Closed area · Scottish Government (Marine Scotland)
Bottom-towed gear prohibited
The Inshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing and Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2004 - SSI 2004 No. 276 (Art 3) · in force since 2004-07-05
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 2026-09-06.
fishing for sea fish with a trawl, Danish seine or similar net, purse seine, ring net or dredge (including a suction dredge), year-round, throughout Broad Bay
THE PROHIBITION IS WIDER THAN A SEABED-GEAR BAN, NOT NARROWER. Article 3(1) also names the PURSE SEINE and the RING NET, which are pelagic gears that do not work the seabed. Two consequences follow. (1) There is NO seine carve-out here: unlike the Firth of Forth Banks Complex, where article 9 of SSI 2025/240 omits the demersal seine, a “Danish seine or similar net” is expressly INSIDE this prohibition — so in Broad Bay the gear question is only mobile against static, which is a far coarser question than trawl against seine. (2) A vessel that works pelagic gear is not necessarily outside this measure, because the purse seine and the ring net are named in it; a pelagic finding here does not clear a vessel without re-reading article 3(1).
Rule reviewed against the instrument: SSI 2004/276 article 3(1) prohibits fishing for sea fish with a trawl, Danish seine or similar net, purse seine, ring net or dredge (including a suction dredge) throughout Broad Bay, and Schedule 1 item 17 sets the period of prohibition at '1st January to 31st December in each year'. The row carries no excepted method and no excepted period, so the article 4 exception does not reach this closure.
Fishing for sea fish with mobile or active gear prohibited.
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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