Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/47 of 30 October 2017 authorising the use of alternative T90 trawls in Baltic Sea fisheries, by way of derogation from Council Regulation (EC) No 2187/2005

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation authorises the use, in certain Baltic Sea fisheries, of T90 trawls meeting specifications which are different from the specifications laid down in Regulation (EC) No 2187/2005.

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation shall apply to Union fishing vessels operating in the Baltic Sea fisheries referred to in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1139.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a) ‘T90 trawls’ means trawls, Danish seines, and similar gears having a codend and extension piece produced from a standard diamond knotted netting turned 90° so that the main direction of run of the netting twine is parallel to the towing direction;

(b) ‘Member States concerned’ means Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Sweden

Article 4

Alternative specifications for the T90 trawl codend

The use of T90 trawls having a codend compliant with the following specifications shall be authorised by way of derogation from Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 2187/2005:

(a) the mesh size of the codend shall be at least 115 mm, by way of derogation from footnote 2 to Annex II and point (b) of Appendix 2 to that Annex;

(b) the number of meshes in any circumference in the codend sensu strictu and the extension piece, excluding joinings and selvedges, shall be 80 meshes round, by way of derogation from point (e) of Appendix 2 to that Annex;

(c) the length of the codend shall be at least 9 m;

Article 5

Recording of catches

Member States concerned shall ensure that catches made using the fishing gear described in Article 4 are recorded separately from catches made using other fishing gears.

Article 6

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.