This Regulation amends the hake landing rules so unintended hake catches must be landed and counted against quotas, and the old discard rule no longer applies to those catches.
20.10.2015 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | L 275/20 ---|---|---|--- * * * COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2015/1867 of 19 October 2015 amending Regulation (EC) No 494/2002 as regards the landing obligation THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 850/98 of 30 March 1998 for the conservation of the fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms (1), and in particular Article 48 thereof, Whereas: (1) | According to Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2), the gradual elimination of discards through the introduction of a landing obligation for catches of species subject to catch limits is one of the objectives of the common fisheries policy. ---|--- (2) | According to Article 15(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013, the landing obligation applies from 1 January 2016 to hake in fisheries defined by that species. ---|--- (3) | Certain provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No 494/2002 (3) conflict with the landing obligation by obliging fishermen to discard hake caught in excess of certain catch composition limits. ---|--- (4) | Those provisions of Regulation (EC) No 494/2002 should therefore be amended by requiring that all unintended catches of hake be landed and counted against quotas. ---|--- (5) | The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture, ---|--- HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 Regulation (EC) No 494/2002 is amended as follows: (1) | the following Article 1a is inserted: ‘Article 1a For the purposes of this Regulation, “unintended catches” means incidental catches of marine organisms that, under Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (*1), must be landed and counted against quotas either because they are below the minimum conservation reference size or because they exceed the quantities permitted under the catch composition and by-catch rules. (*1) Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the Common Fisheries Policy, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1954/2003 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 2371/2002 and (EC) No 639/2004 and Council Decision 2004/585/EC (OJ L 354, 28.12.2013, p. 22).’;" ---|--- (2) | in Article 2, the following paragraph 3 is added: ‘3. Paragraph 1 shall not apply to unintended catches of hake subject to the landing obligation set out in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013. Those unintended catches shall be landed and counted against the quotas’. ---|--- Article 2 This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. It shall apply from 1 January 2016. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 19 October 2015. For the Commission The President Jean-Claude JUNCKER * * * (1) OJ L 125, 27.4.1998, p. 1. (2) Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the Common Fisheries Policy, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1954/2003 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 2371/2002 and (EC) No 639/2004 and Council Decision 2004/585/EC (OJ L 354, 28.12.2013, p. 22). (3) Commission Regulation (EC) No 494/2002 of 19 March 2002 establishing additional technical measures for the recovery of the stock of hake in ICES sub-areas III, IV, V, VI and VII and ICES divisions VIII a, b, d, e (OJ L 77, 20.3.2002, p. 8). * * *