It is illegal to use spear guns in freshwater areas

The Environment Agency has launched a crackdown after dead fish with deep wounds were discovered along the River Dart.

It is urging traders who buy salmon to be vigilant and to be aware that they could face a prison sentence for selling fish caught in this way.

Devon and Cornwall Police says officers will get involved if anyone is caught poaching.

Patrols increased

Some of the salmon found in the river come thousands of miles to spawn in a journey from the north Atlantic.

It is illegal to use spear guns in freshwater areas and the Environment Agency has been forced to step up patrols along a two-mile stretch of river where speared fish have been found.

Mike Maslin of the agency said: "When they deploy the spear, it will enter the fish and, nine times out of 10, will go straight through and a barb will hold onto it.

"What we're finding is that the fish aren't being accurately speared. They were wriggling off, making their way up the river and dying."

Salmon are an already endangered species

Poachers are being warned they could face a large fine or even jail. Businesses selling such fish could find themselves in equally murky water.

Mike Maslin said: "If they are legally-netted fish, then get the details and always get a receipt.

"If we search a property and you cannot prove where you got the fish from, you could be liable to prosecution."

A key concern of the Environment Agency is the effect of this kind of poaching on stocks of an already endangered species.

Devon and Cornwall Police says that the activity is taken extremely seriously, not least because of the threat posed to the public by a spear gun.