Closed area · Scottish Government (Marine Scotland)
Bottom-towed gear prohibited
The Red Rocks and Longay Marine Conservation Order 2022 - SSI 2022 No. 372 · in force since 2023-02-09
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 2026-10-31.
Article 4(2): "The following activities are prohibited in the protected area" include (a) "the deployment (by any means) or use of any passive gear", (b) "the deployment (by any means) or use of any demersal gear", (c) "the deployment (by any means) or use of a rod and line or handline", (d) "the carrying out of any form of dredging". Article 2: "demersal gear" means any beam trawl, demersal seine net, demersal trawl or dredge. Article 4(3): gear carried on board must be lashed and stowed.
The deployment (by any means) or use of any: passive fishing gear, demersal fishing gear, rod and line or handline, fishing by hand, diving, and any form of dredging is 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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