Regulation (EU) 2019/1241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on the conservation of fisheries resources and the protection of marine ecosystems through technical measures, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1967/2006, (EC) No 1224/2009 and Regulations (EU) No 1380/2013, (EU) 2016/1139, (EU) 2018/973, (EU) 2019/472 and (EU) 2019/1022 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 894/97, (EC) No 850/98, (EC) No 2549/2000, (EC) No 254/2002, (EC) No 812/2004 and (EC) No 2187/2005

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down technical measures concerning:

(a) the taking and landing of marine biological resources;

(b) the operation of fishing gear; and

(c) the interaction of fishing activities with marine ecosystems.

Article 2

Scope

Subject to the conditions set out in Articles 25 and 26, the technical measures set out in this Regulation shall not apply to fishing operations conducted solely for the purpose of:

(a) scientific investigations; and

(b) direct restocking or transplantation of marine species.

Article 3

Objectives

Technical measures shall in particular contribute to achieving the following objectives:

(a) optimise exploitation patterns to provide protection for juveniles and spawning aggregations of marine biological resources;

(b) ensure that incidental catches of sensitive marine species, including those listed under Directives 92/43/EEC and 2009/147/EC, that are a result of fishing, are minimised and where possible eliminated so that they do not represent a threat to the conservation status of these species;

(c) ensure, including by using appropriate incentives, that the negative environmental impacts of fishing on marine habitats are minimised;

(d) have in place fisheries management measures for the purposes of complying with Directives 92/43/EEC, 2000/60/EC and 2008/56/EC, in particular with a view to achieving good environmental status in line with Article 9(1) of Directive 2008/56/EC, and with Directive 2009/147/EC.

Article 4

Targets

Technical measures shall aim to ensure that:

(a) catches of marine species below the minimum conservation reference size are reduced as far as possible in accordance with Article 2(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013.

(b) incidental catches of marine mammals, marine reptiles, seabirds and other non-commercially exploited species do not exceed levels provided for in Union legislation and international agreements that are binding on the Union.

(c) the environmental impacts of fishing activities on seabed habitats are in line with point (j) of Article 2(5) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013.

Article 5

Definition of fishing zones

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

(a) ‘North Sea’ means Union waters in ICES divisions (¹) 2a and 3a and ICES sub-area 4;

(b) ‘Baltic Sea’ means Union waters in ICES divisions 3b, 3c and 3d;

(c) ‘North Western waters’ means Union waters in ICES sub-areas 5, 6 and 7;

(d) ‘South Western waters’ means ICES sub-areas 8, 9 and 10 (Union waters) and CECAF zones (²) 34.1.1, 34.1.2 and 34.2.0 (Union waters);

(e) ‘Mediterranean Sea’ means the maritime waters of the Mediterranean to the East of line 5°36′ W;

(f) ‘Black Sea’ means waters in GFCM geographical sub-area 29 as defined in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1343/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (³);

(g) ‘Union waters in the Indian Ocean and the West Atlantic’ means waters around Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of a Member State;

(i) ‘GFCM Agreement area’ means the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea and connecting waters, as defined in Regulation (EU) No 1343/2011.

Article 6

Definitions

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

(1) ‘exploitation pattern’ means how fishing mortality is distributed across the age and size profile of a stock;

(2) ‘selectivity’ means a quantitative expression represented as a probability of capture of marine biological resources of a certain size and/or species;

(3) ‘directed fishing’ means fishing effort targeted at a specific species or group of species and may be further specified at regional level in delegated acts adopted pursuant to Article 27(7) of this Regulation;

(4) ‘good environmental status’ means the environmental status of marine waters as defined by Article 3(5) of Directive 2008/56/EC;

(5) ‘conservation status of a species’ means the sum of the influences acting on the species concerned that may affect the long-term distribution and abundance of its populations;

(6) ‘conservation status of a habitat’ means the sum of the influences acting on a natural habitat and its typical species that may affect its long-term natural distribution, structure and functions as well as the long-term survival of its typical species;

