The Fishing Boats (Marking and Documentation) (Enforcement) Order 1993

Powers of British sea-fishery officers in relation to fishing boats

7.—(1) For the purposes of enforcing article 3 of this Order, a British sea-fishery officer may exercise—

(a) in relation to any British fishing boat wherever it may be, or

(b) in relation to any Community fishing boat or any Islands fishing boat, which is within British fishery limits,

the powers conferred by paragraphs (2) to (5) of this article.

(2) He may—

(a) require the boat to stop and do anything else to enable him to board it;

(b) go on board the boat;

(c) take with him, to assist him in performing his functions, any other person and any equipment or materials;

(d) require the attendance of the master of the boat or any other person on board;

(e) require any person on board to assist him in the performance of his functions; and

(f) make any examination or inquiry which appears to him to be necessary and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, he may in particular—

(i) examine any fish rooms and the equipment of the boat;

(ii) require the production of any document relating to the boat or to its fishing operations or other operations ancillary to its fishing operations;

(iii) search the boat for any such document, and require any person on board the boat to do anything which appears to the officer to be necessary for facilitating the search; and

(iv) take copies of any such document.

(3) If a British sea-fishery officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence under article 3 of this Order has been committed within British fishery limits, he may seize and detain any document produced to him or found on board the boat, and the officer—

(a) may require the master to take, or may himself take, the boat and its crew to the port which appears to the officer to be the nearest convenient port; and

(b) may detain the boat in the port.

(4) Nothing in paragraph (2) of this article shall permit any document required by law to be carried on board any boat to be seized or detained except while the boat is detained in a port.

(5) If a British sea-fishery officer detains a boat, he shall serve on the master a notice stating that it is to be detained until the notice is withdrawn by the service on him of a further notice in writing signed by a British sea-fishery officer.