Regulation 2016/1627 - Multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean - Main contents

Summary of Legislation
Legislative text

1. Summary of Legislation

Multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) 2016/1627 on a multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THIS REGULATION?

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It updates the EU rules on applying the multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, which runs from 2007 to 2022, and recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), an inter-governmental fishery organisation to which the EU is a contracting party.
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It replaces and repeals Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009.

KEY POINTS

The regulation’s objective is to achieve a biomass* of bluefin tuna corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield by 2022 with at least a 60% probability of achieving that objective.

Each EU country must

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ensure that the fishing effort of its catching vessels and its traps are proportionate to the bluefin tuna fishing opportunities (total allowable catches allocated under Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 — EU’s new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)) available to it in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean:
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submit to the European Commission an annual fishing plan for its vessels and traps and annual fishing capacity and farming management plans that ensures its fishing capacity is in line with its allocated quota.

The regulation sets out the fishing seasons applicable to various types of fishing vessels and contains rules on:

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minimum conservation reference sizes (generally, 30 kg or 115 cm fork length, although lower in certain fisheries);
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incidental catches (parts of catches which are not targeted) — up to maximum of 5% of bluefin tuna weighing between 8 and 30 kg or with a fork length between 75 and 115 cm;
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by-catches (incidental catches plus discards) — should not exceed 5% of the total catch on board by weight or number of fish;
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use of aerial means, such as aircraft, to search for bluefin tuna is prohibited;
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records of both fishing and non-catching vessels and traps — EU countries have to supply these to the Commission each year;
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recording requirements — vessels must use logbooks to record information (Annex II - Part A);
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designated ports for landing or transhipping bluefin tuna— EU countries must send a list of these ports to the Commission each year;
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caging operations, their authorisation and inspection;
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monitoring and surveillance — vessel monitoring, national observer programmes, ICCAT regional observer programme;
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inspections and cross-checks — ICCAT Scheme of Joint International Inspection, EU countries’ inspection plans;
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marketing — trade, landing, import, export, pacing in cages for fattening or farming, re-export and transhipment of bluefin tuna are not permitted in the EU unless accompanied by accurate, complete and validated documentation, as set out in this regulation, Regulation (EU) No 640/2010 and Regulation (EC) No 1936/2001;
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catches in the cases of sport or recreational fishing:
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  no more than one bluefin tuna may be caught per vessel;
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  any bluefin tuna landed must be whole, gilled and/or gutted;
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  measures to be introduced in EU countries to ensure the release of bluefin tuna, especially juveniles, caught alive in the course of sport and recreational fishing;
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  the sale of bluefin tuna caught during sport and recreational fishing is banned.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 6 October 2016.

BACKGROUND

For more information, see:

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Bluefin tuna (European Commission).

KEY TERMS

*Biomass: the mass of tuna in a given body of water at a given time.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EU) 2016/1627 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2016 on a multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 (OJ L 252, 16.9.2016, pp. 1-52)

Contents

1.

Summary of Legislation

2.

Legislative text