The Environment Agency has prosecuted a Hampshire man for fishing with an illegal net in Keyhaven Harbour, Hampshire.
Mr Kerry Vickery of New Road, Keyhaven pleaded guilty to using fixed nets within an exclusion zone. New Forest Magistrates, sitting at Lyndhurst Magistrates Court, fined him £170 on Wednesday 21 February 2007 and ordered him to pay costs of £263 to the Environment Agency. His nets were also forfeited.
Keyhaven Harbour is the estuary of both the Avon water and the Dane’s stream. Large numbers of sea trout collect in the area from spring to autumn before migrating up either river to spawn. The use of fixed nets, other than fyke nets, is banned from 1 April to 30 September within an exclusion zone in Keyhaven Harbour to prevent exploitation or damage to these fish.
The court heard that on 19 July 2006 Environment Agency Water Bailiffs received a report of nets fixed in place by anchors in Keyhaven Harbour. They attended the harbour and saw dark round net floats within the exclusion zone. The buoy and floats were not moving with the tide so water bailiffs concluded that they had been set. Mr Vickery was then seen attending to this net by boat and resetting it at another location also in the exclusion zone. The water bailiffs later witnessed Mr Vickery attending to another net and removing several fish.
Richard Redsull, Fisheries Officer at the Environment Agency, said:
“Fisheries laws are in place to protect the environment so must be adhered to. Breaking these laws can cause serious ecological and environmental problems so we take all reports of illegal fishing extremely seriously.
“The exclusion zone is clearly marked on a poster on the wall of the Harbourmasters Office at Keyhaven so there was no excuse for not knowing the rules.”
