oSIST prEN 17988-6:2023

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
oSIST prEN 17988-6:2023
01-september-2023
Krožna zasnova ribolovnega orodja in opreme za akvakulturo - 6. del - Zahteve in
navodila za digitalizacijo informacij o orodju in komponentah
Circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment - Part 6 - Requirements and
guidance for digitalization of information on gear and components
Kreislaufwirtschaft von Fischfanggeräten und Aquakulturausrüstungen - Teil 6:
Digitalisierung von Geräten und Komponenten
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: prEN 17988-6
ICS:
13.020.20 Okoljska ekonomija. Environmental economics.
Trajnostnost Sustainability
65.150 Ribolov in ribogojstvo Fishing and fish breeding
oSIST prEN 17988-6:2023 en,fr,de
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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oSIST prEN 17988-6:2023

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oSIST prEN 17988-6:2023


DRAFT
EUROPEAN STANDARD
prEN 17988-6
NORME EUROPÉENNE

EUROPÄISCHE NORM

July 2023
ICS
English Version

Circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment
- Part 6: Digitalization of gear and components
 Digitalisierung von Geräten und Komponenten
This draft European Standard is submitted to CEN members for enquiry. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee
CEN/TC 466.

If this draft becomes a European Standard, CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations
which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

This draft European Standard was established by CEN in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other
language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.

Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are
aware and to provide supporting documentation.

Warning : This document is not a European Standard. It is distributed for review and comments. It is subject to change without
notice and shall not be referred to as a European Standard.


EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2023 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. prEN 17988-6:2023 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

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Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions. 7
4 Requirements for digitalized information . 7
5 Fishing gear and Aquaculture equipment marking with tags . 9
6 Traceability requirements and options . 15
7 Software requirements . 15
8 Access to data . 15
9 Ownership of data . 16
10 IP sensitive and/or proprietary information . 16
11 Interoperability and data standards . 16
11.1 General . 16
11.2 Prerequisites . 16
11.3 Identification requirements . 17
11.4 Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) requirements . 17
11.5 Data sharing requirements . 17
11.6 Roles and responsibilities . 17
12 Implementation of digital solutions . 17
Annex A (Informative) General marking options . 19
Annex B (Informative) GS1 Standard Examples for Code-based Marking and Labelling . 21
Annex C (Informative) Optional Data set for Fishing Gear and Aquaculture Equipment . 26
Annex D (Informative) Fishing Gear Aquaculture Equipment Value Chain . 28
Annex E (Informative) Recent trends in digitalization of recycling. 32
Annex F (Informative) Component material identification and description. 34
Annex G (Informative) DIN example for a digitalization roadmap . 36
Bibliography . 38

