Regulation (EU) 2017/2107 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2017 laying down management, conservation and control measures applicable in the Convention area of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1936/2001, (EC) No 1984/2003 and (EC) No 520/2007

• Published date: 15 July 2019
• Subject Matter: External relations,Fisheries policy
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 315, 30 November 2017

02017R2107 — EN — 17.10.2023 — 002.001

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►B REGULATION (EU) 2017/2107 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 15 November 2017 laying down management, conservation and control measures applicable in the Convention area of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1936/2001, (EC) No 1984/2003 and (EC) No 520/2007 (OJ L 315 30.11.2017, p. 1)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	REGULATION (EU) 2019/1154 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 June 2019	L 188	1	12.7.2019
►M2	REGULATION (EU) 2023/2053 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 13 September 2023	L 238	1	27.9.2023

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▼B

REGULATION (EU) 2017/2107 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 15 November 2017

laying down management, conservation and control measures applicable in the Convention area of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1936/2001, (EC) No 1984/2003 and (EC) No 520/2007

TITLE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down management, conservation and control provisions relating to fishing for highly migratory fish species managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation applies to:

(a)

Union fishing vessels, and Union vessels engaged in recreational fisheries, which operate in the ICCAT Convention area and, in the case of transhipments, also outside the ICCAT Convention area if they tranship species caught in that area;

(b)

third country vessels which are inspected in Member States ports and which carry ICCAT species or fishery products originating from such species that have not been previously landed or transhipped at ports;

(c)

third country fishing vessels and third country vessels engaged in recreational fisheries which operate in Union waters.

Article 3

Relationship to other Union acts

This Regulation applies without prejudice to the provisions laid down in a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the sustainable management of external fishing fleets ( 1 ) and in Regulation (EU) 2016/1627.

The measures provided for in this Regulation apply in addition to those provided for in Regulations (EC) No 1005/2008 and (EC) No 1224/2009.

Article 4

Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1)

‘ICCAT species’ means species listed in Annex I;

(2)

‘tropical tuna’ means bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and skipjack tuna;

(3)

‘fishing vessel’ means any vessel equipped for commercial exploitation of marine biological resources or a bluefin tuna trap;

(4)

‘catching vessel’ means a fishing vessel used for the purpose of the capture of marine biological resources;

(5)

‘Union fishing vessel’ means a fishing vessel flying the flag of a Member State and registered in the Union;

(6)

‘fishing authorisation’ means an authorisation issued in respect of a Union fishing vessel entitling it to carry out specific fishing activities during a specified period, in a given area or for a given fishery under specific conditions;

(7)

‘special fishing authorisation’ means an authorisation issued in respect of a Union fishing vessel entitling it to carry out specific fishing activities with specific gear during a specified period, in a given area or for a given fishery under specific conditions;

(8)

‘transhipment’ means the unloading of all or any fisheries products on board a vessel to another vessel;

(9)

‘recreational fishery’ means non-commercial fishing activities exploiting marine biological resources for recreation, tourism or sport;

(10)

‘Task I data’ means data defined as Task I by ICCAT in the ‘Field manual for statistics and sampling Atlantic tunas and tuna-like fish’;

(11)

‘Task II data’ means data defined as Task II by ICCAT in the ‘Field manual for statistics and sampling Atlantic tunas and tuna-like fish’;

(12)

‘CPC’ means contracting parties to the ICCAT Convention and cooperating non-contracting parties, entities or fishing entities;

(13)

‘ICCAT Convention area’ means all waters of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas;

(14)

‘sustainable fisheries partnership agreement’ means an international agreement as defined in point 37 of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

(15)

‘vessel length’ means the distance measured in a straight line between the foremost point of the bow and the aftermost point of the stern;

(16)

‘large-scale pelagic longline vessel’ means a pelagic longline vessel greater than 24 metres in length overall;

(17)

‘large-scale fishing vessel’ means a fishing vessel greater than 20 metres in length overall;

(18)

‘large-scale catching vessel’ means a catching vessel greater than 20 metres in length overall;

(19)

‘ICCAT record of large-scale fishing vessels’ means the list, maintained by the ICCAT Secretariat, of large-scale fishing vessels authorised to target ICCAT species in the ICCAT Convention area;

(20)

‘support vessel’ means a vessel other than a craft carried on board that is not equipped with an operational fishing gear and that facilitates, assists or prepares fishing activities, including by supplying a catching vessel;

(21)

‘carrier vessel’ means a support vessel engaged in transhipment and receiving ICCAT species from a large-scale pelagic longline vessel;

(22)

‘ICCAT record of carrier vessels’ means the list, maintained by the ICCAT Secretariat, of vessels authorised to receive transhipment at sea from large-scale pelagic longline vessels in the ICCAT Convention area;

(23)

‘ICCAT record of authorised tropical tunas vessels’ means the list, maintained by the ICCAT Secretariat, of large-scale fishing vessels authorised to fish, retain on board, tranship, transport, process or land tropical tunas in the ICCAT Convention area;

(24)

‘fish-aggregating device’ (FAD) means any equipment which is floating on the sea surface and is deployed with the objective of attracting fish;

(25)

‘IUU fishing’ means fishing activities defined in point 1 of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008;

(26)

‘ICCAT IUU list’ means a list of vessels which are considered by ICCAT to have engaged in IUU fishing;

(27)

‘longlines’ means a fishing gear which comprises a main line carrying numerous hooks on branch lines (snoods) of variable length and spacing depending on the target species;

(28)

‘purse seines’ 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 groundrope, enabling the net to be pursed and closed;

(29)

‘hook’ means a bent, sharpened piece of steel wire.

TITLE II

MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND CONTROL MEASURES CONCERNING CERTAIN SPECIES

CHAPTER I

Tropical tunas

Article 5

Restrictions on the number of Union large-scale catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna

The number and total capacity in gross tonnage (GT) of Union large-scale catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna in the ICCAT Convention area shall be determined:

(a)

as the average number and the capacity in GT of Union catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna in the ICCAT Convention area during the period 1991 to 1992; and

(b)

on the basis of the restriction on the number of Union catching vessels targeting bigeye tuna in 2005 as notified to ICCAT on 30 June 2005.

Article 6

Specific authorisations for large-scale tropical tuna catching vessels and for support vessels

1.

Member States shall issue authorisations, in accordance with the provisions laid down in a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the sustainable management of external fishing fleets ( 2 ), to large-scale catching vessels flying their flag to fish tropical tunas in the ICCAT Convention area.

2.

Member States shall issue authorisations to support vessels flying their flag used for any kind of support to vessels referred to in paragraph 1.

Article 7

ICCAT record of authorised tropical tuna vessels

1.

Member States shall notify the Commission, without delay and at the latest within 30 days, of any event requiring an addition to, deletion from or modification of the ICCAT record of authorised tropical tuna vessels. The Commission shall, without delay and at the latest within 45 days from the date of such event, submit that information to the ICCAT Secretariat.

2.

Large-scale fishing vessels not entered into the ICCAT record of authorised tropical tuna vessels shall not be allowed to fish, retain on board, tranship, transport, transfer, process or land tropical tunas from the ICCAT Convention area. Article 15(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 shall not apply in such cases.

Article 8

List of vessels fishing tropical tunas in a given year

Member States shall, by 30 June of...