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WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - LONG TITLE

An Act to regulate Whale Fisheries in Ireland{1}.
[1st August 1908]
Prohibition of exercise of whaling industry without licence.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 1

1. No person shall, in any part of Ireland, land any whale, or
engage in any way in the manufacture from whales of oil or other
primary products, without a licence granted and issued subject to
the conditions herein-after provided, and any person acting in
contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence under
this Act, and shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty
not exceeding five hundred pounds.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 2
Granting of licences by the fishery authority on certain conditions.

2. It shall be lawful for the fishery authority to issue licences
under this Act, subject to the following conditions:

(1)A person applying to the fishery authority for a licence shall,
at least two months before making such application, publish notice
thereof once in each of two consecutive weeks, with an interval
between each publication of not less than six days, in one or more
newspaper or newspapers circulating in the district in which the
factory or station existing or to be erected is situate: Such
notice shall state the name and address of the applicant, and shall
contain a description of the site or intended site of the factory
or station where the process of manufacture as aforesaid is to be
conducted:

(2)It shall be lawful for the council of any county, county
district, or county borough in which the factory or station existing
or to be erected is situate, or for any person interested, within
fourteen days after the publication of such notice as aforesaid, to
lodge with the fishery authority objections to the granting of any
such licence, and the fishery authority shall consider any such
objections, and, after such inquiry, if any, as they may think
necessary, shall grant or refuse such licence:

(3)Each licence shall contain a description of the site of the
factory or station erected or proposed to be erected as aforesaid,
and no such factory or station shall be removed from the site in
the said licence described to any other site, unless and until such
other site shall have been approved by the fishery authority, and
their approval shall have been endorsed on the licence:

(4)The licence shall specify the number of whaling steamers (not
exceeding three) that may be used or employed by the holder, and
no whaling steamer in excess of the number specified in the licence
shall be used or employed by the holder:

(5)No licence shall be granted except to a British subject or to a
company registered in Great Britain or Ireland:

(6)The fishery authority may at any time, on the application of the
holder of a licence, cancel the licence; but it shall not be
lawful to transfer or assign any licence without the consent of the
fishery authority, and any transfer or assignment shall be endorsed
upon the licence:

(7)There shall be paid to the fishery authority in respect of every
licence issued under the provisions of this Act a sum of two
hundred pounds if the licence authorises the use or employment of
three whaling steamers, the sum of one hundred and fifty pounds if
the licence authorises the use or employment of two whaling
steamers, and the sum of one hundred pounds if the licence
authorises the use or employment of one whaling steamer, and such
sum shall be paid to the fishery authority on the issue of the
licence and thereafter annually during its continuance:

(8)Every licence shall be subject to all the conditions contained in
this Act, or any byelaw made in pursuance of this Act, and it
shall be lawful for the fishery authority, in the event of the
infringement of any such condition by the holder of a licence, or
of the conviction of such holder or any person employed by him of
an offence under this Act, or under any byelaw made in pursuance
of this Act, without compensation to cancel any licence or to
suspend any licence for a specified period.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 3
Offences by holder of licence and others.

3.(1) No holder of a licence or person employed by him shall in
the prosecution of the whaling industry use any vessel, other than
the whaling steamer from or by which a whale shall have been
captured or killed, for the purpose of bringing or towing such
whale to or towards any factory or station for manufacture.

(2) Every whaling steamer employed by the holder of a licence shall
carry such distinctive mark as the fishery authority, with the
consent of the Board of Trade, may from time to time prescribe,
and such mark shall be specified in the licence.

(3) No holder of a licence or person employed by him shall use,
in the pursuit or capture of whales, any method or contrivance
which does not include a harpoon with a whaling line attached
thereto, and fixed or fastened to the whaling steamer from which
the whale is captured or killed.

(4) No person shall pursue, kill, or shoot at any whale [within
[waters within British fishery limits which are adjacent to Northern
Ireland and are not nearer to any point on the baselines from
which the breadth of the territorial sea adjacent to Great Britain
or the Isle of Man is measured than to any point on the
corresponding Northern Irish baselines]], and no holder of a licence
or person employed by him shall pursue, kill, or shoot at any
whale within the distance of one mile from any boat or vessel
lying at anchor or engaged in fishing.

