Commentary on provisions of Act Fishing opportunities Section 26: Duties to ensure fishing opportunities not exceeded
This section relates to the duty to ensure that a catch quota and effort quota determined by the Secretary of State is not exceeded.
	Subsection (1) places a duty on the national fisheries authorities to exercise their functions in such a way that in any period and so far as possible, no fish are caught, or days at sea spent, by British fishing boats in excess of catch or effort quota for that period.
	Subsection (2) provides that when determining when a catch quota is exceeded, the only sea fish that need to be counted are those caught under Article 15 of the Basic Regulation and any other retained direct EU legislation.
	Subsection (2) is to deal with the possibility that a fishing boat may have received fishing opportunities from another country. It provides that fishing opportunities of a territory outside the UK must be ignored when determining whether a catch quota or effort quota is exceeded.
	Subsection (3) defines the "relevant national authorities" as the Fisheries Administrations and the MMO for the purposes of this section.