# Council Regulation (EC) No 753/2007 of 28 June 2007 on the conclusion of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Community on the one hand, and the Government of Denmark and the Home Rule Government of Greenland, on the other hand, Appendix 2


Conditions on issues related to satellite tracking of fishing vessels
1.
Satellite tracking shall apply to the Parties' fishing vessels when operating in the waters of the other Party.
Fishing vessels shall be tracked by their Flag State Fisheries Monitoring Centre (FMC) when operating in waters under the jurisdiction of the other Party.
2.
For the purpose of the satellite tracking, the Parties shall exchange consistent latitude and longitude coordinates of waters which fall under their jurisdiction. Such coordinates shall be without prejudice to other claims and positions of the Parties. The data shall be communicated in computer readable form, as decimal degrees in the WGS-84 datum.
3.
The Vessel Monitoring System hardware and software components shall be tamper proof, i.e. shall not permit the input or output of false positions and shall not be capable of being manually over-ridden. The system shall be fully automatic and operational at all times regardless of environmental conditions. It shall be prohibited to destroy, damage, render inoperative or otherwise interfere with the satellite-tracking device.
In particular, the masters shall ensure that:
data are not altered in any way,
the antenna or the antennas connected to the satellite tracking devices are not obstructed in any way,
the power supply of the satellite tracking devices is not interrupted in any way, and
the satellite tracking devices are not removed from the vessel.
It shall be prohibited for a Community fishing vessel to enter the Greenlandic EEZ without a functioning satellite tracking device. The Greenland authorities are entitled to suspend with immediate effect the licence of Community fishing vessels entering the Greenlandic EEZ without functioning satellite tracking devices. The Greenland authorities shall provide notice without delay to the vessel concerned. The European Commission and the flag Member State shall be notified of the suspension of licences by the Greenland authorities without delay.
4.
Tracking shall have a position error which shall be less than 500 metres, with a confidence interval of 99 %.
5.
When a vessel subject to satellite tracking enters into or exits from waters under the jurisdiction of the other Party, the Flag State shall forward to the relevant FMC of the other Party an Entry or Exit message as described in the Annex. These messages shall be transmitted without delay and based on a preceding tracking on an hourly basis. The tracking frequency by the Flag State FMC of a vessel being in the waters under the jurisdiction of the other Party, shall be on an hourly basis, or more frequent if the Parties so desire.
6.
When a vessel has moved into waters under the jurisdiction of the other Party, the latest position message from the vessel will be communicated from the Flag State FMC to the relevant FMC of the other Party without delay at least every two hours. These messages will be identified as Position messages as described in the Annex.
7.
It shall be prohibited for a vessel to switch off its satellite tracking devices when operating in waters under the jurisdiction of the other Party.
When the satellite tracking device has transmitted hourly messages with the same geographical position for more than four hours, a position message containing the activity code ‘ANC’ as described in the Annex may be sent. Such position messages may be transmitted with a frequency of once every 12 hours. Within less than one hour after the position has changed, the hourly reporting frequency will resume.
8.
Messages according to paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 shall be in computer readable form, utilising X 25 or other secure protocols, subject to prior agreement between relevant FMCs.
The X 25 shall be replaced forthwith by HTTPS or other secure protocols as soon as NEAFC has decided on a replacement.
9.
In the event of technical failure or non-function of the satellite tracking device fitted on board a vessel, the master of the vessel shall communicate to his Flag State FMC information according to paragraph 7 in a timely manner. At least one position report per four hours shall be sufficient under such circumstances, as long as the vessel stays within the waters under the jurisdiction of the other Party. The Flag State FMC or the vessels shall forward such messages to the FMC of the other Party without undue delay.
Such faulty equipment shall be repaired or replaced before the vessel commences a new fishing trip.
Exemptions may be made where it is evident that the equipment cannot be repaired or replaced for reasons outside the control of the master or the owner of the vessel.
10.
The Flag State FMC shall monitor the tracking of its vessels when in the waters under the jurisdiction of the other Party. Information shall be forwarded to the FMC of the other Party without delay in the event that it is discovered that the tracking of vessels does not function as agreed.
11.
In the event that a FMC discovers that information is not being communicated by the other Party in accordance with paragraphs 5, 6 and 7, the other Party shall be notified without delay.
The stored messages shall be transmitted as soon as electronic communication is re-established between the relevant FMCs.
Communication failures between FMCs shall not affect the operation of the vessels.
12.
Under no circumstances shall tracking data communicated to the other Party in accordance with this Agreement be disclosed to authorities, other than control and monitoring authorities in such a form that the identification of an individual vessel can be derived.
13.
The FMCs of the European Community shall be the Flag State FMC in terms of communicating messages and reports in accordance with paragraphs 5, 6 and 7 from the European Community to Greenland. For the purpose of communicating such reports and messages from Greenland to the European Community, the European Community FMC shall be the FMC of the Member State in whose waters the vessel is or has been operating. The FMC of Greenland is established at the controlling unit of Directorate of Fisheries (Greenland Fisheries Licence Control Authorities) in Nuuk.
14.
