
Article 1 

1. This Regulation shall apply to United Kingdom fishing vessels carrying out fishing activities with bottom gears in the high seas.
2. This Regulation shall not apply to United Kingdom fishing vessels whose areas of operation lie within areas:
(a) under the responsibility of a regional fisheries management organisation or arrangement with competence to regulate such fishing activities;
(b) for which a process for the establishment of a regional fisheries management organisation is under way; where the participants in such process have agreed on interim measures to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems from destructive impacts resulting from the use of bottom gears.
Article 2 
For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

((a)) ‘marine ecosystem’ means a dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit;
((b)) ‘vulnerable marine ecosystem’ means any marine ecosystem whose integrity (i.e. ecosystem structure or function) is, according to the best scientific information available and to the principle of precaution, threatened by significant adverse impacts resulting from physical contact with bottom gears in the normal course of fishing operations, including, inter alia, reefs, seamounts, hydrothermal vents, cold water corals or cold water sponge beds. The most vulnerable ecosystems are those that are easily disturbed and in addition are very slow to recover, or may never recover;
((c)) ‘significant adverse impacts’ means impacts (evaluated individually, in combination or cumulatively) which compromise ecosystem integrity in a manner that impairs the ability of affected populations to replace themselves and that degrades the long-term natural productivity of habitats, or causes on more than a temporary basis significant loss of species richness, habitat or community types;
((d)) ‘bottom gears’ means gears deployed in the normal course of fishing operations in contact with the seabed, including bottom trawls, dredges, bottom-set gill nets, bottom-set longlines, pots and traps.
Article 3 

1. In order to conduct the fishing activities referred to in Article 1(1), United Kingdom fishing vessels must have a fishing authorisation.
2. The fishing authorisation must be issued in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 and subject to the conditions established in this Regulation.
Article 4 

1. Applications for a fishing authorisation provided for in Article 3(1) shall be accompanied by a detailed fishing plan specifying in particular:
(a) the intended location of the activities;
(b) the targeted species;
(c) the type of gears and the depth at which they will be deployed, and
(d) the configuration of the bathymetric profile of the seabed in the intended fishing grounds, where this information is not already available to a fisheries administration.
2. A fisheries administration may only issue a fishing authorisation provided for in Article 3(1) if it has carried out an assessment on the potential impacts of the vessel’s intended fishing activities and concluded that such activities are not likely to have significant adverse impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems.
3. For the purposes of the implementation of the assessment referred to in paragraph 2, the fisheries administration must rely on the best scientific and technical information available concerning the location of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the areas in which the fishing vessels concerned intend to operate. That information shall include, where available, scientific data on the basis of which the likelihood of occurrence of such ecosystems can be estimated. The assessment process shall include appropriate elements of independent scientific peer review.
4. The evaluation of the risk of significant adverse impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems carried out under the assessment referred to in paragraph 2 shall take into account, as appropriate, differing conditions prevailing in areas where fishing activities with bottom gears are well established and in areas where fishing such activities have not taken place or only occur occasionally.
5. A fisheries administration must apply precautionary criteria in the conduct of the assessment referred to in paragraph 2. In case of doubt as to whether the adverse impacts are significant or not, they shall consider that the likely adverse impacts resulting from the scientific advice provided are significant.
6. Where the assessment concludes that activities carried out in accordance with the submitted fishing plan might result in significant adverse impacts to vulnerable marine ecosystems, a fisheries administration must specify the assessed risks and allow applicants to amend the fishing plan to avoid them. In the absence of such amendments, a fisheries administration must refrain from issuing the requested fishing authorisation.
Article 5 

1. The fishing authorisation provided for in Article 3(1) shall make it explicit that fishing activities carried out under it must conform to the fishing plan submitted in accordance with Article 4(1) at all times.
2. Where circumstances beyond the control of the person responsible for the vessel operations necessitate an alteration of the submitted plans, the person responsible for the vessel’s operations shall inform a fisheries administration without delay, indicating the modifications intended to the original plan. The fisheries administration shall examine such alterations and shall not authorise them if they entail a relocation of the activities to areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems occur or are likely to occur.
3. Failure to conform to the fishing plan provided for in Article 4(1) in circumstances other than those specified in paragraph 2 of this Article shall entail the withdrawal by a fisheries administration of the fishing authorisation issued to the fishing vessel concerned.
Article 6 

1. In the areas where no proper scientific assessment has been carried out and made available, the use of bottom gears shall be prohibited. ...
2. Bottom fishing activities shall be permitted under the conditions laid down in this Regulation where this scientific assessment shows that vulnerable marine ecosystems will not be at risk.
Article 7 

1. Where, in the course of fishing operations, a fishing vessel encounters a vulnerable marine ecosystem, it shall immediately cease fishing, or refrain from engaging in fishing in the site concerned. It shall resume operations only when it has reached an alternative site at a minimum distance of five nautical miles from the site of the encounter within the area foreseen in its fishing plan provided for in Article 4(1).
2. If another vulnerable marine ecosystem is encountered in the alternative site referred to in paragraph 1, the vessel shall keep relocating in accordance with the rules set out in that paragraph until a site is reached where no vulnerable marine ecosystems are found.
3. The fishing vessel shall report each encounter to a fisheries administration without delay, providing precise information on the nature, location, time and any other relevant circumstances of the encounter.
Article 8 

1. On the basis of the best scientific information available on the occurrence or on the likelihood of occurrence of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the region where United Kingdom fishing vessels operate, a fisheries administration must identify areas that shall be closed to fishing with bottom gears.  A fisheries administration must  implement these closures without delay in respect of United Kingdom fishing vessels and immediately notify the Contracting Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and to the Agreement on the implementation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks of the closure. ...
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Article 9 

1. Notwithstanding Article 25 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011, in the event of technical failure or non-functioning of the satellite tracking device fitted on-board a fishing vessel, the master of the vessel shall report its geographical situation to a fisheries administration every two hours.
2. After returning from the sea trip, the vessel shall not leave the port again until the satellite tracking device is functioning to the satisfaction of a fisheries administration.
Article 10 

1. Any fishing activities carried out from the time when the vessel departed from its fishing plans in circumstances other than those specified in Article 5(2) shall be considered as fishing without holding a fishing authorisation and therefore as behaviour which seriously infringes Fisheries Rules.
2. Repeated instances of non-compliance with the obligations laid down in Articles 6, 7 and 9 shall be considered as behaviour that seriously infringes the Fisheries Rules.
Article 11 

1. Observers shall be on-board all vessels to which a fishing authorisation provided for in Article 3(1) is issued. The observers shall observe the fishing activities of the vessel throughout the execution of its fishing plan provided for in Article 4(1)....
2. The observer shall:
(a) record independently, in the same format as that used in the vessel’s logbook, the catch information prescribed in Article 14 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009;
(b) record any instances of alteration of the fishing plan as referred to in Article 5(2);
(c) document any unforeseen encounters with vulnerable marine ecosystems referred to in Article 7, including the gathering of information that may be of use in relation to the protection of the site;
(d) record depths at which gear is deployed;
(e) present a report to the competent authorities of the fisheries administration concerned 20 days following the termination of the observation period.
3. The observer shall not be any of the following:
(a) a relative of the master of the vessel or other officer serving on the vessel to which the observer is assigned;
(b) an employee of the master of the vessel to which he is assigned;
(c) an employee of the master’s representative;
(d) an employee of a company controlled by the master or his representative;
(e) a relative of the master’s representative.
Article 12 
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Article 13 
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Article 14 
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...Done at Brussels, 15 July 2008.
For the Council
The President
M. BARNIER