Common use of Observer coverage Clause in Contracts

Observer coverage. The AIDCP requires that observers are placed aboard 100% of trips in the Agreement Area by purse-seine vessels of carrying capacity greater than 363 metric tons (Class 6). However, the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March 2020 have made necessary several adaptations and deviations from the typical implementation of this observer coverage requirement. The Chairs of the AIDCP Meeting of the Parties and of the IATTC, through circular memorandum ref. 0150-420 dated 30 March 2020, after contacting and consulting with a number of the Parties and convinced that priority must be given to the right to food security and the need to continue ensuring the provision of food to the people, made a number of recommendations aiming at exempting any vessel for which it is impossible to place an observer on board in compliance with the applicable IATTC and AIDCP rules from its corresponding obligations. After extensive consultations with the Parties, these recommendations were developed and formalized in a document entitled COVID-19 Pandemic Exemption Procedure for the Operation of On-Board Observers, which was circulated through memorandum ref. 0170-420 dated 14 April 2020 (Annex 1). This exemption procedure has been extended several times during 2020, and 2021. The last decision on the matter, as re- quested by the IATTC and the AIDCP chairs on 21 June 2022, extended the application of these procedures through 30 September 2022, but an additional extension of these provisions through 31 December 2022 is under consideration at the time of the finalization of this report. With some global and national health authorities declaring that the pandemic phase has concluded or is nearly concluded and the lifting of most travel and immigration restrictions in many locations, IATTC staff anticipate that time when the AIDCP Parties and IATTC Members may choose to discontinue this exemption process may be drawing near and are planning accordingly. The application of the above stated exceptional procedure had an adverse effect on the level of sampling cover- age under the AIDCP. Under normal circumstances, consistent with the provisions of the AIDCP, national ob- server programs would have covered a specific percentage of the trips made by the various fleets. Normally, the Ecuadorian national program would have a goal of placing observers aboard 33% of the trips by Ecuadorian vessels while the Colombian, European Union, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, and Venezuelan national programs each would have a goal of placing observers aboard 50% of the trips by their respective fleets. The IATTC program would have covered the remainder of the trips by vessels of these seven fleets, plus 100% of the trips by vessels of other fleets, which represented a total of 60% of all trips. As shown in Table 1, during 2021, observers completed 801 (94%) of the 851 fishing trips made in the Agreement Area by Class-6 vessels operating under the flags of Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, European Union (Spain), Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, the United States, and Venezuela (Table 1). The differ- ence was 50 trips on which a waiver of the AIDCP requirement to place an observer onboard was issued for a vessel operating in the Agreement area, for the following reasons: 1. No observers are available in the area or port of departure of the vessel. 2. Local or international travel/emigration restrictions at the point of embarkation or anticipated port of disembarkation present obstacles that cannot be overcome or create uncertainties in terms of getting the observer home after the end of the trip. 3. The vessel has experienced contagion onboard in a recent trip and there are no observers available that would accept deployments under those circumstances and the observer program is supportive of this decision. Ten of the 50 trips identified above would fit in the first category, 33 trips fit the second category while 7 cases would fit the third category. This represents a slight increase in the number of exemptions certified in 2020, of which there were 44. Section 7 provides details of the implementation of these waiver certifi- cation procedures and accompanying requirements. There were nine trips in which observers were deployed on vessels of Class-size 5, under the provision of Resolution C-12-08 for vessels with sealed ▇▇▇▇▇.

Observer coverage. The AIDCP requires that observers are placed aboard 100% of trips in the Agreement Area by purse-seine vessels of carrying capacity greater than 363 metric tons (Class 6). However, the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March 2020 have made necessary several adaptations and deviations from the typical implementation of this observer coverage requirement. The Chairs of the AIDCP Meeting of the Parties and of the IATTC, through circular memorandum ref. 0150-420 dated 30 March 2020, after contacting and consulting with a number of the Parties and convinced that priority must be given to the right to food security and the need to continue ensuring the provision of food to the people, made a number of recommendations aiming at exempting any vessel for which it is impossible to place an observer on board in compliance with the applicable IATTC and AIDCP rules from its corresponding obligations. After extensive consultations with the Parties, these recommendations were developed and formalized in a document entitled COVID-19 Pandemic Exemption Procedure for the Operation of On-Board Observers, which was circulated through memorandum ref. 0170-420 dated 14 April 2020 (Annex 1). This exemption procedure has been was extended several times during 2020, 2021 and 20212022. The last decision approved extension on the matter, as re- quested requested by the IATTC and the AIDCP chairs on 21 June 2022, extended the application of these procedures through 30 September 2022, but an additional extension of these provisions through 31 December 2022 is under consideration at the time of the finalization of this report. With some global and national health authorities declaring that the pandemic phase has concluded or is nearly concluded and the lifting of most travel and immigration restrictions in many locations, IATTC staff anticipate that time when the AIDCP Parties and IATTC Members may choose to discontinue this exemption process may be drawing near and are planning accordingly2022. The application of the above stated exceptional procedure had an adverse effect on the level of sampling cover- age under the AIDCP. Under normal circumstances, consistent with the provisions of the AIDCP, national ob- server programs would have covered a specific percentage of the trips made by the various fleets. Normally, the Ecuadorian national program would have a goal of placing observers aboard 33% of the trips by Ecuadorian vessels while the Colombian, European Union, Mexican, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, and Venezuelan national programs each would have a goal of placing observers aboard 50% of the trips by their respective fleets. The IATTC program would have covered the remainder of the trips by vessels of these seven fleets, plus 100% of the trips by vessels of other fleets, which represented a total of 6056.9% of all trips. As shown in Table 1, during 20212022, observers completed 801 791 (9497.2%) of the 851 814 fishing trips made in the Agreement Area by Class-6 vessels operating under the flags of Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, European Union (Spain), Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, the United States, and Venezuela (Table 1). The differ- ence was 50 23 trips on which a waiver of the AIDCP requirement to place an observer onboard was issued for a vessel operating in the Agreement area, for the following reasons: 1. No observers are available in the area or port of departure of the vessel. 2. Local or international travel/emigration restrictions at the point of embarkation or anticipated port of disembarkation present obstacles that cannot be overcome or create uncertainties in terms of getting the observer home after the end of the trip. 3. The vessel has experienced contagion onboard in a recent trip and there are no observers available that would accept deployments under those circumstances and the observer program is supportive of this decision. Ten Twelve of the 50 23 trips identified above would fit in the first category, 33 trips and the rest would fit the second category while 7 category. No cases would fit the third category. This represents a slight increase marked decrease in the number of exemptions certified in 20202022, of which there were 4450. Section 7 provides details of the implementation of these waiver certifi- cation certification procedures and accompanying requirements. There were nine eight trips in which observers were deployed on vessels of Class-size 5, under the provision of Resolution C-12-08 for vessels with sealed ▇▇▇▇▇.