CHAPTER X SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR COMMUNITY VESSELS FISHING IN THE SEAFO AREA

SECTION 7 Protection of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems

Article 72 Use of terms

For the purpose of this Section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1)

‘bottom fishing activities’ means fishing activities where the fishing gear is likely to contact the seafloor during the normal course of fishing operations;

(2)

‘existing bottom fishing areas’ means areas where VMS data and/or other available geo-reference data indicate that bottom fishing activities have been conducted within a reference period of 1987 to 2007;

(3)

‘new bottom fishing areas’ means areas within the SEAFO Regulatory Area other than existing bottom fishing areas;

(4)

‘exploratory fisheries’ means fisheries conducted in new bottom fishing areas;

(5)

‘marine ecosystem’ means a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit;

(6)

‘Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME)’ 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 reefs, seamounts, hydrothermal vents, cold water corals or cold water sponge beds. The most vulnerable ecosystems are those that are easily disturbed and that are very slow to recover, or may never recover;

(7)

‘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;

(8)

‘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;

(9)

‘VME encounter’ means an encounter by a vessel with VME indicator organisms occurring above the threshold level of a catch per set of more than 100 kg of live coral and/or 1 000 kg of live sponge

(10)

‘VME indicator organisms’ means corals and sponges;

(11)

‘Indicator species of coral’ means antipatharians, gorgonians, cerianthid anemone fields, lophelia, or sea pen fields.