REGULATION (EC) No 217/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 11 March 2009
on the submission of catch and activity statistics by Member States fishing in the north-west Atlantic (recast)
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (1),
Whereas:
(1)
Council Regulation (EEC) No 2018/93 of 30 June 1993 on the submission of catch and activity statistics by Member States fishing in the Northwest Atlantic (2) has been substantially amended several times (3). Since further amendments are to be made, it should be recast in the interests of clarity.
(2)
The Convention on Future Multilateral Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, approved by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3179/78 (4) and establishing the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), requires the Community to supply the NAFO Scientific Council with any available statistical and scientific information requested by the Scientific Council in the performance of its work.
(3)
Timely catch and activity statistics have been identified by the NAFO Scientific Council as essential to the performance of its work in evaluating the state of the fish stocks in the north-west Atlantic.
(4)
Several Member States have requested the submission of data in a different form or through a different medium from that specified in Annex V (the equivalent of the Statlant questionnaires).
(5)
The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (5).
(6)
In particular, the Commission should be empowered to adapt the lists of species and statistical fishing regions, descriptions of those regions, and measures, codes and definitions applied to fishing activity, fishing gear, vessel sizes and methods of fishing. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Each Member State shall submit to the Commission data on the catches by vessels registered in, or flying the flag of, that Member State fishing in the north-west Atlantic, with due regard to Council Regulation (Euratom, EEC) No 1588/90 of 11 June 1990 on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities (6).
The nominal catch data shall include all fishery products landed or transhipped at sea in no matter what form but shall exclude quantities which, subsequent to capture, are discarded at sea, consumed on board or used as bait on board. Aquaculture production shall be excluded. The data shall be recorded as the live weight equivalent of the landings or transhipments, to the nearest tonne.
Article 2
1. The data to be submitted shall be of two types:
(a)
the annual nominal catches, expressed in tonnes live weight equivalent of the landings, of each of the species listed in Annex I in each of the statistical fishing regions of the north-west Atlantic listed in Annex II and defined in Annex III;
(b)
the catches as specified under point (a) and the corresponding fishing activity, subdivided by calendar month of capture, fishing gear, vessel size and main species sought.
2. The data referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 shall be submitted by 31 May of the year following the reference year and may be preliminary data. The data referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 shall be submitted by 31 August of the year following the reference year and shall be definitive data.
The data referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 and submitted as preliminary data should be clearly identified as such.
No submissions shall be required for species/fishing region combinations for which no catches were recorded in the reference period of the submission.
Should the Member State concerned not have fished in the north-west Atlantic in the preceding calendar year, it shall inform the Commission thereof by 31 May of the following year.
3. The definitions and codes to be used in submitting information on fishing activity, fishing gear, method of fishing and vessel size are given in Annex IV.
4. The Commission may amend the lists of species and statistical fishing regions and the descriptions of those regions, as well as the measures, codes and definitions applied to fishing activity, fishing gear, vessel sizes and methods of fishing.
Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 6(2).
Article 3
Except where provisions adopted under the common fisheries policy dictate otherwise, a Member State shall be permitted to use sampling techniques to derive catch data for those parts of the fishing fleet for which the complete coverage of the data would involve the excessive application of administrative procedures. The details of the sampling procedures, together with details of the proportion of the total data derived by such techniques, must be included by the Member State in the report submitted pursuant to Article 7(1).
Article 4
Member States shall fulfil their obligations to the Commission pursuant to Articles 1 and 2 by submitting the data in the format shown in Annex V.
Member States may submit data in the format detailed in Annex VI.
With the prior approval of the Commission, Member States may submit data in a different form or on a different medium.
Article 5
Within 24 hours of receipt of the reports, whenever possible, the Commission shall transmit the information contained therein to the Executive Secretary of NAFO.
Article 6
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Standing Committee for Agricultural Statistics, set up by Council Decision 72/279/EEC (7), hereinafter referred to as ‘the Committee’.
2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5a(1) to (4) and Article 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.
Article 7
1. By 28 July 1994, Member States shall submit a detailed report to the Commission describing how the data on catches and fishing activity are derived and specifying the degree of representativeness and reliability of those data. The Commission, in collaboration with the Member States, shall draw up a summary of those reports.
2. Member States shall inform the Commission of any modifications to the information provided under paragraph 1 within three months of their introduction.
3. Methodological reports, data availability and data reliability referred to in paragraph 1 and other relevant issues connected with the application of this Regulation shall be examined once a year within the competent working group of the Committee.
Article 8
1. Regulation (EEC) No 2018/93 is hereby repealed.
2. References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex VIII.
Article 9
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Strasbourg, 11 March 2009.