How much waste do these vessels actually generate and how much do they deliver to the appropriate port facilities? Can we encourage them to do more?

If you are a user of the sea, help us improve the rules by answering this survey. Marine pollution is your business too.

Directive 2000/59/EC on port reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues was published on 27 November 2000. The objective of the Directive is to protect the marine environment from operational pollution by ships, regardless of their flag, by harmonizing the international provisions and by imposing additional obligations on the provision of adequate port reception facilities and on the use of those facilities.

The Directive applies to all ships, including fishing vessels and small recreational crafts authorised to carry no more than 12 passengers, calling at or operating within a port of a Member State. Furthermore the ports visited by those ships are covered by the Directive, which thus includes fishing ports as well as small marinas.

However, fishing vessels (and small recreational crafts) are exempted from certain obligations stipulated in the Directive:

• Article 6 (1) stipulates that fishing vessels (and small recreational crafts) are not obliged to pre-notify their waste when calling at an EU port;
• under Article 8 (2) the fee charged by ports to fishing vessels (and small recreational crafts), need not include a component that is independent of waste delivered ("the indirect waste fee");
• finally, Article 11(2) leaves the inspection regime for fishing vessels (and small recreational craft) up to Member States.

Whereas a recent evaluation established that the Directive has reduced discharges at sea, Commission services and other bodies concerned about pollution at sea have identified a range of potential shortcomings in its implementation. This questionnaire aims at collecting your views on the impacts of a possible revision of the Directive, but will also be an important source in estimating the volumes of waste generated and delivered by fishing vessels and in analysing possible incentives to deliver such waste to the appropriate facilities.