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1. The conditions laid down in this Annex shall apply to Community vessels fishing in ICES zones IIIa and IV and in EC waters of ICES zone IIa with demersal trawl, seine or similar towed gears with a mesh size of less than 16 mm.

2. The conditions laid down in this Annex shall apply to third country vessels authorized to fish for sandeel in EC waters of ICES zone IV unless otherwise specified, or as a consequence of consultations between the Community and Norway as set out in point 7.3 of the Agreed Record of conclusions between the European Community and Norway of 26 November 2007.

3. For the purposes of this Annex a day present within the area 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 or;

(b) any continuous period of 24 hours as recorded in the Community logbook between the date and time of departure and the date and time of arrival or any part of any such time period.

4. Each Member State concerned shall maintain a data base containing for ICES zones IIIa and IV and for each vessel flying its flag or registered within the Community which have been fishing with demersal trawl, seine or similar towed gears with a mesh size of less than 16 mm, the following information:

(a) the name and internal registration number of the vessel;

(b) the installed engine power of the vessel in kilowatts measured in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation (EEC) No 2930/86;

(c) the number of days present within the area when fishing with demersal trawl, seine or similar towed gear with a mesh size of less than 16 mm;

(d) the kilowatt-days as the product of the number of days present within the area and the installed engine power in kilowatts.

5. Exploratory fishery relating to sandeel abundance shall start no earlier than 1 April 2008 and end no later than 6 May 2008.

The total ceiling of fishing effort allowed in the exploratory fishery relating to sandeel abundance in 2008 shall be determined on the basis of the total fishing effort deployed by Community fishing vessels in 2007 established in accordance with point 4 and shall be divided among Member States in accordance with the quota allocations for this TAC. For the unallocated quota for this TAC, the fishing effort allowed in the exploratory fishery relating to sandeel abundance in 2008 shall be distributed to Member States whose vessels have a record of fishing activity in the years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 in that area. This will correspond to a share of fishing effort of 96 % for Sweden and a share of 4 % for Germany.

6. The TAC and quotas for sandeel in ICES zone IIIa and IV and in EC waters of ICES zones IIa as laid down in Annex I shall be revised by the Commission as early as possible based on advice from ICES and the STECF on the size of the 2007 year class of North Sea sandeel, taking into account the following principles as well as other relevant elements contained in the scientific advice:

The TAC for EC waters of ICES zones IIa and IV shall be established according to the following function: TAC 2008 = - 138 + 3,77 × N1× Wobs/Wm N1 is the real-time estimate of age group 1 in billions derived from the exploratory fishery in 2008; the TAC is expressed in 1,000 tonnes; Wobs is the observed mean weight of age group 1 during the exploratory fishery; and Wm (4,75 g) is the long-term mean weight of age group 1.

7. If the TAC calculated in point 6 exceeds 400 000 tonnes, the TAC shall be set at 400 000 tonnes.

8. Commercial fishing with demersal trawl, seine or similar towed gears with a mesh size of less than 16 mm, shall be prohibited from 1 August 2008 until 31 December 2008.