14/09/2005 - The Environment
Agency is stepping up enforcement action on
fisheries that stock alien species and threaten
native fish populations in Sussex.
The Environment Agency’s Sussex Fisheries
enforcement teams, supported by the National
Fish Movement Enforcement team, have been
visiting fisheries in the county to make sure
owners are complying with important legislation
that helps prevent the escape of alien species
into the wild.
Once in the wild, alien species put our native
fish at risk by competing with them for food
and habitat and by spreading disease. Fish
movements into and within the UK are therefore
strictly controlled.
Under the Import of Live Fish Act 1980 (ILFA),
it is illegal for fisheries to keep certain
non-native fish and requires them to have
a licence for others. Licences will only be
issued if fish can’t escape into the wild
and waters must be outside of a floodplain
with no inlet or outlet.
Marc Thain, Environment Agency Fisheries
Technical Officer, said: “It’s very difficult,
sometimes impossible, to control the spread
of non-native species once living in the wild
so it’s important that we do everything we
can to make sure they are not introduced in
the first place.
“In the last five years there has been growing
interest from anglers to catch Wels Catfish
and this has increased the stocking of this
alien fish into angling waters. These predatory
fish are not native to our waters and, in
this country, are capable of achieving huge
weights in excess of around 25kg. If these
predatory fish escape into a wild, unenclosed
environment they could cause significant damage
to our native fish stocks.”
As a result of Environment Agency visits
to Sussex fisheries, one has already begun
removing all non-native fish from three of
its waters. Falkenvil Fishery near Hailsham
now has a licence to keep Wels Catfish and
Grasscarp in one of its suitably enclosed
lakes but has removed two Wels Catfish and
one Sturgeon that had been caught by anglers
in the unsuitable waters at the fishery. These
fish are to be relocated by the Environment
Agency to suitable licensed lakes and aquaria.
The Environment Agency is advising all fisheries
that are holding non-native species on the
measures they must take to allow them to legally
keep the fish. If these are not carried out,
the Environment Agency will be taking enforcement
action to ensure the fish are removed from
all inappropriate sites.
