PEARL FISHERIES

(1) No person shall fish, or dive for, or collect, pearl oysters on, or from any pearl bank, or use a vessel for any such purpose, unless he holds a licence (in this Ordinance referred to as a pearl fishery licence) authorizing him so to do.

(2) A pearl fishery licence shall be issued in the discretion of and by a Government Agent authorized to issue such licences, and shall be in the appropriate form in the Second Schedule. The said Second Schedule may be altered by regulation.

(3) Any penalty imposed by a pearl fishery licence may be recovered on summary conviction before a Magistrate as well as by any means provided by the licence.

(4) Every person, to whom a pearl fishery licence is issued under this section, shall produce it on the demand of and for the perusal by any pearl fishery guard, and shall observe the terms and conditions contained in the licence.

(5) A licence to collect pearl oysters issued by any Government Agent before the commencement of this Ordinance shall be deemed to be a pearl fishery licence issued under this Ordinance.

(6) All pearl oysters or pearls collected otherwise than under the authority of and in accordance with the terms and conditions contained in a duly issued pearl fishery licence are the property of the State.

(1) No person shall on any pearl bank use or have in his possession, power, or control for use on such bank any net, dredge, or fishing line, or fishing tackle.

(2) Nothing in this section shall apply to any dredge, net, fishing line, or fishing tackle, the use of which is for the time being permitted by regulation.

(1) If any vessel is found on a pearl bank anchoring or hovering and not for proceeding to her proper destination as wind and weather permit, or is found on or near a pearl bank in circumstances giving rise to reasonable suspicion that she is being or has been used for the unlawful collection of pearl oysters, any pearl fishery guard specially authorized by a Government Agent, Assistant Government Agent, or the inspector of pearl banks to act for the purposes of this section may enter, seize, and search such vessel, and convey the same to some convenient place in Sri Lanka for adjudication.

(2) As soon as may be after the arrival of a vessel seized under this section proceedings shall be commenced before a Magistrate against the person appearing to be in charge of the vessel and the owner thereof, if known and in Sri Lanka, alleging that the vessel has been used for the unlawful collection of pearl oysters, and in such proceedings, unless satisfactory evidence is given that the vessel had not been used for the unlawful collection of pearl oysters, the Magistrate may declare that the vessel and her gear shall be forfeited to the State, unless a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees is paid within a time to be specified in the order, and shall also declare all appliances found in the vessel and appearing to be intended for the collection of pearl oysters and any pearl oysters or pearls found in the vessel to be forfeited to the State.

(3) If such proceedings are not commenced within one month from the arrival of the vessel, then, unless the delay is accounted for to the satisfaction of the Magistrate, the Magistrate shall, on the application of the owner of the vessel or of the person in charge, order the vessel to be released.

(1) The Minister may from time to by notification in the Gazette declare a pearl fishery shall be held on any pear! bank between the dates specified therein, and may by the same or other similar notification declare any place to be a pearl fishery camp for the purposes of the pearl fishery, and may appoint any person to be camp superintendent thereof. A notification under this section may be amended from lime to time.

(2) A place declared to be a pearl fishery camp shall be deemed to be a pear! fishery camp within the meaning of this Ordinance for one month before the commencement of, during the continuance of, and for one month after the termination of the fishery for which the camp is established.

(1) In any inquiry under section 86 of Chapter VII of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act (which relates to security for keeping the peace or for good behaviour), as respects any person found in or attempting or proposing to enter a pearl fishery camp, the evidence of any member of the police force of the country to which that person belongs, or from which that person has come, that that person is an habitual robber, housebreaker, or thief, or an habitual receiver of stolen property knowing the same to have been stolen, or is an habitual aider in the concealment or disposal of stolen property, or that he is a dangerous character by reason of his having been convicted of a crime of violence, shall be sufficient prima facie evidence of the fact and shall be admissible in evidence if it appears to the Magistrate in all the circumstances of the case and after hearing any evidence given by or on behalf of the person charged to be true, and if the Magistrate is satisfied that in the circumstances it is impracticable to obtain direct evidence as to the fact without an amount of delay or expense which in the circumstances appears to the Magistrate to be unreasonable. This subsection applies only where the holding of the inquiry has been approved in writing by the camp superintendent.

(2) When any person found in or attempting or proposing to enter a pearl fishery camp and ordered to give security under Chapter VII of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, does not give such security on or before the date on which the period for which such security is to be given commences, the court may, if it thinks fit, order that that person shall, instead of being committed to prison, refrain from entering or be removed from the camp, and pending and during removal be kept in the custody of the police.

(3) If any person with respect to whom such an order is made subsequently enters the pearl fishery camp, he shall, on conviction by a Magistrate, be liable to imprisonment of either description for any period not exceeding six months.

(1) No person shall, without the permit of the camp superintendent, bring into a pearl fishery camp, or into the vicinity of a pearl fishery camp with a view to its being brought into the camp, or have in his possession in a pearl fishery camp, any artificial or cultured pearl or any pearl not being a pearl the product of a pearl oyster lawfully taken from a pearl bank at and during the continuance of the pearl fishery for which the camp is established.

(2) For the purposes of enforcing the provisions of this section every pearl fishery guard specially authorized in writing thereto by the camp superintendent shall have all the powers of search, seizure, and detention possessed by customs officers for the prevention and detection of smuggling.

(3) All pearls seized under the foregoing power or otherwise coming into the hands of a pearl fishery guard and suspected to have been dealt with in contravention of the provisions of this section shall, as soon as possible, be brought before a Magistrate, who, if an offence has been committed in respect of the pearls, may, in his discretion, either in addition to or without inflicting any other punishment, declare them to be forfeited to the State, or he may order them to be detained until the end of the pearl fishery or until the owner leaves the camp.