(7) ‘sensitive habitat’ means a habitat whose conservation status, including its extent and the condition (structure and function) of its biotic and abiotic components, is adversely affected by pressures arising from human activities, including fishing activities. Sensitive habitats, in particular, include habitat types listed in Annex I, and habitats of species listed in Annex II to Directive 92/43/EEC, habitats of species listed in Annex I to Directive 2009/147/EC, habitats whose protection is necessary to achieve good environmental status under Directive 2008/56/EC and vulnerable marine ecosystems as defined by point (b) of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 734/2008 (⁴);

(8) ‘sensitive species’ means a species whose conservation status, including its habitat, distribution, population size or population condition is adversely affected by pressures arising from human activities, including fishing activities. Sensitive species, in particular, include species listed in Annexes II and IV to Directive 92/43/EEC, species covered by Directive 2009/147/EC and species whose protection is necessary to achieve good environmental status under Directive 2008/56/EC;

(9) ‘small pelagic species’ means species such as mackerel, herring, horse mackerel, anchovy, sardine, blue whiting, argentines, sprat, and boarfish;

(10) ‘Advisory Councils’ means stakeholder groups established in accordance with Article 43 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(11) ‘trawl’ means fishing gear which is actively towed by one or more fishing vessels and consisting of a net closed at the back by a bag or a codend;

(12) ‘towed gear’ means any trawls, Danish seines, dredges and similar gear which are actively moved in the water by one or more fishing vessels or by any other mechanised system;

(13) ‘bottom trawl’ means a trawl designed and rigged to operate on or near the seabed;

(14) ‘bottom pair trawl’ means a bottom trawl towed by two boats simultaneously, one towing each side of the trawl. The horizontal opening of the trawl is maintained by the distance between the two vessels as they tow the gear;

(15) ‘pelagic trawl’ means a trawl designed and rigged to operate in midwater;

(16) ‘beam trawl’ means gear with a trawl net open horizontally by a beam, wing or similar device;

(17) ‘electric pulse trawl’ means a trawl which uses an electric current to catch marine biological resources;

(18) ‘Danish seine’ or ‘Scottish seine’ means an encircling and towed gear, operated from a boat by means of two long ropes (seine ropes) designed to herd the fish towards the opening of the seine. The gear is made up of a net which is similar in design to a bottom trawl;

(19) ‘shore seines’ means surrounding nets and towed seines set from a boat and pulled towards the shore as they are being operated from the shore or from a vessel moored or anchored by the shore;

(20) ‘surrounding nets’ means nets which catch fish by surrounding them both from the sides and from below. They may or may not be equipped with a purse line;

(21) ‘purse seine’ or ‘ring nets’ means any surrounding net where the bottom is drawn together by means of a purse line situated at the bottom of the net, which passes through a series of rings along the groundrope, enabling the net to be pursed and closed;

(22) ‘dredges’ means gear which are either actively towed by the main boat engine (boat dredge) or hauled by a motorised winch from an anchored vessel (mechanised dredge) to catch bivalves, gastropods or sponges and which consist of a net bag or metal basket mounted on a rigid frame or rod of variable size and shape whose lower part may carry a scraper blade that can be either rounded, sharp or toothed, and may or may not be equipped with skids and diving boards. Some dredges are equipped with hydraulic equipment (hydraulic dredges). Dredges pulled by hand or by manual winches in shallow waters with or without a boat to catch bivalves, gastropods or sponges (hand dredges) shall not be considered towed gear for the purpose of this Regulation;

(23) ‘static nets’ means any type of gillnet, entangling net or trammel net that is anchored to the seabed for fish to swim into and become entangled or enmeshed in the netting;

(24) ‘driftnet’ means a net held on the water surface or at a certain distance below it by floating devices and drifting with the current, either independently or with the boat to which it may be attached. It may be equipped with devices aiming to stabilise the net or to limit its drift;

(25) ‘gillnet’ means a static net made up of a single piece of net and held vertically in the water by floats and weights;

