Regulation (EU) 2024/2594 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2024 laying down conservation, management and control measures applicable in the area covered by the Convention on future multilateral cooperation in the North-East Atlantic fisheries, amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1241 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1236/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulations (EEC) No 1899/85 and (EEC) No 1638/87

TITLE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation:

(a) lays down conservation and management measures and implements into Union law the amendments to the Scheme of Control and Enforcement adopted by the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (‘the NEAFC Scheme’);

(b) establishes measures for certain pelagic fisheries in the Convention Area and Union waters of the Committee for Eastern Central Atlantic Fisheries (CECAF) area, as specified in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 216/2009 of the European Parliament and the Council (¹); and

(c) amends certain provisions of Regulations (EC) No 1224/2009 and (EU) 2019/1241.

TITLE II

NEAFC MEASURES

CHAPTER I

SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

Article 2

Scope

Title II of this Regulation applies to:

(a) Union fishing vessels operating in the Regulatory Area under the auspices of NEAFC;

(b) Union vessels with catches on board from the Convention Area, where specifically referred to; and

(c) third country vessels with catches on board from the Convention Area in Union waters or ports, where specifically referred to.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions set out in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 and in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 apply, unless otherwise provided for in this Regulation. The following definitions also apply:

(1) ‘NEAFC’ means the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission;

(2) ‘Convention’ means the Convention on future multilateral cooperation in North-East Atlantic fisheries (⁴);

(3) ‘Convention Area’ means the areas: (a) within those parts of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and their dependent seas which lie north of 36^o north latitude and between 42^o west longitude and 51^o east longitude, but excluding: (i) the Baltic Sea and the Belts lying to the south and east of lines drawn from Hasenore Head to Gniben Point, from Korshage to Spodsbierg and from Gilbierg Head to the Kullen; and (ii) the Mediterranean Sea and its dependent seas as far as the point of intersection of the parallel of 36^o north latitude and the meridian of 5^o 36′ west longitude; (b) within that part of the Atlantic Ocean north of 59^o north latitude and between 44^o west longitude and 42^o west longitude;

(4) ‘Regulatory Area’ means the waters of the Convention Area which lie beyond the waters under the fisheries jurisdiction of Contracting Parties;

(5) ‘Contracting Parties’ means the Contracting Parties to the Convention;

(6) ‘vulnerable marine ecosystems’ or ‘VMEs’ means marine ecosystems identified using the criteria in paragraphs 42 and 43 of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) International Guidelines for the Management of Deep-Sea Fisheries in the High Seas;

(7) ‘regulated resources’ means the fishery resources which are subject to recommendations under the Convention and are listed in Annex I;

(8) ‘VME indicator species’ means the species that signals the occurrence of VMEs, as specified in Annex II;

(9) ‘bottom fishing’ means the use of fishing gear that is likely to contact the seafloor during the normal course of fishing operations;

(10) ‘existing bottom fishing areas’ means the portion of the Regulatory Area where bottom fishing occurred in the period between 1987 to 2007, as defined by the coordinates set out in Annex III;

(11) ‘exploratory bottom fishing’ means all commercial bottom fishing within restricted bottom fishing areas or, if there are significant changes to the conduct and technology of bottom fishing, within existing bottom fishing areas;

(12) ‘fishing activities’ means fishing, including joint fishing operations, fish processing operations, the transhipment or landing of fishery resources or products thereof and any other commercial activity in preparation for, or related to, fishing, including packaging, transporting, refuelling or resupplying;

(13) ‘fishing vessel’ means any vessel used or intended for use for the purpose of commercial exploitation of fishery resources, including fish processing vessels and vessels engaged in transhipment;

(14) ‘encounter’ means the catch of VME indicator species above the following threshold levels: (a) for a trawl tow and fishing gear other than longlines: the presence of more than 30 kg of live coral and/or 400 kg of live sponge; and (b) for a longline set: the presence of VME indicator species on 10 hooks per 1 000 hook segment or per 1 200  m section of long line, whichever is shorter;

(15) ‘VMS’ means a fishing vessel monitoring system providing the competent authorities with data at regular intervals on the position, course and speed of the fishing vessel;

(16) ‘report’ means the standardised information related to fishing activities recorded by electronic means;

(17) ‘NEAFC Secretariat’ means the NEAFC Secretary and other staff appointed by NEAFC in accordance with Article 3(7) of the Convention;

(18) ‘significant adverse impacts’ means impacts referred to in paragraphs 17 to 20 of the FAO International Guidelines for the Management of Deep-Sea Fisheries in the High Seas;

(19) ‘fishery resources’ means the resources of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and including sedentary species, excluding, in so far as they are dealt with by other international agreements, highly migratory species listed in Annex I of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, and anadromous stocks;

(20) ‘message’ means the standardised form in which reports are exchanged between Contracting Parties and the NEAFC Secretariat or between Member States and the Commission;

