The 2010 Bailiffs Seminar

The 2010 seminar was hosted by the Nith DSFB on 17/18 March – Jim Henderson and his team at the Board/Trust put together an interesting and informative series of events for the two days. On day 1, Delegates met at the House of Water Scottish Coal site near New Cumnock, where a major diversion of the River Nith had taken place a few years earlier. Scottish Coal provided a tour of the site and the new river channel. This was an extremely complex, sensitive and expensive project, involving a high degree of collaboration between a range of partners, not least the Nith DSFB who steered the course of the project to achieve the best result for the river and fish. The new course has now bedded in very well to the surrounding environment and good numbers of fry had been detected through subsequent survey work.

Later in the day, the examinations for the bailiffing module took place and 40 candidates took the examination at various locations throughout Scotland. Scottish Branch will be meeting shortly to assess the papers and ensure candidates have the results as soon as possible. Dinner was hosted at the Cairndale Hotel in Dumfries and Simon McKelvey, IFM Scottish Branch Chairman, presented the Roger Barnes Memorial Trophy to Debbie Parke of the River Nith Fisheries Trust. This award is presented to the candidate who achieves the highest mark in the bailiff module examination, and is a fitting reminder of Roger’s dedication to professionalizing the Scottish bailiff network.

Debbie Parke receives the Roger Barnes memorial award 

Day two saw delegates make their way up-river to Friars Carse Hotel, where Police Wildlife Crime Officers discussed new developments in electronic tagging and application to crime detection. We also heard about issues associated with drug crime in Scotland and how fish poaching is often linked into wider criminal activity.

Police presentations at Friars Carse

Two poaching workshops were subsequently held on the River Nith and River Cairn, these were based on actual cases at each site and stimulated some very interesting discussion on possible tactics and outcomes.

 One of the workshops discussing operational issues relating to an actual case on-site

The 2009 Bailiffs Seminar

The ASFB resources the annual Bailiffs Seminar in collaboration with IFM and each year a different Fishery Board hosts the 2 day event.The 2009 event held on 23/24 February was well attended by a wide range of bailiffs throughout Scotland and was hosted by the River Dee at Inchmarlo, Banchory. The annual bailiff's examination was also arranged at the end of the first day.

The River Dee arranged a diverse range of speakers, talks and discussion focussed on:

Salmon poaching as wildlife crime & conflict training/managment (Grampian Police)

Fisheries development in the Dee valley (River Dee)

Should bailiffs do habitat work ? (River Dee)

Season extension monitoring radio-tracking programme (River Dee)

Agricultural cross compliance issues (Scottish Govt)

Introduction to Girnock Burn Facility (Fisheries Research Services)

Two field visits were undertaken, to look at the Lower Invercauld Beat  and the Girnock Burn Trap Facility operated by FRS.

Bill Rosier, from Lochaber, achieved the highest mark in the 2008 bailiff's examination and we were delighted to award the Roger Barnes Memorial Trophy to Bill for this achievement. The trophy is awarded each year to the bailiff achieving the highest mark in the examination. Roger Barnes was a highly respected bailiff, fishery manager and leading member of IFM's Scottish Branch who died in 2001. it is a great honour for the bailiffs, ASFB and IFM to remember Roger in this way.

Bill Rosier (left), receives the Roger Barnes Memorial Trophy from Simon McKelvey, IFM Scottish Branch Chairman

Mark Bilsby, The River Dee Director, introduces the 2009 Seminar 

PC Dave Mackinnon, Grampian's Wildlife Crime Officer talks about poaching as a wildlife crime

 ASFB is grateful to the River Dee team for their input to this year's seminar. Next year's seminar will be hosted by the Nith District Salmon Fishery Board in early 2010. Full details will be posted later this year.

The Bailiff Training Module

The bailiff training course was launched in 2002 through collaboration between the ASFB and the Institute of Fishery Management (Scottish Branch).

The course was developed to ensure that bailiffs, who carry powers of arrest, search, entry and seizure, are trained to deliver these powers in an appropriate way and are conversant with the relevant legislation. As well as being SVQ accredited, the course also counts as a unit towards the IFM certificate course, should candidates wish to pursue this.
IFM deliver the course on an annual basis, culminating in an annual examination based on the IFM Manual, ‘Bailiffing & Keepering’ and ‘Powers of Water Bailiffs’ by RB Williamson.

 
There is no practical element to the course; candidates can enrol at any point in the year. However, the examination is held in spring (usually March, to coincide with the ASFB/IFM Annual Bailiff’s Seminar) and candidates should enrol well in advance of this to ensure they have sufficient study time.

The course enrolment form may be downloaded here.

The cost is £75 per person, and we would normally expect that this is met by the relevant fishery board or other sponsoring body where there is no board.

The course fee includes:

• The IFM Bailiffing & Keepering Manual (incorporating ‘Powers of Water Bailiffs’ by RB Williamson)
• Examination fee
• 1 year’s Bailiff Membership of IFM Scottish Branch and Associate Membership of the national Institute