Decree-Law No. 6/2004

1. Semi-industrial or industrial fishing permits may only be revoked or suspended in the following circumstances by a decision of the Minister: (a) To protect and preserve fishing resources, upon scientific opinion of competent national or international institutions and following consultation with the National Consultative Council of the Ministry, or as a result of a recommendation by international or regional organisations of which the country is a member; (b) As a penalty imposed for an offense committed, in accordance with the provisions of the present decree-law; (c) For the non-use of the fishing permit without a just cause for a period longer than six months.

It is prohibited: a) Use or attempt to use in the exercise of fishing, explosive or toxic products or substances capable of weakening, stunning, exciting or killing species or in any other way making them easier to kill. capture or the use of any other fishing instrument by electrocution; b) Possess or transport on board fishing vessels the products, substances or instruments referred to in the previous paragraph, if such possession or transport involves people who are not agents of authority in the exercise of their functions.

1. The abandonment of fishing gear in national maritime waters shall be prohibited.
2. Skippers of fishing vessels shall take reasonable measures to recover any lost fishing gear.
3. In case of abandonment of fishing gear due to bad whether, breakdown, accident or any other circumstance of force majeure, and without prejudice to item 2 above, the National Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the competent national authorities in charge of navigational security shall be immediately informed

Without prejudice to other offenses provided for by the general law, the following constitutes serious offenses under the present decree-law: (a) The use of fishing gear that does not correspond to the specific or authorised specifications, namely the use of prohibited fishing gear and the use of fishing nets whose meshes are smaller in size than the minimum authorised mesh size; (b) Fishing during prohibited periods or in prohibited areas; (c) Fishing of species whose capture is forbidden or whose weight or size is below the minimum authorised weights and sizes; (d) Overfishing beyond the total allowable catches or in disregard to the rules concerning the control of the fishing effort; (e) Lack of data or the provision of false statistical information on catches and on the fishing effort or on the positioning of the vessel or the falsification of records onboard, namely, the fishing logbook or other documents relating to the catches; (f) The use in fishing, the onboard possession or the transport of explosives, substances or toxic products without authorisation by the competent authorities; (g) Fishing with a vessel other than the one permitted to the holder or the capture of species different from the ones allowed to the permit holder; (h) The escape or an attempt thereof following questioning by inspecting agents in the exercise of their functions; (i) Failure to comply with the conditions and terms established in the fishing permit; (j) The fraudulent alteration of data set out in the fishing permit; (k) The falsification of a fishing permit; (l) The provision of information or the provision of false data and documents; (m) The manipulation, alteration, or damage or any form of interference with the communications or with the functioning of the vessel monitoring system device; (n) Failure to comply with the obligation to have the fishing permit and the fishing logbook as well as any other document provided for by law onboard the vessel; (o) The removal or alteration of the evidence of the offense committed; (p) Failure to comply with legal provisions and regulations on the movement of the vessel, transhipment, prior notice of its arrival in and departure from the port; (q) The disembarkation or unloading of fishing products in a port different from the one authorised as a way of evading the control and inspection of fishing products that are disembarked or unloaded; (r) Fishing in areas that are unauthorised for the type of fishing vessel used or the unauthorised transfer of quotas or fishing permits, namely from one shipowner to another; (s) The voluntary destruction or damage of vessels, nets and other fishing gear belonging to others; (t) The destruction or concealment of evidence on any of the offenses provided for in the present decree-law; (u) The refusal of the skipper to follow orders given to him or her by inspectors conducting inspections or his or her non-cooperation with them or with other officials from competent authorities; (v) The carrying out of unauthorised fishing-related operations; (w) Resisting, by violent means or by threats of violence, a fisheries inspector in the exercise of his or her functions; (x) Failure to comply with the provisions in force regarding the arrangement of the fishing gear; (y) The non-existence of a vessel monitoring system onboard a fishing vessel due to its fault; (z) High seas fishing by a national fishing vessel without authorisation from the competent authority; (aa) Failure to comply with international measures on conservation and management on the high seas by a national fishing vessel; (bb) Failure to comply with obligations and conditions imposed on non-commercial fishing permits; (cc) Non-maintenance onboard of the documents required in the present decree-law and applicable regulations; (dd) Failure to comply with the obligation to make onboard records available to the competent authorities; (ee) Fishing, or an attempt thereof, in national maritime waters by semi-industrial and industrial fishing vessels not licensed for that purpose; (ff) Fishing, or an attempt thereof, in national maritime waters by foreign fishing vessels not licensed for that purpose; (gg)Fishing, gathering, collecting, possessing, selling or displaying corals, or an attempt thereof, by any means; (hh) The provision of supplies or fuel to fishing vessels in national maritime waters without due authorisation from the Ministry; (ii) The use of explosives and toxic substances susceptible to weakening, stunning or killing the species; (jj) Oil leakage or the leakage of other pollutants by fishing vessels into national ports and maritime waters when it results in the damage or death of species

