Council Regulation (EU) 2019/124 of 30 January 2019 fixing for 2019 the fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Union waters and, for Union fishing vessels, in certain non-Union waters

TITLE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

The fishing opportunities referred to in paragraph 1 include:

(a) catch limits for the year 2019 and, where specified in this Regulation, for the year 2020;

(b) fishing effort limits for the period from 1 February 2019 to 31 January 2020, except where other periods are established for effort limits in Articles 27, 28 and 41, as well as regarding provisions on fish-aggregating devices (FADs);

(c) fishing opportunities for the period from 1 December 2018 to 30 November 2019 for certain stocks in the CCAMLR Convention Area;

(d) fishing opportunities for certain stocks in the IATTC Convention Area set out in Article 29 for the periods in 2019 and 2020 specified in that Article.

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation shall apply to the following vessels:

(a) Union fishing vessels;

(b) third-country vessels in Union waters.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions referred to in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 apply. In addition, the following definitions apply:

(a) ‘third-country vessel’ means a fishing vessel flying the flag of, and registered in, a third country;

(b) ‘recreational fisheries’ means non-commercial fishing activities exploiting marine biological resources such as recreation, tourism or sport;

(c) ‘international waters’ means waters falling outside the sovereignty or jurisdiction of any State;

(d) ‘total allowable catch’ (TAC) means: (i) in fisheries subject to the exemption of the landing obligation referred to in Article 15(4) to (7) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013, the quantity of fish that can be landed from each stock each year; (ii) in all other fisheries, the quantity of fish that can be caught from each stock each year;

(e) ‘quota’ means a proportion of the TAC allocated to the Union, a Member State or a third country;

(f) ‘analytical assessments’ means quantitative evaluations of trends in a given stock, based on data about the stock's biology and exploitation, which scientific review has indicated to be of sufficient quality to provide scientific advice on options for future catches;

(g) ‘mesh size’ means the mesh size of fishing nets as determined in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 517/2008 (¹);

(h) ‘Union fishing fleet register’ means the register set up by the Commission in accordance with Article 24(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(i) ‘fishing logbook’ means the logbook referred to in Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009.

Article 4

Fishing zones

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

(a) ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) zones are the geographical areas specified in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 218/2009 (²);

(b) ‘Skagerrak’ means the geographical area bounded on the west by a line drawn from the Hanstholm lighthouse to the Lindesnes lighthouse and on the south by a line drawn from the Skagen lighthouse to the Tistlarna lighthouse and from that point to the nearest point on the Swedish coast;

(c) ‘Kattegat’ means the geographical area bounded on the north by a line drawn from the Skagen lighthouse to the Tistlarna lighthouse and from that point to the nearest point on the Swedish coast and on the south by a line drawn from Hasenøre to Gnibens Spids, from Korshage to Spodsbjerg and from Gilbjerg Hoved to Kullen;

(d) ‘Functional Unit 16 of ICES subarea 7’ means the geographical area bounded by rhumb lines sequentially joining the following positions: — 53° 30′ N 15° 00′ W, — 53° 30′ N 11° 00′ W, — 51° 30′ N 11° 00′ W, — 51° 30′ N 13° 00′ W, — 51° 00′ N 13° 00′ W, — 51° 00′ N 15° 00′ W, — 53° 30′ N 15° 00′ W;

(e) ‘Functional Unit 26 of ICES division 9a’ means the geographical area bounded by rhumb lines sequentially joining the following positions: — 43° 00′ N 8° 00′ W, — 43° 00′ N 10° 00′ W, — 42° 00′ N 10° 00′ W, — 42° 00′ N 8° 00′ W;

(f) ‘Functional Unit 27 of ICES division 9a’ means the geographical area bounded by rhumb lines sequentially joining the following positions: — 42° 00′ N 8° 00′ W, — 42° 00′ N 10° 00′ W, — 38° 30′ N 10° 00′ W, — 38° 30′ N 9° 00′ W, — 40° 00′ N 9° 00′ W, — 40° 00′ N 8° 00′ W;

(g) ‘Functional Unit 30 of ICES division 9a’ means the geographical area under the jurisdiction of Spain in the Gulf of Cádiz and in the adjacent waters of 9a;

(h) ‘Gulf of Cádiz’ means the geographical area of ICES division 9a east of longitude 7° 23′ 48″ W;

(i) ‘CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) Convention Area’ is the geographical area defined in point (a) of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 601/2004 (³);

(j) CECAF (Committee for Eastern Central Atlantic Fisheries) areas are the geographical areas specified in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 216/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁴);

(k) ‘GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean) geographical subareas’ are the areas defined in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1343/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁵).

