Eurlexa

Article 1Subject matterThis Regulation lays down general rules for the uniform and effective implementation by the Union of the multiannual management plan for bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas ("ICCAT").

Article 2ScopeThis Regulation applies to:(a)Union fishing vessels and Union vessels engaged in recreational fisheries which:(i)catch bluefin tuna in the Convention Area; and(ii)tranship or carry on board, including outside the Convention Area, bluefin tuna caught in the Convention Area;(b)Union farms;(c)third country fishing vessels and third country vessels engaged in recreational fisheries that operate in Union waters and catch bluefin tuna in the Convention Area;(d)third country vessels which are inspected in Member State ports and which carry on board bluefin tuna caught in the Convention Area or fishery products originating from bluefin tuna caught in Union waters that have not been previously landed or transhipped at ports.

Article 3ObjectiveThe objective of this Regulation is to implement the multiannual management plan for bluefin tuna, as adopted by ICCAT, which aims to maintain a biomass of bluefin tuna above levels capable of producing MSY.

Article 4Relationship with other Union actsUnless otherwise stated in this Regulation, this Regulation applies without prejudice to other Union acts governing the fisheries sector, in particular:(1)Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009;(2)Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008;(3)Regulation (EU) 2017/2403 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2017/2403 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on the sustainable management of external fishing fleets, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1006/2008 (OJ L 347, 28.12.2017, p. 81).;(4)Regulation (EU) 2017/2107;(5)Regulation (EU) 2019/1241 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (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 (OJ L 198, 25.7.2019, p. 105)..

