EN
L 28/20
Official Journal of the European Union
31.1.2023
(b) the closure period or periods shall last six consecutive months, or a total of six months in accordance with paragraphs 3 or 4; and (c) by derogation from point (b), if the Member State concerned determines that the closure period in the GFCM geographical subareas 1 to 27 shall start on or after 1 March 2023, the period shall last six consecutive months; (d) the closure period or periods shall be consistent with the conservation objectives set out in Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007, with national management plans in place and with the temporal migration patterns of European eel at the respective life stage in the Member State concerned.
3.
In GFCM geographical subareas 1 to 27, the closure period shall be from 1 January to 31 March 2023, and an additional closure period of three months to be established by each Member State concerned between 1 April and 30 November 2023.
4.
In ICES subareas 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9, the closure periods shall be:
(a) for European eel of an overall length of 12 cm or more: (i)
in ICES subarea 3, from 1 October to 31 December 2023, and an additional closure period of three months to be determined by each Member State in the period between 1 March and 31 August 2023;
(ii) in ICES subareas 4, 6 and 7, from 1 September to 30 November 2023, and an additional closure period of three months to be determined by each Member State in the period between 1 March and 31 July 2023 and December 2023; (iii) in ICES subareas 8 and 9, from 1 November 2023 to 31 January 2024, and an additional closure period of three months to be determined by each Member State concerned in the period between 1 March and 30 September 2023; (b) for European eel of an overall length of less than 12 cm: (i)
from 1 January to 31 March 2024 and an additional closure period of three months to be determined by each Member State concerned in the period between 1 March and 31 December 2023;
(ii) by way of derogation from point (i), each Member State concerned may allow fishing for one month during the closure period that it has determined under that point.
In that case, the Member State concerned shall determine an additional closure period of one month; (iii) by way of further derogation from point (i), each Member State concerned may allow fishing exclusively for restocking for an additional one month during the closure period that it has determined under that point.
In that case, the Member State concerned shall determine a further additional closure period of one month; (iv) the application of points (i) to (iii) shall not lead to a situation where the Member State concerned allows during the period between 1 January to 31 March 2023 fishing for more than one month plus one additional month exclusively for restocking.
5.
Each Member State concerned shall inform the Commission:
(a) about the closure period or closure periods that it has determined in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 4: (i) by 1 March 2023 for the in GFCM geographical subareas 1 to 27; (ii) by 1 March 2023 for ICES subareas 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9;