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 2026-11-06.
Fishing for sea fish with a demersal trawl (beam or bottom) or a dredge. Demersal seine nets are not prohibited.
Article 13(2): "Fishing for sea fish with a demersal trawl or dredge is prohibited in the Norwegian Boundary Sediment Plain Second Protected Area." Article 13(3): Part 2 of schedule 11. Article 2: "demersal trawl" means a beam trawl or a bottom trawl.
Article 13(2) of the Offshore Fishing Order 2025 bans fishing with a demersal trawl (beam or bottom trawl) or a dredge in the Norwegian Boundary Sediment Plain Second Protected Area, year-round. Demersal seine nets are not covered, so a seiner fishing here is not within the ban. There is no other exception, season or permit.
Demersal mobile gear (other than demersal seines) 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.
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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