Article 5DefinitionsFor the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:(1)"ICCAT" means the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas;(2)"SCRS" means the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics of the ICCAT;(3)"the Convention" means the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas;(4)"Convention Area" means the geographical area, as set out in Article I of the Convention;(5)"CPC" means a Contracting Party to the Convention and a cooperating non-contracting party, entity or fishing entity;(6)"operator" means the natural or legal person who operates or holds any undertaking carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of production, processing, marketing, distribution and retail chains of fisheries and aquaculture products;(7)"farm Member State" or "Member State responsible for the farm" means the Member State under whose jurisdiction the farm is located;(8)"flag Member State" means the Member State where the fishing vessel is flagged;(9)"trap Member State" or "Member State responsible for the trap" means the Member States under whose jurisdiction the trap is located;(10)"fishing vessel" means any powered vessel used for the purposes of the commercial exploitation of bluefin tuna resources, including catching vessels, processing vessels, support vessels, towing vessels, vessels engaged in transhipment, transport vessels equipped for the transportation of tuna products and auxiliary vessels, except container vessels;(11)"catching vessel" means a vessel used for the purposes of the commercial capture of bluefin tuna resources;(12)"towing vessel" means any vessel used for towing live bluefin tuna cages;(13)"processing vessel" means a vessel on board of which fisheries products are subject to one or more of the following operations, prior to their packaging: filleting or slicing, freezing and/or processing;(14)"support vessel" means any fishing vessel, other than a catching vessel, processing vessel, towing vessel, vessel engaged in transhipment, transport vessel equipped for the transportation of tuna products or auxiliary vessel, authorised to operate in the bluefin tuna fishery to perform support tasks;(15)"auxiliary vessel" means any vessel used to transport dead bluefin tuna (not processed) from a transport or farming cage, a purse seine vessel or a trap to a designated port or to a processing vessel;(16)"small-scale coastal vessel" is a catching vessel with at least three of the five following characteristics:(a)length overall of less than 12 metres;(b)the vessel fishes exclusively inside the waters under jurisdiction of the flag Member State;(c)the duration of fishing trips is less than 24 hours;(d)the maximum number of crew members is established at four persons;(e)the vessel fishes using techniques which are selective and have a reduced environmental impact;(17)"large-scale pelagic longline vessel" means a pelagic longline vessel greater than 24 metres in length overall;(18)"recreational fisheries" means non-commercial fishing activities exploiting marine biological resources for recreation, tourism or sport;(19)"purse seine" 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 ground rope, enabling the net to be pursed and closed;(20)"joint fishing operation" means any operation between two or more purse seine vessels where the catch of one purse seine vessel is attributed to one or more purse seine vessels in accordance with a previously agreed allocation key;(21)"gear group" means a group of fishing vessels using the same gear for which a group quota has been allocated;(22)"fishing effort" means the product of the capacity and the activity of a fishing vessel to measure the intensity of the fishing operations; that measurement varies from gear to gear: for longline fisheries it is measured in number of hooks or hooks-hours; for purse seine vessels it is measured in terms of boat days (fishing time and searching time);(23)"fishing actively" means, for any catching vessel, the fact that it targets bluefin tuna during a given fishing season;(24)"BCD" means a bluefin tuna catch document;(25)"eBCD" means an electronic bluefin tuna catch document;(26)"transhipment" means the unloading of all or any of the fisheries products on board a fishing vessel to another fishing vessel; however, unloading of dead bluefin tuna from the purse seine, the trap or the towing vessel to an auxiliary vessel is not considered as transhipment;(27)"live bluefin tuna" means bluefin tuna that is kept alive for a certain period in a trap, or transferred alive to a farming installation, caged, farmed and finally harvested or released;(28)"harvesting" means the killing of bluefin tuna in farms or traps;(29)"trap" means fixed gear anchored to the bottom, usually containing a guide net that leads bluefin tuna into an enclosure or series of enclosures where it is kept prior to harvesting or farming;(30)"caging" means the relocation of live bluefin tuna in farms and their subsequent feeding aiming to fatten and increase their total biomass;(31)"control caging" means a repetition of the caging operation being implemented at the request of the control authorities, for the purpose of verifying the number or the average weight of fish being caged;(32)"farming" or "fattening" means caging of bluefin tuna in farms and subsequently feeding aiming to fatten and increase their total biomass;(33)"farm" means a marine area, in one or more locations all of which are clearly defined by geographical coordinates with a clear definition of longitude and latitude for each one of the points of the polygon, used for the fattening or farming of bluefin tuna caught by traps or purse seine vessels;(34)"input farming capacity" means the maximum amount of wild bluefin tuna in tonnes that a farm is allowed to cage during a fishing season;(35)"transfer" means any transfer of:(a)live bluefin tuna from the catching vessel’s net to the transport cage;(b)live bluefin tuna from the trap to the transport cage, independently of the presence of a towing vessel;(c)live bluefin tuna from the transport cage to another transport cage;(d)a cage containing live bluefin tuna from a towing vessel to another towing vessel;(e)live bluefin tuna between different cages in the same farm (intra-farm transfer);(f)live bluefin tuna from a farm cage to a transport cage;(36)"control transfer" means the repetition of any transfer being implemented at the request of control authorities;(37)"inter-farm transfer" means the relocation of live bluefin tuna from one farm to another farm composed of two phases, a transfer from the donor farm cage to a transport cage and a caging from the transport cage to the receiving farm cage;(38)"first transfer" means a transfer of live bluefin tuna from a purse seine or a trap to a transport cage;(39)"further transfer" means any transfer that is conducted after the first transfer and before caging at the farm of destination, such as splitting or merging of the contents of two transport cages, with the exception of voluntary or control transfers;(40)"voluntary transfer" means the repetition of any transfer being voluntarily implemented by the donor operator;(41)"control camera" means a stereoscopic camera or conventional video camera for the purpose of the controls pursuant to this Regulation;(42)"stereoscopic camera" means a camera with two or more lenses, with a separate image sensor or film frame for each lens, enabling the taking of three-dimensional images for the purpose of measuring the length of the fish;(43)"donor operator" means the master, or the master’s representative, of the catching or towing vessel, or the operator, or the operator’s representative, of the farm or trap, from which, except in the case of voluntary and control transfers, a transfer operation originates;(44)"Member State of the donor operator" means the Member State that exercises its jurisdiction over the donor operator.