New rules at Derbyshire beauty spot after fishing line injures birds

A fishing club has brought in new rules to try to stop swans getting injured by fishing lines.

NCB Fishing Club, that uses Loscoe Dam in Derbyshire, has introduced measures to help protect the birds.

Linjoy Wildlife Sanctuary and Rescue said birds were becoming tangled in lines or getting them stuck down their throats.

A mother swan died earlier this year from injuries caused by a fishing line and her cygnet is now being treated.

Lindsay Newell, founder of the sanctuary, said the organisation was regularly treating birds from the dam with fishing line-related injuries and the problem seemed to be growing.

She added the sanctuary was currently treating a moorhen after it was rescued with fishing line caught around its foot.

"It's going to end up losing some of its toes because the fishing line had actually cut the blood supply off," she said.

The charity, based in Etwall, said the cygnet it is treating had fishing line tangled around its beak and inside its throat.

Ms Newell said it "would have slowly starved to death" if it were not for their intervention.

"Swans eat a lot of weed and vegetation - it gets wrapped around the line down their throat and forms like a plug," she said.

Ms Newell said the cygnet has already lost its mother due to discarded fishing wire.

"Line [became] embedded in her leg and by the time it was found, it was too late," she said.

"She had to be euthanised and the male has been rearing the cygnets alone."

She added the father had also been injured in a dog attack last month.

Joe Harper, club secretary of NCB Fishing Club, which operates on the dam, said the water birds had become used to humans feeding them and treating them like pets, meaning they were coming closer to the anglers than they normally would.

"I've personally experienced an angler - an experienced angler - hook a fish and, as he's trying to land it, the swans have just swarmed over to where this fish is splashing - it's behaviour that I've never seen before," he added.

Mr Harper said the club has imposed new rules to try to reduce the chances of swans getting injured.

Inexperienced anglers are only allowed one line and it has banned zig fishing and surface fishing.

It has also recruited a bailiff to patrol the waters every day.

Mr Harper said members are told to contact the RSPB if they accidently injure a bird.

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