Article 7
Access to exploratory fisheries 1. Exploratory fishery in the Convention area shall be prohibited except where it has been authorised in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 7. 2. Only vessels that are equipped and configured so that they can comply with all relevant conservation measures adopted by the CCAMLR shall be eligible for participation in an exploratory fishery. Vessels which appear on the CCAMLR IUU vessel list referred to in Article 29 shall not be eligible to participate in an exploratory fishery. 3. Each Member State participating in an exploratory fishery or intending to authorise a vessel to participate in one shall prepare a research and fishery operations plan which it shall transmit directly to the CCAMLR before a date set by the CCAMLR, with a copy to the Commission. The plan shall contain as much of the following information as the Member State is able to provide: (a) a description of how the Member State's activities are to comply with the data collection plan developed by the CCAMLR Scientific Committee; (b) the nature of the exploratory fishery, including target species, methods of fishing, proposed region and maximum catch levels proposed for the forthcoming season; (c) biological information from comprehensive research or survey cruises, such as distribution, abundance, population data, and information on stock identity; (d) details of dependent and related species and the likelihood of such species being adversely affected in any way at all by the proposed fishery; (e) information from other fisheries in the region or similar fisheries elsewhere that may assist in the evaluation of potential yield. 4. Each Member State participating in an exploratory fishery shall submit annually to the CCAMLR, with a copy to the Commission, before the expiry of the deadline agreed within the CCAMLR the data specified in the data collection plan developed by the Scientific Committee for the fishery concerned. Where the data specified in the data collection plan have not been submitted to the CCAMLR for the most recent season in which fishing took place, continued exploratory fishing by the Member State which failed to submit its data shall be prohibited until the relevant data have been submitted to the CCAMLR, with a copy to the Commission, and the CCAMLR Scientific Committee has been given an opportunity to review the data. 5. Before a Member State authorises its vessels to participate in an exploratory fishery that is already in progress, that Member shall notify the CCAMLR not less than three months in advance of the annual meeting of the CCAMLR. The notifying Member State shall not authorise its vessels to participate in the exploratory fishery until the conclusion of that meeting. 6. The name, type, size, registration number and radio call sign of each vessel participating in the exploratory fishery shall be notified directly by Member States to the CCAMLR Secretariat, with a copy to the Commission, at least three months in advance of the date of the beginning of each fishing voyage. 7. Fishing capacity and effort shall be subject to a precautionary limit set at a level not exceeding that necessary to obtain the information specified in the data collection plan and required to make the evaluations referred to in Article 2(f). 8. Detailed rules for the application of this Article shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 37(2).