Plea to stop fishing after black swans eat line

A local council has pleaded for people not to fish at a river in a Devon town after incidents of swans ingesting fishing lines.

Dawlish Town Council has urged the public to stop fishing in the town's water stream following two separate incidents in the space of 24 hours of black swans attempting to eat fishing lines.

It said its waterfowl wardens had made two rescues between Tuesday and Wednesday.

It confirmed both swans were now safe and well but warned another incident like it could be fatal.

The council said fishing was not allowed in the river, unless you have a special licence from Devon County Council, and was raising awareness to prevent such incidents.

One of the swans had tried to eat a fishing line with a hook that had a fish attached to it before a warden was able to help.

The local authority asked residents to report if they saw people fishing in the river to the waterfowl wardens, the police or the Environmental Agency and to be mindful of any fishing lines near the river.

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