the taking and landing of marine biological resources;

the operation of fishing gear; and

the interaction of fishing activities with marine ecosystems.

‘North Sea’ means Union waters in ICES divisions ( 1 ) 2a and 3a and ICES sub-area 4;

‘Baltic Sea’ means Union waters in ICES divisions 3b, 3c and 3d;

‘North Western waters’ means Union waters in ICES sub-areas 5, 6 and 7;

‘South Western waters’ means ICES sub-areas 8, 9 and 10 (Union waters) and CECAF zones ( 2 ) 34.1.1, 34.1.2 and 34.2.0 (Union waters);

‘Mediterranean Sea’ means the maritime waters of the Mediterranean to the East of line 5°36′ W;

‘Black Sea’ means waters in GFCM geographical sub-area 29 as defined in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1343/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 3 );

‘Union waters in the Indian Ocean and the West Atlantic’ means waters around Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of a Member State;

‘NEAFC Regulatory Area’ means the waters of the NEAFC Convention Area which lie beyond the waters under the fisheries jurisdiction of the Contracting Parties as defined in Regulation (EU) No 1236/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 4 );

‘GFCM Agreement area’ means the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea and connecting waters, as defined in Regulation (EU) No 1343/2011.

‘exploitation pattern’ means how fishing mortality is distributed across the age and size profile of a stock;

‘selectivity’ means a quantitative expression represented as a probability of capture of marine biological resources of a certain size and/or species;

‘directed fishing’ means fishing effort targeted at a specific species or group of species and may be further specified at regional level in delegated acts adopted pursuant to Article 27(7) of this Regulation;

‘good environmental status’ means the environmental status of marine waters as defined by Article 3(5) of Directive 2008/56/EC;

‘conservation status of a species’ means the sum of the influences acting on the species concerned that may affect the long-term distribution and abundance of its populations;

‘conservation status of a habitat’ means the sum of the influences acting on a natural habitat and its typical species that may affect its long-term natural distribution, structure and functions as well as the long-term survival of its typical species;

‘sensitive habitat’ means a habitat whose conservation status, including its extent and the condition (structure and function) of its biotic and abiotic components, is adversely affected by pressures arising from human activities, including fishing activities. Sensitive habitats, in particular, include habitat types listed in Annex I, and habitats of species listed in Annex II to Directive 92/43/EEC, habitats of species listed in Annex I to Directive 2009/147/EC, habitats whose protection is necessary to achieve good environmental status under Directive 2008/56/EC and vulnerable marine ecosystems as defined by point (b) of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 734/2008 ( 5 );

‘sensitive species’ means a species whose conservation status, including its habitat, distribution, population size or population condition is adversely affected by pressures arising from human activities, including fishing activities. Sensitive species, in particular, include species listed in Annexes II and IV to Directive 92/43/EEC, species covered by Directive 2009/147/EC and species whose protection is necessary to achieve good environmental status under Directive 2008/56/EC;

‘small pelagic species’ means species such as mackerel, herring, horse mackerel, anchovy, sardine, blue whiting, argentines, sprat, and boarfish;

‘Advisory Councils’ means stakeholder groups established in accordance with Article 43 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;

‘trawl’ means fishing gear which is actively towed by one or more fishing vessels and consisting of a net closed at the back by a bag or a codend;

‘towed gear’ means any trawls, Danish seines, dredges and similar gear which are actively moved in the water by one or more fishing vessels or by any other mechanised system;

‘bottom trawl’ means a trawl designed and rigged to operate on or near the seabed;

‘bottom pair trawl’ means a bottom trawl towed by two boats simultaneously, one towing each side of the trawl. The horizontal opening of the trawl is maintained by the distance between the two vessels as they tow the gear;

‘pelagic trawl’ means a trawl designed and rigged to operate in midwater;

‘beam trawl’ means gear with a trawl net open horizontally by a beam, wing or similar device;

‘electric pulse trawl’ means a trawl which uses an electric current to catch marine biological resources;

‘Danish seine’ or ‘Scottish seine’ means an encircling and towed gear, operated from a boat by means of two long ropes (seine ropes) designed to herd the fish towards the opening of the seine. The gear is made up of a net which is similar in design to a bottom trawl;

‘shore seines’ means surrounding nets and towed seines set from a boat and pulled towards the shore as they are being operated from the shore or from a vessel moored or anchored by the shore;

‘surrounding nets’ means nets which catch fish by surrounding them both from the sides and from below. They may or may not be equipped with a purse line;

‘purse seine’ or ‘ring nets’ means any surrounding net where the bottom is drawn together by means of a purse line situated at the bottom of the net, which passes through a series of rings along the groundrope, enabling the net to be pursed and closed;