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European foreword
This document (prEN 17988-6:2023) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 466
“Circularity and recyclability of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment”, the secretariat of which is
held by NEN.
This document is currently submitted to the CEN Enquiry.
EN 17988 consists of the following parts, under the general title Circular design of fishing gear and
aquaculture equipment:
— Part 1: General requirements and guidance
— Part 2: User manual and labelling
— Part 3: Technical requirements
— Part 4: Environmental and circularity requirements and guidelines
— Part 5. Circular business models
— Part 6. Digitalization of gear and components.
This document has been prepared under a mandate given to CEN by the European Commission and
the European Free Trade Association, and supports essential requirements of EU Directive(s).
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Introduction
Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the reduction of the
impact of certain plastic products on the environment lays down rules on different plastic products,
including fishing gear and aquaculture equipment containing plastics and sets requirement to the
Member States to establish Extended Producer Responsibility schemes (EPR schemes).
In accordance with Article 8(9) of the Directive, in 2021 the Commission Implementing Decision
M/574 on a standardization request (mandate M/574) to the European Committee for
Standardization as regards circular design of fishing gear aquaculture equipment in support of
Directive (EU) 2019/904 was approved.
Based on the mandate, a standard with 6 parts and a technical report (TR) on terms and definitions
has been developed by CEN/TC 466.
The purpose of this series of documents is to provide the stakeholders with requirements and
guidelines to address the different aspects of circular design of fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment, including encourage preparing for reuse and facilitate recyclability at end-of-life. The
standard parts are developed not only to support the Single Use Plastics directives (SUP), but the
Port Reception Facilities directive and the Extended Producer Responsibility, (ERP), as well.
The standard parts specify requirements and guidance for the circular design of fishing gear and
aquaculture equipment containing plastics that could be applied in the design, manufacturing, use
and recycling of such fishing gear/equipment.
To get a broader understanding of the legislative and policy background, see regulations commission
implementing regulation (EU) No 404/2011 of 8 April 2011.
NOTE EU 404/2011 is laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No
1224/2009 establishing a Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common
Fisheries Policy, in particular: TITLE II general conditions for access to waters and resources CHAPTER III
Marking and identification of EU fishing vessels and their gear Section 2 Marking and identification of fishing
gear and crafts from art 8 to art 17.
Digitalization in the fishing gear/aquaculture equipment is not about whether product and services
are physical or information based, it is merely about the manner in which value chain operations and
processes are managed with a wide variety of emerging technologies.
Digital transformation is characterized by the European Commission (EC) as “a fusion of advanced
technologies and the integration of physical and digital systems, the predominance of innovative
business models and new processes, and the creation of smart products and services” (European
Commission, 2017).
Currently there is confusion between digital transformation, digitalization and digitization of
conceptual terms:
• Digital transformation (Business level) – change the strategy business model and customer
experience:
o Digital data.
o Automation.
o Integration between suppliers and customers.
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o Digital Customer Access.
• Digitalization (Process level): emerging technologies’ use to transform processes.
• Digitization (Data level) data conversion from analogue to digital form.
Therefore, to transform the business model digitally value chain processes, digitalization and data
digitizing are necessary but insufficient. Further, other elements need to be considered, such as data
integrity.
Digitalization can connect end-to-end value chain processes at various levels. First within a location
then between locations and ultimately across the whole value chain to deliver greater value creation.
An increased use of digital technologies is crucial to shifting the linear and functional design of fishing
gear and aquaculture equipment management towards more sustainable circular design. Such
technologies improve mechanical, chemical and thermochemical recycling, facilitating the use of
recyclates by producers, enabling better purchasing and sorting decisions and improving waste
avoidance options for recyclers.
Advanced digitalization in recycle management and treatment is currently mostly in the innovation
phase. New business models, such as e-trading platforms, and specific software and business
analytics are emerging.
Digital technologies can be found across the whole life cycle of the value chain process, with some
already in widespread use. The current situation in Europe, however, is heterogeneous, with
different technologies being applied at various scales.
This document, part 6 of the standard, specifies requirements for the hardware, software and
systems for digitalization of product information of circular designed fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment. It is structured as follow:
• Clause 4 of this document outlines the general requirements and guidance for digitalized
information of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment.
• Clause 5 reviews the fishing gear and aquaculture equipment labelling options with focus on
coded wire tags, radio frequency identification tags and Automatic Identification and Data
Capture, and Data Exchange approaches and standards.
• Clause 6 addresses traceability requirements and options
• Clause 7 addresses software requirements and options.
• Clause 7 addresses issues related to access to data.
• Clause 7 addresses issues related to ownership of data.
• Clause 10 addresses IP sensitive and proprietary information.
• Clause 11 addresses issues related to interoperability and data standards.
• Clause 12 address implementation of digital solutions.
The specification of how to identify and uniformly label gear and equipment to ensure traceability of
components throughout their life cycle is covered in part 2 of the standard.
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To understand how part 6 relates to the other parts of this standard series, and to understand how
the standard series relate to different stakeholders over the life cycle of gear and equipment product,
see part 1 – General requirements and guidance.
The focus of this document is on digitalization related to circularity. It does not address other
important environmental aspects, efficiency, etc. To be practical and efficient digitalized systems will
cover all aspects of importance. When implementing the requirements and guidance in these
