Fisheries owner nets fine for non-native species

September 22, 2009

A fishery owner has been fined for introducing non-native fish into a river.

Raymond Gill pleaded guilty at Consett Magistrates’ Court to one offence of illegally introducing fish to a watercourse and was fined £1,000, and ordered to pay £350 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

The court heard that the Environment Agency has a duty to protect native fish stocks and the wider aquatic environment against inappropriate introductions of fish into the wild.

As a non-native species, rainbow trout can be introduced to watercourses only in limited circumstances, such as restocking a fishery, in order to protect stocks of native wild brown trout.

Helen Ferguson, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told the court that fisheries enforcement officers were carrying out a routine licence patrol in the area on 10 April 2009. Whilst at Knitsley Mill Fishery, Consett, a trout fly fishery owned by Raymond Gill, they saw a fish transporter from which rainbow trout were being unloaded.

The officers saw Gill, 37, of Heugh Edge, Sacriston, Durham, carrying a net containing trout to the bank of Knitsley Burn and put the fish straight into the watercourse.

In interview, Gill said he had a consent from the Environment Agency to introduce rainbow trout to the fishery lakes

He conceded he did not have consent to introduce any fish into the watercourse and admitted putting four or five rainbow trout into the burn. These were part of a delivery of 102 fish, the remainder of which he already had put into the fishery lakes.

Gill was found to have a consent to introduce 1,000 rainbow trout into his fishery but this did not become valid until 16 April 2009. Failure to comply with the terms of a consent makes it invalid.

Gill, who represented himself at the hearing, told the bench his actions had been a silly thing to do and he was sorry. He said the fish would not have been able to breed with native brown trout as they were sterile.

Speaking after the case, fisheries enforcement team leader Kevin Summerson said: “Knitsley Burn is a small watercourse that feeds, eventually, into the River Wear. Rainbow trout will compete with our natural wild fish for food, and if illegal restockings like this were not detected and stopped there could be a significant impact on the already endangered stocks of wild brown trout.

“The Environment Agency’s officers are highly-trained and carry out programmed and impromptu checks to ensure stocking is carried out in accordance with the permit to maintain the integrity of all waters.”