Approval by the competent authority of groups of aquaculture establishments
Article 177
The competent authority may grant approval as provided for in Article 181(1) covering a group of aquaculture establishments, provided that the aquaculture establishments in question comply with either of the following conditions: (a) they are located in an epidemiologically linked area and all operators in that area operate under a common biosecurity system; however, any on–shore or off–shore establishment for the reception, conditioning, washing, cleaning, grading, wrapping and packaging of live bivalve molluscs intended for human consumption (so-called ‘dispatch centres’), establishment with tanks fed by clean seawater in which live bivalve molluscs are placed for the time necessary to reduce contamination to make them fit for human consumption (so-called ‘purification centres’) and similar establishments located inside such an epidemiologically linked area must be approved individually; (b) they are under the responsibility of the same operator; and (i) operate under a common biosecurity system; and (ii) the aquaculture animals of the establishments concerned form part of the same epidemiological unit. When a single approval is granted for a group of aquaculture establishments, the rules laid down in Article 178 and Articles 180 to 184 and the rules adopted pursuant to Articles 180(2) and 181(2), which are applicable to a single aquaculture establishment, shall be applicable to the whole group of aquaculture establishments.