Fisheries (Consolidation) Act, 1959
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Prohibition of certain methods of trawling within the exclusive fishery limits of the State. |
223.—(1) The Minister may from time to time by bye-law prohibit (at the option of the Minister either, as may be specified in such bye-law, absolutely or unless such conditions as the Minister thinks fit to insert in such bye-law are complied with) the use, within the waters of any specified area (being an area within the exclusive fishery limits of the State), in or from either, as may be specified in such bye-law, any boat or any boat of a specified class, of any method of trawling or seining (including fishing by means of any kind of net hauled along the bottom of the sea whether by a moving boat or by any mechanical appliance in an anchored boat), and different bye-laws may be made in respect of different classes of boats and different methods of fishing. | |
(2) Every person who acts or attempts to act in contravention of any bye-law made under this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof, in the case of a first offence under this section, to a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds, and in the case of a second or any subsequent offence under this section to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds. | ||
(3) Where a person is convicted of an offence under this section, any fishing gear by means of which the offence was committed shall, as a statutory consequence of conviction, stand forfeited. | ||
(4) Where— | ||
(a) a third or any subsequent offence under this section has been committed on board the same boat, whether the person convicted is or is not the same person on each occasion, and | ||
(b) such boat is at the time of the commission of such offence owned or part owned by a person who was the owner or part owner of such boat on the occasion of the commission of the previous offences, | ||
the Court may, in addition to any other penalty or penalties under this section, order such boat to be forfeited. | ||
(5) Any bye-law made under the Steam Trawling (Ireland) Act, 1889, which by virtue of section 46 of the Fisheries (Statute Law Revision) Act, 1949 (No. 27 of 1949), is in force immediately before the operative date, shall, notwithstanding the repeal of the last mentioned Act, continue in force and be deemed to be a bye-law made under this section. |