‘dredges’ means gear which are either actively towed by the main boat engine (boat dredge) or hauled by a motorised winch from an anchored vessel (mechanised dredge) to catch bivalves, gastropods or sponges and which consist of a net bag or metal basket mounted on a rigid frame or rod of variable size and shape whose lower part may carry a scraper blade that can be either rounded, sharp or toothed, and may or may not be equipped with skids and diving boards. Some dredges are equipped with hydraulic equipment (hydraulic dredges). Dredges pulled by hand or by manual winches in shallow waters with or without a boat to catch bivalves, gastropods or sponges (hand dredges) shall not be considered towed gear for the purpose of this Regulation;

‘static nets’ means any type of gillnet, entangling net or trammel net that is anchored to the seabed for fish to swim into and become entangled or enmeshed in the netting;

‘driftnet’ means a net held on the water surface or at a certain distance below it by floating devices and drifting with the current, either independently or with the boat to which it may be attached. It may be equipped with devices aiming to stabilise the net or to limit its drift;

‘gillnet’ means a static net made up of a single piece of net and held vertically in the water by floats and weights;

‘entangling net’ means a static net consisting of a wall of netting rigged so that the netting is hung onto the ropes to create a greater amount of slack netting than a gillnet;

‘trammel net’ means a static net made up of several layers of netting with two outer layers of a large mesh size with a sheet of small mesh sandwiched between them;

‘combined gillnet and trammel net’ means any bottom-set gillnet combined with a trammel net which constitutes the lower part;

‘longline’ means a fishing gear consisting of a main line of variable length, to which branch lines (snoods) with hooks are fixed at intervals determined by the target species. The main line is anchored either horizontally on or near the bottom or vertically, or can be allowed to drift on the surface;

‘pots and creels’ means traps in the form of cages or baskets having one or more entrances, designed to catch crustaceans, molluscs or fish, that are set on the seabed or suspended above it;

‘handline’ means a single fishing line with one or more lures or baited hooks;

‘St Andrew’s cross’ means a grab which employs a scissor-like action to harvest for example bivalve molluscs or red coral from the seabed;

‘codend’ means the rearmost part of the trawl, having either a cylindrical shape, with the same circumference throughout, or a tapering shape. It can be made up of one or more panels (pieces of netting) attached to one another along their sides and can include the lengthening piece which is made up of one or more panels located just in front of the codend sensu stricto;

‘mesh size’ means:

‘square mesh’ means a quadrilateral mesh composed of two sets of parallel bars of the same nominal length, where one set is parallel to, and the other is at right angles to, the longitudinal axis of the net;

‘diamond mesh’ means a mesh composed of four bars of the same length where the two diagonals of the mesh are perpendicular and one diagonal is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the net;

‘T90’ means trawls, Danish seines or similar towed gear having a codend and extension piece produced from knotted diamond mesh netting turned 90o so that the main direction of run of the netting is parallel to the towing direction;

‘Bacoma exit window’ means an escape panel constructed in knotless square mesh netting fitted into the top panel of a codend with its lower edge no more than four meshes from the codline;

‘sieve net’ means a piece of netting attached to the full circumference of the shrimp trawl in front of the codend or extension piece, and tapering to an apex where it is attached to the bottom sheet of the shrimp trawl. An exit hole is cut where the sieve net and codend join, allowing species or individuals too large to pass through the sieve to escape, whereas the shrimp can pass through the sieve and into the codend;

‘drop’ means the sum of the height of the meshes (including knots) in a net when wet and stretched perpendicular to the float line;

‘immersion time’ or ‘soak time’ means the period from the point of time when the gear is first put in the water until the point of time when the gear is fully recovered on board the fishing vessel;

‘gear monitoring sensors’ means remote electronic sensors that are placed on fishing gear to monitor key performance parameters such as the distance between trawl doors or volume of the catch;

‘weighted line’ means a line of baited hooks with added weight to increase its sinking speed and thereby reduce its time of exposure to seabirds;

‘acoustic deterrent device’ means devices aimed to deter species such as marine mammals from fishing gear by emitting acoustic signals;

‘bird scaring lines’ (also called a tori line) means lines with streamers that are towed from a high point near the stern of fishing vessels as baited hooks are deployed, with the aim of scaring seabirds away from the hooks;

‘direct restocking’ means the activity of releasing live wild animals of selected species into waters where they occur naturally, in order to use the natural production of the aquatic environment to increase the number of individuals available for fisheries and/or to increase natural recruitment;

‘transplantation’ means the process by which a species is intentionally transported and released by humans within areas of established populations of that species;

‘selectivity performance indicator’ means a reference tool to monitor progress over time towards the achievement of the CFP objective of minimising unwanted catches;

‘spear gun’ means a pneumatic or mechanically powered hand-held gun that shoots a spear for the purpose of underwater fishing;

