The Prohibition of Fishing with Multiple Trawls Order 2001

Title, commencement and extent

1.—(1) This order may be cited as the Prohibition of Fishing with Multiple Trawls Order 2001 and shall come into force on 2nd April 2001.

(2) Subject to paragraph (3), this Order shall not form part of the law of Scotland.

(3) Nothing in paragraph (2) above shall be treated as prejudicing the effect in Scotland of section 14 of the Act(1) in relation to, or for purposes incidental to, any provision of this Order which creates an offence.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Order—

“the Act” means the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967;

“the Council Regulation” means Council Regulation (EC) No. 850/98 of 30 March 1998 for the conservation of fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms(2) as corrected by Corrigendum to Annex XII of the Council Regulation(3) and amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 308/1999(4), Council Regulation (EC) No. 1459/1999(5), Council Regulation (EC) No. 2723/1999(6), Council Regulation (EC) No. 812/2000(7) and Council Regulation (EC) No. 1298/2000(8);

“the Fladen area” means the waters of the Scottish zone bounded by a line beginning from a point on the north coast of Scotland at 04° 00' west longitude; thence due north to a point on the outer limit of the Scottish zone; thence in a north easterly direction along that outer limit to 62° 30' north latitude; thence due east to a point on the outer limit of the Scottish zone; thence in a south easterly direction along that outer limit to 57° 30' north latitude; thence due west to a point on the east coast of Scotland; and thence in a northerly and westerly direction following that coast to the point of beginning;

“beam trawler” means a fishing boat which, in so far as it carries or uses nets, carries or uses only nets which are designed to be towed along the sea-bed and which have their mouth extended by a beam, bar or other rigid device;

“equivalent Order” means an Order extending to Scotland or having effect in relation to Wales, made under section 5 of the Act pursuant to Article 46 of the Council Regulation which prohibits fishing by any trawl other than a single trawl;

“ICES” followed by a roman numeral with or without a letter shall be construed as a reference to whichever of the statistical sub-areas and divisions of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea(9) described in the Schedule to this Order is identified therein by the roman numeral or that roman numeral and letter as the case may be;

“net” means a trawl, Danish Seine or similar towed net; and

“single trawl” means a single net towed by a two warp rig in which the net has a single bosom groundrope (the bosom being the central portion of the trawl between the lower wings), where the groundrope is attached to the towing rig at each wing-end only and does not have any further attachment, including bridles, wires or ropes, connecting it to the said towing rig;

any other expression used in the Council Regulation has the same meaning in this Order as in that Regulation.

(2) In this Order—

(a) the term “within relevant British fishery limits” does not include—

(i) the territorial sea adjacent to Wales;

(ii) the territorial sea adjacent to the Isle of Man;

(iii) the territorial sea adjacent to the Bailiwick of Jersey; and

(iv) seas within British fishery limits adjacent to Guernsey, as defined by section 8 of the Fishery Limits Act 1976(10);

(b) any reference to any relevant British fishing boat “wherever it may be” does not include such a fishing boat while in the territorial sea adjacent to Wales.

Prohibition of method of fishing

3.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2) below, fishing—

(a) by any relevant British fishing boat wherever it may be; or

(b) by any Scottish fishing boat within relevant British fishery limits,

with any trawl other than a single trawl is prohibited.

(2) Paragraph (1) above shall not apply—

(a) to any beam trawler;

(b) to fishing with a trawl having a mesh size of not less than 80 millimetres—

(i) in the Fladen area;

(ii) in ICES VI (Rockall and West of Scotland) south of a line drawn westwards from the east coast of the Sound of Jura at 56° north latitude;

(iii) in ICES VII (Irish Sea, West of Ireland and Porcupine Bank, South Coast of Ireland, Bristol Channel and English Channel); or

(iv) in ICES IV (North Sea) south of a line drawn eastwards from the east coast of England at 53° north latitude;

(c) to fishing with any trawl having a mesh size of 100 millimetres or more.

Powers of British sea-fishery officers in relation to fishing boats

4.—(1) For the purpose of the enforcement of this Order or any equivalent Order, a British sea-fishery officer may exercise the powers conferred by paragraphs (2) to (4) of this article in relation to—

(a) any relevant British fishing boat wherever it may be; and

(b) any Scottish fishing boat which is within relevant British fishery limits.

(2) He may go on board the boat, with or without persons assigned to assist him in his duties, and may require the boat to stop and do anything else which will facilitate either the boarding of, or the disembarkation from, the boat.

(3) He may require the attendance of the master and other persons on board the boat and may make any examination and inquiry which appear to him to be necessary for the purpose mentioned in paragraph (1) of this article and, in particular—

(a) may examine any fish on the boat and the equipment of the boat, including the fishing gear, and require persons on board the boat to do anything which appears to him to be necessary for facilitating the examination;

(b) may require any person on board the boat to produce any document relating to the boat, to its fishing operations or other operations ancillary thereto or to the persons on board which is in his custody or possession;

(c) for the purpose of ascertaining whether the master, owner or charterer of the boat has committed an offence under section 5(1) or (6) of the Act(11) as read with this Order or any equivalent Order, may search the boat for any such document and may require any person on board the boat to do anything which appears to him to be necessary for facilitating the search; and

(d) where the boat is one in relation to which the officer has reason to suspect that such an offence has been committed, may take copies of and seize and detain any such document produced to him or found on board for the purpose of enabling the document to be used as evidence in proceedings for this offence;

but nothing in sub-paragraph (d) shall permit any document required by law to be carried on board the boat to be seized and detained except while the boat is detained in a port.

(4) Where it appears to a British sea-fishery officer that a contravention of this Order has at any time taken place within British fishery limits, the officer may—

(a) require the master of the boat in relation to which the contravention took place to take, or the officer may himself take, the boat and its crew to the port which appears to him to be the nearest convenient port; and

(b) detain or require the master to detain the boat in the port;

and where such an officer detains or requires the detention of a boat he shall serve on the master a notice in writing stating that the boat will be or is required to be detained until the notice is withdrawn by the service on the master of a further notice in writing signed by a British sea-fishery officer.

Revocation

5.—(1) The Norway Lobsters (Prohibition of Method Fishing) Order 1993(12) is hereby revoked, except in so far as:

(a) it forms part of the law of Scotland; or

(b) it has effect in relation to Wales.

(2) In paragraph (1) above, “Wales” has the same meaning as in section 155(1) of the Government of Wales Act 1998(13).

Elliot Morley

Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

28th February 2001

Dr John Reid

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

28th February 2001