Closed area · North Eastern IFCA
Bottom-towed gear prohibited
Byelaw XXIV: Cockle Management · in force since 2012-10-12
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 2026-09-01.
Nothing that reaches trawling or dredging. It is a COCKLE FISHERY management byelaw: a permit requirement to fish for cockles (§2), a closed season for cockles of 1 May–31 Aug (§3), a hand-rake gear specification ‘for the purpose of taking cockles’ (§4), a 20 mm minimum size (§5), a 500 kg/24 h catch limit (§6), and a power to close individual cockle beds (§7).
NEIFCA Byelaw XXIV regulates the COCKLE fishery only. It imposes a permit requirement, a closed season of 1 May to 31 August, a hand-rake gear specification, a minimum size and a catch limit, all for the purpose of taking cockles. It does not prohibit trawling, dredging or any other bottom-towed gear for any other species, so a vessel trawling for prawns or whitefish is not within this measure and cannot breach it.
No person shall use for the purpose of taking cockles any instrument other than a rake or other like instrument with a head width not exceeding 305 mm and having spaces not less than 20 mm between the teeth.
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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