Closed area · Scottish Government (Marine Scotland)
Demersal (seabed) fishing prohibited
Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025 · in force since 2025-10-16
A CAUGHT review has read the instrument behind this closure, rather than relying on the summary published with the boundary. Where the two differ, the instrument governs; this reading was made on 2026-11-06.
Fishing for sea fish with demersal mobile gear or demersal static gear, under article 19 (West of Scotland Marine Protected Area). The Order has no article or Schedule of its own for Anton Dohrn.
Article 19(1): "Fishing for sea fish with demersal mobile gear or demersal static gear is prohibited in the West of Scotland Marine Protected Area." Article 19(2): that area "means the area described in schedule 17". Article 2: "demersal mobile gear" means a demersal seine net, a demersal trawl (a beam trawl or a bottom trawl) or a dredge (mechanical or suction). Article 2: "demersal static gear" means "any gear or catch operation that does not require an active movement, that makes or has the potential to make contact with the sea bed", including a creel, pot or trap, a floated demersal longline and a static net.
Fishing with demersal mobile gear (trawls, dredges and demersal seines) or demersal static gear (creels, pots, set nets and demersal longlines) is prohibited here year-round. The Offshore Fishing Order 2025 has no article for Anton Dohrn Seamount itself. The site lies wholly inside the West of Scotland Marine Protected Area, and article 19 of the Order bans both gear types across that whole area. There is no exception, season or permit.
Demersal mobile and demersal static gear prohibited from full site.
Summary as published in the source dataset, shown for comparison. A dataset paraphrase can be narrower or wider than the instrument it summarises, and finding out which is the work above.
Vessels are named only on cases that read CAUGHT and have been examined by a reviewer. Every other case is linked without a name: most are resolved, and naming a boat on a page about the closure would carry an accusation the assessment does not support.
What a case here means. A CAUGHT case is a reason to look, not a verdict. Each one is judged on three independent factors — was it fishing, here and then; what gear does the vessel actually use; and what was prohibited there at that time — and the weakest of the three decides. Most cases are resolved.
Boundaries and rule summaries come from the published datasets named at the foot of this page and can contain errors; the legislation is the authority. If you believe this closure is described wrongly, tell us at contact@caught.org.uk.
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