Council Regulation (EC) No 40/2008Show full title

USE OF FISHING GEAR

17. Notification of fishing gear

Before the first day of each management period the master of a vessel or his representative shall notify to the authorities of the flag Member State which gear or gears he intends to use during the forthcoming management period. Until such notification is provided the vessel shall not be entitled to fish within the geographical areas defined in point 2.1 with any of the fishing gear referred to in point 4.1.

18. Use of more than one grouping of fishing gear

18.1. A vessel may use gears belonging to more than one of the groupings of fishing gears defined under point 4.1 during one management period.

18.2. Whenever the master of a vessel or his representative notifies the use of more than one fishing gear, the vessel may at any moment use one of the gears notified provided that the total number of days spent fishing with whichever gear since the beginning of the year is:

(a)

no more than total number of days available during the year which represents the arithmetic mean of the days corresponding to each gear in accordance with Table I, rounded down to the nearest whole day, and

(b)

no more than the number of days that would be allocated in accordance with Table I if that gear was used in isolation.

18.3. If one of the gears notified has no limitation in number of days, then the total number of days available during the year for this particular gear shall remain unlimited.

18.4. Whenever a Member State chooses to divide the days into management periods in accordance with point 9, the conditions of points 18.2, 18.3 and 18.4 shall apply mutatis mutandis for each management period.

18.5. The option to use more than one gear shall only be available if the following additional monitoring arrangements are met:

(a)

during a given trip the fishing vessel may carry on board or use only one of the groupings of fishing gear referred to in point 4.1, except as provided for in point 20.2;

(b)

before any trip the master of a vessel or his representative shall give prior notice to the competent authorities of the type of fishing gear that is to be carried on board or used unless the type of fishing gear has not changed from the one notified for the previous trip.

18.6. Inspection and surveillance at sea and in port by the competent authorities shall be undertaken for verification of compliance with the above two requirements. Any vessel found not to be complying with these requirements shall with immediate effect no longer be permitted to use more than one grouping of fishing gears.

19. Combined use of regulated and unregulated fishing gear

A vessel wishing to combine the use of one or more of the fishing gears referred to in point 4.1 (regulated gears) with any other fishing gears not referred to in point 4.1 (unregulated gears) shall not be restricted in their use of the unregulated gear. Such vessels must pre-notify when the regulated gear is to be used. When no such notification has been given, none of the fishing gear referred to in point 4.1 may be carried on board. Such vessels must be authorised and equipped to undertake the alternative fishing activity with unregulated gears.

20. Prohibition of carrying on board more than one regulated fishing gear

20.1. A vessel which is present within any of the geographical areas defined in point 2 and carrying on board a fishing gear belonging to one of the groupings of fishing gears referred to in point 4.1 may not simultaneously carry on board any gear belonging to one of the other groupings of fishing gears referred to in point 4.1.

20.2. By way of derogation from point 20.1 a vessel may carry on board and use during a trip in a geographical area referred to in point 2.1 fishing gears belonging to different groupings of fishing gears. In that case the number of days at sea spent by the vessel during that trip shall be counted for as fishing with the gear and special condition for which the lowest number of days apply in accordance with Table I.