Regulation (EU) 2017/2107 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2017 laying down management, conservation and control measures applicable in the Convention area of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1936/2001, (EC) No 1984/2003 and (EC) No 520/2007

TITLE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down management, conservation and control provisions relating to fishing for highly migratory fish species managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation applies to:

(a) Union fishing vessels, and Union vessels engaged in recreational fisheries, which operate in the ICCAT Convention area and, in the case of transhipments, also outside the ICCAT Convention area if they tranship species caught in that area;

(b) third country vessels which are inspected in Member States ports and which carry ICCAT species or fishery products originating from such species that have not been previously landed or transhipped at ports;

(c) third country fishing vessels and third country vessels engaged in recreational fisheries which operate in Union waters.

Article 3

Relationship to other Union acts

This Regulation applies without prejudice to the provisions laid down in a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the sustainable management of external fishing fleets (¹) and in Regulation (EU) 2016/1627.

The measures provided for in this Regulation apply in addition to those provided for in Regulations (EC) No 1005/2008 and (EC) No 1224/2009.

Article 4

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘ICCAT species’ means species listed in Annex I;

(2) ‘tropical tuna’ means bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and skipjack tuna;

(2a) ‘billfish’ means species of the Istiophoridae family managed by ICCAT;

(3) ‘fishing vessel’ means any vessel equipped for commercial exploitation of marine biological resources or a bluefin tuna trap;

(4) ‘catching vessel’ means a fishing vessel used for the purpose of the capture of marine biological resources;

(5) ‘Union fishing vessel’ means a fishing vessel flying the flag of a Member State and registered in the Union;

(6) ‘fishing authorisation’ means an authorisation issued in respect of a Union fishing vessel entitling it to carry out specific fishing activities during a specified period, in a given area or for a given fishery under specific conditions;

(7) ‘special fishing authorisation’ means an authorisation issued in respect of a Union fishing vessel entitling it to carry out specific fishing activities with specific gear during a specified period, in a given area or for a given fishery under specific conditions;

(8) ‘transhipment’ means the unloading of all or any fisheries products on board a vessel to another vessel;

(9) ‘recreational fishery’ means non-commercial fishing activities exploiting marine biological resources for recreation, tourism or sport;

(10) ‘Task I data’ means data defined as Task I by ICCAT in the ‘Field manual for statistics and sampling Atlantic tunas and tuna-like fish’;

(11) ‘Task II data’ means data defined as Task II by ICCAT in the ‘Field manual for statistics and sampling Atlantic tunas and tuna-like fish’;

(12) ‘CPC’ means contracting parties to the ICCAT Convention and cooperating non-contracting parties, entities or fishing entities;

(13) ‘ICCAT Convention area’ means all waters of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas;

(14) ‘sustainable fisheries partnership agreement’ means an international agreement as defined in point 37 of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(15) ‘vessel length’ means the distance measured in a straight line between the foremost point of the bow and the aftermost point of the stern;

(16) ‘large-scale pelagic longline vessel’ means a pelagic longline vessel greater than 24 metres in length overall;

(17) ‘large-scale fishing vessel’ means a fishing vessel greater than 20 metres in length overall;

(18) ‘large-scale catching vessel’ means a catching vessel greater than 20 metres in length overall;

(19) ‘ICCAT record of large-scale fishing vessels’ means the list, maintained by the ICCAT Secretariat, of large-scale fishing vessels authorised to target ICCAT species in the ICCAT Convention area;

(20) ‘support vessel’ means a vessel other than a craft carried on board that is not equipped with operational fishing gear and that facilitates, assists or prepares fishing activities, including by supplying a catching vessel and deploying, servicing and retrieving a fish-aggregating device;

(21) ‘carrier vessel’ means a support vessel engaged in transhipment and receiving ICCAT species from a large-scale pelagic longline vessel;

(22) ‘ICCAT record of carrier vessels’ means the list, maintained by the ICCAT Secretariat, of vessels authorised to receive transhipment at sea from large-scale pelagic longline vessels in the ICCAT Convention area;

(23) ‘ICCAT record of authorised tropical tunas vessels’ means the list, maintained by the ICCAT Secretariat, of large-scale fishing vessels authorised to fish, retain on board, tranship, transport, process or land tropical tunas in the ICCAT Convention area;

(23a) ‘floating object’ or ‘FOB’ means any natural or artificial floating (i.e. surface or subsurface) object with no capability of moving on its own; fish-aggregating devices (FADs) are FOBs that are human-made and intentionally deployed and/or tracked; logs are FOBs that are accidently lost from anthropic and natural sources;

(24) ‘fish-aggregating device’ or ‘FAD’ means a permanent, semi-permanent or temporary object, structure or device of any material, human-made or natural, which is deployed or tracked, and used to aggregate fish for subsequent capture; FADs can either be anchored (aFADs) or drifting (dFADs);

(24a) ‘FAD set’ means setting fishing gear around a tuna school associated with a FAD;

(25) ‘IUU fishing’ means fishing activities defined in point 1 of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008;

