13/06/2005 - An Annan
man was fined £500 on Friday for netting
salmon illegally on the Solway Estuary, known
for legislative purposes as the Lower Esk.
David Nicholson was also ordered to pay an
additional £100 in costs to the Environment
Agency, which brought the prosecution.
The Environment Agency was on routine patrol
in July last year on the Solway Estuary when
in the Powfoot area, fisheries officers saw
two 48 metre nets set in the river channel.
Knowing that salmon and sea trout were migrating
in the river, the Agency officers were concerned
about the use of the nets, which are illegal
if used to catch salmon in this way. The officers
spoke to Nicholson after he had checked the
nets and established that he had also set
a third net. The officers asked to see what
Nicholson had caught, which turned out to
be two migratory salmon and a sea bass.
"The kind of nets that the defendant
was using can have a devastating effect on
salmon stocks," said Environment Agency
Fisheries Team Leader Keith Kendall. "We
have to enforce the law in these cases to
conserve and protect fish stocks for the future
– and for the many others who fish legally.
"For Nicholson to have fished legally
on the Solway Estuary at this location he
would also have needed the written permission
of the holder of the fishing rights there,
which is Solway Salmon Management Limited."
Solway Salmon Management Limited confirmed
that Nicholson did not have its permission
to fish at Powfoot. Moreover, the type of
nets Nicholson was using, and the way he had
set them, meant that even if he had Solway
Salmon Management’s permission to fish, he
would have been breaking the law.
This case was brought under the Border Rivers
Order 1999, a piece of legislation specific
to the Solway and made jointly by the Scottish
and English parliaments, allowing effective
enforcement on both sides of the Solway Estuary
by the Environment Agency and the Scottish
District Salmon Fisheries Board.
Notes
David Nicholson, from Annan, Dumfriesshire,
pleaded guilty to the following offence:
On 27 July 2004, in the Lower Esk, took salmon
without the legal right to do so or the written
permission from a person having such a right,
contrary to Article 6(1)(b) and Article 7
of the Scotland Act 1998 (Border Rivers Order
1999) Fined £500
