Closed area · DAERA
Bottom-towed gear prohibited
The Marine Protected Areas (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (as amended by: The Marine Protected Areas (Prohibited Methods of Fishing) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022) · in force since 2023-01-01
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 2026-11-05.
Regulation 3(1)(b): "Subject to regulation 4 fishing for sea-fish using demersal mobile gear is prohibited in" this area, defined by Schedule 2, a single line from A (54°13.472'N 5°39.547'W, St John's Point) to B (54°07.240'N 5°52.969'W), landward of which is the area. Regulation 2: "demersal mobile gear" means any fishing gear that is towed along the sea bed or is otherwise moved through the water on or close to the sea bed to catch fish, and includes, for example, a dredge, demersal seine net and demersal trawl net. "static gear" means any pot, creel, receptacle or container capable of being left at sea to catch crustaceans or molluscs.
Rule reviewed against the instrument: S.R. 2022/292 regulation 3(1)(b) prohibits fishing for sea-fish with demersal mobile gear here, year-round. Demersal mobile gear includes dredges, demersal trawls and demersal seines, so there is no seine carve-out. The only exception is a named-person permit for scientific, stocking or fishery-improvement purposes.
Prohibits fishing for sea-fish by mobile gear in this area which is within a marine protected area designated under The Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 and the Marine Act (Northern Ireland) 2013.
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.
No cases have been recorded in this closure. That is not a finding that nothing happens here — it means our sweeps have not flagged anything inside these boundaries, and coverage depends on satellite passes and on vessels being tracked at all.
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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