North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission

Pursuant to Article 16 of the Convention, Contracting Parties shall notify NEAFC before the end of March 2007 of measures that apply to deep-sea species in waters under national jurisdiction. Such measures shall not undermine those established for the Regulatory Area.

Pursuant to Article 9 and Article 16 of the Convention, Contracting Parties shall submit to the NEAFC Secretariat in the first quarter of 2007, at the latest, available information relevant to defining distinct deep-sea fisheries, which contribute to any catch of deep-sea species, enabling the NEAFC Working Group on Deep-Sea Species to propose appropriate management measures for distinct deep-sea fisheries in the NEAFC Regulatory Area the Contracting Parties have agreed to provide scientific information concerning deep-sea fishing in accordance with the requirements below:

Among the general principles of the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement the states party to this agreement undertake to; adopt measures to ensure long-term sustainability of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks and to promote the objective of their optimum utilization; to ensure that such measures are based on the best scientific evidence available and to collect and share, in a timely manner, complete and accurate data concerning fishing activities. The Review Conference on the UN Fish Stocks Agreement held in May 2006 agreed that these general principles should also apply to discrete high seas fish stocks. In the spirit of this agreement the following elements are agreed to augment existing data collecting regimes among the Contracting Parties.

1. Contracting Parties shall communicate to ICES, for each half calendar year, information (listed below) as recorded in either or both logbooks and reports presented by observers. This information shall be communicated within six months of the expiry of the reporting period.

2. Fishing effort shall be measured in the following units according to the type of fishing gear deployed

3. Information shall be provided from logbook for all species caught from an hauls catching any quantity of deep sea species (Annex 1B of the Scheme) :
• Each quarter of the year
• Each ICES statistical rectangle
• Each type of fishing activity described in par. 2
• Each zone or area
• Depth of fishing
• Landings and discards (discards where not collected by sampling scheme)

4. Data shall be submitted in the reporting format outlined in Annex 1.

5. Additional information may be provided in accordance with Annex 1.

6. Contracting Parties shall develop sampling plans for deep-sea species (including discards where necessary), and shall communicate them via NEAFC to ICES. ICES shall be asked to review the sampling plans and provide feedback to Contracting Parties via NEAFC.

7. Contracting Parties shall take account of evaluations of sampling efficacy and data quality made by ICES and shall modify their sampling programmes in order to attain a high standard of supply of scientific data for purposes of managing the fish stocks and the marine ecosystems and habitats.