‘length of optimal selectivity (Lopt)’ is the average length of capture, provided by the best available scientific advice, that optimises the growth of individuals in a stock.

the objective of the closure;

the geographical extent and duration of the closure;

restrictions on specific gear; and

control and monitoring arrangements.

develop lists of sensitive species and habitats most at risk from fishing activities within the relevant region based on the best available scientific advice;

specify the use of additional or alternative measures to those referred to in Annex XIII to minimise the incidental catches of the species referred to in Article 11;

provide information on the effectiveness of existing mitigation measures and monitoring arrangements;

specify measures to minimise the impacts of fishing gear on sensitive habitats;

specify restrictions on the operation of certain gear or introduce a total prohibition on the use of certain fishing gear within an area where such gear represent a threat to the conservation status of species in that area as referred to in Articles 10 and 11 or other sensitive habitats.

Articles 3, 8 to 12, 14, 15, 16 and 25 are deleted;

Annexes II, III and IV are deleted.

Section 3 is deleted;

the following Section is added:

‘Section 4

On-board processing and pelagic fisheries

Article 54a

On-board processing

Article 54b

Catch handling and discharge restrictions on pelagic vessels

The bars shall be welded in place. If holes are used in the water separator instead of bars, the maximum diameter of the holes shall not exceed 10 mm. Holes in the chutes before the water separator shall not exceed 15 mm in diameter.

Article 54c

Restrictions on the use of automatic grading equipment

in paragraph 1, the introductory part is replaced by the following:

paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

in paragraph 1, the introductory part is replaced by the following:

paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

in paragraph 1, the introductory part is replaced by the following:

paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

in paragraph 1, the introductory part is replaced by the following:

paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

The following species of sawfish in all Union waters:

basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) and white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) in all waters;

smooth lantern shark (Etmopterus pusillus) in Union waters of ICES division 2a and subarea 4 and in Union waters of ICES subareas 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 14;

reef manta ray (Manta alfredi) in all Union waters;

giant manta ray (Manta birostris) in all Union waters;

the following species of Mobula rays in all Union waters:

Norwegian skate (Raja (Dipturus) nidarosiensis) in Union waters of ICES divisions 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h and 7k;

white skate (Raja alba) in Union waters of ICES subareas 6-10

guitarfishes (Rhinobatidae) in Union waters of ICES subareas 1-10 and 12;

angel shark (Squatina squatina) in all Union waters;

salmon (Salmo salar) and sea trout (Salmo trutta) when fishing with any towed net within the waters outside the six-mile limit measured from Member States’ baselines in ICES sub-areas 1, 2 and 4-10 (Union waters);

houting (Coregonus oxyrhynchus) in ICES division 4b (Union waters);

the Adriatic sturgeon (Acipenser naccarii) and common sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) in Union waters;

berried female crawfish (Palinurus spp.) and berried female lobster (Homarus gammarus) in the Mediterranean Sea except when used for direct restocking or transplantation purposes;

date shell (Lithophaga lithophaga), fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) and common piddock (Pholas dactylus) in Union waters in the Mediterranean Sea;

hatpin urchin (Centrostephanus longispinus);

berried female European lobster (Homarus gammarus) in ICES divisions 3a, 4a and 4b.

The size of any fish shall be measured, as shown in Figure 1, from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail fin.

The size of a Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) shall be measured, as shown in Figure 2, either:

In the case of detached Norway lobster tails: from the front edge of the first tail segment present to the rear end of the telson, not including the setae. The tail shall be measured flat, unstretched and on the dorsal side.

The size of a lobster (Homarus gammarus) from the North Sea except Skagerrak or Kattegat shall be measured, as shown in Figure 3, as the length of the carapace, parallel to the midline, from the back of either eye socket to the distal edge of the carapace.

The size of a lobster (Homarus gammarus) from Skagerrak or Kattegat shall be measured, as shown in Figure 3, either:

The size of a crawfish (Palinurus spp.) shall be measured, as shown in Figure 4, as the length of the carapace, parallel to the midline, from the tip of the rostrum to the midpoint of the distal dorsal edge of the carapace.

The size of any bivalve mollusc shall be measured, as shown in Figure 5, across the longest part of the shell.

The size of a spinous spider crab (Maja squinado) shall be measured, as shown in Figure 6, as the length of the carapace, along the midline, from the edge of the carapace between the rostrums to the posterior edge of the carapace.

The size of an edible crab (Cancer pagurus) shall be measured, as shown in Figure 7, as the maximum width of the carapace measured perpendicular to the antero-posterior midline of the carapace.

The size of a whelk (Buccinum spp.) shall be measured, as shown in Figure 8, as the length of the shell.

The size of swordfish (Xiphias gladius) shall be measured, as shown in Figure 9, as the lower jaw to fork length (LJFL).