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1. By way of derogation from Article 9(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009, flag Member States shall implement VMS for all their fishing vessels with a length overall equal to or greater than 12 metres and for all their towing vessels, irrespective of their length, and in accordance with Annex XV to this Regulation. All such vessels shall transmit messages at least once every two hours, except for towing vessels and purse seine vessels which shall transmit at least every hour.

2. Fishing vessels required to have VMS in accordance with paragraph 1 shall begin to transmit VMS data to the ICCAT Secretariat at least 5 days before their period of authorisation and shall continue at least 5 days after their period of authorisation, unless a request is sent in advance to the Commission for the vessel to be removed from the ICCAT record of vessels.

3. For control purposes, the master or the master’s representative shall ensure that the transmission of VMS data from catching vessels that are authorised to fish actively for bluefin tuna is not interrupted when vessels are in port unless there is a system of hailing in and out of port.

4. Member States shall ensure that their fisheries monitoring centres forward to the Commission and a body designated by it, in real time and using the format ‘https data feed’, the VMS messages received from the fishing vessels flying their flag. The Commission shall forward those messages to the ICCAT Secretariat.

5. Member States shall ensure that:

(a) VMS messages from the fishing vessels flying their flag are forwarded to the Commission as set out in paragraph 1;

(b) in the event of technical malfunctioning of the VMS, alternative messages from the fishing vessels flying their flag received pursuant to Article 25(1) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011 are forwarded to the Commission within 24 hours of receipt by their fisheries monitoring centres;

(ba) In the event of a technical malfunction of the VMS, the towing vessel concerned shall be replaced by another towing vessel with a fully functioning VMS; if no other towing vessel is available, a new operative VMS shall be installed on board or used if already installed, as soon as feasible and not later than 72 hours, except in the event of force majeure, that should be communicated to the ICCAT Secretariat; in the meantime, the master or the master’s representative shall, starting from the time that the event was detected and/or communicated, communicate to the control authorities of the flag Member State every hour the up-to-date geographical coordinates of the towing vessel by appropriate telecommunication means;

(c) messages forwarded to the Commission are sequentially numbered (with a unique identifier) in order to avoid duplication;

(d) messages forwarded to the Commission are in accordance with Article 24(3) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011.

6. Each Member State shall ensure that all messages made available to its inspection vessels are treated in a confidential manner and are limited to inspection at sea operations.