The Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures and Restriction on Days at Sea) (Scotland) Order 2009

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order, which forms part of the law of Scotland only, makes provision for the enforcement of Council Regulation (EC) No. 43/2009 (“the Council Regulation”).

Part I makes provision for interpretation of the Order.

Part II makes provision for the enforcement of certain enforceable Community restrictions and other obligations relating to sea fishing by Community vessels and third country vessels set out in the Council Regulation. The Council Regulation fixes total allowable catches and the quotas of Member States for 2009 in respect of certain fish stocks and lays down certain conditions under which they may be fished. It also authorises fishing by third country vessels of Norway and the Faroe Islands for specified fish stocks in Community waters in 2009, subject to requirements regarding fishing quotas and authorised zones, methods of fishing, fishing authorisations and associated conditions, the keeping of logbooks, the transmission of information and similar matters.

Part II of the Order—

(a) makes provision for the purposes of Article 10 of the Council Regulation (requirement for adequate sampling programme when landing unsorted catches) (article 3);

(b) makes it an offence to contravene the provision in Annex IA to the Council Regulation in relation to the quantity of skates and rays retained on board (article 4);

(c) makes it an offence to contravene paragraphs 9.11 and 24(e) of Annex III to the Council Regulation which limit the by-catch of sharks and redfish to a maximum of 5% and 1% respectively of the total catch retained on board (article 5);

(d) makes it an offence to contravene the provisions in Annex IA to the Council Regulation which impose a maximum landing size for spurdog/dogfish and porbeagle (article 6); and

(e) creates offences in respect of contraventions of the provisions of the Council Regulation referred to in column 1 (and briefly described in column 2) of Schedules 1 (Community quota measures) and 2 (Community third country fishing measures) to the Order (article 7).

Part III of the Order provides for the enforcement in Scotland of the provisions of Annex IIa to the Council Regulation. It creates offences associated with the number of days that certain fishing boats can spend and the use of gear permitted within, the cod recovery zone in accordance with Annex IIa of the Council Regulation (articles 8 and 9).

Part IV of the Order provides for the maintenance and submission of logbooks at ports designated in the Order (articles 10 and 11 and Schedule 3).

Part V of the Order provides for penalties (article 12) and for the recovery of fines imposed in respect of an offence under the Order (article 13).

For the purposes of enforcing the provisions of the Order or any equivalent provision (as defined in the Order) Part IV of the Order confers on British sea-fishery officers the powers to enter premises, to go on board fishing boats, to stop and search vehicles transporting fish, to examine fish, to require the production of documents, to search for and seize documents, to take a boat to the nearest convenient port and to seize fish and fishing gear (articles 14 to 16).

Provision is made for the protection of British sea-fishery officers in the exercise of their powers under the Order (article 17) and for an offence of obstructing such officers (article 18).

Provision is made in relation to offences committed by a body corporate, a partnership or an unincorporated association (article 19) and in relation to the admissibility in evidence of logbooks and other documents (article 20).

The Order revokes articles 2 to 33 of the Sea Fishing (Enforcement of Community Quota and Third Country Fishing Measures and Restriction on Days at Sea) (Scotland) Order 2008 (article 21).

A Regulatory Impact Assessment in the relation to this Order has been prepared and placed in SPICE. Copies can be obtained from Marine Scotland, Robb’s Loan, Edinburgh, EH14 1TY.