The biggest menace to the carps and pikes of Britain now comes from Eastern European migrants, claims the Daily Mail in its electronic edition on Monday. The British reporters found that the Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians consider the two fish species a delicacy and consequently the stealing grew in the last years.

The Times, in its electronic edition, reads that authorities will change the current legislation to stop the stealing.

The article does not mention official statistics but only estimations of almost 60 owners of fisheries from England and Scotland.

The survey, conducted by the Professional Association showed that 34 out of the 60 owners declared that the fish is being stolen and that things got worse in the last couple of years. Out of the 34, 25 think that the immigrants are to be blamed for it.

Peter Cliff, a spokesman for the Association, affirmed that the complaints are referring mostly to the East European immigrants. Moreover, he said that an official number could not be put forward but that according to estimations the scores amounted to a couple of thousands.

The owners of the fisheries invest more than 1000 pounds to obtain a carp of over 10 kg so that sports lovers can come and fish it on their property.

Daily Mail cites a member of a local association who says that their warnings are ignored and immigrants approached him and offered to bribe him to get his fish.