Dams & Nets

Where a dam is constructed in a river, a fish pass sufficient to permit the free passage through of salmon, trout, and eel shall be provided and maintained by the owner. This does not apply to require a fish pass in connection with certain dams erected before 1842 unless certain conditions apply.

The Department may exempt the requirement if it is satisfied, having regard to the nature of the dam or the river or the kinds of fish frequenting or likely to frequent it, that it is unnecessary or unreasonable to insist upon compliance. There are provisions in relation to the grant of an exemption. There is provision for appeal against exemption to the Appeals Commission.

Every fish pass is to be constructed in accordance with plans, sections, and specifications approved by the Department. The cost shall be borne by the person constructing the dam or, in other cases, the owner. If a person fails to provide a fish pass in a dam, notice may be given by the Department to provide the same, and in default, the Department itself may provide the fish pass. Any person who takes or kills fish in a fish pass or uses any fishing engine or places any obstacle or contrivance of any kind or does anything at or near the pass in order to prevent or deter fish from freely passing at all times or authorises persons to do so is guilty of an offence.

The Department may cause the obstacle or obstruction to be removed. In certain circumstances, the owner or occupier may be deemed guilty of the offence, if it is done under their control, knowledge, or connivance or through default of reasonable precaution, where the person who committed the offence is unknown and cannot be found.

No person may use any fish engine other than a rod and line from any position on a dam or a place within 200 metres above or below a dam or use a rod and line from any position on or within five metres or other distance as may be prescribed above or below any dam. Contravention is an offence.

Any person who at any time in a pool, work, or watercourse appurtenant to a mill wilfully takes or kills any fishes or uses a fishing engine for the purpose of taking or obstructing fish is guilty of an offence. He is liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to £500 or imprisonment up to six months or both. The above does not apply to the lawful use of a rod and line for the taking of fish otherwise than during the annual close season for angling for fish of that kind.

Under certain circumstances, the occupier may be guilty of the offence. Similarly, where the offence is committed and the person committing the offence is unknown or cannot be found, the owner or occupier may be found guilty, if it appears to have been done by a person in their employment or with their knowledge, connivance, or through the default of reasonable precaution.

If there is a fish pass in a dam belonging to a mill or if the dam is a weir or is not provided with a channel suitable for the passage of fish, the mill sluice nearest to the point where the water is abstracted from a river for the mill and the waste gates or over-fall shall be kept shut for twenty-four consecutive hours in each week between six o’clock on Saturday afternoon and six o’clock the next-following Monday morning or during any other period the mill is not being worked.

If there is no fish pass in the dam belonging to the mill or if the waste gate on the upstream side of the mill sluices is erected in a channel suitable for the passage of fish, the mill sluices shall be kept shut and the waste gate kept open during the periods specified above. The occupier may be guilty of an offence.

There are exemptions for the mill occupier subject to certain conditions, including under a certificate issued by the Department permitting exemption subject to compliance with alternative conditions. There are provisions applicable to the grant, revocation, and variation of the certificate.

Where a watercourse carries water from a river or lake, there shall be placed, at the points where the watercourse diverges from and returns to the river or lake, gratings extending across the whole width of the watercourse and from the bottom of the bed or sill thereof to the level of the highest floodwaters. The spaces between the bars are specified.

During the months of March to May or at any other time when fry of salmon or trout are descending the river or lake, there shall be placed over the entire surface of every grating, a wire lattice of such dimensions to effectually prevent the admission of fry or small fish into the watercourse. Every such grating and wire lattice shall be securely fixed in a permanent manner so as to prevent its being removed or opened and shall be kept in constant repair.

Failure on the part of the owner or occupier constitutes an offence. It is an offence to interfere with the grating or wire lattice. If in relation to the watercourse, the Department is satisfied that there are sufficient arrangements other than those mentioned above to prevent the admission of fish or fry into the watercourse, an exemption may be granted.

An exemption may be granted if the watercourse supplies a mill to which there belongs a dam, there is no fish pass in that dam, the waste gate on the upstream side of the mill sluices is erected in a channel suitable for the passage of fish and the exemption from the obligations is necessary to permit the passage of a fish, the Minister may grant a permit in writing, granting such exemption.

It is an offence to use or possess or control, in or on the bank or near waters of any lake, river, or estuary, any light or fire or any electrical or acoustical apparatus of any kind for the purpose of fishing. Use, possession, or control of any such constitutes an offence. It is an offence to throw, release, or discharge any missile or object into the water for the purpose of taking or killing any salmon, trout, or rainbow trout.

An instrument includes any tailor, snare, spear, gaff, or other instrument of a similar kind or any device or instrument calculated in the course of normal use to foul-hook any fish. It does not include a tailor used or to be used solely as an auxiliary to lawful angling between sunrise and one hour after sunset; a tailor used or to be used by the holder of a fishing licence in respect of any box in a fishing weir solely for the purpose of removing fish lawfully from it; an eel spear used for taking eels.

Breach of the above constitutes an offence subject to summary conviction to a fine of up to £500. It is an offence to take or fish for salmon or trout by means of cross lines in any river. Cross lines mean fishing lines reaching from one position to another across water or fixed or held at each of their ends and having attached one or more baited hooks, lures, artificial or otherwise.

The owner or occupier of an eel weir who takes or allows to be taken any salmon or trout is guilty of an offence. He is liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to £500 or six months’ imprisonment or both. It is a good defence to prove that the salmon or trout were unintentionally caught and immediately thrown back without avoidable injury.

If a person dams, teems, or empties any river or millrace for the purpose of drawing any salmon or trout, he is guilty of an offence, liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to £500 or six months’ imprisonment or both. If a person uses nets in such a manner as to obtain the same advantage he would have obtained by using a net of the meshes smaller than those permitted under the legislation, uses nets covered with canvas, hide, or other substance for the purpose of taking small fish, affixes or keeps up continued nets stretched across a river, he is guilty of an offence.

This does not apply to a net used in the sea or estuary solely for the purpose of dredging shell-fish. In the sea or tidal portion of a river, any person who uses any net to which the provision applies with a mesh of less than 4.4 centimetres from knot to knot, measured along the side of the square, or 17.6 centimetres measured all round each such mesh, is guilty of an offence. The Department may permit the use of nets less than the size by regulation.

The provision applies to any net or other engine which is not formed of rigid material and which is used for the taking of salmon. In the sea or in the tidal portion of a water, any person who uses an engine to which the following provision applies with meshes or engines less than 7.5 centimetres on each side of the square or where no meshes or openings of the nature of reticulations are used, of less width between the bars than 5 centimetres is guilty of an offence. Section applies to an engine formed of rigid material and used for the purpose of taking salmon.