(26) ‘ICCAT IUU list’ means a list of vessels which are considered by ICCAT to have engaged in IUU fishing;

(27) ‘longlines’ means a fishing gear which comprises a main line carrying numerous hooks on branch lines (snoods) of variable length and spacing depending on the target species;

(27a) ‘shallow-set longlines’ means longlines in which, when deployed, the majority of hooks are at a depth of less than 100 metres;

(28) ‘purse seines’ 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 groundrope, enabling the net to be pursed and closed;

(29) ‘hook’ means a bent, sharpened piece of steel wire;

(30) ‘circle hook’ means a hook with the point turned perpendicularly back to the shank to form a generally circular or oval shape; circle hooks should have an offset of no more than 10 degrees;

(31) ‘operational buoy’ means any instrumented buoy, previously activated, switched on and deployed at sea, which transmits position and any other available information such as echo-sounder estimates.

TITLE II

MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND CONTROL MEASURES CONCERNING CERTAIN SPECIES

CHAPTER I

Tropical tunas

Article 5

Restrictions on the number of Union large-scale catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna

The number and total capacity in gross tonnage (GT) of Union large-scale catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna in the ICCAT Convention area shall be determined:

(a) as the average number and the capacity in GT of Union catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna in the ICCAT Convention area during the period 1991 to 1992; and

(b) on the basis of the restriction on the number of Union catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna in 2005 as notified to ICCAT on 30 June 2005.

Article 5a

Capacity limitation for tropical tuna

Article 6

Specific authorisations for large-scale tropical tuna catching vessels and for support vessels

Article 6a

Prohibition on discards of tropical tunas caught by Union purse seiners

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, tropical tunas may be discarded in the following cases:

(a) where the master determines that the tropical tunas caught are meshed or crushed in the purse seine, are damaged due to depredation, or have died and decomposed in the net due to a gear failure that has prevented the normal activities of retrieval of the net, fishing and releasing the fish alive;

(b) where the master determines that the tropical tunas have been caught during the last set of a trip and there is not enough storage capacity to store the tunas caught during this set; those fish may only be discarded provided that: (i) the master or the crew members attempt to release the tunas alive as quickly as possible; and (ii) no other fishing operation is conducted following the discarding, until such time as the tunas on board the vessel are landed or transhipped.

Article 7

ICCAT record of authorised tropical tuna vessels

Article 8

List of vessels fishing tropical tunas in a given year

Member States shall, by 30 June of each year, submit to the Commission the list of authorised vessels flying their flag which have fished tropical tunas in the ICCAT Convention area or have offered any kind of support to the fishing activity (support vessels) in the previous calendar year. For purse seiners, that list shall also include the support vessels that have supported the fishing activity, irrespective of their flag. The Commission shall, by 31 July of each year, notify the ICCAT Secretariat of the lists received from the Member States.

Article 8a

Underage or overage of bigeye tuna

Article 9

Management plans in respect of fish-aggregating devices

The objective of the management plans referred to in paragraph 1 shall be to:

(a) improve the knowledge about FAD characteristics, buoy characteristics, FAD fishing, including fishing effort, and related impacts on targeted and non-targeted species;

(b) effectively manage the deployment and recovery of FADs and beacons and their potential loss;

(c) reduce and limit the impacts of FADs and FAD fishing on the ecosystem, including, where appropriate, by acting on the different components of the fishing mortality (e.g. number of deployed FADs, including number of FAD sets by purse seiners, fishing capacity, number of support vessels).

Article 10

Requirements for FADs

FADs shall comply with the following requirements:

(a) the surface structure of the FAD shall be either not covered by any material or covered only with material implying minimum risk of entangling non-targeted species; and

(b) the sub-surface components shall be exclusively composed of material which does not entangle non-targeted species.

When using or designing FADs, Member States shall:

(a) ensure that all FADs deployed are non-entangling, in accordance with the guidelines set out in Annex X;

(b) endeavour to ensure that all FADs are constructed from biodegradable materials, such as non-plastics, with the exception of materials used in the construction of FAD tracking buoys.

Article 11

Information on FADs submitted by vessels

For each deployment of a FAD, Union purse seine and baitboat catching vessels and Union support vessels shall collect and report the following information and data:

(a) position of the FAD;

(b) date of deployment of the FAD;

(c) FAD type (anchored FAD, drifting artificial FAD);

(d) FAD identifier (i.e. FAD marking or beacon ID, type of buoy — e.g. simple buoy or associated with echo sounder), or any information allowing identification of the owner;

(e) FAD design characteristics (dimension and material of the floating part and of the underwater hanging structure, and the entangling feature of the underwater hanging structure).

For each visit on a FAD, whether followed or not by a set, Union purse seine and baitboat catching vessels and Union support vessels shall collect and report the following information:

(a) type of visit (hauling, retrieving, intervention on electronic equipment);

(b) position of the FAD;

(c) date of visit;

(d) FAD type (anchored FAD, drifting natural FAD, drifting artificial FAD);

(e) log description or FAD identifier (i.e. FAD marking and buoy ID or any information allowing identification of the owner);

(f) if the visit is followed by a set, the results of the set in terms of catch and by-catch, whether retained or discarded, dead or alive, or, if the visit is not followed by a set, the reason for such decision (for instance not enough fish or fish too small);

(g) buoy ID.

