Statutory guidance

ELSS reports

Updated 2 February 2017

1. Departure from port (DEP)

You must transmit a DEP when your vessel leaves port, and can be used to confirm your system is working. The DEP includes date and time, port and if any catch has been retained on board from the vessel’s previous fishing trip.

You can use this report to declare your intention to fish exclusively outside the Cod Recovery Zone (CRZ).

When you depart you should summarise your intended activities during the voyage, such as fishing, transit and guard ship duty.

If you’re a master of a beam trawler in International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Area VIIe you should record your VIIe sole single area licence number in the DEP.

If you’re pair trawling you should record your partner vessel’s name and port letter and numbers (PLN) in the comments of the message.

2. Fishing activity report (FAR)

Each day, before 23.59 (UTC), you should send a FAR even if there is no catch to be reported for that day that still includes gear information and the position (ICES statistical rectangle). You must transmit FARs:

• when requested by UK fishery authorities
• at time of inspection at sea
• immediately after last fishing operation
• before entering port

The FAR must include the:

• gear used and mesh size if applicable
• species caught in live weight (in kilograms)
• geographical area where fish caught, ICES division and rectangle
• the number of fishing operations
• all fish discarded by species above 50kg

2.1 Fishing areas

When fishing in a different ICES area or fishing zone on the same day you must complete separate FARs. You can send 2 FARs in 1 transmission.

Within an ICES area or fishing zone, you should record the geographical area, including the ICES statistical rectangle, where the majority of catch was taken.

Your electronic logbook software system (ELSS) can get the geographical information from your vessel’s global positioning system but it is your responsibility to make sure the correct area, including ICES statistical rectangle, is assigned to the catch being reported.

2.2 Pair trawl

If you pair trawl you must record details of your partner vessel. Only the vessel receiving the fish should record the catch. To record details of a partner vessel complete the relocation (RLC) report at the beginning of the voyage and only transmit it again if there’s a change of partner vessel during the current voyage.

2.3 Gear and mesh changes

You must submit separate FARs if different gears or mesh ranges are used on the same day.

2.4 Haul-by-haul

You must record your fishing activity on a haul-by-haul basis or for each operation if:

• vessels are operating in Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
• trawlers have a deep sea species licence
• you have some static gear, such as deep sea species licence and you fish in depths greater than 200 metres

You may transmit all relevant reports for that day in 1 communication.

2.5 Lost gear

If any fishing gear is lost then this must be reported as soon as possible. A gear lost declaration (GLS) should be submitted. This can be done when sending a FAR message.

2.6 Static gear – gill nets

When using gill nets, you must ensure that they report a unique reference number associated with the gill net fleet being deployed and retrieved. This can be a local number allocated by you to differentiate between different fleets of nets. If you’re licensed and fishing with a deep sea species permit you must also report the depth of water where the fleet is deployed.

2.7 Inspection

If your vessel is being inspected then the electronic logbook must be up to date before it’s inspected. You must submit the FAR with the inspection check box completed before the inspection.

3. Discards (DIS)

You must record the live weight of all estimated discards above 50kg for any species. Each ELSS differs in how they deal with discards – some allow discards to be recorded within each FAR. If this is not the case at least 1 DIS message must be sent for each trip.

4. Catch on entry (COE) and Catch on exit (COX)

You must use COE and COX reports when your vessel enters or exits effort management areas – CRZ, Sole Recovery Zone (SRZ) and Western Waters (WW). Used these codes in COE and COX reports:

• CRZ – fishing effort area “ZD”
• SRZ – fishing effort area “ZE”
• WW – biologically sensitive area (BSA) – fishing effort area “J”

Where effort zones border each other, like CRZ (VIId) and SRZ (VIIe), you only need to send a COE report, to avoid extra transmissions.

When you intend to fish in a third country’s EEZ, like Norway, Faroes and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) regulatory area, you must submit these reports. The use of fishing effort zone code “no” allows the UK to forward COE and COX reports to Norway.

You should continue to report entry, exit and weekly reports manually to UK Fisheries Call Centre (UKFCC) when fishing for regulated species in the NEAFC regulatory area. The Fisheries Administration is discussing with NEAFC electronic logbook data exchanges and once finalised details of any changes will be notified directly to masters.

5. Prior notification of arrival (PNO)

You must transmit a PNO into port message at least 4 hours before arriving at the port for:

• Fisheries Administration ports (outside UK) – the information will be sent to the authority in that particular Fisheries Administration by UK Electronic Recording System (UK ERS) on request
• vessels fishing in recovery areas like such as CRZ and SRZ

You must report total catches on board and total catches intended to be landed.

5.1 Designated ports

UK vessel licences specify designated landing ports and their times. The reporting requirement for arrival outside designated times remains in force.

6. End of fishing report (EOF)

When you submit the EOF report, this confirms that the fishing activities recorded in the logbook have been finalised. Once this report is submitted the logbook cannot be corrected. The report must be submitted before entering the port.

7. Return to port (RTP)

This report specifies the date and time when the vessel returns to a port. You should also record the reason for arriving in port, such as landing or sheltering.

8. Landing declaration (LAN)

You must ensure that an electronic landing declaration is submitted within 24 hours of landing. This report can be submitted from the vessel’s ELSS or by the vessel’s agent using the UK ERS website.

When reporting collective presentations from 1 species – 2 products like ray wings and ray backs (for bait) – you should report a conversion factor for that presentation to calculate the landed weight.

The conversion factor for all other presentations of that particular species should be reported as 0. In the example of rays, the conversion factor of 2.09 would be used for the wings and 0 for the backs. This guarantees no double counting of species landed.

9. Transhipment (TRA)

Transhipments of catches to another vessel in Fisheries Administration waters can only take place within a designated port or location near a port. Your report must be transmitted within 24 hours of the transhipment .TRA will occur after an RTP and replace a landing declaration.

The trip will then be considered closed and the next report expected will be a DEP with retained catch onboard if not all the catch was transhipped.

10. Relocation (RLC)

This report is used by vessels pair fishing. When recording the partner vessel, no details relating to position or catch are required from this report.

Shellfish boats should use this report if you relocate catches to keep pots.