Fishing, Belfast harbour/holywood area. BANNED

right, i've just spent the best part of the day being diverted from the switchboard of the belfast harbour commissioner and the belfast harbour police regarding this matter and this is what i have found out.
firstly the belfast harbour commissioners' office don't seem to know their bum from their elbow on this matter as i got bumped about the switchboard from one dept to another before being re directed to a very helpful constable harkins at the control room in the belfast harbour police HQ. he was kind enough to spend a bit of time tracking down the by law in question which is by law 42.
the gist of this, is that you cannot fish anywhere within the belfast harbour comissions' duristiction which is a bloody big area as it starts from the north foreshore at carrickfergus in a direct line across the lough to grey's point at bangor the wording of the by law (which is an old one) is that you cannot fish with rod, line or net whithin this limit from any jetty, wharf, pier or bank.
so my OCD kicked in and i asked "what about below the high tide line"
he laughed and said "well there is no mention of that, or from the shore either in the by law".
i explained that we fish and dig down there and have never had an issue in the past as we've seen the belfast harbour police drive past us many times and even gave us a friendly wave as they went by .
constable harkins then went on to explain that it's more to do with a health and safety issue from within the harbour estate and so long as we did'nt venture any furthur into the harbour past kinnegar we would be fine as this by law is an old antiquated by law that you could put into the same catagory as being arrested by the police for not carrying out your long bow pratice for any male over the age of 14 in the uk
more to that there's never been a case of anyone being fined at greys point, helens bay, crawfordsburn, seahill, cultra, holywood, loughside, hazelbank, whiteabby or whitehouse.
i asked him had he ever known of a £30 fine being issued and could'nt recall an incident of it ever happening and said he would only ever imagine that happening if the offenders in question had been up to no good at the time.
but this still left me puzzled a bit and he said that in future if you're going to go down fishing just phone ahead to the belfast harbour police HQ on 02890553000 to let them know you are only fishing and there should be no problem provided you don't block the road with your motor or start making a nuisance of yourself by lighting fires or littering
so hopefully this puts everyone minds at rest and finally gives some resoloution to the matter

You got further than me then mate.
They guy i was speaking to today said if he seen us parked there and fishing it wouldnt bother him in the slightest but it depended on which officer was on duty.When we arrived there on Friday there was a Harbour Police car parked beside us and he never said anything.It was a different officer that came down and told us.He also told us that the Harbour Police Officer that was there earlier was his boss and he should have told us to move on
Happy days.
Sneaked up on Monday and got mullet

Fair play to you Al for your dedication that's what I call put a plan into action and you certainly got the results there I'm convinced that all the anglers in the particular area benefit from your efforts to clarify the matter. Big well done mate this is very valuable information IMHO.

iirc, the National Mullet Club had some good practical advice for situations like this. Anyone here a member?

nice one Al, to be honest I was going to fish on cos if your in chesties they cant reach ya, but that wee area will be getting alot of attention over the summer from several interested parties, Harbour police, RSPB, NIEA so if anyone is approached try and be pleasant as technically its area of special scientific interest (assi) and could be easily closed of to anglers/bait diggers.

If anyone want to meet up for a bread fest any time give me a PM