standard parts, balanced trade-offs to other environmental issues therefore need to be taken into
account.
This multipart standard also intends to facilitate organizations in contributing to the UN
Sustainability Development Goals, SDG 9 Industry, innovation, and infrastructure, SDG 12
Responsible consumption and production and SDG 14 Life below water, especially SDG 14.1 that
aims by 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, particularly from land-
based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.
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1 Scope
This standard part 6 specifies requirements for the hardware and software for digitalization of
product information of circular designed fishing gear and aquaculture equipment.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
No terms and definitions are listed in this document.
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
4 Requirements for digitalized information
4.1 General requirements
The digital transformation of the fishing and aquaculture sector should be aligned with plans to make
greater use of digital technologies in the development of a circular economy.
Marking, labelling and information sharing are the key elements of digitalization. The availability and
transparency of information sharing between different actors, across the value chain will improve
the vertical integration across the value chain. However, this could be achieved through a high level
of collaboration access to appropriate digitalization technology. The transparency of trace and track
technology also requires a certain level of interoperability across value chain participants. Sharing
accurate, real-time operational information between the trading partners can lead to better use of
assets such as fishing gear in the value chain.
Annex A demonstrates the main general marking options for fishing gear and aquaculture
equipment.
4.2 Fishing Gear and Aquaculture equipment Digital Material Passports (DMP)
Master Data
4.2.1 Benefits
According to the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), Digital Material (product) Passports
(DMPs) allow benefiting from digitalization for increasing sustainability and circularity of products
(European Commission, 2020). DMPs can be universally used for describing products and substances
contained in them. DMP is a structured set of data about the components and materials that an
individual product contains to enhance its use, recovery and reuse in the future.
Having a unique identifier for each Fishing Gear and /or Aquaculture equipment facilitates
organizing, displaying, and communicating with data exchange and avoid duplicate resolutions.
Such data provide a wide range of properties of the product and its constituents that enable its safe
management and recycling. Information in DMPs can be structured on different hierarchy levels,
where materials integrate into components, products and systems. Digital technologies allow the
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exchange and integration of such data from multiple players. For each material, a data set describing
its physical, chemical and other properties is developed. An important part of data on material
properties contains the description of Substances of Concern (SoCs) and other safety information
collected by the manufacturers/suppliers/importers to comply with legislative requirements.
4.2.2 Minimum requirements
The introduction of a fishing gear or aquaculture equipment identifier enables the implementation
of a global labelling system and, at the same time, local fishing industry support for its
implementation at the level of national units in the local language.
Example:
Using Global Individual Asset Identifier (GIAI) as a primary key is a quick way to find attributes of
fishing gear and/or aquaculture equipment in a database. The attributes of the fishing
gear/aquaculture equipment can be recorded and shared digitally using the GIAI as the key to the
information. Examples of the type of information held include the fisher who owns the fishing gear,
the vessel, the location of the fishing gear and the component material list of the fishing gear.
See Annex B for further examples on code-based marking and labelling.
4.2.3 Optional digitalization
In general, the choice of properties depends on the type, the characteristics of materials and size of
the fishing gear being made, the species of fish being caught, the fishing ground and the fishing
conditions under which the gear is being operated, the type, size and engine power of the vessel, the
type of operation and the auxiliaries employed as well as on the habits and traditions of the fishermen
and the local availability and price of netting materials.
An optional data set for fishing gear and /or aquaculture equipment can be found in Annex C.
4.3 Value chain material and information flows
4.3.1 Benefits
Digital technologies are considered vital enablers to create circular economy business models and
address plastic waste and pollution. Digitalization can help close the material loops by providing
accurate information on products availability, location and condition; it also enables more efficient
processes and minimizes waste. Digitalization of all processes and workflows, including the signature
process for legal documents through a Qualified Electronic Signature (EU Sign).
4.3.2 Guidance
Figure 1 in Annex D shows two processes simultaneously, the fishing gear or aquaculture equipment
value chain material and information flows which are like two sides of the same coin. In the process
the material flow is a movement of materials but people should also consider there is another flow
i.e. information flow which helps each process with what to do next. Typically, material flows are one-
directional while information flows are bi-directional. For further details, see Stakeholder / value
chain overview Part 1 – General requirements and guidance.
Example 1 – Chemical Raw Material Producer – Monomer producer:
A monomer producer places an order to a chemical raw materials producer (based on catalogue data
which is based on Master data sets for monomers); the chemical raw materials producer
acknowledges the order and delivers the materials and issues an invoice then the buyer pays the
amount according to the invoice.
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Example 2 - Sorted / Pre-processed materials –Mechanical recycling:
Fishing gear leftovers (Abandoned, Lost or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear – ALDFG) waste can be
recycled in a different way depending on types of polymers, and fishing gear type design and if the
ALDFG leftovers consist of a single polymer or mixed polymers. Mechanical recycling is one of the
most common methods for recycling of thermoplastic polymers such as PP, PE and PA. This process
implies collection, sorting, washing and grinding of the material.
Collection and sorting are addressed separately in this document. Further washing of products is a
mandatory step for removal of contaminants such as biofouling and adhesives. There are various
techniques to remove residues, e.g. via wet by water or dry cleaning of the surfaces through friction
without using water. Afterwards, the size reduction from products to flakes via grinding is the last
