Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures) Order (Northern Ireland) 2004

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Order –

“the Council Regulation” means Council Regulation (EC) No. 2287/2003 fixing for 2004 the fishing opportunities and associated conditions for fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Community waters and, for Community vessels, in waters where limitations in catch are required(1);

“Council Regulation 2847/93” means Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2847/93 establishing a control system applicable to the common fisheries policy as amended(2);

“Northern Ireland fishing boat” means a fishing boat which is registered in the register maintained under section 8 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995(3) and whose entry in the register specifies a port in Northern Ireland as the port to which the boat is to be treated as belonging;

“Northern Ireland zone” has the same meaning as in the Northern Ireland Act 1998(4);

“relevant offence” means an offence under –

(a)

Article 4, or

(b)

any corresponding provision in any other order extending to any part of the United Kingdom, being a provision in respect of which proceedings may be commenced in Northern Ireland by virtue of section 30(2A) of the Fisheries Act 1981;

“specified Community provision” means a provision of the Council Regulation specified in Column 1 of Schedule 1, 2, or 3 to this Order as read with any qualifying words relating to that provision in that column; and

“third country fishing boat” means a fishing boat flying the flag of and registered in a state other than a Member State of the European Community.

(2) In this Order any reference to a document includes –

(i) any map, plan, graph or drawing;

(ii) any photograph;

(iii) any data, howsoever reproduced, communicated via a satellite-based vessel monitoring system established under Article 3.1 of Council Regulation 2847/93;

(iv) any disk, tape, sound track or other device in which sounds or other data (not being visual images) are recorded so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other equipment) of being reproduced therefrom; and

(v) any film (including microfilm), negative, tape, disk or other device in which one or more visual images are recorded so as to be capable (as aforesaid) of being reproduced therefrom.

(3) In this Order any reference to a Community instrument is a reference to that instrument as amended on the date that this Order is made.

(4) For the purpose of the prohibition contained in point 2 of Annex III to the Council Regulation (which prohibits the landing of herring unsorted from the remainder of the catch at a harbour where adequate sampling programmes are not in place), a harbour in Northern Ireland shall not be regarded as having in place a system which is adequate for sampling a catch that includes unsorted herring unless, before the landing of the catch in question, –

(a) the master of the fishing boat in question has applied to a British sea-fishery officer at the harbour in question for a decision as to the suitability of that harbour for landing the catch on that boat; and

(b) the British sea-fishery officer has decided that the sampling systems at the harbour are adequate, having regard to the overall size and characteristics of the catch, for the purpose of monitoring effectively the landing of that catch, and has so notified the master.

(1)

O.J. No. L344, 31.12.2003, p. 1

(2)

O.J. No. L261, 20.10.93, p.1; the latest amending instrument is Council Regulation (EC) No. 2846/98 (O.J. No. L358, 31.12.1998, p. 5)

(3)

1995 c. 21

(4)

1998 c. 47 (N.I.) see section 98