(l) ‘IATTC (Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission) Convention Area’ is the geographical area defined in the Convention for the Strengthening of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission established by the 1949 Convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Costa Rica (⁶);

(m) ‘ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) Convention Area’ is the geographical area defined in the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (⁷);

(n) ‘IOTC (Indian Ocean Tuna Commission) Area of Competence’ is the geographical area defined in the Agreement for the establishment of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (⁸);

(o) NAFO (Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation) areas are the geographical areas specified in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 217/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁹);

(p) ‘SEAFO (South East Atlantic Fisheries Organisation) Convention Area’ is the geographical area defined in the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Fishery Resources in the South-East Atlantic Ocean (¹⁰);

(q) ‘SIOFA Agreement Area’ is the geographic area defined in the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement (¹¹);

(r) ‘SPRFMO (South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation) Convention Area’ is the geographical area defined in the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific Ocean (¹²);

(s) ‘WCPFC (Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission) Convention Area’ is the geographical area defined in the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (¹³);

(t) ‘high seas of the Bering Sea’ is the geographical area of the high seas of the Bering Sea beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea of the coastal States of the Bering Sea is measured;

(u) ‘overlap area between IATTC and WCPFC’ is the geographical area defined by the following limits: — longitude 150° W, — longitude 130° W, — latitude 4° S, — latitude 50° S.

TITLE II

FISHING OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNION FISHING VESSELS

CHAPTER I

General provisions

Article 5

TACs and allocations

Article 6

TACs to be determined by Member States

The TACs to be determined by a Member State shall:

(a) be consistent with the principles and rules of the CFP, in particular the principle of sustainable exploitation of the stock; and

(b) result: (i) if analytical assessments are available, in the exploitation of the stock consistent with maximum sustainable yield from 2019 onwards, with as high a probability as possible; or (ii) if analytical assessments are unavailable or incomplete, in the exploitation of the stock consistent with the precautionary approach to fisheries management.

By 15 March 2019, each Member State concerned shall submit the following information to the Commission:

(a) the TACs adopted;

(b) the data collected and assessed by the Member State concerned on which the TACs adopted are based;

(c) details on how the TACs adopted comply with paragraph 2.

Article 7

Conditions for landing catches and by-catches

Catches that are not subject to the landing obligation established in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 shall be retained on board or landed only if they:

(a) have been taken by vessels flying the flag of a Member State having a quota and that quota has not been exhausted; or

(b) consist of a share in a Union quota which has not been allocated by quota among Member States, and that Union quota has not been exhausted.

Article 8

Quota exchanges mechanism for TACs for unavoidable by-catches related to the introduction of the landing obligation

Article 9

Fishing effort limits

For the periods referred to in point (b) of Article 1(2), the following fishing effort measures shall apply:

(b) Annex IIB for the management of the sole stock in ICES division 7e.

Article 10

Measures on European seabass fisheries

By derogation from paragraph 1, in January 2019 and from 1 April to 31 December 2019, Union fishing vessels in ICES divisions 4b, 4c, 7d, 7e, 7f and 7h and in waters within 12 nautical miles from baselines under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom in ICES divisions 7a and 7g may fish for European seabass, and retain on board, tranship, relocate or land European seabass caught in that area with the following gears and within the following limits:

(a) using demersal trawls (¹⁵), for unavoidable by-catches not exceeding 400 kilogrammes per two months and 1 % of the weight of the total catches of marine organisms on board caught by that vessel in any single day;

(b) using seines (¹⁶), for unavoidable by-catches not exceeding 210 kilogrammes per month and 1 % of the weight of the total catches of marine organisms on board caught by that vessel in any single day;

(c) using hooks and lines (¹⁷), not exceeding 5,5 tonnes per vessel per year;

(d) using fixed gillnets (¹⁸), for unavoidable by-catches not exceeding 1,4 tonnes per vessel per year.

The derogations set out in the first subparagraph shall apply to Union fishing vessels that have recorded catches of European seabass over the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 September 2016: in point (c) with recorded catches using hooks and lines, and in point (d) with recorded catches using fixed gillnets. In the case of a replacement of a Union fishing vessel, Member States may allow the derogation to apply to another fishing vessel provided that the number of Union fishing vessels subject to the derogation and their overall fishing capacity do not increase.

Member States shall report to the Commission all catches of European seabass per type of gear not later than 15 days after the end of each month.

In recreational fisheries, including from shore, in ICES divisions 4b, 4c, 6a, 7a to 7k:

(a) from 1 January to 31 March and from 1 November and to 31 December 2019, only catch-and-release fishing allowing high rates of survivability for European seabass shall be allowed. During that period, it shall be prohibited to retain on board, relocate, tranship or land European seabass caught in that area;

(b) from 1 April to 31 October 2019, not more than one specimen of European seabass may be retained per fisherman per day.

