Access

  1. The public are legally entitled to have access to the foreshore in the exercise of their rights of navigation and fishery (see below). Public access for any other purpose must be by permission of the owner. Access across lands above the foreshore must be along permitted routes.
  2. An owner or occupier of the land adjacent to the sea has a right of access to the sea, whether the tide is in or across the uncovered foreshore.
  3. Inhabitants of a village or local fishermen may have a right over the adjacent foreshore acquired by immemorial custom.

Fishing

  1. There is a common law right to fish ‘in the tidal reaches of all rivers and estuaries and in the sea and arms of the sea within the limits of the territorial waters of the kingdom except where the Crown or some subject has acquired a proprietary (ie ownership) exclusive of the public right or where Parliament has restricted the common law rights of the public’ (Natural Environment Research Council, 1973, p18).
  2. The public do not have the right to dig bait on the foreshore and in some areas this activity is controlled by byelaws (this interpretation is currently being challenged by angling organisations).
  3. Fishing may be by means of lines, draw nets and other ‘ordinary modes’, and includes taking of shellfish, but does not include use of weirs and other ‘engines fixed in the soil’ since this involves use of the soil which is in possession of the Crown or a private owner. Local byelaws may make further restrictions on permitted methods, net sizes etc.
  4. There is no statutory closed season for sea fish other than those stated in local byelaws. The Sea Fisheries Committee specifies closed seasons on shellfish. Size limits for various species of sea fish are laid down in orders made by the Minister of Agriculture. Salmon and migratory trout are dealt with in the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1965. For details see ‘Angling and the Law’ by Michael Gregory (Charles Knight, 1976).

Shooting

  1. Under the Firearms Act 1968 S20 (2), it is illegal to enter upon land as a trespasser with a firearm without reasonable excuse. ‘Land’ includes land covered by water.
  2. The Protection of Birds Act 1954 outlines restrictions on shooting of wildfowl and game birds. The following shorebirds are among the species protected at all times: all swans, brent goose, shelduck, eider duck, snew, green plover (lapwing), dunlin, knot, common sandpiper, little stint and turnstone. Species for which there is general but not full protection include the barnacle goose (limited shooting on certain islands off the West of Scotland), merganser and goosander (may be taken in Scotland) and oystercatcher (may be taken in limited areas of north Norfolk, Wales and Morecambe Bay). For a full listing of scheduled species, shooting restrictions and close seasons, see the RSPB booklet, ‘Wild Birds and the Law’.

Navigation

The public have a right to navigate over the whole space in which the tide flows, and this right is not suspended when the tide is out or too low for vessels to float. This right can be extinguished by Act of Parliament or, within water authority areas or internal drainage districts, by the Ministry of Agriculture. Fisheries and Food. The master of a vessel must exercise this right reasonably, eg he will be held liable if by improper navigation he damages an oyster bed.

Coast defences and mining

  1. Coast protection authorities and water authorities are empowered to carry out works to protect land against erosion and encroachment by the sea and by tidal water. Anyone responsible for a sea wall is entitled to an injunction to restrain other persons from removing a natural shingle bank if this forms a sea defence.
  2. Highway departments are empowered to take away gravel, sand, stone and other materials to repair highways, so long as this does not expose the land to erosion or inundation. The general public have no right to remove such materials from the foreshore unless granted a licence by the owner of the foreshore. A right to take sea sand may exist under statute. Dredging for ‘aggregate’ for the building industry is licensed by the Crown Estate Commissioners under consultation with, among others, the Department of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Pollution

Control of pollution of the coastal zone is too complex to summarise briefly. The main acts which govern it are the Control of Pollution Act 1974, the Dumping at Sea Act 1974 and the Prevention of Oil Pollution Act 1971. Various other acts deal with estuarial and river pollution. A legal right to pollute water within defined limits may be acquired by statute, prescription, custom or grant.

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