Regulations
Loughs Agency has a range of statutory functions which it carries out in accordance with primary legislation. The key legislative provisions for the Foyle and Carlingford areas are the Foyle Fisheries Act (Northern Ireland) 1952 and the Foyle Fisheries Act 1952. These set out Loughs Agency’s enforcement powers.
Under the Foyle Fisheries acts, Loughs Agency also has the authority to make secondary legislation. This wide-ranging power is used to enhance and conserve the Foyle and Carlingford fisheries.
Secondary Legislation
Title | Explanatory Text | Commercial | Recreational |
|---|---|---|---|
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Angling) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 | Amends the Angling Regulations by prohibiting angling on a stretch of the River Finn upstream of Cloghan Bridge, County Donegal. | √ | |
Regulations to prescribe permitted methods of angling, establish prohibitions and restrctions on angling including the use of bait, the use of boats, and or the size on number of fish that can be retained. It also prescribes what to do in the event of unsuccessful catch and release. | √ | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Close Seasons for Angling) (Amendment) Regulations 2004 | Amends the Angling Regulations to bringing forward the beginning of the close season in the River Strule and its tributaries upstream of its confluence with the River Owenkillew from 21st October to 13th September. | √ | |
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Close Seasons for Angling) Regulations 2001 | These regulations specify the close seasons for angling for salmon and trout in the waters of the Foyle and Carlingford Areas | √ | |
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) (Amendment No.2) Regulations 2003 | These regulations amend the Licensing of Fishing Engines Regulations by prescribing a coarse fishing licence fee and prescribing fees for licences and commercial nets. | √ | √ |
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) (Amendment No.2) Regulations 2007 | These regulations amend the Licensing of Fishing Engines Regulations by amending the licensing requirements on drift nets | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 | These regulations amend the Licensing of Fishing Engines Regulations by introducing a prohibition on fishing for eels except under licence, lowering the prices of various licences, and replacing the one day licence with a three-day licence. | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) (Amendment) Regulations 2004 | These regulations amend the Licensing of Fishing Engines Regulations by amending the fees charged for various licences | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) (Amendment) Regulations 2007 | Regulation to amend the dates by which applications for commercial salmon licences must reach the Commission | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 | These regulations amend the Licensing of Fishing Engines Regulations by amending the fees charged for various licences | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) Regulations 2001 | These regulations prescribe the requirement to have a licence to use any fishing engine in the Foyle and Carlingford areas. The Regulations specify how an application can be made and how payment may be made for a fishing engine licence. It also prohibits netting in certain locations. The schedule to the Regulation prescribes the fees to be charged for each type of licence. | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Tagging and Logbook) (Amendment) Regulations 2007 | These regulations amend the logbook which anglers must complete, and amend regulations to reflect the introduction of different-coloured tags | ||
Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Tagging and Logbook) Regulations 2001 | The regulations require every person who is licensed to fish for wild salmon and sea trout to affix a gill tag to every wild salmon or sea trout captured and retained by them. It also sets out the Regulations in relation to tagging fish and the issuing of tags to licence holders. It also regulates the issue of logbooks and prescibes the format of these logbooks. | ||
The Carlingford Area (Definition of the Mouth of the Clanrye River) Regulations 2016 | Regulation to introduce a defined mouth for the Clanrye River. | ||
These regulations establish the price for permits issued by the Loughs Agency for the River Finn and River Foyle | √ | ||
The Foyle Area (Complimentary Angling Permit) (River Finn and River Foyle) Regulations 2014 | Regulations which allow the Loughs Agency to issue complementary permits for the River Finn and River Foyle to certain classes of people | √ | |
The Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 | These regulations amend the Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulations 2010 by making an amendment to the definition of “catch and release”, increasing the minimum gape of hook permitted for use while angling for salmon, sea trout or brown trout from 7 mm to 12 mm in any waters to which restrictions to angling to catch and release applies. | √ | √ |
The regulations provide a mechanism for the Loughs Agency to suspend netting or angling activities on specified rivers and other water bodies, or to restrict angling to catch and release on certain rivers/lakes/loughs. The regulations also specify the conditions which need to be met for this to occur. They also make provision for the suspension of netting and/or angling in specified rivers/lakes/loughs during periods of either drought or flood. | √ | √ | |
The Foyle Area (Greenbraes Fishery Angling Permits) Regulations 2012 | These regulations prescribe the fees payable to the Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission for the issue of Greenbraes Fishery angling permits. | √ | |
The Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Angling) (Amendment) Regulations 2009 | These regulations amend the Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Angling) Regulations 2001 by prohibiting angling on stretches of the Rivers Mourne, Strule and Clanrye adjacent to fish counters and their associated dams. | √ | |
The Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Angling) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 | These regulations amend the Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Angling) Regulations 2001 by: (a)prohibiting the retention of salmon, sea trout and brown trout taken by rod and line from the specified stretches of the Rivers Finn and Foyle; (b)prohibiting the use or attempted use of a hook other than a single barbless hook, the gape of which does not exceed 7mm (now 12mm), while angling for salmon, sea trout or brown trout in the specified stretches of the Rivers Finn and Foyle; and (c)prohibiting the use or attempted use of any earthworm as a bait while angling for salmon, sea trout or brown trout in the specified stretches of the Rivers Finn and Foyle. | √ | |
The Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Angling) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 | These regulations amend the Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Angling) Regulations 2001 by: (a)permitting the use of bubble and fly method on specified Department owned waters; (b)increasing the minimum gape of hook permitted for use while angling for salmon, sea trout or brown trout from 7 mm to 12 mm in the specified stretches of the Rivers Finn and Foyle; (c)prohibiting the use or attempted use of matter of vegetable origin or maggots as a bait while angling on specified Department owned waters; (d)providing that on any one day only four fish, being either brown trout or rainbow trout, or a combination of both, may be taken by rod and line and retained on specified Department owned waters; (e)increasing the minimum gape of hook permitted for use while angling for salmon, sea trout or brown trout from 7 mm to 12 mm in any other waters to which restrictions to angling to catch and release applies; (f)permitting fly fishing only on Lough Brickland; and (g)extending the restriction of angling to catch and release to the remainder of the River Foyle. | √ | |
The Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Coarse Angling) Regulations 2009 | These regulations prohibit the killing of certain species of coarse fish by rod and line in the Foyle and Carlingford Areas. The Regulation specifies the species which are regarded as coarse fish in the Foyle and Carlingford areas. | √ | |
The Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Conservation of Eels) Regulations 2009 | These regulations apply to the Foyle Area and Carlingford Area and prohibit the catching of eels by any mode other than by rod and line. They also provide that eels caught by rod and line are returned to the waters from where they were caught without avoidable injury and prohibit the sale of eels caught by rod and line. | ||
The Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) (Amendment) Regulations 2009 | These regulations amend the Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) Regulations 2001 by — (a)removing references to drift nets used wholly to seaward of Lough Foyle, and drift nets used partly in Lough Foyle and partly seaward of the seaward limit of Lough Foyle; (b)removing references to draft nets used wholly in the waters of the Foyle Area elsewhere than in the tidal waters of the River Foyle or the River Roe upstream of the defined mouth; (c)removing references to stake nets and to bag nets and fixed draft nets; (d)introducing a concessionary coarse fishing rod and line licence for a person holding a season coarse fishing rod and line licence issued by the Fisheries Conservancy Board for Northern Ireland; (e)introducing a juvenile coarse fishing rod and line licence; | √ | √ |
These regulations prohibit the sale of rod and line caught salmon or sea trout within the Foyle Area or the Carlingford Area. | √ | ||
These regulations prescribe certain kinds of fish for the purposes of section 35A of the Foyle Fisheries Act 1952 and section 35A of the Foyle Fisheries Act (Northern Ireland) 1952 – the requirement to have a licence to fish for these fish species – and make consequential amendments of the Foyle and Carlingford Area (Licensing of Fishing Engines) Regulations 2001. | |||
The Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Tagging and Logbook) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 | These regulations amend the Foyle Area and Carlingford Area (Tagging and Logbook) Regulations 2001 by prohibiting the possession of forged or altered tags. | √ | |
The regulations provide for an annual close season in the Foyle Area from 1st August to 14th June in the following year with the exception of the River Roe where a separate annual close season from 15th August to 30th June in the following year applies. The Regulations also provide for a change in the annual close season for netting salmon in the River Foyle, Lough Foyle and the waters seaward of Lough Foyle from 8th August to 14th June in the following year if the number of salmon counted over the Sion Mills Weir on the River Mourne exceeds 8,000 during the period 1st May to 24th July. | √ | √ | |
Foyle Area (Control of Drift and Draft Net Fishing) (Amendment) Regulations 2007 | These regulations amend the Foyle Area (Control of Drift and Draft Net Fishing) Regulations 2004, and prescribe the maximum number of licences which the Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission may issue for drift and draft net fishing in the tidal waters of the Foyle Area. In particular these Regulations prescribe that the maximum number of licences which may be issued in a calendar year shall be no more than the number of licences issued in the 2007 season, but not exceeding the maximum numbers specified in the substituted schedule to the Foyle Area (Control of Drift and Draft Net Fishing) Regulations 2004. These Regulations exclude the issue of licences for drift net fishing in the waters of the Foyle Area seawards of Lough Foyle. These Regulations provide that in consideration of monies paid or payable by the Commission, a person undertakes to make no further applications for a licence, and that person and any spouse or child of that person shall be precluded from being considered under the provisions of paragraphs (2) to (11) of regulation 4 if he applies for a licence. Applications for the 2007 season will be considered only from applicants who had a licence issued for Drift or Draft Net fishing in a minimum of one of the previous three calendar years. | √ |