PURPOSE: to lay down management, conservation and control measures applicable in the Convention Area of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO).
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2018/975 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down management, conservation and control measures applicable in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) Convention Area.
CONTENT: the Regulation lays down management, conservation and control provisions relating to fishing for straddling fish stocks in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) Convention Area.
The objective of the new rules is to ensure that the conservation and management measures adopted by SPRFMO are fully transposed into EU law and are therefore implemented in a uniform and effective manner within the Union. In particular, this Regulation incorporates into EU legislation the decisions taken at the sixth meeting of the SPRFMO Commission in Lima, Peru, from 30 January to 3 February 2018.
The SPRFMO is an inter-governmental organisation that is committed to the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the fishery resources of the South Pacific Ocean and in so doing safeguarding the marine ecosystems in which the resources occur. The SPRFMO convention applies to the high seas of the South Pacific, covering about a fourth of the Earth's high seas areas.
Currently, the main commercial resources fished in the SPRFMO area are jack mackerel and jumbo flying squid in the Southeast Pacific and, to a much lesser degree, deep-sea species often associated with seamounts in the Southwest Pacific.
The SPRFMO Commission has currently 15 Members from Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania, including the European Union.
The Regulation shall apply to Union fishing vessels operating in the SPRFMO Convention Area; Union fishing vessels transhipping fishery products harvested in the SPRFMO Convention Area; third country fishing vessels upon requesting access to, or being the object of an inspection in, Union ports and carrying fishery products harvested in the SPRFMO Convention Area.
It provides, among other things:
- the obligation for Member States to inform the Commission without delay of the date of the closure of a fishery for jack mackerel that has reached 100 % of its catch limit, and to use transparent and objective criteria, including environmental, social and economic criteria when allocating fishing opportunities for jack mackerel stocks at their disposal;
- the prohibition of the use of large scale pelagic drifting nets (exceeding 2.5 kilometres in length), and all deepwater gillnets throughout the SPRFMO Convention area;
- the requirement for vessels intending to transit the Convention Area while carrying gillnets to notify the SPRFMO Secretariat at least 36 hours before entering the Area and to ensure that the vessels flying their flag operate a vessel monitoring system (VMS) reporting once every two hours while in the SPRFMO Convention Area.
This Regulation shall not cover the fishing opportunities decided by the SPRFMO.
The Regulation gives the Commission the power to adopt delegated acts in order to incorporate future binding amendments to the SPRFMO's conservation and management measures into Union legislation.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 19.7.2018.