structure);
(f)
type of activity (set, deployment, hauling, retrieving, loss, intervention on electronic equipment, etc.);
(g)
if the activity is a set, the results of the set in terms of catch and bycatch; and
(h)
characteristics of any attached buoy or positioning equipment (positioning system, whether equipped with sonar, etc.).
5. The data collected for the previous calendar year shall be submitted by Member States to the Commission no later than 75 days prior to each regular meeting of the SAC. The Commission shall forward that information to the IATTC Secretariat no later than 60 days before the meeting of the SAC.
6. The identification and the design and deployment of FADs by Union fishing vessels shall comply, respectively, with Annexes I and II to Resolution C-19-01.
Transhipments in port
All transhipments in the Convention area of IATTC species shall take place in port.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
