CHAPTER I GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1 Subject matter
This Regulation fixes the fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks in the Baltic Sea for 2015.

Article 2 Scope
This Regulation shall apply to Union fishing vessels operating in the Baltic Sea.

Article 3 Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:
(1) ‘ICES’ means International Council for the Exploration of the Sea;
(2) ‘Baltic Sea’ means ICES zones IIIb, IIIc and IIId;
(3) ‘subdivision’ means an ICES subdivision of the Baltic sea as defined in Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No 2187/2005;
Council Regulation (EC) No 2187/2005 of 21 December 2005 for the conservation of fishery resources through technical measures in the Baltic Sea, the Belts and the Sound, amending Regulation (EC) No 1434/98 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 88/98 (OJ L 349, 31.12.2005, p. 1).
(4) ‘fishing vessel’ means any vessel equipped for commercial exploitation of marine biological resources;
(5) ‘Union fishing vessel’ means a fishing vessel flying the flag of a Member State and registered in the Union;
(6) ‘fishing effort’ means the product of the capacity and the activity of a fishing vessel; for a group of fishing vessels it is the sum of the fishing effort of all fishing vessels in the group;
(7) ‘stock’ means a marine biological resource that occurs in a given management area;
(8) ‘total allowable catch’ (TAC) means the quantity of each stock that can be:
(i) caught over the period of a year, in the fisheries that are subject to the landing obligation pursuant to Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013; or
(ii) landed over the period of a year, in the fisheries that are not subject to the landing obligation pursuant to Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013;
(9) ‘quota’ means a proportion of the TAC allocated to the Union, a Member State or a third country;
(10) ‘days absent from port’ means any continuous period of 24 hours or part thereof during which a fishing vessel is not present in a port.