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1. The conditions laid down in this Annex shall apply to Community fishing vessels of length overall equal to or greater than 10 metres.

2. For the purposes of this Annex, the following geographical area shall apply: Kattegat (ICES Division IIIa south), Skagerrak and North Sea, (ICES Divisions IVa,b,c, IIIa north and IIa EC), West of Scotland (ICES Division VIa), Eastern Channel (ICES Divisions VIId), Irish Sea (ICES Division VIIa). For vessels notified to the Commission as being equipped with vessel monitoring systems in accordance with Articles 5 and 6 of Regulation (EC) No 2244/2003, the following definition for the area West of Scotland shall apply: ICES Division VIa excluding that part which lies to the west of a line drawn by sequentially joining with straight lines the following geographical coordinates: 60°00′N, 04°00′W 59°45′N, 05°00′W 59°30′N, 06°00′W 59°00′N, 07°00′W 58°30′N, 08°00′W 58°00′N, 08°00′W 58°00′N, 08°30′W 56°00′N, 08°30′W 56°00′N, 09°00′W 55°00′N, 09°00′W 55°00′N, 10°00′W 54°30′N, 10°00′W. 3.

For the purposes of this Annex, a day present within the area and absent from port shall be:

(a) the 24-hour period between 00:00 hours of a calendar day and 24:00 hours of the same calendar day or any part of such a period during which a vessel is present within the area defined in point 2 and absent from port, or (b) any continuous period of 24 hours as recorded in the EC logbook during which a vessel is present within the area defined in point 2 and absent from port or any part of any such time period. A Member State which wishes to employ the definition of a day present within the area and absent from port laid down under point (b) shall notify the Commission before 1 February 2005 of the means of monitoring the activities of a vessel to ensure compliance with the conditions laid down in point (b).

4. For the purpose of this Annex, the following groupings of fishing gears shall apply:

(a) demersal trawls, seines or similar towed gears of mesh size equal to or greater than 100 mm except beam trawls for all areas except Kattegat and Skagerrak where this mesh size shall be equal to or greater than 90mm;

(b) beam trawls of mesh size equal to or greater than 80 mm;

(c) static demersal nets including gill nets, trammel nets and tangle nets;

(d) demersal longlines;

(e) demersal trawls, seines or similar towed gears of mesh size between 70 mm and 99 mm except beam trawls with mesh size between 80 mm and 99 mm for all areas except Kattegat and Skagerrak where this mesh size shall be between 70 mm and 89 mm;

(f) demersal trawls, seines or similar towed gears of mesh size between 16 mm and 31 mm except beam trawls. Fishing effort 5. Each Member State shall ensure that, when carrying on board any of the fishing gears referred to in point 4, fishing vessels flying its flag and registered in the Community shall be present within the area and absent from port for no more than the number of days set out in point 6.

6.

(a) The maximum number of days in any calendar month for which a vessel may be present within the area and absent from port having carried on board any one of the fishing gears referred to in point 4 is shown in Table I.

A day spent absent from port and present within the area defined in point 2 of this Annex shall also count against the total number of days allowable for the area defined in point 2 of Annex IVc for a vessel operating with the same gear categories. Where a vessel crosses between two areas on a fishing trip the day shall be counted against the area in which the largest proportion of time was spent during that day. Table I — Maximum days present within the area and absent from port by fishing gear Area defined in point 2: Grouping of fishing gears referred to in point: 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f Kattegat, North Sea and Skagerrak, Eastern Channel, West of Scotland and Irish Sea 9 13 13 16 21 19 However the maximum number of days in any calendar month for which a vessel may be present within any of the following sub-areas and absent from port having carried on board the fishing gear referred to in point 4(a) shall be:

(i) West of Scotland: 8;

(ii) Irish Sea: 10.

(b) A Member State may aggregate the days present within the area and absent from port in Table I within management periods of up to eleven calendar months.

(c) An additional number of days on which a vessel may be present within the area and absent from port when carrying on board any of the gears referred to in point 4 may be allocated to Member States by the Commission on the basis of permanent cessations of fishing activities that have taken place since1 January 2002 in accordance with Article 7 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2792/1999 of 17 December 1999 laying down the detailed rules and arrangements regarding Community structural assistance in the fisheries sector (). The additional number of days allocated to vessels in a given gear category will be directly proportional to the fishing effort expended in 2001 measured in kilowatt days of the withdrawn vessels using the gear in question compared to the comparable level of effort expended by all vessels using that gear during 2001. Any part of a day resulting from this calculation shall be rounded to the nearest whole day. Member States wishing to benefit from such allocations shall submit a request to the Commission with reports containing the details of the permanent cessations of fishing activities in question.

