Annex III

‘ANNEX XVI

TEMPLATES FOR THE EXPLORATORY PROTOCOL FOR NEW FISHING AREAS WHERE FISHING GEAR IS LIKELY TO CONTACT THE SEAFLOOR

I.

Member State submits notice of intent to undertake exploratory fishing to the NAFO secretariat via the Commission

Harvesting plan	Mitigation plan	Catch monitoring	Data collection
Target species	Measures to prevent significant adverse impacts to VMEs	Identify and record all species brought onboard to the lowest possible taxonomic level	Data will be collected and reported in a standardised format
Fishing dates		100 % satellite coverage
Description of area to be fished		100 % observer coverage
Anticipated effort
Bottom fishing gear-type(s) used

II.

Member State submits trip report to the NAFO secretariat via the Commission

ADVANCED NOTICE OF INTENT TO UNDERTAKE EXPLORATORY FISHING^f1

NAME OF VESSEL:

FLAG STATE OF VESSEL:

ANTICIPATED LOCATION(S) OF EXPLORATORY FISHING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDE LAT/LONG):

ANTICIPATED DATES OF EXPLORATORY FISHING ACTIVITIES:

HAS ANY PREVIOUS FISHING BEEN UNDERTAKEN IN ADJACENT AREAS (IF SO, IDENTIFY INFORMATION SOURCE):

DEPTHS EXPECTED TO BE ENCOUNTERED DURING EXPLORATORY FISHING ACTIVITIES:

DO HABITAT MAPS OF THE AREA EXIST (IF SO, PLEASE IDENTIFY SOURCE(S)):

ARE TAXONOMIC KEYS IDENTIFYING POTENTIALLY VULNERABLE SPECIES AVAILABLE (IF SO, IDENTIFY SOURCES(S)):

KNOWN VULNERABLE MARINE ECOSYSTEMS (VMEs)^f2 IN THE LOCATION(S) TO BE FISHED:

MITIGATION MEASURES TO PREVENT SIGNIFICANT ADVERSE IMPACT TO VMEs, IF ENCOUNTERED:

DO BATHYMETRIC MAPS OF THE EXPLORATORY AREA EXIST (IF SO, PLEASE IDENTIFY SOURCE(S)):

DOES ANY FISHERIES SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION IN THE EXPLORATORY AREA EXIST (IF SO, IDENTIFY SOURCE(S)):

TARGET SPECIES BEING SOUGHT:

WHAT GEAR TYPE(S) ARE BEING PROPOSED TO BE USED (PLEASE IDENTIFY) IN WHAT AREAS (INCLUDE LAT/LONG):

III.

Member State exploratory fishing ^f3 trip report submitted to the NAFO scientific Council

NAME OF VESSEL:

FLAG STATE OF VESSEL:

LOCATION(S) OF AREAS FISHED (INCLUDE LAT/LONG):

DATES OF FISHING ACTIVITIES:

DEPTHS ENCOUNTERED DURING FISHING (LIST FOR EACH HAUL INCLUDING LAT/LONG):

TOTAL HOURS/AREA FISHED (LIST FOR EACH HAUL INCLUDING LAT/LONG):

GEAR TYPE(S) USED (PLEASE IDENTIFY) IN WHAT AREAS (INCLUDE LAT/LONG):

VULNERABLE MARINE ECOSYSTEMS (VMEs)^f4 ENCOUNTERED (LIST FOR EACH HAUL INCLUDE LAT/LONG):

MITIGATION MEASURES TAKEN TO PREVENT SIGNIFICANT ADVERSE IMPACT TO VMEs IF ENCOUNTERED:

LIST OF ALL ORGANISMS (RETAINED, BYCATCH) BROUGHT ONBOARD (IDENTIFIED TO THE LOWEST TAXONOMIC UNIT):

LIST OF POTENTIAL VULNERABLE INDICATOR SPECIES^f5 BROUGHT ONBOARD BY LOCATION (INCLUDE LAT/LONG):

LIST OF ORGANISMS RETAINED FOR BIOLOGICAL SAMPLING (E.G., LENGTH-WEIGHT, SEX, AGE), IF ANY:

Note: Data reporting should follow a standardised specification, for example, as adopted by Scientific Observer programs.