Fishing Instruments Byelaw
Establishing what fishing gears can be used within Sussex IFCA District
As Amended
1. This byelaw applies to any part of the district within a line drawn on the seaward side of the baselines 6 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea adjacent to the United Kingdom is measured. For the purposes of this paragraph "the baselines" means the baselines as they existed at 25th January 1983 in accordance with the Territorial Waters Order in Council 1964 (1965 111 p. 6452A) as amended by the Territorial Waters (Amendment) Order in Council 1979 (1979 11 p. 2866)
2. No person shall fish for sea fish or hand gather marine organisms except by one or more of the following methods and subject to any conditions set out in this byelaw.
(i) a trawl or trawls used in fishing for
(a) all demersal and pelagic species
(b) scallops (pecten maximus)
(c) queen scallops (clamys opercularis)
(d) whelks (Buccinum undatum L.)
(e) demersal and pelagic cephalopods.
(f) crustacean speciesAll other species must be immediately returned to the sea
(ii) a pair trawl used in fishing for pelagic species.
(iii) a pair trawl for demersal species; provided that when this method is used within the District West of a line drawn due South from the landward end (50 degrees 49.59 minutes North and 000 degrees 14.8 minutes West) of the Western Breakwater of Shoreham Harbour, between the first day of April and the last day of June in the same year - both dates inclusive - the codend shall consist along its length of not less than 40 rows of meshes of a minimum size of 110 millimetres when measured in accordance with Commission Regulation (EEC) 517/2008”
(iv) a drift net or nets with a mesh size of not more than 65 millimetres and not less than 89 millimetres when measured in accordance with Commission Regulation (EEC) 2108/84 between directly opposite mesh knots.
(v) a trammel net or nets, a fixed gill net or nets and all fixed enmeshing nets with a mesh of a minimum size of 90 millimetres when measured in accordance with Commission Regulation (EEC) 2108/84 between directly opposite mesh knots, except that in the case of keddle nets, a minimum mesh size of 50 millimetres, when measured in accordance with Commission Regulation (EEC) 2108/84 between directly opposite mesh knots shall be permitted in a fishing operation directed at herring and mackerel.
(vi) hooks, lines, long lines, beach seines, fyke nets, pots and traps;
(vii) Removed - As amended by the Oyster Permit Byelaw 2015 16th September 2015
(viii) dredges used in fishing for scallops (pecten maximus) but only within that part of the District that lies between 3 and 6 nautical miles from baselines and provided that any such dredge is of the spring loaded "Newhaven" type. "French" or paravane type scallop dredges shall be banned.
(ix) Keddle nets at Keddle Net Stands licensed by the Rother District Council under the terms of a lease dated 6th day of February 1986 made between Her Majesty the Queen, the Crown Estate Commissioners and the Rother District Council.
(x) hand gathering for
(a) crustacean species;
(b) mollusc shellfish except piddock (Pholadidae) or native oyster (Ostrea edulis);
(c) marine worms (Annelida species);
(d) glasswort (Salocornia species) or sea-blite (Suaeda species) and intertidal seaweed (macro algae) not including the named kelp species (Laminaria digitata and Sacchorina latissimi)
(xi) Hand held instruments including push, scoop and drop nets used in the gathering or intertidal species, providing they are not of a powered mechanical nature, but only in those parts of the district designated by the Hand Gathering Byelaw.
3. For the purposes of this byelaw, a pair trawl for demersal species shall mean a trawl fitted with a footrope that is designed to maintain contact with the seabed whilst being towed jointly by two vessels.
4. For the purposes of this byelaw pelagic species shall mean garfish, herring, horse mackerel, mackerel, pilchard and sprat.
Explanatory Notes (These notes are not part of the byelaw)
1. The purpose of paragraph 2 (iii) is to protect the stocks of juvenile black bream and bass that are normally present in the area described during the period stated.
2. Commission Regulation (EEC) 517/2008 describes the method to be used to establish a mesh size on towed gear (trawls and seines) and fixed gear and drift nets