Fishery Limits Act 1964

1British fishery limits

(1)For the purposes of the Sea Fisheries Acts the fishery limits of the British Islands shall be the seas surrounding the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man to a distance of twelve miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured and shall be divided into—

(a)the exclusive fishery limits, that is to say, the said fishery limits to a distance of six miles from those baselines; and

(b)the remainder, in this section referred to as " the outer belt".

(2)The following provisions shall have effect with respect to foreign fishing boats within the outer belt—

(a)if the boat is not registered in a country for the time being designated under this Act, section 7 of the Sea Fisheries Act 1883 shall apply as it applies with respect to the exclusive fishery limits ;

(b)if the boat is registered in a country for the time being so designated, the boat shall not fish or attempt to fish except in an area and for any description of sea fish so designated in relation to that country;

and any contravention of this subsection shall be treated as a contravention of the said section 7.

(3)For the purpose of giving effect to any Convention, agreement or arrangement providing for sea-fishing by foreign fishing boats the Ministers may by order designate any country outside the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and the area in which and descriptions of sea fish for which fishing boats registered in that country may fish in the outer belt, and any such order shall be made by statutory instrument and may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order so made.

(4)Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of this section, the fishery limits of the British Islands shall not include any part of the sea which is beyond the median line between the coasts of England or the Channel Islands and France, that is to say a line every point of which is equidistant from the nearest points on the low water lines of those coasts or any other line agreed between the government of the United Kingdom and the government of France.