Bexhill authorities have taken stern measure to give special protection to fish which have swum up to 100 miles from France to the Sussex coast to breed, to save them from being illegally caught and sold instead. Many tens of thousands of black bream breed on the Kingsmere rocks, a 10-square kilometre reef a few miles off Littlehampton, during April and May. It is one of their largest known nesting areas in UK waters. The females lay their eggs in thousands of small nests dug by the male fish in the gravel sea bed.
It is informed that from this weekend a fast fishery protection boat will be on standby to pounce on large trawlers which for several years have been persistently, and illegally, catching them, and bring them to court. David Harvey, chairman of the Sussex Sea Fisheries Committee, said that when they are spotted they drag weighted gear over the reef, gouging and wrecking the nests, catching the male fish guarding them, scattering baby bream into the mouths of predators.
In the last 10 years, skippers of two trawlers, one from Jersey and one from Lowestoft, had been prosecuted nine times and paid fines and costs of nearly £23,000 for poaching the fish. The maximum fine magistrates can impose is £5,000 for each offence. But sea fisheries officers at Shoreham-by-Sea, say the trawlers can usually sell a day’s catch for £5,000.
According to Harvey the sea fisheries committee also wanted to protect the breeding fish from other fishermen who drag their nets just off the bottom. In this way they may not wreck the nests but they still take considerable numbers of breeding fish, opined Harvey.
