Pete Bevington

8 September, 2006

ANIMAL welfare interests in Shetland have warned fishermen about the risks to wildlife posed by a plastic creel now commonly used to catch lobsters and crabs in the isles.

SSPCA Officer Ron Patterson was contacted after five wrens were found dead inside a creel on a pier in the north east of the islands.

Mr Patterson, who did not see the dead birds himself, has asked anyone who may be working with such creels to be extra careful when they leave them lying out of water, to make sure any birds small enough to fly into the creel can get out.

Most creels in Shetland are made from fishing net, which small birds like wrens can easily escape from. These plastic creels have a smaller mesh.

"Having been made aware of these creels, I would ask folk who have them to make sure that they are either under cover where nothing can get in, or they are opened up so that anything that does get in has no problem getting out," Mr Patterson said.

Danny Watt, of Scalloway, who has imported such creels into Shetland said such creels were commonly used around Shetland and on the UK mainland, and that they should not pose any threat to wildlife.

"The holes in them are 80 millimetres wide and there's no traps on them to stop birds getting back out of them," Mr Watt said.

However he agreed that if creels were left ashore it would be best if they were left open.