Details of Provisions
This Section reserves the regulation of sea fishing outwith the Scottish zone.
The Scottish zone is defined in section 126(1) as meaning the sea within British fishery limits (that is, the limits set by or under section 1 of the Fishery Limits Act 1976) which is adjacent to Scotland. Section 1(1) of the 1976 Act provides that the British fishery limits extend 200 miles from the baselines from which the territorial sea of the United Kingdom is measured. Section 126(2) enables Her Majesty by Order in Council to make provision for determining (among other things) any boundary between waters which are to treated as sea within the British fisher limits which are adjacent to Scotland and those which are not. Such provision has been made in the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundary Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/1126).
This has the effect of providing that the Scottish Parliament can legislate to regulate sea fishing within the Scottish zone, even although it may be outwith Scotland (including the territorial seas adjacent to Scotland).