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1. Union fishing vessels shall not intentionally fish within one nautical mile of a data buoy or interact with a data buoy in the Area, in particular by:

(a) encircling the buoy with fishing gear;

(b) tying up to or attaching the vessel, or any fishing gear, part or portion of the vessel, to a data buoy or its mooring; or (c) cutting a data buoy anchor line.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, Union fishing vessels may operate within one nautical mile of data buoys provided that they operate under scientific research programmes of Member States notified to the IOTC and they do not interact with those data buoys.

3. Union fishing vessels shall not take on board a data buoy in the Area, unless the owner responsible for that buoy has explicitly authorised or requested them to do so.

4. Union fishing vessels operating in the Area shall keep watch for moored data buoys at sea and shall take all reasonable measures to avoid fishing gear entanglement or directly interacting in any way with those data buoys. When a Union fishing vessel’s gear becomes entangled with a data buoy, it shall remove the entangled fishing gear with as little damage to the data buoy as possible.

5. Union fishing vessels shall report to their flag Member States any data buoy that they have observed to be damaged or otherwise inoperable, along with the details of observation, the buoy’s location, and any discernible identifying information on it. Member States shall send such reports, and information on the location of data buoys assets that they have deployed throughout the Area to the Commission, in accordance with Article 51(5).