Species collected from UK waters may, in legal terms, be divided into ‘sea fish’ and other species.

Sea fish are species that are made subject to fisheries legislation. This definition includes only fish, crustacea and molluscs (the latter two are referred to as ‘shellfish’). There is a public right to collect these species for commercial sale and for personal use from public sea fisheries throughout the UK, subject to legislative controls (including Several and Regulating Orders). Sea fish may be used for bait or for food. As far as the legislation is concerned, the end use is irrelevant.

Species that are not sea fish include marine worms that are often used as bait. These and certain other species do not form part of the public sea fisheries in the UK. Their collection is not regulated by fisheries legislation or by any other statute, but there is no public right to collect these species other than for personal use as bait. In other words, this collection must be in order to provide bait for a fishing activity and not for resale. Bait worms may only be taken commercially with the permission of the landowner (with a few exceptions where customary or private rights exist, discussed in more detail in Chapter 4). The situation with regard to the collection of other ‘non-sea fish’ species such as echinoderms, tunicates and seaweeds has not been tested in UK case law, and is outside the scope of this study.

Fisheries byelaws must apply equally to all recreational, part time and full time commercial fishermen. In practice, although shore crab Carcinus maenus is a sea fish, there is apparently no regulation of shore crab collection for bait under fisheries legislation. Other crabs, which are also taken in commercial fisheries, are subject to legal minimum landing sizes and these would apply equally to shore collection by hand. Mussels and oysters were removed from the public fishery in Scotland by The Mussels Fisheries (Scotland) Act 1847 and The Oyster Fisheries (Scotland) Act 1840. These species now belong to the Crown and rights to fish commercially for them are managed by the Crown Estate Commissioners through issuing licenses.

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