The Parties shall exchange information concerning addresses and specifications that shall be used for electronic communication between their FMCs in accordance with paragraphs 5, 6 and 7. Such information shall, to the extent available, also include names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses that can be useful for general communication between the FMCs.
15.
If a vessel as identified in paragraph 1 flying the flag of one of the Parties is observed within the jurisdiction of the other Party fishing or intending to fish, without having operational satellite tracking device on board and without messages being communicated to that other Party, this vessel may be instructed to leave the waters of that Party. The Parties shall establish routines concerning the exchange of information in order to establish the factual situation causing such lack of messages. This exchange must seek to prevent the wrongful exclusion of vessel.
16.
Repeated failure to comply with the measures hereby provided for may be considered a serious infringement.
17.
The Parties shall review these Conditions as appropriate.
Communication of VMS messages to the FMC of the other Party
1.
‘ENTRY’ message
Data Element
Field Code
Mandatory/Optional
Remarks
Start Record
SR
M
System detail; indicates start of record
Address
AD
M
Message detail; destination Party Alfa-3 ISO country code
From
FR
M
Message detail; the transmitting Party Alfa-3 ISO country code
Record Number
RN
O
Message detail; serial number of the record in the relevant year
Record Date
RD
O
Message detail; date of transmission
Record Time
RT
O
Message detail; time of transmission
Type of Message
TM
M
Message detail; message type, ‘ENT’
Radio Call Sign
RC
M
Vessel detail; international radio call sign of the vessel
Internal Reference Number
IR
M
Vessel detail. Unique Party vessel number as Alfa-3 ISO flag country code followed by number
External Registration Number
XR
O
Vessel detail; the side number of the vessel
Latitude
LT
M
Position detail; position ± 99.999 (WGS-84)
Longitude
LG
M
Position detail; position ± 999.999 (WGS-84)
Speed
SP
M
Position detail; Vessel speed in tenths of knots
Course
CO
M
Position detail; Vessel course 360° scale
Date
DA
M
Position detail; UTC date of position (YYYYMMDD)
Time
TI
M
Position detail; UTC time of position (HHMM)
End of Record
ER
M
System detail; indicates end of the record
2.
‘POSITION’ message/report
Type of message shall be ‘MAN’ for reports communicated by vessels with a defective satellite tracking device.
Applicable only if the vessel is transmitting POS messages at a reduced frequency.
Data Element
Field Code
Mandatory/Optional
Remarks
Start Record
SR
M
System detail; indicates start of record
Address
AD
M
Message detail; destination Party Alfa-3 ISO country code
From
FR
M
Message detail; the transmitting Party Alfa-3 ISO country code
Record Number
RN
O
Message detail; serial number of the record in the relevant year
Record Date
RD
O
Message detail; date of transmission
Record Time
RT
O
Message detail; time of transmission
Type of Message
TM
M
Message detail; message type, ‘POS’
Radio Call Sign
RC
M
Vessel detail; international radio call sign of the vessel
Internal Reference Number
IR
M
Vessel detail. Unique Party vessel number as Alfa-3 ISO flag country code followed by number
External Registration Number
XR
O
Vessel detail; the side number of the vessel
Latitude
LT
M
Position detail; position ± 99.999 (WGS-84)
Longitude
LG
M
Position detail; position ± 999.999 (WGS-84)
Activity
AC
O
Position detail; ‘ANC’ indicating reduced reporting mode
Speed
SP
M
Position detail; Vessel speed in tenths of knots
Course
CO
M
Position detail; Vessel course 360° scale
Date
DA
M
Position detail; UTC date of position (YYYYMMDD)
Time
TI
M
Position detail; UTC time of position (HHMM)
End of Record
ER
M
System detail; indicates end of the record
3.
‘EXIT’ message
Data Element
Field Code
Mandatory/Optional
Remarks
Start Record
SR
M
System detail; indicates start of record
Address
AD
M
Message detail; destination Party Alfa-3 ISO country code
From
FR
M
Message detail; the transmitting Party Alfa-3 ISO country code
Record Number
RN
O
Message detail; serial number of the record in the relevant year
Record Date
RD
O
Message detail; date of transmission
Record Time
RT
O
Message detail; time of transmission
Type of Message
TM
M
Message detail; message type, ‘EXI’
Radio Call Sign
RC
M
Vessel detail; international radio call sign of the vessel
Internal Reference Number
IR
M
Vessel detail. Unique Party vessel number as Alfa-3 ISO flag country code followed by number
External Registration Number
XR
O
Vessel detail; the side number of the vessel
Date
DA
M
Position detail; UTC date of position (YYYYMMDD)
Time
TI
M
Position detail; UTC time of position (HHMM)
End of Record
ER
M
System detail; indicates end of the record
4.
Format details
Each message in a data transmission is structured as follows:
double slash (//) and the character ‘SR’ indicates the start of a message,
a double slash (//) and field code indicates the start of a data element,
a single slash (/) separates the field code and the data,
pairs of data are separated by space
the character ER and a double slash (//) indicate the end of the record.
All field codes in this Annex are in The North Atlantic Format as described in The NEAFC Scheme of Control and Enforcement.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2007/753/schedule/ANNEX/appendix/Appendices/appendix/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2007-753/schedule-ANNEX/appendix-Appendices/appendix-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.