The Community has signed the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Programme (AIDCP). In 1999 the Contracting Parties to the AIDCP decided to establish a system intended to track and verify tuna caught in the Agreement s area of application. The purpose of this system is to enable dolphin-safe tuna to be distinguished from non-dolphin-safe tuna from the time it is caught to the time it is ready for retail sale. Dolphin-safe tuna means tuna captured in sets in which there is no mortality or serious injury of dolphins.
The present Regulation has been enacted to lay down the general principles and conditions relating to the Community's application of the tuna tracking and verification system. The Regulation shall apply to Community fishing vessels fishing for tuna in the Agreement Area. It also applies to all Community vessels, flying the flag of a Member State and registered in the Community, that carry tuna identified by a tracking form. The provisions concern also tuna caught in the Agreement Area but unloaded, stored, transferred or processed in the Community. Article 4 establishes Member States obligations. The Member States shall be responsible for tracking and verifying, in accordance with these provisions, tuna caught, transported and unloaded for processing on their territory. Article 5 lays down specific obligations during fishing operations. In particular, observer shall determine whether the tuna caught is "dolphin safe" or not and, based on this determination, the tuna shall be loaded into prepared holds identified to this effect. Article 6 regards unloading, transport, storage and processing operations. Member States shall create a computerized database to which the Commission shall have access. Article 7 specifies the data to be transmitted by Member States to the AIDCP Secretariat. Annexes I and II contain the model of the tracking document for dolphin-safe tuna and non-dolphin-safe tuna respectively.