Fisheries Management Act (Amendment) 2015
Does the law/regulation require or exempt fishing vessels to keep VMS turned on, or is there no provision?
Article 20
(1) The operator of each fishing vessel licensed to fish under this Act may be required, as a condition of its licence, to install, maintain and operate a registered automatic location communicator (ALC) at all times while in the fisheries waters or such other area as may be agreed or designated, and in accordance with - (a) the manufacturer's specifications and operating instructions; and (b) such standards as may be required by any body or organisation of which Papua New Guinea is a member; and (c) such other requirements as may be prescribed. (2) The operator of each vessel referred to in Subsection (1) shall ensure that - (a) no person tampers or interferes with the ALC and that the ALC is not altered, damaged, disabled or otherwise interfered with; and (b) the ALC is not moved from the required or agreed installed position or removed without the prior written permission of the Managing Director; and
(c) the ALC is switched on and is operational at all times when the vessel is within the fisheries waters or such other area as may be agreed or designated, and at such times prior to entry into such fisheries waters or other area as may be prescribed; and (d) upon notification by the Managing Director that the vessel's automatic location communicator has failed to transmit, the directives of the Managing Director are complied with until such time that the vessel's ALC is functioning properly; and
(e) the ALC is registered, as the Managing Director may direct or as may be prescribed, at the operator's expense. (3) The operator of each vessel referred to in Subsection (1) or his authorised agent, upon notification by the licensing country or appropriate authority that the vessel's ALC has failed to report, shall ensure that reports containing the vessel's name, call sign, position (expressed in latitude and longitude to minutes of arc), and date and time for the report, are communicated to a delegated authority at intervals of eight hours or such shorter period as specified by the delegated authority, commencing from the time of notification of the failure of the ALC and such reports must continue until such time as the ALC is confirmed operational by the licensing country or appropriate authority. (4) If it is not possible to make any one or more of the further position reports described in Subsection (3), or when the Managing Director so directs, the master or operator of the vessel must immediately stow the fishing gear and take the vessel directly to a port identified by the Managing Director, and as soon as possible, report to the Managing Director that the vessel is being, or has been, taken to port with gear stowed.
(5) Any operator, including the master or operator, owner and charterer, who does not comply with Subsections (1), (2), (3) or (4) commits an offense and shall be liable on conviction to a fine in accordance with this Act, and in addition the applicable licence may be cancelled.