(21) ‘IMO number’ means a seven-digit number allocated by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) or any other agency which has been given that authority at the time of construction or when a ship is first included in the IMO registry of ships;

(22) ‘electronic fishing logbook’ means the record by electronic means of fishing activity details recorded by the master of a fishing vessel and transmitted to the flag State from the prior notification of entry into the Regulatory Area until the exit from the Regulatory Area;

(23) ‘FMC’ means a land-based fisheries monitoring centre of the flag State;

(24) ‘prior notification’ means a report on the intention to perform an activity in the future;

(25) ‘fishing trip’ means, with regard to fishing activities in the Regulatory Area, any voyage of a fishing vessel during which fishing activities are conducted from the time of entry into until its exit from the Regulatory Area;

(26) ‘declaration’ means a report of a fishing activity that is taking or has taken place at the time of its recording and transmission;

(27) ‘transhipment operation’ means the direct transfer of any quantity of fishery resources or products thereof retained on board from one fishing vessel to another;

(28) ‘EFCA’ means the European Fisheries Control Agency established by Regulation (EU) 2019/473 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁵);

(29) ‘port’ means any place on shore used for landing or for the provision of services in relation to, or in support of, fishing activities, or a place on or close to the shore designated by a Contracting Party for transhipping of fishery resources;

(30) ‘joint fishing operation’ means any operation between two or more fishing vessels where catch is taken from the fishing gear of one fishing vessel to another;

(31) ‘electronic data’ means all documents, reports, messages and forms electronically transmitted and received pursuant to the provisions of the NEAFC Scheme;

(32) ‘closed bottom fishing areas’ means areas closed to bottom fishing for the protection of VMEs in the Regulatory Area, as specified in point 8 of Annex IV;

(33) ‘non-Contracting Party vessel’ means any vessel engaged in fishing activities that is flagged neither in a Contracting Party nor in an active cooperating non-Contracting Party to NEAFC, or any fishing vessel for which there are reasonable grounds for suspecting it to be without nationality;

(34) ‘IUU fishing’ means any illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities as defined in Article 2, points (1) to (4), of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008;

(35) ‘CFR number’ means the unique identification number of the vessel in the Union fishing fleet, irrespective of any national fishing fleet numbers and as referred to in Article 8 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/218 (⁶).

CHAPTER II

CONSERVATION MEASURES

Article 4

Measures to protect VMEs

The master of a Union fishing vessel carrying out bottom fishing shall quantify the catches of VME indicator species. Where the quantity of VME indicator species amounts to an encounter in a fishing operation, the master shall:

(a) if the encounter is discovered in connection with the hauling of a trawl gear, cease fishing and move out of an area defined as a 2 nautical mile wide band (polygon) on both sides of the track of the trawl haul during which an encounter occurred; the track is defined as the line joining consecutive VMS positions, supplemented by the most precise available positioning information, between the start and the end of the tow, extended by 2 nautical miles at both ends;

(b) if the encounter is discovered in connection with other bottom fishing gear, cease fishing and move away at least 2 nautical miles from the position that the evidence suggests is closest to the exact encounter location.

Article 5

Exploratory bottom fishing activities

Member States whose vessels wish to engage in exploratory bottom fishing shall gather the data necessary for a prior assessment by PECMAS and ICES and submit by electronic means to the Commission the following information for the purpose of evaluating requests for exploratory fishing:

(a) a harvesting plan, which outlines the target species, proposed dates and areas and the type of bottom fishing gear to be used; area and effort restrictions shall be considered to ensure that fishing occurs on a gradual basis in a limited geographical area;

(b) a mitigation plan, including measures to prevent significant adverse impact to VMEs that may be encountered during fishing activities;

(c) a catch monitoring plan, including recording and reporting of all species caught;

(d) a system for catch recording and reporting allowing for a sufficiently detailed assessment of activity;

(e) a fine-scale data collection plan on the distribution of intended tows and sets, to the extent practicable on a tow-by-tow and set-by-set basis;

(f) a data collection plan to facilitate the identification of VMEs in the area where the fishing activities took place;

(g) plans for the monitoring of bottom fishing, using gear monitoring technology, including cameras, if practicable;

(h) data from seabed mapping programmes, echosounders and, if practicable, multibeam sounders, and other data relevant to the preliminary assessment of the risk of significant adverse impacts on VMEs; and

(i) a preliminary assessment of the known and anticipated impacts of the proposed bottom fishing addressing, inter alia: (i) a harvesting plan including the type of fishing conducted or contemplated, including vessel and gear types, fishing areas, target and potential by-catch species, fishing effort levels and duration of fishing; (ii) best available scientific and technical information on the current state of fishery resources and baseline information on the ecosystems, habitats and communities in the fishing area, against which future changes are to be compared; (iii) identification, description and mapping (geographical location and extent) of VMEs known or likely to occur in the fishing area; (iv) identification, description and evaluation of the occurrence, character, scale and duration of likely impacts, including cumulative impacts of the proposed fishery on VMEs in the fishing area; (v) data and methods used to identify, describe and assess the impacts of the activity, the identification of gaps in knowledge and an evaluation of uncertainties in the information presented in the assessment; (vi) risk assessment of likely impacts caused by fishing operations to determine which impacts on VMEs are likely to have or imply significant adverse impacts; and (vii) information contained in the mitigation plan concerning mitigation and management measures to be used to prevent significant adverse impacts on VMEs and the measures to be used to monitor the effects of fishing operations.