(26) ‘entangling net’ means a static net consisting of a wall of netting rigged so that the netting is hung onto the ropes to create a greater amount of slack netting than a gillnet;

(27) ‘trammel net’ means a static net made up of several layers of netting with two outer layers of a large mesh size with a sheet of small mesh sandwiched between them;

(28) ‘combined gillnet and trammel net’ means any bottom-set gillnet combined with a trammel net which constitutes the lower part;

(29) ‘longline’ means a fishing gear consisting of a main line of variable length, to which branch lines (snoods) with hooks are fixed at intervals determined by the target species. The main line is anchored either horizontally on or near the bottom or vertically, or can be allowed to drift on the surface;

(30) ‘pots and creels’ means traps in the form of cages or baskets having one or more entrances, designed to catch crustaceans, molluscs or fish, that are set on the seabed or suspended above it;

(31) ‘handline’ means a single fishing line with one or more lures or baited hooks;

(32) ‘St Andrew’s cross’ means a grab which employs a scissor-like action to harvest for example bivalve molluscs or red coral from the seabed;

(33) ‘codend’ means the rearmost part of the trawl, having either a cylindrical shape, with the same circumference throughout, or a tapering shape. It can be made up of one or more panels (pieces of netting) attached to one another along their sides and can include the lengthening piece which is made up of one or more panels located just in front of the codend sensu stricto;

(34) ‘mesh size’ means: (i) for knotted netting: the longest distance between two opposite knots in the same mesh when fully extended; (ii) for knotless netting: the inside distance between the opposite joints in the same mesh when fully extended along its longest possible axis;

(35) ‘square mesh’ means a quadrilateral mesh composed of two sets of parallel bars of the same nominal length, where one set is parallel to, and the other is at right angles to, the longitudinal axis of the net;

(36) ‘diamond mesh’ means a mesh composed of four bars of the same length where the two diagonals of the mesh are perpendicular and one diagonal is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the net;

(37) ‘T90’ means trawls, Danish seines or similar towed gear having a codend and extension piece produced from knotted diamond mesh netting turned 90^o so that the main direction of run of the netting is parallel to the towing direction;

(38) ‘Bacoma exit window’ means an escape panel constructed in knotless square mesh netting fitted into the top panel of a codend with its lower edge no more than four meshes from the codline;

(39) ‘sieve net’ means a piece of netting attached to the full circumference of the shrimp trawl in front of the codend or extension piece, and tapering to an apex where it is attached to the bottom sheet of the shrimp trawl. An exit hole is cut where the sieve net and codend join, allowing species or individuals too large to pass through the sieve to escape, whereas the shrimp can pass through the sieve and into the codend;

(40) ‘drop’ means the sum of the height of the meshes (including knots) in a net when wet and stretched perpendicular to the float line;

(41) ‘immersion time’ or ‘soak time’ means the period from the point of time when the gear is first put in the water until the point of time when the gear is fully recovered on board the fishing vessel;

(42) ‘gear monitoring sensors’ means remote electronic sensors that are placed on fishing gear to monitor key performance parameters such as the distance between trawl doors or volume of the catch;

(43) ‘weighted line’ means a line of baited hooks with added weight to increase its sinking speed and thereby reduce its time of exposure to seabirds;

(44) ‘acoustic deterrent device’ means devices aimed to deter species such as marine mammals from fishing gear by emitting acoustic signals;

(45) ‘bird scaring lines’ (also called a tori line) means lines with streamers that are towed from a high point near the stern of fishing vessels as baited hooks are deployed, with the aim of scaring seabirds away from the hooks;

(46) ‘direct restocking’ means the activity of releasing live wild animals of selected species into waters where they occur naturally, in order to use the natural production of the aquatic environment to increase the number of individuals available for fisheries and/or to increase natural recruitment;

(47) ‘transplantation’ means the process by which a species is intentionally transported and released by humans within areas of established populations of that species;

(48) ‘selectivity performance indicator’ means a reference tool to monitor progress over time towards the achievement of the CFP objective of minimising unwanted catches;

(49) ‘spear gun’ means a pneumatic or mechanically powered hand-held gun that shoots a spear for the purpose of underwater fishing;

(50) ‘length of optimal selectivity (Lopt)’ is the average length of capture, provided by the best available scientific advice, that optimises the growth of individuals in a stock.

