CORNWALL Disturbing pictures of “ghost fishing”, in which lost and discarded nets take a deadly toll of marine creatures, were taken by a snorkeller close to the Cornish coast.

Dave Peake found a 200ft (60m) net littered with the bodies of birds, fish and crustaceans which had died after becoming entangled. Cormorants, shags, spider crabs, dogfish and wrasse were among the casualties. “It was sickening to see this net in six metres of water and everything dead,” Mr Peake said. “If this was happening in a park there would be a public outcry. But because it’s at sea and under water it is allowed to happen.”

Captain Jim Portus of the South West Fish Producers’ Organisation said: “The nets can carry on killing indiscriminately until kingdom come. This is a matter that needs to be sorted out.” He said it was likely that the net had been lost, perhaps after being cut loose from marker buoys by a speedboat.

The Environment Agency plans to raise the net to prevent any more creatures getting ensnared. Mike Dunning said: “It is possible to prosecute owners of fishing nets which have been abandoned or set illegally but we need to prove who the net belongs to.”

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