The fishing vessels referred to in Article 41 above that exercise their activities from national ports and that disembark therein or that through them trade at least 50% of the catches undertaken in the country, shall include at least 50% of national citizens as their onboard crew and shall fulfill other conditions and requirements, in accordance with applicable regulations.

The transhipment of catches shall only take place in the designated national ports or wharfs.

1. The transhipment of catches in national maritime waters or on the high seas by fishing vessels or fishing-related vessels, whether national or foreign, shall be prohibited.
2. Transhipments shall only be permitted in wharfs or ports designated by the National Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture and they shall require a permit.
3. The transhipment of catches provided for in item 2 above may only take place in the presence of designated fishing officers

1. Individuals and corporate bodies shall be liable for offenses committed to the present decree-law and other applicable regulations.

An application for a fishing permit or for its renewal shall be declined in the following circumstances: (a) When, on the basis of assessment or scientific information available, the fishing of species mentioned in the application may result in damage to the preservation and management of such species, and of fishing resources in general, as well as of the marine environment or the aquatic ecosystems; (b) When the applicant is administratively or judicially recognised as an offender of two or more serious offenses to the present decree-law and applicable regulations during the course of two years, to be counted from the date of the application; (c) When the other requirements and conditions for the issuance or renewal of a fishing permit, provided for in the present decree-law and applicable regulations, have not been fulfilled; (d) When the type of fishing involves the capture of accompanying fauna belonging to a fishing whose access is temporarily closed to economic exploitation and utilisation or when the fishing is in the process of restocking; (e) When the type of fish to be caught with the permit requested is temporarily banned, when the entrance to a fishing area is temporarily closed, when the maritime area or species mentioned in the fishing permit are in the process of restocking, or when the envisaged maritime area is closed to fishing activities; (f) When the beneficiary of a valid fishing permit, for whom a fishing permit has been applied for, is a person other than the applicant; (g) When the shipowner proves not to have a fishing vessel in operational conditions during the period of validity of the permit or when he or she intends to use the permit to make illegal transactions with other shipowners or their representatives.

1. Semi-industrial or industrial fishing permits may only be revoked or suspended in the following circumstances by a decision of the Minister: (a) To protect and preserve fishing resources, upon scientific opinion of competent national or international institutions and following consultation with the National Consultative Council of the Ministry, or as a result of a recommendation by international or regional organisations of which the country is a member; (b) As a penalty imposed for an offense committed, in accordance with the provisions of the present decree-law; (c) For the non-use of the fishing permit without a just cause for a period longer than six months.

1. In order to obtain real-time information on the location of fishing vessels and other useful information that allows the monitoring and control of industrial and semi-industrial fishing vessels licensed to operate in national maritime waters , thus reinforcing the State's capacity for intervention in monitoring compliance and implementation of this diploma and other applicable regulations, the Ministry must take the necessary measures for the establishment and operation of an automatic location system for the aforementioned vessels (VMS).
2. The Minister, by ministerial diploma, will determine which vessels, in the first phase of implementing the system referred to in the previous paragraph, must install and maintain on board the automatic location device.
3. The Ministry must maintain a register of vessels that must install and maintain on board the device referred to in the previous paragraph.
4. The conditions for installation on board, maintenance, operation and registration of the device referred to in number 2 of this article will be established by regulation. 5. The expenses resulting from the acquisition and installation on board the fishing vessel of the device referred to in this article will be borne by the respective shipowner.

The Minister, in coordination with the Ministers responsible for the environment and maritime transport, will promote efforts towards the country's participation in an automatic fishing vessel location system at regional level or will take measures aimed at standardization of VMS equipment with that used in the countries of the region.