CHAPTER II

COMMON TECHNICAL MEASURES

SECTION 1

Prohibited fishing gear and uses

Article 7

Prohibited fishing gear and methods

It shall be prohibited to catch or harvest marine species using the following methods:

(a) toxic, stupefying or corrosive substances;

(b) electric current except for the electric pulse trawl, which shall only be allowed under the specific provisions of Part D of Annex V;

(c) explosives;

(d) pneumatic hammers or other percussive instruments;

(e) towed devices for harvesting red coral or other type of corals or coral-like organisms;

(f) St Andrew’s cross and similar grabs for harvesting, in particular, red coral or other type of corals and coral-like species;

(g) any type of projectile, with the exception of those used to kill caged or trapped tuna and of hand-held spears and spear guns used in recreational fishing without an aqualung, from dawn until dusk.

SECTION 2

General restrictions on gear and conditions for their use

Article 8

General restrictions on the use of towed gear

Paragraph 1 shall not apply to dredges. However, during any voyage when dredges are carried on board the following shall apply:

(a) it shall be prohibited to tranship marine organisms;

(b) in the Baltic Sea it shall be prohibited to retain on board or land any quantity of marine organisms unless at least 85 % of the live weight thereof consists of molluscs and/or Furcellaria lumbricalis;

(c) in all other sea basins, except in the Mediterranean Sea, where Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1967/2006 applies, it shall be prohibited to retain on board or land any quantity of marine organisms unless at least 95 % by live weight thereof consists of bivalve molluscs, gastropods and sponges.

Points (b) and (c) of this paragraph shall not apply to unintended catches of species subject to the landing obligation set out in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013. Such unintended catches shall be landed and counted against quotas.

The Commission may adopt implementing acts establishing detailed rules for the specification of codends and the devices referred to in paragraph 4. Those implementing acts shall be based on the best available scientific and technical advice and may define:

(a) restrictions on twine thickness;

(b) restrictions on the circumference of codends;

(c) restrictions on the use of netting materials;

(d) structure and attachment of codends;

(e) permitted devices to reduce wear and tear; and

(f) permitted devices to limit the escape of catches.

Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 30(2).

Article 9

General restrictions on the use of static nets and driftnets

It shall be prohibited to use bottom-set gillnets, entangling nets and trammel nets to catch the following species:

(a) Albacore (Thunnus alalunga);

(b) Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus);

(c) Ray’s bream (Brama brama);

(d) Swordfish (Xiphias gladius);

(e) Sharks belonging to the following species or families Hexanchus griseus; Cetorhinus maximus; all species of Alopiidae; Carcharhinidae; Sphyrnidae; Isuridae; Lamnidae.

Notwithstanding paragraph 6 of this Article:

(a) specific derogations as set out in point 6.1 of Part C of Annex V, point 9.1 of Part C of Annex VI and point 4.1 of Part C of Annex VII shall apply where the charted depth is between 200 and 600 m;

(b) the deployment of bottom set gillnets, entangling nets and trammel nets at any position where the charted depth is greater than 200 m shall be allowed in the Mediterranean Sea.

SECTION 3

Protection of sensitive species and habitats

Article 10

Prohibited fish and shellfish species

Article 11

Catches of marine mammals, seabirds and marine reptiles

Article 12

Protection for sensitive habitats including vulnerable marine ecosystems

SECTION 4

Minimum conservation reference sizes

Article 13

Minimum conservation reference sizes

The minimum conservation reference sizes of marine species specified in Part A of Annexes V to X to this Regulation shall apply for the purpose of:

(a) ensuring the protection of juveniles of marine species pursuant to Article 15(11) and (12) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(b) establishing fish stock recovery areas pursuant to Article 8 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;