THE Angling Trust has launched an anti-litter campaign to enlist anglers’ help to clean up beaches in west Dorset.

It comes after a woman’s plea to fishermen to take more care after her dog got impaled on a fishhook David Mitchell, who is marine environmental campaigns manager for the trust, said: “The campaign is to get sea anglers to help clean up our beaches and coastline by removing any litter they come across while fishing and is being supported by the Marine Conservation Society.

“West Bay Sea Angling Club are members of the Angling Trust and we will be sending them, and all our clubs in Dorset, Just Take 5 posters so that anglers can help to be seen as the custodians of our beaches.

“Litter is an eyesore, it’s bad for the environment and it can be dangerous for both wildlife and people.

“Most responsible sea anglers already take their own litter home, this is about going further and encouraging them, as custodians of our beaches and shorelines, to help remove non-angling related litter as well in order to help maintain the beauty and health of our coast.

“If every sea angler in the country did this just think of how many millions of items of litter would be removed from our coastline every year.”

Celia Oliver from Netherbury was walking her dog Bertie on Burton Beach when he was injured by the fishhook.

She had to enlist the help of a couple fishing on the beach to get the hook out of his nose.

She made a plea to fishermen to make sure they don’t leave hooks and lines lying around.

She said: “It wasn’t just the hook, it was on a long piece of nylon line and a float thing with spiky wire bits sticking out of it.”

Vice president of the West Bay Sea Angling Club Maureen Jackson said the club had a very strict code of conduct for members and the problem of discarded tackle was taken very seriously.

She said: “The angling club are very specific with members about not leaving gear lying around and in fact in competitions if anything is left around they are actually disqualified.”

She said the club fully backed any campaigns to help spread the message to clear up.