On the basis of such a request the Commission may amend the number of days defined in point (a) for that Member State in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002. The additional number of days allocated by the Commission to a Member State in 2004 in accordance with point 6(c) of Annex V of Regulation (EC) No 2287/2003 remain allocated in 2005.

(d) Derogations from the number of days present within the area and absent from port shown in Table I may be allocated to vessels by Member States under the conditions shown in Table II. Member States wishing to apply that higher allocation of days shall notify the Commission with details of the vessels that will benefit and with details of their track records at least two weeks before the higher allocation of days are to be granted. Table II — Derogations from days present within the area and absent from port in Table I and associated conditions Area Gear defined in point 4 2002 vessel track record Days Area defined in point 2 4(a), 4(e) Less than 5 % of each of cod, sole and plaice No days restriction Area defined in point 2 4(a), 4(b) Less than 5 % cod

100 to < 120 mm up to 13 ≥ 120 mm up to 14 Kattegatt and North Sea 4(c) gear of mesh size equal to or greater than 220 mm Less than 5 % cod and more than 5 % of turbot and lumpfish Up to 15 days Kattegatt and Skagerrak 4(a) gear with 120 mm square mesh window n/a 12 days Eastern Channel 4(c) trammel nets of mesh size equal to or less than 110 mm Vessels absent from port for no more than 24 hours 19 days As verified by the EC logbook — average annual landing in live weight. The vessel may be present within the area for the number of days in the month concerned. Vessels subject to this derogation shall comply with the conditions laid down in Appendix 1 to this Annex. If that higher allocation of days is given to a vessel, as a result of its low percentage track record of catch of certain species, that vessel shall not at any time retain more than the percentage of those species on board as shown in Table II nor shall they tranship any fish at sea to another vessel. ◄ When either of these conditions are not met by a vessel, that vessel shall with immediate effect no longer be entitled to the additional days.

(e) One additional day on which a vessel may be present within the area and absent from port when carrying on board fishing gears referred to in point 4(a) of mesh size greater than 120 mm may be allocated to a Member State by the Commission, on the basis of a request from that Member State, on the condition that the Member State concerned has developed a system of automatic suspensions of fishing licences in respect of infringements. During a management period when a vessel is making use of this provision, that vessel may not at any time carry on board any fishing gear of mesh size less than or equal to 120 mm.

(f) In recognition of the area closure in the Irish Sea for the protection of spawning fish and the assumed reduction in fishing mortality on cod, an additional one day will be granted for vessels in groupings of fishing gears 4(a) and 4(b) which spend more than half their allocated days in a given management period fishing in the Irish Sea. 7.

Before the first day of each management period the master of a vessel or his representative shall notify to the authorities of the flag Member State which gear or gears he intends to use during the forthcoming management period. Until such notification is provided the vessel shall not be entitled to fish within the areas defined in point 2 with any of the gears referred to in point 4. Where the master of a vessel or his representative notifies the use of two of the groupings of fishing gears defined under point 4, the total number of days available during the forthcoming management period shall be no more than half the sum of the days to which the vessel is eligible for each gear, rounded down to the nearest whole day. It shall not be permitted to deploy either of the gears concerned for more days than the number of days laid down for that gear in Table I or in the third subparagraph of point 6(a) for the sub-area concerned. The option to use two gears shall only be available if the following additional monitoring arrangements are met:

— during a given trip the fishing vessel may carry on board only one of the fishing gears referred to in point 4;

— before any trip the master of a vessel or his representative shall give prior notice to the competent authorities of the type of fishing gear that is to be carried on board unless the type of fishing gear has not changed from the one notified for the previous trip.

— Inspection and surveillance at sea and in port by the competent authorities shall be undertaken for verification of compliance with the above two requirements. Any vessel found to be not complying with these requirements shall with immediate effect no longer be permitted to use two groupings of fishing gears.

— A vessel wishing to combine the use of one or more of the fishing gears referred to in point 4 (regulated gears) with any other fishing gears not referred to in point 4 (unregulated gears) shall not be restricted in their use of the unregulated gear. Such vessels must pre-notify when the regulated gear is to be used. When no such notification has been given no gear referred to in point 4 may be carried on board. Such vessels must be authorised and equipped to undertake the alternative fishing activity. 8.