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 demersal mobile gear.
Article 16(1): "Fishing for sea fish with demersal mobile gear is prohibited in the— (a) Solan Bank Reef First Protected Area, (b) ... Second ..., (c) ... Third ..., (d) ... Fourth ..., (e) ... Fifth Protected Area." Article 16(2): "Paragraph (1)(e) does not apply to sea fishing with a demersal trawl or a demersal seine net during the period beginning with 1 September and ending with 31 October in each year." Article 16(3): Parts 1-4 of schedule 14 for these areas. Article 2: "demersal mobile gear" means a demersal seine net, a demersal trawl (a beam trawl or a bottom trawl) or a dredge (mechanical or suction).
Article 16(1) of the Offshore Fishing Order 2025 bans fishing with demersal mobile gear (trawls, dredges and demersal seines) in the Solan Bank Reef First to Fourth Protected Areas, year-round. The September-October exception in article 16(2) applies only to the Fifth Protected Area, not to these four. There is no exception, season or permit here.
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.
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.
See it on the live map All closures we watch How CAUGHT works