Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1978

Detention of boats and persons on board for 48 hours where certain offences suspected.

12.—Chapter IV of Part XIII of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion of the following section after section 233:

“233A. Where a sea fisheries protection officer has, in the exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 233, detained a boat and the persons on board the boat at a port, the officer shall (unless he is proceeding under section 234), as soon as may be, apply to a District Justice, or, where no District Justice is immediately available, a Peace Commissioner for an order authorising the continued detention of the boat and those persons and the District Justice or Peace Commissioner may grant an order authorising such detention for a period of 48 hours if he is satisfied that a contravention of a provision of Chapter II or III of Part XIII of the Principal Act by a person on board the boat is suspected by the sea fisheries protection officer: upon the expiration of the period of 48 hours—

(a) the boat shall be released unless an order providing for its further detention has been made under section 234 before the expiration of the said period of 48 hours, and

(b) each person on board the boat shall be released unless an order providing for his further detention has been made under the said section before the expiration of the said period.”.