Proposal to amend CMM 2023-03 On Transshipments

Paragraph15 and 16of the CMM 2023-03 stipulates that fishing vessels under commission members and CNCPs shall only commence transshipments and other transfer activities within 20 nautical miles and no later than 24 hours of the estimated start time once they are authorized.

However, the sea condition is highly changeable, thus it is difficult to accurately estimate the time and location of transshipment and other transfer activities. Although the measures have provided provisions for vessel operators to make reportas the situation changes, however, from the experience and practice in the past year, it is found that unnecessary administrative burden has been generated for both the vessel operators and fisheries authoritieswith such few tolerances margin. 

With this in mind, we propose to expand the timeframe(from 24 hours to 72 hours)and acceptable area (from 20 miles to 50 miles) for fishing vessels to engage in transshipment and other transfer activities, after such fishing vessels are duly authorized. 

Last but not the least, it is worth to note that the proposed new tolerance margin is in line with the newly adopted amended transshipment measures in the SPRFMO.