For each loss of a FAD, Union purse seine and baitboat catching vessels and Union support vessels shall collect and report the following information:

(a) the last registered position;

(b) date of the last registered position;

(c) FAD identifier (i.e. FAD marking and buoy ID).

Article 12

Information on FADs submitted by Member States

Member States shall submit every year to the Commission, 15 days prior to the deadline established by ICCAT for the given year, the following information, in order to make it available to the ICCAT Secretariat:

(a) the number of FADs actually deployed, on a quarterly basis, by FAD type, indicating the presence or absence of a beacon/buoy or of an echo sounder associated to the FAD;

(b) the number and type of beacons/buoys (e.g. radio, sonar only, sonar with echo-sounder) deployed on a monthly basis in accordance with Task II data requirements;

(c) the average number of beacons/buoys activated and deactivated on a monthly basis that have been followed by each vessel;

(d) average number of lost FADs with active buoys, on a monthly basis;

(e) for each support vessel, the number of days spent at sea, per 1° grid area, month and flag Member State;

(f) purse seiner and baitboat catches, effort and number of sets (for purse seines) by fishing mode (FOB associated schools and free school fisheries) in accordance with Task II data requirements;

(g) when the activities of purse seiners are carried out in association with baitboats, reports on catches and effort of purse seiners associated to baitboats in accordance with Task I and II data requirements.

Article 13

Logbooks

Member States shall ensure that:

(a) paper and electronic fishing logbooks, as well as FAD logbooks, where applicable, are promptly collected and made available to Union scientists;

(b) the Task II data transmitted to the Commission pursuant to Article 50 include the information collected from the fishing or FAD logbooks, where applicable.

Article 14

Observer coverage and prohibition of FAD deployment in relation with the protection of juveniles

Member States shall ensure that vessels flying their flag that are authorised to fish tropical tuna establish a minimum observer coverage as follows:

(a) for their longline vessels 20 metres in length overall or greater, a minimum of 10 % observer coverage of fishing effort by 2022, through the presence of an observer on board in accordance with Annex IV or through an approved electronic monitoring system;

(b) for their purse seiners, a 100 % observer coverage of fishing effort, through the presence of an observer on board in accordance with Annex IV or through an approved electronic monitoring system.

Member States shall report the information collected by the observers or the approved electronic monitoring system from the previous year by 30 April to the ICCAT Secretariat and to ICCAT Standing Committee on Research and Statistics taking into account the confidentiality requirements referred to in Article 72.

Article 15

Fishing for tropical tunas in certain Portuguese waters

It shall be prohibited to retain on board any quantity of tropical tunas caught using purse seines in waters under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of Portugal in ICES subarea X north of 36°30′ N or in CECAF areas north of 31° N and east of 17°30′ W, or to target such species in those areas with those gear. Article 15(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 shall not apply in such cases.

Article 16

Identification of IUU fishing

If the ICCAT Executive Secretary notifies the Commission of a possible infringement by Union fishing vessels of Article 7(2) or Article 14(1) or (2), the Commission shall without delay inform the flag Member State concerned. That Member State shall immediately investigate the situation and, if the vessel is fishing in association with objects that could affect fish aggregation, including FADs, during the period of closure, shall request the vessel to stop fishing and, if necessary, to leave the area without delay. The flag Member State concerned shall, without delay, report to the Commission the results of its investigation and the corresponding measures taken. The Commission shall forward that information to the coastal State and to the ICCAT Executive Secretary.

CHAPTER II

Albacore

Section 1

North and South Atlantic albacore

Article 17

Restrictions on the number of vessels

The maximum number of Union catching vessels targeting North Atlantic albacore in the ICCAT Convention area shall be determined as the average number of Union catching vessels fishing for North Atlantic albacore as a target species during the period 1993 to 1995.

Article 17a

Specific authorisations for large-scale catching vessels targeting North and South Atlantic albacore

Article 17b

Underage or overage of North and South Atlantic albacore

Article 17c

South Atlantic albacore record of catches

The flag Member States of the vessels that fish South Atlantic albacore shall report their accurate and validated South Atlantic albacore catch to the ICCAT Secretariat as part of Task I and II data referred to in Article 50.

Section 2

Mediterranean albacore

Article 17d

Recreational fisheries for Mediterranean albacore

CHAPTER III

Swordfish

Section 1

Swordfish in the Atlantic

Article 18

Management plans for North Atlantic swordfish

Member States that have been allocated a quota and whose vessels are fishing for North Atlantic swordfish shall submit to the Commission their management plans by 15 August of each year. The Commission shall forward that information to the ICCAT Secretariat by 15 September of each year.

Article 18a

Specific authorisations for large-scale catching vessels targeting North and South Atlantic swordfish

Article 18b

Underage of North and South Atlantic swordfish

Article 19

Minimum size for North Atlantic swordfish

Section 2

Swordfish in the Mediterranean