Monitoring and prevention of fishing activities

During 2025, the Park Rangers of the Protected Areas of the Cozie Alps have increased daytime and nighttime monitoring activities for fishing in the Natural Park of Avigliana Lakes, issuing penalties and carrying out seizures of unauthorized equipment. However, beyond the repressive aspect of the work carried out, the goal remains the prevention of illegal behaviors to protect those who respect laws and regulations and, above all, in defense of a common heritage that belongs to everyone: the environment.

“The violations that occur within a protected area,” begins Fabio Santo, head of monitoring at the Natural Park of Avigliana Lakes, “do not harm the institution but the ecosystem, which is a much more important asset. The main aspect of our control work is, in fact, to verify how the vast majority of fishermen behave correctly. Additionally, our task is to provide support to anyone who has doubts or issues to resolve. Challenging the penalty is a defeat for everyone because the fine will hardly be able to repair the environmental damage.”

As proof of this, a total of 13 penalties of various kinds have been applied to over a hundred fishermen checked since the beginning of the year.

“We have identified administrative violations,” Santo continues, “in individuals lacking a government license or without the permit issued by the fishing rights concessionaires, namely the Fishing Reserve of Lago Grande and FIPSAS for Lago Piccolo. There have also been numerous cases of outright poaching that led to the seizure and recovery of various fishing rods and 6 homemade nets that someone had placed in the water of both basins. Furthermore, in a protection area, we discovered a net illegally set, in which two young specimens of carp and pike, both of which are declining species, had been trapped. Lastly, during nighttime monitoring activities, we stopped several fishermen who were taking advantage of the darkness to fish illegally.”

The goal of a Park Authority is to promote those human activities that take place in a manner respectful of the rules and, above all, of ecological balances, sanctioning, according to existing laws, those – fortunately a small minority – who damage the environment and those who enjoy it.