(5) No holder of a licence or person employed by him shall pursue,
kill, or shoot whales between the first day of November in any
year and the thirty-first day of March in the year following, both
days inclusive; or during such other period of the year (not
exceeding five weeks) within such distance (not exceeding twenty
miles) of any particular part of the coast of Ireland as may be
prescribed by the fishery authority, and no holder of a licence or
person employed by him shall during the prohibited period land any
whale killed in contravention of this section.

(6) In this section the expression "mile" means a nautical mile.

(7) Any person acting in contravention of this section shall be
guilty of an offence under this Act.

(8) Where a whale which has been lawfully shot at and struck shall
carry with it a fixed line within an area prohibited in terms of
this section, nothing in this section contained shall make it
unlawful to continue the pursuit of such whale and to kill it in
such area.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 4
Inspection of whaling factories, &c.

4. Holders of licences and all persons employed by them shall give
all reasonable facilities for inspection by the fishery authority,
and the officers of that authority, of all factories or stations
and vessels employed by the holders of licences, and shall make
such returns on any matters connected with their whaling business as
the fishery authority may from time to time prescribe, and, if
required by the fishery authority, shall verify such returns by
statutory declaration.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 5
Saving for certain whales and whaling industries.

5. Nothing in this Act contained shall make it unlawful for any
person to pursue any of the whaling industries commonly followed in
Arctic or Antarctic waters, or to engage in the manufacture of oil
or other products from whales captured in the exercise of any such
industry.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 6
Penalties.

6. Any person guilty of an offence under this Act shall, save as
otherwise provided, be liable on conviction to a penalty not
exceeding one hundred pounds.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 7
Byelaws.

7.(1) The fishery authority may make byelaws for all or any of the
following purposes, that is to say:

(a)Prohibiting the use of any engine or implement in the pursuit,
capture, or towing of whales, or any method of whaling which is in
the opinion of that authority injurious to fisheries;

(b)Regulating the methods of manufacturing oil or other products from
whales and the disposal of refuse;

(2) By any byelaw made under this section the fishery authority may
impose a fine for the breach of any such byelaw not exceeding ten
pounds for any one offence and may direct the forfeiture or
destruction of any engine or implement used or attempted to be used
in contravention of any such byelaw, and every rope, line, tackle,
warp, iron and other thing attached to or used with such engine or
implement.

(3) Any engine, implement, rope, line, tackle, warp, iron or other
thing which is under any such byelaw liable to be forfeited or
destroyed may be seized by any duly authorised officer of the
fishery authority or any officer appointed by the fishery authority
for the purposes of the Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1842, and shall
when seized be dealt with in the manner provided by section one
hundred and three of the said Act, and for the purpose of such
seizure any such officer may go on board any vessel engaged in
whaling.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 8
Legal proceedings and application of fees and penalties.

8.(1) All offences under this Act may be prosecuted, and all
penalties, costs, or expenses imposed or recoverable under this Act
may be recovered in a summary manner, and a summons in respect of
any such offence may be served upon the person to whom it is
directed in any part of the United Kingdom.

(2) Section eighty-nine (which relates to the powers of officers)
and section ninety-six (which relates to the jurisdiction of
magistrates of maritime counties) of the Fisheries (Ireland) Act,
1842, shall apply, with the necessary modifications, for the purposes
of this Act.

(3) All licence fees, penalties, and moneys paid or recovered under
this Act shall, notwithstanding any provision in any other Act, be
paid to the fishery authority, and shall be applied by that
authority for the purposes of sea fisheries as defined by the
Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899, or any Act
amending that Act.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 9
Interpretation.

9. In this Act the expression "whaling steamer" includes any ship
used for the purpose of capturing or killing whales, whether
propelled by steam power or otherwise; and the expression "fishery
authority" means the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction for Ireland; and the expressions "county district" and
"county borough" have the same meanings respectively as in the Local
Government (Ireland) Act, 1898.

WHALE FISHERIES (IRELAND) ACT 1908 - SECT 10
Application and short title.

10.(1) This Act shall apply to Ireland only ...

(2) This Act may be cited as the Whale Fisheries (Ireland) Act,
1908.