A NEW information database launched in Weymouth will lead a national fight against fish smuggling.

Inspectors say that entire Dorset lakes and other waters could be wiped out in a month by diseases introduced in just one illegally imported fish.

But key groups such as the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) - which has a large laboratory complex in Weymouth - have found it difficult to exchange information to combat smuggling.

Now their future work with the Environment Agency, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the National Assembly of Wales Agricultural Department will be much more successful thanks to a new database officially opened in Weymouth yesterday by Fisheries Minister Elliot Morley.

The Live Fish Movements Database will allow all four major authorities to view each other's research in one interactive database accessible from their offices across England and Wales.

It contains information on fish farm regulation, fish imports, fish movements on a farm-to-farm transfer basis, fish introduction to other inland waters and the keeping of non-native fish in England and Wales, helping to prevent and detect theft, illegal imports and the spread of disease.

Mr Morley said: "The database will be a huge benefit to places like Dorset which have substantial fish operations. It is a big, big advance in protecting the disease-free status of our inland waterways.

"Control cannot be 100 per cent effective if there are people determined to break the law. That is why we want everyone to respect controls and to pass on information about suspicious or illegal operations."

So great are the rewards for smugglers that one illegally imported 44lb carp bought in Eastern Europe for £100 in 1999 was later sold in England for £5,000.

But CEFAS inspectorate head Eric Hudson was quick to highlight the spectre of disease in such fish and said a worst case scenario for Dorset might be a fishing club secretary who perhaps didn't realise the dangers.

He added: "He might accept the offer of a specimen fish to stock his club's lake without full documentation, but if that fish has a serious disease then every fish in the entire lake could be dead within a month."

Weymouth-based CEFAS senior fish health inspector Alasdair Scott said: "The database will be an essential tool for our business because one of the best methods of controlling fish disease is to control fish movement.

"It will enable us to compare our information on legal movement of fish from fish farms against Environment Agency records for permission to stock fish in various waters. Where they don't match we have a potential problem."

Agency head of fisheries David Clarke said: "Weymouth is close to where fish can come in, while Dorset has heavy demand for coarse and trout fishing. There is, therefore, a market for specimen, unusual or large fish to bring in for anglers to catch and the database will help ensure that this is done legally."