I move that this Bill be now read a second time. The object of the Bill is to protect under-sized and immature fish from the ordinary methods of fishing. Numerous complaints have been received from time to time from fishermen all over the country that under-sized and immature fish were being caught and sold at a cheap rate, and in that way were bringing down the price of fish generally, thereby depriving our fisheries of a fuller supply of fish later on. Regulations of the nature provided for in this Bill are already in force in most Western European countries. Measures similar to this will, it may be assumed, be adopted by all the countries adhering to the International Convention signed on the 23rd March of this year by the representatives of this and nine other countries, namely, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Sweden. All the signatories undertook to enforce provisions similar to this within their own fishery limits and in their own boats. The regulations made relate to the effective size of the mesh of the net, and impose limits on the size of the fish landed or offered for sale. The fishes dealt with are: cod, haddock, hake, plaice, witches, lemon sole, black sole, turbot, brill and megrims.
This Bill is an enabling Bill. It empowers the Minister to prescribe the minimum size of the mesh of nets, and the minimum size of the fish to be landed or marketed. The size to be so prescribed will be based on the recommendations of the International Council for the Study of the Sea whose headquarters are at Copenhagen. The regulations will, of course, be applicable to all our own sea fishing boats, as well as to any others found within our exclusive fishery limits. The sections of the Bill are, I think, self-explanatory. Perhaps I should explain that Section 8 adopts certain provisions of the Sea Fisheries Protection Act, 1933, and tell Deputies what these provisions are. Under that Act a sea fisheries protection officer has power to stop any ship within our fishery limits for the purpose of identifying that ship or of boarding that ship. Our protection officer may board the ship and may require the master or crew to produce its certificate of identity, and also the log book or any other documents which may be kept that he is concerned with. He may ask for an explanation of anything that he may find in these log books or documents. He may take the name and address of any person on board. If he suspects the ship of being engaged in any illegal practice, he may take the ship to the nearest or most convenient port, and may use force in doing any of these things. That Act also provides for fine or imprisonment on any person obstructing or impeding the protection officer in the exercise of his duty, and it indemnifies him against legal proceedings in respect of anything he did under the authority of the Act. The Act further authorises the protection officer to hold the boat at port pending the institution of legal proceedings before a justice of the District Court, or a peace commissioner, and authorises the hearing of the case by a district justice. It provides for the detention of the boat pending the hearing of an appeal. The Act provides for the recovery of fines and for the prosecution of any person at the suit of the Minister. Section 9 of the Bill is taken substantially from the 1925 Act. Section 24 of the Fisheries Act of 1925 is almost the same as Section 9 of this Bill.