Environment Agency News Release

An elver fisherman from Bridgwater has been fined and ordered to pay costs of £700 after he was caught using an illegal net on the River Parrett at Stathe upstream of Burrowbridge.

Kevin Meakin, of Bridgwater, also had his net confiscated by the Environment Agency.

Fisheries bailiffs were on routine patrol on the tidal River Parrett at Stathe, near Bridgwater on April 18, 2007 when they saw Meakin, using an elver net slightly upstream of Burrowbridge.

When checked the net was found to be 1.3 metres in length instead of the maximum permitted size of 1.25 metres. It was also found to be illegal in other ways that contravened new elver fishing byelaws. 

Significantly, it was being used in conjunction with a tethered rope and the handle of the net was fixed to the riverbank by a stake. When operated in this manner the net becomes what is legally known as a ‘fixed engine’ or static net instead of a hand-held dip net.

‘The use of over-sized nets gives fishermen an unfair advantage over their law-abiding colleagues and enables them to catch additional elvers thereby reducing the number of young eels escaping upstream and depriving natural predators of a valuable source of food,’ said Richard Dearnley for the Environment Agency.

‘In this case the net was not only oversized it was also tied to the bank with a rope and staked to the riverbank giving the fisherman a further advantage.’

As the government body responsible for enforcing and regulating fisheries, the Environment Agency regularly inspects sites where elver fishing takes place. It is also responsible for issuing licences which cost £65 per year.

Appearing before Bridgwater magistrates, Kevin Meakin was today fined a total of £300 and ordered to pay £400 costs after pleading guilty to three offences including fishing for elvers with a prohibited instrument in contravention of the National Eel Fishery Byelaws 2004  and two offences of using an unauthorised fixed engine in breach of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975.

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