Article 5 Fishing authorisations

Fishing activities targeting deep-sea species shall be subject to a fishing authorisation (the ‘targeting fishing authorisation’). The targeting fishing authorisation shall indicate the deep-sea species that the vessel is authorised to target.

For the purpose of paragraph 1, a fishing vessel carrying out a fishing activity shall be deemed to target deep-sea species if its communications about catches (in the logbook, landing declarations, sales notes or similar document) in a calendar year concerned contain at least 8 % of deep-sea species in any fishing trip.

However, this shall not apply to fishing vessels for which the overall recording of deep-sea species in the calendar year concerned is less than 10 tonnes. This subparagraph is without prejudice to paragraph 6.

Fishing activities of fishing vessels that, although not targeting deep-sea species, catch deep-sea species as a by-catch, shall be subject to a fishing authorisation (the ‘by-catch fishing authorisation’). The by-catch fishing authorisation shall indicate the deep-sea species that the vessel may encounter as by-catch while targeting other species.

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Fishing vessels not holding any fishing authorisation under this Article F2are prohibited from fishing for deep-sea species in excess of 100 kg in each fishing trip. Deep-sea species caught in excess of 100 kg by such vessels shall not be retained on board, transhipped or landed, except for unintended catches of deep-sea species subject to the landing obligation set out in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013, which shall be landed and counted against quotas.

A fishing vessel holding a by-catch fishing authorisation and having access to a quota for by-catches of deep-sea species that exceeds by no more than 15 % the threshold of 10 tonnes set out in paragraph 2 of this Article, shall not be considered to be targeting deep-sea species. It shall land such catches and count them against the quota. Unintended catches of deep-sea species subject to the landing obligation set out in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 shall be landed and counted against quotas.

This Regulation shall apply mutatis mutandis to issuance of fishing authorisations to third-country fishing vessels pursuant to F3Regulation (EU) 2017/2403.