The EA report that:
During the period from 01 April to 30 June, officers visited 29 different river locations and 39 stillwaters.
Good weather has encouraged anglers to cast a line during the first three months of the season, and many of the stillwaters in contrast to last year have been busy.
Officers carried out 2,285 licence checks with 90 anglers unable to produce a licence, giving a bank-side evasion rate of 3.9%. Over 70 additional by-law and close season offences were detected during the same period.
Areas covered included the banks of the River Tees, Wear, Tyne, Derwent, Coquet, Blyth and Wansbeck and the lakes and ponds from North Yorkshire to Northumberland.
Kevin Summerson, Special Enforcement Team Leader at the Environment Agency, said:
“Targeted patrols on specific locations have been very successful this year, and by working in partnership with Cleveland Police, we have delivered some tremendous results.
We targeted specific areas where intelligence indicated some anglers were deliberately flouting the law and were rewarded with a high number of cases from the stretches we had identified on the river Tees, where over 70 offences were detected during the coarse fish close season. It was through this intelligence-led approach that we were able to prioritise the remainder of our resource and police the full extent of the North East area.
Law-abiding anglers were more than pleased to see us and appreciated the work we were doing. I hope these results will go some way to reassuring them that we will not tolerate any form of illegal fishing activity.
It’s unacceptable for people to fish without first buying a licence. Those who are thinking about it should realise it’s a crime that can carry a fine up to £2,500, along with confiscation of fishing equipment.
All income from rod licence sales goes back into funding Environment Agency fisheries. Anglers can be assured we shall continue our pro-active approach to licence checking through an intelligence-led, co-ordinated program so we can reduce evasion.”
