A Taunton man has been fined £1,000 and banned from elver fishing for three years after he was caught fishing illegally on the River Parrett in Somerset.
Keith Gould told magistrates he had fallen victim to the ‘credit crunch’ and needed to earn some extra money. Environment Agency bailiffs caught him using an illegal fixed net at Huntworth Lane near Bridgwater.
An elver dip net should only be operated by hand. Environment Agency officers saw that Gould had attached a rope and float to his net and fixed the net handle to the riverbank using a stake.
The net was immediately seized by bailiffs.
A net used in this way is known as a ‘fixed engine’ and gives a fisherman an unfair advantage over law-abiding fishermen. Eel numbers have declined in recent years and it is important stocks are not over-fished.
Gould, of 2 Valley Road, Taunton was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £350 costs by Bridgwater Magistrates on Wednesday (September 24, 2008) after pleading guilty to fishing for elvers on the River Parrett without a licence on April 19, 2008, an offence under Section 27 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975. He was also disqualified from holding an elver licence for three years and ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.
Visibly angered by the penalty, Gould stormed out of the court building shouting abuse at magistrates, court officers and Environment Agency staff.
‘Illegal fishing enables people to catch more than their fair share of elvers. It harms the environment by removing food for creatures such as otters and kingfishers and is unfair to law-abiding elver fishermen. We will not tolerate fixed nets and will prosecute anyone we catch using them on the River Parrett,’ said Richard Dearnley for the Environment Agency.
The Environment Agency regularly inspects the elver fishery on the River Parrett. Fishermen pay £69 a year for a licence. Dip nets are used to catch elvers – baby eels – as they enter freshwater after their journey from the Sargasso Sea. Elver fishing can be lucrative. In 2005 the price of elvers reached £525 per kilogram. They currently fetch around £200 per kilogram.
