Fisherman's Gat is a much-deepened channel in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

, between the final long line of shoals loosely associated with the

Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. Limits An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...

.THAMES ESTUARY FISHERMAN’S GAT. ASSESSMENT ON THE ANALYSIS OF ROUTINE RESURVEY AREA TE19 FROM THE 2005 SURVEY.
UK Hydrography Office. 2005. Accessed 18 July 2008. The channel cuts across Long Sand. In the west it opens onto the nominal cut-off point of Knock Deep (north) or the Princes Channel (south) which links to the Strait of Dover. In the west it opens to

Black Deep The Black Deep is in the outer Thames Estuary. It is the greatest of three mainly natural shipping channels linking the Tideway to central zones of the North Sea without shoals, the others being the Barrow Deep and Princes Channel. Between thes ...

, a Thames approach. Fisherman's Gat was opened up to shipping as a route through, consequent to the demise of North Edinburgh Channel as a buoyed route. Opened in 2000 with a controlling depth of 7.4 metres, the navigation depth has since increased to 8.3 metres (January 2006). The gat in 1934 had minimum depth of , naturally greater around its due east access but much less next to the north-west, its narrows/neck. Shipping generally approaches Fisherman's Gat from an arc, extending from south of Kentish Knock to the far east, around to North East Spit buoy to the south-southeast. For vessels approaching the Thames Estuary from the south or east, it makes a saving of and lower pilot charges when compared with ''the Sunk'' route to the north. As time passes it is becoming a more dominant use by moderate draft vessels (save those heralding from the north/middle of the North Sea), some of which are still being routed via the Sunk (north end of Black Deep).

Scope and soundings

References

{{Reflist FishermansGat