Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority

Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (K&EIFCA) manages the exploitation of sea fisheries resources in an area of over 3,412 square kilometres that extends from the east end of Rye Bay in Kent to the northern boundary of Essex on the River Stour. The up-river boundary in the Thames includes the waters adjacent to Kent and Thurrock, with the district boundary running from Dartford creek (River Darent) on the south shore to Mar Dyke on the north shore.

Thurrock Council helps to fund the Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority and appoints a councillor. The area covered by the Authority encompasses a wide variety of recreational sea angling opportunities, including piers and harbours, creeks and deep-water, estuaries and open sea, sandy shallow beaches and deeply shelving gravel beaches. Within these areas there is a huge variety of fin fish species of interest to recreational sea anglers. The most common species include bass, thornback ray, smooth hound, grey mullet, cod and whiting.

Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority's duties are:

  1. seek to ensure that the exploitation of sea fisheries resources is carried out in a sustainable way;
  2. seek to balance the social and economic benefits of exploiting the sea fisheries resources of the district with the need to protect the marine environment from, or promote its recovery from, the effects of such exploitation;
  3. take any other steps which in the authority's opinion are necessary for the purpose of making a contribution to the achievement of sustainable development;
  4. seek to balance the different needs of persons engaged in the exploitation of sea fisheries resources in the district;
  5. seek to ensure that the conservation objectives of any Marine Conservation Zone in the district is furthered;
  6. manage fisheries within Marine Protected Areas (Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Areas (SPA) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

To find out more about the work of Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, visit:

Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority

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