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Subject matter
This Regulation lays down general rules for the uniform and effective implementation by the Union of the multiannual management plan for bluefin tuna ( Thunnus thynnus ) in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (‘ICCAT’).
Scope
This Regulation applies to: (a) Union fishing vessels and Union vessels engaged in recreational fisheries which: (i) catch bluefin tuna in the Convention Area; and (ii) tranship or carry on board, including outside the Convention Area, bluefin tuna caught in the Convention Area; (b) Union farms; (c) third country fishing vessels and third country vessels engaged in recreational fisheries that operate in Union waters and catch bluefin tuna in the Convention Area; (d) third country vessels which are inspected in Member State ports and which carry on board bluefin tuna caught in the Convention Area or fishery products originating from bluefin tuna caught in Union waters that have not been previously landed or transhipped at ports.
Objective
The objective of this Regulation is to implement the multiannual management plan for bluefin tuna, as adopted by ICCAT, which aims to maintain a biomass of bluefin tuna above levels capable of producing MSY.
Relationship with other Union acts
Unless otherwise stated in this Regulation, this Regulation applies without prejudice to other Union acts governing the fisheries sector, in particular: (1) Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009; (2) Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008; (3) Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 18 ) ; (4) Regulation (EU) 2017/2107; (5) Regulation (EU) 2019/1241 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 19 ) .
Definitions
For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: (1) ‘ICCAT’ means the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas; (2) ‘the Convention’ means the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas; (3) ‘fishing vessel’ means any powered vessel used for the purposes of the commercial exploitation of bluefin tuna resources, including catching vessels, fish processing vessels, support vessels, towing vessels, vessels engaged in transhipment and transport vessels equipped for the transportation of tuna products and auxiliary vessels, except container vessels; (4) ‘live bluefin tuna’ means bluefin tuna that is kept alive for a certain period in a trap, or transferred alive to a farming installation; (5) ‘SCRS’ means the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics of the ICCAT; (6) ‘recreational fishery’ means non-commercial fisheries activities exploiting marine biological resources; (7) ‘sport fishery’ means non-commercial fisheries whose members adhere to a national sport organisation or are issued with a national sport licence; (8) ‘towing vessel’ means any vessel used for towing cages; (9) ‘processing vessel’ means a vessel on board of which fisheries products are subject to one or more of the following operations, prior to their packaging: filleting or slicing, freezing and/or processing; (10) ‘auxiliary vessel’ means any vessel used to transport dead bluefin tuna (not processed) from a transport/farming cage, a purse seine or a trap to a designated port and/or to a processing vessel; (11) ‘trap’ means fixed gear anchored to the bottom, usually containing a guide net that leads bluefin tuna into an enclosure or series of enclosures where it is kept prior to harvesting or farming; (12) ‘purse seine’ means any encircling net the bottom of which is drawn together by means of a purse line at the bottom of the net, which passes through a series of rings along the ground rope, enabling the net to be pursed and closed; (13) ‘caging’ means the relocation of live bluefin tuna from the transport cage or trap to the farming or fattening cages; (14) ‘catching vessel’ means a vessel used for the purposes of the commercial capture of bluefin tuna resources; (15) ‘farm’ means a marine area clearly defined by geographical coordinates, used for the fattening or farming of bluefin tuna caught by traps and/or purse seine vessels; a farm could have several farming locations, all of them defined by geographical coordinates with a clear definition of longitude and latitude for each one of the points of the polygon; (16) ‘farming’ or ‘fattening’ means caging of bluefin tuna in farms and their subsequent feeding aiming to fatten and increase their total biomass; (17) ‘harvesting’ means the killing of bluefin tuna in farms or traps; (18) ‘stereoscopic camera’ means a camera with two or more lenses, with a separate image sensor or film frame for each lens, enabling the taking of three-dimensional images for the purpose of measuring the length of the fish and assisting in refining the number and weight of bluefin tuna; (19) ‘small-scale coastal vessel’ is a catching vessel with at least three of the five following characteristics: (a) length overall of less than 12 metres; (b) the vessel fishes exclusively inside the waters under the jurisdiction of the flag Member State; (c) the duration of fishing trips is less than 24 hours; (d) the maximum crew number is established at four persons; or (e) the vessel fishes using techniques which are selective and have a reduced environmental impact; (20) ‘joint fishing operation’ means any operation between two or more purse seine vessels where the catch of one purse seine vessel is attributed to one or more purse seine vessels in accordance with a previously agreed allocation key; (21) ‘fishing actively’ means, for any catching vessel, the fact that it targets bluefin tuna during a given fishing season; (22) ‘BCD’ means a bluefin tuna catch document; (23) ‘eBCD’ means an electronic bluefin tuna catch document; (24) ‘Convention Area’ means the geographical area defined in Article 1 of the Convention; (25) ‘transhipment’ means the unloading of all or any of the fisheries products on board a fishing vessels to another fishing vessel; however, unloading of dead bluefin tuna from the purse seine, the trap or the towing vessel to an auxiliary vessel shall not be considered as transhipment; (26) ‘control transfer’ means any additional transfer being implemented at the request of the fishing/farming operators or the control authorities for the purpose of verifying the number of fish being transferred; (27) ‘control camera’ means a stereoscopic camera and/or conventional video camera for the purpose of the controls provided for in this Regulation; (28) ‘CPC’ means a Contracting Party to the Convention or a cooperating non-contracting party, entity or fishing entity; (29) ‘large scale pelagic longline vessel’ means a pelagic longline vessel greater than 24 metres in length overall; (30) ‘transfer’ means any transfer of: (a) live bluefin tuna from the catching vessel’s net to the transport cage; (b) live bluefin tuna from the transport cage to another transport cage; (c) the cage with live bluefin tuna from a towing vessel to another towing vessel; (d) the cage with live bluefin tuna from one farm to another, and live bluefin tuna between different cages in the same farm; (e) live bluefin tuna from the trap to the transport cage independently of the presence of a towing vessel; (31) ‘operator’ means the natural or legal person who operates or holds any undertaking carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of production, processing, marketing, distribution or retail chains of fisheries and aquaculture products; (32) ‘gear group’ means a group of fishing vessels using the same gear for which a group quota has been allocated; (33) ‘fishing effort’ means the product of the capacity and the activity of a fishing vessel; for a group of fishing vessels it means the sum of the fishing effort of all vessels in the group; (34) ‘responsible Member State’ means the flag Member State or the Member State under whose jurisdiction the relevant farm or trap is located.
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