The flag Member State shall:

(a) send the request for prior assessment of exploratory bottom fishing activities and the accompanying information to the Commission at least seven months prior to the proposed start of the fishing;

(b) ensure that its fishing vessels participating in exploratory bottom fishing have a scientific observer on board, who shall: (i) monitor any set for evidence of presence of VMEs and identify coral, sponges and other organisms to the lowest taxonomical level possible; (ii) record on data sheets the following information for identification of VMEs: vessel name, gear type, date, position (latitude/longitude), depth, species code, trip number, set number and that observer’s name; and (iii) collect, if required, representative samples from the entire catch and provide the samples to the relevant scientific body of the flag Member State;

(c) authorise the start of the exploratory bottom fishing only after the activities have been approved by NEAFC; and

(d) provide a report of the results, including relevant scientific data, of the exploratory bottom fishing activities to ICES and the Commission, which shall forward it to the NEAFC Secretariat.

Masters of Union fishing vessels shall:

(a) commence the exploratory bottom fishing only after the activity has been approved by NEAFC and authorised by the flag Member State; and

(b) have a scientific observer on board during the exploratory bottom fishing activities.

Article 6

Other technical and conservation measures in the Regulatory Area

The technical measures and other conservation measures applicable in the Regulatory Area are set out in points 1 to 7 of Annex IV.

CHAPTER III

CONTROL AND ENFORCEMENT MEASURES

SECTION 1

General provisions

Article 7

Designation of contact points

SECTION 2

Control measures

Article 8

Control of notified and authorised Union fishing vessels

A flag Member States shall:

(a) authorise fishing vessels flying its flag for fishing activities only where it is able to exercise effectively its flag State responsibilities in respect of such vessels;

(b) ensure that only authorised fishing vessels flying its flag conduct fishing activities on regulated resources;

(c) ensure that notified and authorised fishing vessels flying its flag comply with applicable recommendations adopted by NEAFC and with this Regulation; and

(d) undertake to manage the number of authorised fishing vessels and their fishing effort commensurate to the fishing opportunities available to that Member State.

The following information on the lists of fishing vessels notified and authorised to fish in the Regulatory Area may be made publicly available on the NEAFC website:

(a) vessel name;

(b) IMO number or, if not applicable, other unique vessel identifier;

(c) flag State;

(d) external registration number (where available);

(e) international radio call sign;

(f) vessel type (where available);

(g) vessel tonnage;

(h) vessel length;

(i) vessel engine power; and

(j) authorised regulated resources, as well as start date and end date of the authorisation.

The first subparagraph of this paragraph shall not apply to research vessels marketing all or part of the catch obtained during research activities in the Regulatory Area. Such vessels shall be notified in accordance with paragraph 1 and shall comply with the obligations on recording and reporting requirements applicable to Union fishing vessels.

Article 9

Vessel requirements

In addition to the requirements established in Article 7(1) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011, Union fishing vessels shall carry on board documents issued by the appropriate certifying authority of the flag Member State in which it is registered showing at least the following data elements:

(a) vessel name;

(b) the letter(s) of the port or district in which it is registered, and the number(s) under which it is registered;

(c) its international radio call sign;

(d) IMO number if subject to IMO Resolution A.1078(28) or, if not applicable, other unique vessel identifier;

(e) the names and addresses of the owner and, where relevant, the charterer;

(f) vessel length; and

(g) engine power, in kW/horsepower.

Article 10

Marking of gear

Article 11

Waste from fishing vessels and retrieval of lost gear

Union fishing vessels shall notify the competent authorities of their flag Member State within 24 hours about the required information referred to in Article 14(7) and Article 48 of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 in those cases where the lost gear cannot be retrieved:

(a) the call sign of the vessel;

(b) the quantity of lost gear; and

(c) if the vessel has tried to retrieve the gear or not.

Article 12

Labelling of frozen fish

When frozen, all fish caught in the Convention Area shall be identified with a clearly legible label or stamp. The label or stamp shall be placed at the time of stowage on each box or block of frozen fish and shall indicate the 3-alpha FAO code of the species, production date in numerals, the ICES subarea and division where the catch was taken and the name of the vessel which caught the fish.

SECTION 3

Monitoring of fisheries

Article 13

Recording of catch and fishing effort

Masters of Union fishing vessels engaged in fishing activities which process or freeze their catch shall in addition:

(a) record their cumulative production by species and product form in a production logbook in accordance with Annex VI; and