The Bass (Specified Areas) (Prohibition of Fishing) Order 1990

Made: 29th May 1990

Laid before Parliament: 6th June 1990

Coming into force: 27th June 1990

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretaries of State respectively concerned with the sea fishing industry in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, acting jointly, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by sections 5(1) and (5) and 15(3) as read with section 22(2)(a) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967[^f00001] and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf hereby make the following Order:

Title and commencement

1

This Order may be cited as the Bass (Specified Areas) (Prohibition of Fishing) Order 1990 and shall come into force on 27th June 1990.

Prohibition

2

Fishing for bass (Dicentrarchus labrax e by any fishing boat within any part of the areas described in column 1 of the Schedule to this Order is prohibited during the period specified in relation to each area in column 2 thereof.

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

3

• (1) For the purpose of the enforcement of this Order a British sea-fishery officer may exercise in relation to any fishing boat which is within British fishery limits the powers conferred by paragraphs (2) to (4) of this article.

• (2) He may go on board the boat, with or without persons assigned to assist him in his duties, and for that purpose may require the boat to stop and do anything else which will facilitate the boarding of 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 seems 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 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 5(1) or (6) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967[^f00002] 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 him to be necessary for facilitating the search; and

• (d) where the boat is one in relation to which he has reason to suspect that such an offence has been committed, may 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 the offence;

but nothing in subparagraph (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 this Order has at any time taken place within British fishery limits, he may—

• (a) require the master of the boat in relation to which the offence took place to take, or 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 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.

SCHEDULE — AREAS AND SPECIFIED PERIODS IN RESPECT OF WHICH PROHIBITION OF FISHING FOR BASS APPLIES

Signed

In witness whereof the Official Seal of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is hereunto affixed on 18th May 1990.

John Selwyn Gummer — Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Sanderson of Bowden — Minister of State, Scottish Office — 21st May 1990

David Hunt — Secretary of State for Wales — 21st May 1990

Peter Brooke — Secretary of State for Northern Ireland — 29th May 1990

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order prohibits fishing for bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) by any fishing boat within the areas in England and Wales described in the Schedule during the periods specified therein in relation to each area (article 2).

By virtue of section 5(6) of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 (as amended by section 22(2) of the Fisheries Act 1981), where, in the course of any fishing operations conducted in the above mentioned areas, at a time when the prohibition is in effect, bass are taken on board any fishing boat those fish shall (subject to section 9 of that Act) be returned to the sea forthwith. British sea-fishery officers are given enforcement powers in relation to boats to which this Order applies (article 3).

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1967 c. 84; section 5(1) was substituted by section 22(1) of the Fisheries Act 1981 (c. 29); section 15(3) was substituted by paragraph 38(3) of Schedule 1 to the Sea Fisheries Act 1968 (c. 77) and amended by paragraph 16(1) of Schedule 2 to the Fishery Limits Act 1976 (c. 86); section 22(2)(a) was amended by the Fisheries Act 1981, sections 19(2)(d) and 45(b).

[^f00002]: Sub-section (6) was amended by section 22(2) of the Fisheries Act 1981. By virtue of sub-section (7), where sub-section (6) is not complied with in the case of any fishing boat, the master, the owner and the charterer (if any) are guilty of an offence under that sub-section.