Division 4 In cases where a fleet segment has less than 10 vessels:

clustering may be necessary in order to design the sampling plan and to report economic variables;

Member States shall report which fleet segments have been grouped at the national level and shall justify the clustering on the basis of statistical analysis;

in their annual report, Member States shall report the number of sampled vessels for each fleet segment regardless of any clustering made to collect or provide the data;

Regional Coordination Meetings shall define homogeneous clustering methodology at the level of supra regions so that economic variables are comparable.