Closed area · MMO
Bottom-towed gear prohibited
West of Walney Marine Conservation Zone (Specified Area) Bottom Towed Fishing Byelaw 2018
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 2026-11-11.
Byelaw paragraph 2: a person must not use bottom towed fishing gear in the specified area. Paragraph 2A (inserted by the MMO Marine Protected Areas Bottom Towed Fishing Gear Byelaw 2023, paragraph 9, from 22 March 2024): a vessel carrying bottom towed fishing gear within the specified area must have all of it inboard, lashed and stowed. Paragraph 1(a) as substituted: "bottom towed fishing gear" means any trawls, seines, dredges, or similar gear, including trawls towed on or very close to the seabed, which are actively moved in the water by one or more fishing vessels or by any other mechanised system and in which any part of the gear is designed and rigged to operate on, and be in contact with, the seabed in order to take any sea fisheries resources. Year-round, no seasonal or vessel-size limb.
Rule reviewed against the instrument: the MMO West of Walney MCZ (Specified Area) Bottom Towed Fishing Gear Byelaw 2018, as amended in 2024, bans the use of bottom towed fishing gear in the specified area year-round and requires any such gear carried there to be inboard, lashed and stowed. The definition names trawls, seines and dredges in contact with the seabed, so there is no demersal seine carve-out. The exceptions are a written MMO permission for scientific, stocking or breeding purposes, and a marine licence for an oil and gas decommissioning programme.
Bottom towed fishing prohibited. This byelaw was amended by: Marine Protected Areas Bottom Towed Fishing Gear Byelaw 2023 byelaw.
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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