The Shrimp Fishing Nets (Wales) Order 2003

Welsh Statutory Instruments

2003 No. 3035 (W.283)

SEA FISHERIES, WALES

CONSERVATION OF SEA FISH

The Shrimp Fishing Nets (Wales) Order 2003

Made

26th November 2003

Coming into force

30th November 2003

The National Assembly for Wales, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by sections 5(1) and 15(3) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967(1), hereby makes the following Order:

Title, commencement and application

1.—(1) This Order is called the Shrimp Fishing Nets (Wales) Order 2003 and comes into force on 30th November 2003.

(2)  This Order applies to Wales(2).

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Order:

“British fishing boat” (“cwch pysgota Prydeinig”) means a fishing boat which is either registered in the United Kingdom under Part II of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995(3) or is owned wholly by persons qualified to own British ships for the purposes of that part of that Act; and

“codend” (“pen y cwd”) means the rearmost part of a net, being made up of one or more panels comprising pieces of netting of the same mesh size attached to one another along their sides in the long axis of the net by a lacing.

(2) For the purpose of this Order, the mesh of a net or netting shall be measured in accordance with Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2108/1984 of 23rd July 1984 laying down detailed rules for determining the mesh size of fishing nets(4) as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2550/1997(5).

Prohibition on fishing for shrimps without a separator trawl or sorting grid

3.  British fishing boats are prohibited from carrying or deploying a net, whose mesh measures between 16 and 31 millimetres unless —

(a) netting, the mesh of which measures at least twice that of the codend and nor more than 70 millimetres, is fitted across the entire cross-section of the net in such a way that —

(i) fish cannot reach the codend without first passing through the netting; and

(ii) there is a hole in the net through which all fish that do not pass through the netting are able to escape;

(b) a rigid grid, the spacing between the bars of which is no more than 20 millimetres is fitted across the entire cross-section of the net in such a way that —

(i) fish cannot reach the codend without first passing through the grid; and

(ii) there is a hole in the net through which all fish that do not pass through the grid are able to escape.

(c) no fish have been retained on board the boat; or

(d) where fish have been retained on board the boat, less than 60% by live weight of the total catch retained comprises common shrimps (Crangon spp.), Aesop shrimps (Pandalus montagui) or a combination of the two.

Powers of British Sea-fishery officers

4.—(1) For the purposes of enforcing this Order, a British sea fisheries officer may exercise the powers conferred by this article in relation to any British fishing boat to which this Order applies.

(2) The officer may go on board the boat, with or without persons assigned to assist in his or her duties, and for that purpose may require the boat to stop and do anything else which will facilitate the boarding of the boat.

(3) The officer may require the attendance of the master and other persons on board the boat and may make any examination and inquiry which appears to him or her to be necessary for the purpose of enforcing this Order, and, in particular —

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

(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 that person’s custody or possession and may take copies of any such document;

(c) for the purpose of ascertaining whether the master, owner or charterer of the boat has committed an offence under section 3(5) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 as read with this Order, may search the boat for any such document and may require any person on board the boat to do anything which appears to the officer to be necessary for facilitating the search;

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

but nothing in sub-paragraph (d) above 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 any provision of this Order has at any time taken place, the officer may —

(a) require the master of the boat in relation to which the contravention took place to take, or may himself or herself take, the boat and its crew to the port which appears to the officer 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 the officer shall serve on the master a notice in writing staffing 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.

Signed on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales under section 66(1) of the Government of Wales Act 1998(6)

D. Elis-Thomas

The Presiding Officer of the National Assembly

26th November 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order regulates the carriage and use of any fishing nets with mesh size between 16 and 31 millimetres, measured in accordance with Commission Regulation (EEC) No. 2108/1984 of 23rd July 1984. It sets out the national provisions called for by Article 25 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 850/98 of 30th March 1998, by specifying separator trawls and sorting grids as the types of device required to be used.

The Order applies to British fishing boats in Welsh waters and prohibits them from carrying or using such nets other than in certain specified circumstances (article 3). The taking of measures for the conservation and management of stocks under Article 46 of Council Regulation 850/98 is subject to a condition that the measures apply solely to the fishermen of the Member State concerned.

The specified exceptions are where defined attachments are fitted to the net (article 3(1)(a)-(b)), where no sea fish have been caught (article 3(1)(c)) or where less than 60% by live weight of the total catch comprises common shrimps and/or Aesop shrimps, and any sea fish retained on board are retained in accordance with Article 25 of Council Regulation (EC) No. 850/98 (article 3(1)(d)).

If any boat breaches this prohibition, the master, owner and charterer is guilty of an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding £5,000 on summary conviction and on conviction on indictment to a fine (sections 3(5) and 11(1)(b) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967). The court may also impose an additional fine not exceeding the value of the fish caught with the net or order the net’s forfeiture (section 11(2)-(3) of the 1967 Act).

Additionally the Order confers powers of enforcement on British sea-fishery officers for the purposes of enforcing this Order or any equivalent Order implementing similar prohibitions in relation to any categories of fishing boat.

A Regulatory Appraisal has been prepared and deposited in the Library of the National Assembly. A copy may be obtained from the Agriculture and Fisheries Policy Division, Welsh Assembly Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.

(1)

1967 c. 84. Section 5(1) was substituted by the Fisheries Act 1981 (c. 29), section 22(1). Section 15(3) was substituted by the Sea Fisheries Act 1968 (c. 77) section 22(1), Schedule 1, paragraph 38(3) and amended by the Fishery Limits Act 1976 (c. 86) section 9(1), Schedule 2, paragraph 16(1) and S.I. 1999/1820, Article 4, Schedule 2, paragraph 43(2)(b). See section 22(2)(a) for definitions of “the Ministers” for the purposes of sections 5 and 15(3); section 22(2) was amended by the Fisheries Act 1981, sections 19(2)(d) and 45(b) and (c) and by S.I. 1999/1820, Article 4, paragraph 43(12) of Schedule 2. By virtue of article 2(a) of the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672) functions exercisable under the 1967 Act were transferred to the National Assembly in so far as exercisable in relation to Wales (defined in section 155(1) of the Government of Wales Act 1998 (c. 38) as including “the sea adjacent to Wales out as far as the seaward boundary of the territorial sea”); in respect of waters beyond Wales these functions remain exercisable by the Ministers. Article 3(1) and Schedule 1 of the Scotland Act 1998 (Concurrent Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/1592) provide for the functions exercisable under sections 5 and 15(3) of the 1967 Act to be exercised by the Ministers, concurrently with Scottish Ministers, in relation to: relevant British fishing boats within the Scottish zone; and, Scottish fishing boats within British fishery limits but outside the Scottish zone. By virtue of article 2(1) of the Transfer of Functions (Agriculture and Fisheries) Order 2000 (S.I. 2000/1812) any remaining functions of the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales under sections 5 and 15(3) of the 1967 Act were transferred to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and in turn (together with other functions) to the Secretary of State by S.I. 2002/794.

(2)

Including “the sea adjacent to Wales out as far as the seaward boundary of the territorial sea” (section 155 (1) of the Government of Wales Act 1998 (p.38)) and in accordance with article 6 of the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672), and Schedule 3 to it, in relation to the Severn and Dee Estuaries.

(3)

1995 c. 21.

(4)

OJ No. L194, 24.7.1984, p.22.

(5)

OJ No. L349, 19.12.1997, p.1.

(6)

1998 c. 38.