S.L. 425.16 Art. 4Prohibitions.

Without prejudice to any other provision of these regulations or any other law, the following shall be prohibited:

(a) any aquaculture activity involving BFT caught, transhipped or towed by vessels and, or operators who are not licensed and, or authorised according to applicable law, including but not limited to aquaculture activity involving:

(i) any chartering of vessels in relation to BFT fisheries or the involvement of chartered vessels in BFT fisheries;

(ii) any fishing by purse seine between the 2nd July of each year and the 25th May of the following year:

Provided that if weather conditions prevented fishing operations, the Director may derogate from this prohibition for a period of not more than ten (10) days starting from the 2nd July and ending on the 11th July at the latest: Provided further that the referred derogation shall only be possible following a lack of objection from the European Commission.

(b) any aquaculture activities, including feeding for fattening purposes or the harvesting of bluefin tuna, outside of the geographical coordinates approved by the Director for the aquaculture establishment;

(c) any obstruction, intimidation, interference with, influence of, bribing of or attempt to bribe a national observer or a regional observer;

(d) any violation of the provisions of regulation 5;

(e) any aquaculture activity, or any activity related thereto, done in violation of international law as defined according to regulation 2;

(f) without prejudice to any instructions given according to regulation 14(2), any transhipment of BFT when done outside ports designated for such purposes by the Director.