Someone may have preferred salmon to turkey, setting an illegal net in Scott Creek, which was found by local naturalist and marine educator Rod MacVicar.
"In the urban centre you don't usually find this kind of poaching," said MacVicar, who hauled the net out of the creek at the intersection of Runnel Drive and Lansdowne Drive on Monday during an afternoon walk with his wife to the local coffee shop.
It was well constructed, he said, suggesting that the person who set it in the creek knew what they were doing. Consisting of a fine mesh fabric, held together with a heavy rope and a chain for weight, the net was large enough to span Scott Creek, and catch a few late returning coho.
"If you caught something, this would be the time of year to activate the smoker," MacVicar speculated.
The net will soon be in the hands of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, whose staff may have come across a similarly-constructed net in the past and might know who the culprit is.
"Game poachers in the Tri-Cities are not very common," MacVicar said.
