(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 veil nets and sorting grids as the types of device required to be used.
The Order does not apply to Scottish fishing boats in the Scottish zone or outside British fishery limits, to Northern Ireland boats in the Northern Ireland zone or outside British fishery limits or to any boats in the territorial sea adjacent to Wales. The Order prohibits all other British fishing boats from carrying or using such nets other than in certain specified circumstances (article 3).
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 per cent 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.