Man fined £11k for illegally fishing baby eels in Gloucestershire

Croker was caught with nearly 700g of the baby eels

A man has been ordered to pay almost £11,000 after he was caught illegally fishing for eels.

Phillip Croker, of The Oval, Gloucester, was charged with unlawfully luring elvers - baby eels - towards his net at Oldbury tidal sluice gate on the River Severn on 14 March 2019.

He was discovered with around 700 grams of elvers at a time when they were selling for £150 a kilogram.

The 60-year-old was convicted of four offences.

Authorisation from the Environment Agency is required to fish for eels.

'Financially motivated'

Richard Dearnley, fisheries enforcement officer for the agency, said: "There has been a huge decline in eel stocks in recent years and their illegal exploitation undermines the Environment Agency and Sustainable Eel Group efforts to conserve and improve eel stocks.

"This offence was financially motivated to increase the likelihood of higher catches of elvers due to an unfair advantage."

A tag must also be attached to an angler's net to prove they are fishing legally.

Croker had none of these and used a light to attract the baby eels towards his net.

The eels, which were later released back into the Servern, migrate from the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean to the below the tidal gate, which controls freshwater entering the saltwater estuary at Oldbury.

He pleaded guilty to fishing without a tag for his net.

He was ordered to pay the Environment Agency costs of £10,425.40, a £300 fine and a £30 victim surcharge at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court last Thursday.

He was also found guilty of fishing with net within 10m below a tidal sluice, fishing unaided by tying his net to the sluice gates and using a light. His fishing net was also seized and destroyed.