COPIES of a new colour poster picturing mines and other dangerous underwater objects and action to take when they are found are being issued to fishermen.

The posters are being distributed through Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food district inspectors and fishery officers. Coastguards will also be given copies and the poster will appear in the annual reprint of Admiralty Notices to Mariners.

Mines are still a big menace, boats having even trawled two up on one trip.

And crewmen have even set about a mine with a hammer and chisel.

Advice from the MAFF, drawn up in consultation with the Ministry of Defence, is: use caution. Navy experts say that all unexploded objects are dangerous and carry a high risk of unintentional detonation.

'You must not assume that any object is safe because it has holes in its casing or is filled with water, pebbles or other forms of debris. Far from it— if the object or its explosive filling dries out it could become even more sensitive and dangerous', says the MAFF.

'If you get a mine or other object in your trawl and are more than two hours steaming from a convenient UK port.

Navy experts advise getting rid of it as quickly as possible by lowering it gently in deep water and, where possible, away from fishing grounds—information about what you are doing should be relayed to other skippers in the area.'.