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Cumbria Canoeists - Incident on Kent |
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Environment Agency had an incident on the River Kent on Wednesday (15th May 2007), where a Fisheries Officer was called to the fish pass at Forcefalls (River Kent) at 1530 hrs as 2 canoeists were seen in and around the pass. A call was received from a member of the public on our Environment Agency hotline which the officer responded to. No canoeists were actually seen by the Fisheries Officer and there was insufficient flows for a canoe to go through it or for fish to passage. However, there has been a lot of canoeing activity on the Kent recently, until this week, with little problem as there have been few anglers. As the lower river has in the last week had a run of seatrout and salmon and angling activity has increased, EA thought it would be a good idea to remind people about fish passes. This may prevent any conflict with anglers and canoeists. People should know that disturbance of fish is an offence if it hinders the passage of fish over an obstruction or fish pass under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act. I.e. if you obstruct fish passage - i.e. going over a fish pass and preventing fish from using it, you can be prosecuted. We ask for canoeists to portage around the fish pass with land owners permission. Hopefully making people aware of the situation will reduce any conflict on the riverbank. |
