As you can see from the article below, copied with gratitude from the North Wales Weekly News today (7th July), 1200 yards of nets have been stolen from a boat in Conwy. Apparently this is not unusual at this time of year as the poachers need nets to get on with their illegal netting of our rivers. In view of the quantity of nets stolen, please keep a watchful eye for illegal nets across your river or estuary.
Please, if you do spot an illegal net, LEAVE IT ALONE: DO NOT REMOVE IT OR MAKE IT KNOWN TAT YOU HAVE SPOTTED IT. Walk away, note the exact location of the net and call 0800 80 70 60 immediately, tell them what you have found and exactly where and request immediate action. DO NOT GO BACK TO WATCH THE NET YOURSELF. When calling ask for an incident number and also ask that they feed back to you exactly what happened.
Yes, leaving the net in place may result in the loss of a few extra fish, but leaving it means that the EA can watch it and then apprehend the poachers, and that will save a lot more fish in the long run.
Please also go to the report an incident tab on the Campaign web site and report the incident again. That way we have a record and we can build up a picture of the amount of poaching going on. Without this information our hands are tied: we can hardly call for more funding for enforcement if the records don’t show the extent of the problem.
Over to you!!!!
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