1.The data to be submitted shall be of two types:
the annual nominal catches, expressed in tonnes live weight equivalent of the landings, of each of the species listed in Annex I in each of the statistical fishing regions of the north-west Atlantic listed in Annex II and defined in Annex III;
the catches as specified under point (a) and the corresponding fishing activity, subdivided by calendar month of capture, fishing gear, vessel size and main species sought.
2.The data referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 shall be submitted by 31 May of the year following the reference year and may be preliminary data. The data referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 shall be submitted by 31 August of the year following the reference year and shall be definitive data.
The data referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 and submitted as preliminary data should be clearly identified as such.
No submissions shall be required for species/fishing region combinations for which no catches were recorded in the reference period of the submission.
Should the Member State concerned not have fished in the north-west Atlantic in the preceding calendar year, it shall inform the Commission thereof by 31 May of the following year.
3.The definitions and codes to be used in submitting information on fishing activity, fishing gear, method of fishing and vessel size are given in Annex IV.
4.The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 6, to amend Annexes I, II, III and IV, with regard to the lists of species and statistical fishing areas and the descriptions of those areas, as well as the measures, codes and definitions applied to fishing activity, fishing gear, vessel sizes and methods of fishing.
Those delegated acts shall be adopted only where they are necessary in order to take account of economic and technical developments, they do not change the optional nature of the required information and they do not impose a significant additional burden on Member States or on the respondents.
The Commission shall duly justify the statistical actions provided for in those delegated acts, using, where appropriate, input from relevant experts based on a cost-effectiveness analysis, including an assessment of the burden on the respondents and of the production costs, as referred to in point (c) of Article 14(3) of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council 7.