Article 9

To facilitate the implementation of the provisions of the Convention the arrangements set out in this Article and in Annex VI to this Convention shall apply outside national fishery limits.

Authorised officers means officers who may be appointed by the Contracting Parties for the purpose of these arrangements.

Any Contracting Party shall, upon the request of another Contracting Party, notify the latter of the names of the authorised officers who have been appointed or of the ships in which such officers are carried.

Authorised officers shall observe whether the provisions of the Convention are being carried out, enquire and report on infringements of the provisions of the Convention, seek information in cases of damage, where desirable draw the attention of vessels of Contracting Parties to the provisions of the Convention, and shall co-operate for these purposes with the authorised officers of other Contracting Parties.

If an authorised officer has reason to believe that a vessel of any Contracting Party is not complying with the provisions of the Convention, he may identify the vessel, seek to obtain the necessary information from the vessel and report. If the matter is sufficiently serious, he may order the vessel to stop and, if it is necessary in order to verify the facts of the case, he may board the vessel for enquiry and report.

If an authorised officer has reason to believe that a vessel or its gear has caused damage to a vessel or fishing gear and that this may be due to a breach of the Convention, he may, under the same conditions as in the preceding paragraph, order any vessel concerned to stop and board it for enquiry and report.

An authorised officer shall not order a fishing vessel to stop while it is actually fishing or engaged in shooting or hauling gear except in an emergency to avoid damage to vessels or gear.

An authorised officer shall not pursue his enquiries further than is necessary to satisfy him either that there has been no breach of the Convention, or, where it appears to him that a breach has occurred, to secure information about the relevant facts, always acting in such a manner that vessels suffer the minimum interference and inconvenience.

An authorised officer may, in case of damage to a vessel or fishing gear, offer to conciliate at sea, and if the parties concerned agree to this, assist them in reaching a settlement. At the request of the parties concerned the authorised officer shall draw up a protocol recording the settlement reached.

Resistance by a vessel to the directions of an authorised officer shall be deemed as resistance to the authority of the flag State of that vessel.

The Contracting Parties shall consider and act on reports of foreign authorised officers under these arrangements on the same basis as reports of national officers. The provisions of this paragraph shall not impose any obligation on a Contracting Party to give the report of a foreign authorised officer a higher evidential value than it would possess in the authorised officer's own country. Contracting Parties shall collaborate in order to facilitate judicial or other proceedings arising from a report of an authorised officer under this Convention.

An authorised officer shall not exercise his powers to board a vessel of another Contracting Party if an authorised officer of that Contracting Party is available and in a position to do so himself.