Article 11

Measures on European eel fisheries in Union waters of the ICES area

Any targeted, incidental and recreational fishery of European eel shall be prohibited in Union waters of the ICES area and brackish waters such as estuaries, coastal lagoons and transitional waters for a consecutive three-month period to be determined by each Member State between 1 August 2019 and 29 February 2020. Member States shall communicate the determined period to the Commission not later than 1 June 2019.

Article 12

Special provisions on allocations of fishing opportunities

The allocation of fishing opportunities among Member States as set out in this Regulation shall be without prejudice to:

(a) exchanges made pursuant to Article 16(8) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(b) deductions and reallocations made pursuant to Article 37 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009;

(c) reallocations made pursuant to Articles 12 and 47 of Council Regulation (EU) 2017/2403;

(d) additional landings allowed under Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 847/96 and Article 15(9) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(e) quantities withheld in accordance with Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 847/96 and Article 15(9) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(f) deductions made pursuant to Articles 105, 106 and 107 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009;

(g) quota transfers and exchanges pursuant to Article 17 of this Regulation.

Article 13

Closed fishing seasons

For the purposes of this paragraph, the Porcupine Bank shall comprise the geographical area bounded by rhumb lines sequentially joining the following positions:

Point	Latitude	Longitude
1	52° 27′ N	12° 19′ W
2	52° 40′ N	12° 30′ W
3	52° 47′ N	12° 39,600′ W
4	52° 47′ N	12° 56′ W
5	52° 13,5′ N	13° 53,830′ W
6	51° 22′ N	14° 24′ W
7	51° 22′ N	14° 03′ W
8	52° 10′ N	13° 25′ W
9	52° 32′ N	13° 07,500′ W
10	52° 43′ N	12° 55′ W
11	52° 43′ N	12° 43′ W
12	52° 38,800′ N	12° 37′ W
13	52° 27′ N	12° 23′ W
14	52° 27′ N	12° 19′ W

By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, transit through the Porcupine Bank while carrying on board the species referred to in that subparagraph, shall be permitted in accordance with Article 50(3), (4) and (5) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009.

The prohibition set out in the first subparagraph shall also apply to third-country vessels authorised to fish for sandeel and associated by-catches in Union waters of ICES subarea 4.

Article 14

Prohibitions

It shall be prohibited for Union fishing vessels to fish for, to retain on board, to tranship or to land the following Species:

(a) starry ray (Amblyraja radiata) in Union waters of ICES divisions 2a, 3a and 7d and ICES subarea 4;

(b) white shark (Carcharodon carcharías) in all waters;

(c) leafscale gulper shark (Centrophorus squamosus) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union and international waters of ICES subareas 1 and 14;

(d) Portuguese dogfish (Centroscymnus coelolepis) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union and international waters of ICES subareas 1 and 14;

(e) basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) in all waters;

(f) kitefin shark (Dalatias licha) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union and international waters of ICES subareas 1 and 14;

(g) birdbeak dogfish (Deania calcea) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union and international waters of ICES subareas 1 and 14;

(h) common skate (Dipturus batis) complex (Dipturus cf. flossada and Dipturus cf. intermedia) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and ICES subareas 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10;

(i) great lanternshark (Etmopterus princeps) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union and international waters of ICES subareas 1 and 14;

(j) smooth lanternshark (Etmopterus pusillus) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union and international waters of ICES subareas 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 14;

(k) tope shark (Galeorhinus galeus) when taken with longlines in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union and international waters of ICES subareas 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 14;

(l) porbeagle (Lamna nasus) in all waters;

(m) the following species of Mobula rays in all waters: (i) devil fish (Mobula mobular), (ii) lesser Guinean devil ray (Mobula rochebrunei), (iii) spinetail mobula (Mobula japanica), (iv) smoothtail mobula (Mobula thurstoni), (v) longhorned mobula (Mobula eregoodootenkee), (vi) Munk's devil ray (Mobula munkiana), (vii) Chilean devil ray (Mobula tarapacana), (viii) shortfin devil ray (Mobula kuhlii), (ix) lesser devil ray (Mobula hypostoma), (x) reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi), (xi) giant manta ray (Mobula birostris);

(n) the following species of sawfish (Pristidae) in all waters: (i) pointed sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidata), (ii) dwarf sawfish (Pristis clavata), (iii) smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata), (iv) largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis), (v) green sawfish (Pristis zijsron);

(o) thornback ray (Raja clavata) in Union waters of ICES division 3a;

(p) Norwegian skate (Dipturus nidarosiensis) in Union waters of ICES divisions 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h and 7k;

(q) undulate ray (Raja undulata) in Union waters of ICES subareas 6 and 10;

(r) whale shark (Rhincodon typus) in all waters;

(s) Common guitarfish (Rhinobatos rhinobatos) in the Mediterranean;