This Act may be cited as the Fish Royalties Act 1985.

There shall be payable by every commercial fisherman to whom a quota is allocated from time to time under any notice made pursuant to any regulation made under section 89(1)(g) of the Fisheries Act 1983 a royalty for each tonne or part of a tonne of quota so allocated at the appropriate rate (if any) according to the species or class of fish and the vessel that may be used to take the fish as specified in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act.

The Minister shall waive or remit half the royalties payable or paid by any commercial fisherman at the higher of the 2 rates specified for quota for any species or class of fish in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act in respect of so much of the quota as authorises the taking of any fish that the Minister is satisfied were taken using a registered fishing vessel that was not registered or required to be registered under section 57(8) of the Fisheries Act 1983.

This section shall apply in respect of quotas allocated in respect of the fishing year that commenced with the 1st day of October 1985 and ends with the close of the 30th day of September 1986.

There shall be payable by every commercial fisherman who takes any fish that is subject to a quota prescribed by any regulation made under section 89(1)(g) of the Fisheries Act 1983 and has not been allocated to that fisherman by any notice made pursuant to any such regulation a royalty for each tonne greenweight or part of a tonne greenweight of such fish taken by the fisherman at the appropriate rate (if any) according to the species or class of fish as specified in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act.

This section shall apply in respect of all fish taken on or after the 1st day of November 1985 and before the 1st day of October 1986.

The royalties payable under section 2 of this Act shall be payable to the Crown in 4 equal instalments on the 31st day of December 1985, the 31st day of March 1986, the 30th day of June 1986, and the 30th day of September 1986.

The royalties payable under section 3 of this Act shall be payable to the Crown on the 31st day of December 1985, the 31st day of March 1986, the 30th day of June 1986, the 30th day of September 1986, and the 31st day of December 1986 in each case in respect of fish taken before the specified date, being fish on which royalties are payable under that section and in respect of which royalties have not already been paid.

The Minister may waive or remit the payment of the whole or any part of any royalty payable under section 2 or section 3 of this Act where, pursuant to an arrangement or agreement between a commercial fisherman and the Minister, the commercial fisherman who holds the quota or takes the fish is required to carry out research and development work on fishery resources, or trials or experiments relating to fishery resources, fishing vessels, fishing gear, apparatus, or techniques.

For the purposes of determining the waver or remission of royalties under sections 2(2) and 5 of this Act and the royalties payable under section 3 of this Act, the appropriate conversion factors specified in the Second Schedule to this Act shall be used to convert the weight of processed fish to greenweight.

The notices to which this section applies are hereby validated and confirmed, and are hereby declared to be and always to have been validly made.

Nothing in this section shall affect any proceedings taken before or after the commencement of this Act in respect of any offence committed before the commencement of this Act.

This section applies to:

Section 9 of the Finance Act 1984 is hereby repealed.