Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

2.   Interpretation

In this Act unless the context otherwise requires—

“access agreement” means an agreement under section 7;

“aquaculture” includes mariculture;

“authorised officer” means any fisheries officer, any customs officer or police officer and any other person or category of persons designated as an authorised officer by the Minister under section 26;

“court” means a magistrate court;

“Chief Fisheries Officer” means the person appointed as Chief Fisheries Officer under section 3(2)(a);

“fish” means any aquatic animal, whether piscine or not and includes shellfish, turtles, mollusc, crustacean, coral, sponge, echinoderms, their young and their eggs;

“fish aggregating device” means any man-made or partly man-made floating or submerged device, whether anchored or not, intended for the purpose of aggregating fish, and includes any natural floating object on which a device has been placed to facilitate its location;

“fisheries officer” means the Chief Fisheries Officer, Fisheries Officer, or Assistant Fisheries Officer and such other officers appointed under section 3(2);

“fisheries plan” means the plan for the management and development of fisheries prepared under section 4;

“fishery” means one or more stocks of fish or fishing operations based on such stocks which can be treated as a unit for purposes of conservation and management and which are identified on the basis of geographical, scientific, technical, recreational and economic characteristics;

“fishery waters” means the waters of the exclusive economic zone, territorial sea, and internal waters as defined in the Maritime Areas Act and any other waters over which Saint Lucia claims fisheries jurisdiction;

“fishing” means fishing for or catching or taking or killing fish by any method or placing any fish aggregating device and includes searching for fish;

“fishing licence” means a foreign fishing licence or a local fishing licence;

“fishing vessel” means any vessel used for commercial fishing or related activities and includes sport fishing;

“foreign fishing licence” means a licence issued in respect of a foreign fishing vessel under section 8;

“foreign fishing vessel” means any fishing vessel other than a local fishing vessel;

“licence” means a licence issued under this Act;

“local fishing licence” means a licence issued in respect of a local fishing vessel under section 11;

“local fishing vessel” means any fishing vessel—

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   (a)     wholly owned by the Government or by any public corporation established by or under any law;

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   (b)     wholly owned by one or more persons who are citizens of Saint Lucia;

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   (c)     wholly owned by any company, society or other association of persons incorporated or established under the laws of Saint Lucia of which at least 51% of the voting shares are held by citizens of Saint Lucia;

“locally based foreign fishing vessel” means any foreign fishing vessel based in Saint Lucia which lands all its catch in Saint Lucia;

“master” means the person or persons having control of a fishing vessel at any given time, and includes a fishing master, fleet commander or pilot having control of such vessel;

“Minister” means the Minister to whom matters relating to fisheries have been assigned;

“related activities” in relation to fishing means:

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   (a)     trans-shipping fish to or from any vessel;

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   (b)     storing, processing or transporting fish taken from the fishery waters up to the time it is first landed;

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   (c)     refuelling or supplying fishing vessels or performing other activities in support of fishing operations; or

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   (d)     attempting or preparing to do any of the above;

“test fishing operations” means any fishing operations undertaken over a limited period of time with the approval of the Chief Fisheries Officer for the purpose of testing the feasibility of commercial fishing operations with a view to the establishment of locally based fishery operations.