Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries Committee jurisdiction and territory

These byelaws apply to any part of the district within a line drawn on the seaward side of baselines 6 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea adjacent to the United Kingdom is measured.  For the purpose of this paragraph “the baselines” means the baselines as they existed at 25 January 1983 in accordance with the Territorial Waters Order in Council 1964 (1965 III p.6452A) as amended by the Territorial Waters (Amendment) Order in Council 1979 (1979 II p.2866)”.

The district extends from the boundary of the administrative County of Essex in the River Stour to the old lighthouse at Dungeness in the County of Kent, the precise limits of which are defined in the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries District (Variation) Order 1980 made by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on 25 November 1980, the Sea Fisheries Districts (Variation) Order 1993 made by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on 19th October 1993, and the Kent and Essex Sea Fisheries District (Variation) Order 1995 made by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on 23rd May 1995.

Under the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1966, as amended by the Fishery Limits Act 1976, any person who contravenes these byelaws or where any vessel is used for fishing in any manner constituting a contravention of these byelaws, that person, or the skipper and the owner of the vessel concerned shall, subject as therein mentioned, each be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine.   In addition, the court by which a person is convicted of an offence, as above-mentioned, may also order the forfeiture of any net or other fishing gear used in committing the offence any fish in respect of which the offence was committed.

The provisions of these byelaws are without prejudice to any historic right of Several Fishery, Act of Parliament Royal Charter or other rights that exist within the District as referred to in Section 6 of the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1966.