Here you go.
Reporting Fishery Crime
Welcome to the Fishery Watch guide to reporting Fishery Crime. The idea of this page is to give you an in sight into how to record intelligence, who to report what you see to in order to make sure that you are contacting the correct authority in order to obtain the best response and end result.
1. Keep Yourself Safe.
The first thing to remember is that your safety should be paramount at all times, no matter how upsetting you find what is going on in front of you. It is far better to observe and gather as much information as possible without putting yourself at risk. Please do not be tempted to be a hero. It could get very dangerous as poachers & fish thieves are very often tooled up with all manner of weapons, believe me. I have seen it all from small pocket knives to large machetes being pulled out, it is never worth the risk.
You also stand the chance of making the case more complicated for the authorities, the simpler you keep the overall picture of what has happened the better it will be for the authorities to work it out and deal with it effectively..
The most important thing for your safety is not to make it obvious to the offenders what you are doing, like for example do not be looking at the people and writing things down in front of them, simply get yourself out of sight and write things down as accurately as you can remember and prepare yourself to call the authorities.
2. Intelligence to Collect
The more information you can accurately give to the authorities, the better the chance of getting the response of a call out. Try to gather as much of the information listed below and accurately record it for when you make that call.
- Time – accurately record this from the time you first saw the offence being committed.
- Location - please record the exact location as accurately as possible, we would suggest you use the App What 3 Words that is available for both Android & Apple phones. It will give you your exact location within 3 meters to your location. Most police forces across the country are now using it. If you do not have the App then explain as accurately as you can the location and if you are in a multi lake complex then explain what lake you are at and is location within the fishery.
- What are they doing -you need to be clear about this when you ring as to what they are actually doing, it does not help if you call the authorities and say I think they maybe doing this or they maybe doing that, they need to know exactly what offence you are reporting.
- How Many – how many suspects, remember to get the number of suspects involved in the offence.
- What do they look like - Please get as good a description of the individuals involved like height, build, ages, moustaches or beards are always a good thing to spot. Colour of clothing, distinguishing hats or caps, it is also handy to note there footwear, you may find that one or two maybe wearing wellingtons or waders, also listen for an accent as this could be helpful, all of these things help the authorities with identification.
- Equipment – What equipment or items do they have with them to assist them with the crime you are reporting, like do they have any nets or anything else associated with the crime. In the unlikely event that you see any weaponry, please make the authorities aware of this when call the crime in.
- Vehicles – If it is apparent that there are any vehicles within the vicinity of or near the crime seen, please note the registrations, make, model and any distinguishing marks or damage any of the vehicle's they may have. It will aid with identification of the offenders.
3. Who to Call
This section will give you a guide as to which authority you should be ringing for what offences, it is important to get it right in order to get a quick response. It is advisable to always obtain a reference from the call handler of the hotline, please keep this reference safe in case you wish to follow up on the incident.
Environment Agency & Natural Resources Wales,
Environment Agency: 0800 80 70 60 (24/7)
Natural Resources Wales: 0300 065 3000 (24/7)
- Rod license offences.
- Water pollution.
- Fish disease.
- Interference with flood defences.
- Possible pollution hazards.
- Discoloured river/canal/sprin/stream or lake water.
- Dead Fish sighted.
- Anglers not fishing within the rules of there licence.
- Breaches of the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act.
- Illegal fish breed stocking.
- Fish possibly being moved illegally.
- Illegal fishing methods being used.
- Fishing during the closed season.
Police
Please remember to have as accurate information on as much of the listed above in order to give the Police as much insight into what they are coming to. I cannot emphasise enough how much the use of What 3 Words would be to them in order for them to get to the incident as quickly and accurately as possible.
Please remember to call 101 for non serious matters and to pass on intelligence, it is perfectly correct for you to dial 999 if what you are reporting is a crime in progress. It is also advised that you get a crime number of the call handler, please note this down for future reference.
Please also state what signage is in place to warn offenders, clubs and fisheries should consider good signage as an absolute must.
- Acts of Fish Theft.
- Acts of Violence.
- Threatening words & behaviour
- Intimidation.
- Theft equipment from fisheries.
- Criminal Damage.
- Wildlife Crime.
- Fishing without permission is a Schedule 1 Theft Act 1968 offence.
- Point out that the Home Office Code for this offence is 116/11
Fishing without permission & fish theft are criminal offences, which the police are duty-bound to deal with. You may find that because police officers rarely deal with or perhaps have never dealt with offences of this kind, they are generally inexperienced in this part of the Theft Act 1968. So we find that we generally have to provide them with additional information to overcome this area of uncertainty, when we report incidents to the police.
