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ILLEGAL DRIFT NETTING COSTS LLANELLI MEN £1800
Two Llanelli men caught drift netting in prohibited areas of Carmarthen Bay were fined after pleading guilty to charges heard in Carmarthen Magistrates Court on Friday 24 November 2006.

The Magistrates heard that Fishery Officers of the South Wales Sea Fisheries Committee had observed a boat being launched from Cefn Sidan in the early hours of 15 June. It proceeded into the Bass Nursery Area established under byelaw in the estuaries of the rivers Gwendraeth, Tywi and Taf. A drift net was deployed on the ebbing tide which fished down a narrow channel toward Carmarthen Bar where such netting is also prohibited to protect migrating salmon and sewin.

Officers apprehended the two men when they returned to the shore to recover the boat. A net and a quantity of mixed sea fish worth £85 were seized. When measured, the net was more than double the 100 metres allowed for an unregistered boat.

Owain Harries, of 22 Upper Cross Street, Llanelli, who had previous convictions for illegal drift netting, was fined £1000 and ordered to pay £247 towards prosecution costs. Clayton Francis, owner of the boat, of 41 Florence Street, Llanelli was fined £300 with £274 costs.

The men told the Magistrates they had lost a net earlier in the day from a nearby area, and only came upon the net they hauled whilst searching. In imposing the penalties, Magistrates commented that as habitual fishermen, they should have known the rules. It was important that fish stocks in sensitive areas were conserved for all in the community.

£500 PENALTY FOR UNAUTHORISED VEHICLE
A fine of £250 and costs of £250 were imposed in his absence upon Clayton Francis, of 41 Florence Street, Llanelli by Magistrates in Carmarthen on Monday 27 November, for taking a vehicle on to a restricted part of the foreshore in the Taf estuary near Laugharne.

The court heard that Fishery Officers of SWSFC were on anti-cockle poaching patrol near Llanybrie on 1st June 2006, when they came upon two Land Rovers bogged down in the salt marsh. The cockle fishery was closed and Byelaw regulations prohibit the use of vehicles in that area which, designated as a SSSI, is sensitive to disturbance. The marsh had been churned up by the attempts to free the vehicles.

Francis was fined the same amount as his accomplice, Nigel Davies, of Square Hall, Pemberton, Llanelli who, having pleaded guilty to the same charge, was dealt with by the Court on 2 October where additional costs of £100 were imposed.

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