Izaak wrote:
: "Phil.L" wrote in message
: ...
:: I go sturgeon fishing regularly, the entire fishery is known for its
:: excellent sturgeon fishing, and thats what the majority of anglers
:: are hoping to catch.
:: I'm not sure if this protection order covers this particular type of
:: sturgeon though, as i was reading an environment agency newsletter
:: last year which had a piece on sturgeon, apparently they arent
:: native fish of this country and if you want to stock them at your
:: fishery, it has to be checked for leaks etc by the EA, so that any
:: spawn etc dosent make its way into natural waterways.
:
: I've done a bit more digging.
: Whitaker's Almanack 2003 says that the Atlantic (also called Common)
: sturgeon Acipenser Sturio is the one that is protected (it's listed
: under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1971). Anything
: listed under schedule 5 (the list was last updated in 1998) is
: protected by schedule 9 of the same act. Schedule 9 says "It is an
: offence to kill, injure, take, possess or sell (whether alive or
: dead) any animal included in Schedule 5 of the Act and to disturb its
: place of shelter and protection or to destroy that place".
: There are many other varieties of sturgeon though so maybe the ones
: you are after are different altogether as I doubt the EA would let
: any fishery stock a protected species.

Thats, probably it!
Incidentally, after i'd read the article about their containment, i had a
closer look at the fishery, and its actually situated high up, on a hill,
and not dug out of the existing ground, but built on the flat, with steep
walls of clay (its mostly 10-12 ft deep!) so if there ever was a leak, the
water would merely seep into the surrounding fields, as there's no
streams/rivers/canals for quite a distance.
I think it was purposely built for sturgeoon, because its been open for
about 20 yrs and theres some immense fish in there - even the little ones at
2 or 3 lbs, fight like hell and the big ones, up to 20lbs are FIVE feet
long!
the'yre a strange fish having their bone structure on the outside, so
they're stiff (like a dolphin type of skin with no scales), and they remind
me of sharks (except they dont have fangs!)
the best thing about 'em is that they feed vociferously all year round, so
you can get as many in December as you would in July :-)))