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Where, in the opinion of the Committee (IFCA), in any fishery, any bed or part of a bed of shellfish within the District is so severely depleted as to require temporary closure in order to ensure recovery, or any bed or part of a bed contains mainly immature shellfish which in the interest of the protection and development of the fishery ought not to be disturbed for the time being, or any bed of transplanted shellfish ought not to be fished until it has become established, and where the bed, or part of thereof, has been clearly defined in notices displayed in the vicinity prohibiting the removal or disturbance of the shellfish, no person shall, without the written authority of the Committee (IFCA), while the bed or part thereof is so defined, take away or otherwise disturb any shellfish therein.
Application for authority from the Committee (IFCA) to take away or otherwise disturb any shellfish in a bed which is temporarily closed, in pursuance of the byelaw specified above, should be made in writing to the undersigned.
Any person who takes any shellfish, the removal of which is prohibited by any byelaw in force in the District, or the possession of which is prohibited by any regulation of the European Communities, Act of Parliament or Statutory Instrument, shall forthwith re-deposit the same, without injury, as near as possible to the place from which it was taken.
No person shall take, remove or disturb any cockle unless a permit to do so has been issued by the Committee (IFCA). A permit shall be available to all applicants.
Permits issued by the Committee (IFCA) shall be valid until the following 31st December and are issued on the condition that the holder of the permit shall complete and return to the Committee (IFCA), by no later than the 5th day of each month, a record of daily catch, actual fishing time and fishing area. Such information shall be submitted on a form provided by the Committee (IFCA).
Applications for a permit under this byelaw are to be made in such form as the Committee (IFCA) shall determine.
Permits shall not be transferable.
(a) No person shall, without the written consent of the IFCA, remove from the fishery mussels of which more than 10% by weight, of a representative sample, will pass through a space 18mm in width. A representative sample will consist of no less than 3 samples of 10 kilograms of mussels taken from different parts of the catch. Catches of mussels that do not meet this criteria, and also rejected small mussels, must be returned immediately to the seabed.
(b) collection of seed mussels – The Committee (IFCA) will give written consent to all applicants to allow the removal of mussels below the minimum size from a specified area and during a specified period of time provided that:
(i) Representative samples taken from the area show that the size of seed mussels within that area are above a modal size of 15mm shell length or that the seed mussels are at a population density above 10,000 per square metre that they are likely to suffer from stunted growth or high mortality.
For the purpose of this section of the byelaw a representative sample will consist of at least 10 samples of 3kg taken from different parts of the mussel bed; and
(ii) Account has been taken of any scientific advice it has received in relation to the best conditions for the sustainability of the fishery and the results of any relevant surveys
No person shall remove any oyster cultch from any oyster ground.
For the purpose of this byelaw “cultch” shall be taken to mean the shells of dead molluscs and any other material suitable for the reception of oyster spat.
No person shall fish for or take periwinkles or winkles otherwise than by hand picking
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