Closed area · Scottish Government (Marine Scotland)
Bottom-towed gear 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 2026-09-05.
fishing for sea fish with demersal mobile gear — a demersal seine net, a demersal trawl (beam or bottom), or a dredge
Article 4(1) of the Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025 (SSI 2025/240) prohibits fishing for sea fish with demersal mobile gear in the Central Fladen First and Second Protected Areas. Article 2 defines that gear as a demersal seine net, a demersal trawl (beam or bottom) or a dredge, so seine netting is prohibited here as well as trawling and dredging. There is no exception, season, permit or tonnage limit. The boundary is the Order's own (schedule 2, Part 1), which extends 1.3 km² beyond the designated MPA outline.
Demersal mobile 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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