Fishermen told not to rock the boat in Lyme Bay
Fishermen 'not to be trusted'
But some are not convinced that the dredgers can be trusted to police themselves.
Darren Brown is a professional scollop diver in Lyme Bay. He said: “The actual voluntary agreement, I’m sorry, it just doesn’t stand. It has to be policed by everybody and everybody has to adhere to that policing and not everybody does, because it’s voluntary.”
Listen: Mr. Brown describes ways of evading detection. (40 secs)
The Southern Sea Fisheries Committee patrol the area along with Devon Sea Fisheries Committee.
Their chief fisheries office, Ian Carrier, said: “It’s difficult to catch people fishing illegally because you’ve got to prove that they were fishing in a place where they weren’t supposed to. Well how do you do that? They can see you coming a mile off and if you don’t catch them right in the act then there’s nothing we can do.”
Mr Portus disagrees, saying that people are too quick to accuse the dredgers of ignoring restrictions. He said: “It’s only an allegation from divers and the Wildlife Trust that incursions took place and there’s no evidence ever been provided that they actually happened. What we do know is that local fishermen abided by the agreement.”
