Illegal mist nets found behind policeman’s house

ILLEGAL mist nets were found behind a policeman’s house in Yeni Erenköy and on the border at Güvercinlik as biologists warned of an increase in bird trapping due to the economic downturn.

A joint operation this week by the North Cyprus Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature (Kuşkor), Environmental Protection Department and police freed a protected blackcap, known locally as “pulya”, from mist nets off the Sipahi road.

Kuşkor board member Özgür Gökaşan said: “We found feathers on the nets and underneath proving that they had been in place for some time.”

Mr Gökaşan added that it was even more worrying that they had been found behind a house occupied by a police officer and his family and requested a full investigation into the incident as Ziyamet police confiscated the nets as evidence.

Kuşkor also thanked the Command of the Cyprus Turkish Peace Forces for the discovery of six live and two dead blackcaps trapped in nets on the border at Güvercinlik 15 days ago.

The nets had been removed and food wrappers and bottles with Greek labels found nearby indicated that the suspect was a probably a Greek Cypriot who had fled across the border.

The trapping of blackcap warblers, prized as a grilled or pickled delicacy in the region, is outlawed under EU regulations and a campaign was launched on Sovereign Base Areas last year to halt “industrial-level netting”.

Biologist Robin Snape told Cyprus Today last year that international help was required for surveys and similar efforts in North Cyprus where birds were also widely on sale, amid fears that trapping could increase.