step in mechanical recycling. The compounding and pelletizing can be the optional reprocessing of
the flakes into granulate due to easier work for converters.
Example 3 - Digital exchange platforms and applications support reuse, repair, remanufacture design
with the help of blockchain-based payment systems and smartphone applications.
5 Fishing gear and Aquaculture equipment marking with tags
5.1 Identification of ownership and capacity, position, and material information
Fishing Gear can be marked permanently with codes. A recommended solution would consists of
marking both existing and new fishing gears and/or aquaculture equipment to register their use in
fishing processes. The net tags should be read when released for departure from the port and at
return to port. Registering (or not registering) the presence of the nets at both points of the process
will indicate the possibility of losing gears and the need to undertake search action. Simultaneously
the net markers can also be used to control the legality of fishing operations, their volume, duration,
etc. Automatic registration of net exposure from the vessel's side and taking them (with complete
control) will allow effective and detailed documentation of processes.
An important aspect of the application of automatic identification technology is the use of solutions
known from logistics (also partially used in the fishing industry – in the processes of identifying the
origin of seafood – the so-called “traceability”). Systems implemented in logistics processes are, in a
significant part, based on the use of global standards, which allows for easy data exchange and
cooperation in supply chains. Regulations introduced to the economy increasingly require control of
production processes (including food production, including seafood), and automatic identification
systems are increasingly and more often used in connection with the reduction of implementation
costs.
a) The first type is identification marking, which helps in identifying the ownership of lost or
deliberately abandoned gear. By creating a link between the gear and the responsible vessel,
authorities can better enforce penalties for intentionally dumping fishing gear and nets into the
sea. Marking gear also creates an opportunity to return gear that was accidentally lost to the
owner for reuse.
b) The second type of gear labelling is to increase the position visibility of gear. For example, floating
gear labellings attached to stationary nets under the surface can help notify vessels about the
risk of entanglement in the area.
c) Current labelling requirements do not include information on the material of the fishing gears.
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However, new technologies such as electronic labelling make it possible to store composite material
information. Detailed information regarding material characteristics of a fishing gear or an
aquaculture equipment should preferably be recorded in a database (of a standardized format to
ensure compatibility between relevant databases). Examples of a code-based labelling system are
provided in Annex “B”.
5.1.1 Fishing Gear identification for ownership and capacity purposes
The Voluntary guidelines of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
recommends in Annex III the authorization to fish should, in general, include a requirement for the
following information to be given on:
• Name and address of person(s) authorized to fish and name of vessel (where relevant).
• Gear type.
• Expected area of use.
• Principal target species.
Traditionally, various physical tags have been used, usually inscribed with the permit number of its
owner. In some fisheries, tags are fixed in the gear itself (e.g. gill-nets) or attached to its surface
markers (e.g. buoy of a pot). These physical tags can only contain limited information (e.g. license
number). More advanced tags that contain static information (e.g. license number, owner, vessel, etc.)
as well as dynamic information (such as time in water, location deployed, etc.) would have
advantages both for fishers and for management. Advanced tags that can be detected over a longer
distance would help fishery enforcement in combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU)
fishing.
Fishing gear types has defined by the United Nations Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the
FAO and is used to identify the type of fishing gear used for catching the fisheries product. The fishing
gear type list provides definitions of fishing gear of all kinds, grouped by categories. These definitions
and classifications are valid on a world-wide basis for both inland waters and sea fisheries, as well
as, for small-, medium- and large-scale fisheries.
The fishing gear type code list (Table 2) is based upon a study to support the implementation of
obligations set out in the Single Use Plastics (SUP) and Port Reception Facilities Directives.
Table 1 — SUP Proposed taxonomy of fishing gear and aquaculture equipment
Level 1 Level 2 What would fit in level 2 category
1.1 Net panels from demersal Net panels from beam trawls, single
trawls bottom otter trawls, twin bottom otter
trawls, bottom pair trawls
1.2 Net panels from seines Net panels from purse seines, beach
1. Net panels made of
and seines, Scottish and Danish seines,
thick twine (>1 mm)
midwater otter trawls, midwater pair
pelagic trawls
trawls
1.3 Net panels from other Net panels from FADs, lift nets, barriers,
gear fences, weirs, etc., fish cages (nets)
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Level 1 Level 2 What would fit in level 2 category
2.1 Net panels from gill-nets Net panels from set gill-nets (anchored),
drift and encircling gill-nets, trammel
or trammel nets
nets, combined gill-nets-trammel nets
2. Net panels and lines
made of thin twine 2.2 Net panels from other Bouchot netting, predator protection
gear (aquaculture)
(<1 mm)
2.3 Lines Hand lines, troll lines, branch lines of set
and drifting longlines
3.1 Pots Any pot
3.2 Rods Any rod
3. Other plastic based
3.3. General twine 3.3. General twine
gear or part thereof
3.4 Misc. plastic-based gear Dolly ropes, Fish cages (floating collars),
pipes, pond liners, bags for off-bottom
or part of gear
culture
4.1 Metal component of gear Hooks, swivels, wire, chains, weights,
reels, etc.
4. Non plastic parts of
4.2 Non-metal and non- Rubber from trawl ground ropes, rubber
gear
plastic pond lining
components of gear
5 Buoys, floats and 5.1 Buoys and floats Any type of buoys or floats
ropes
 5.2 Ropes Any rope segment
NOTE The underlined text is relevant for aquaculture gear
5.1.2 Fishing Gear identification for marking of position visibility
Two kinds of orbiting systems are mainly suitable for fisheries management and enforcement of legal
measures protecting marine ecosystems:
a) Systems enabling calculation of a vessel’s positional data coupled to different kinds of
onshore/satellite receivers.
b) The use of satellite remote sensing with very high resolution (VHR) images of the visual
spectrum or synthetic aperture radars (SARs) that detect vessels from space.
Positional systems are based on mature technologies, with a proven history of successful data
delivery, and have been used for decades in fisheries control.
...