A CLEVELAND council is playing a part in improving lobster stocks off the east coast.

Redcar and Cleveland is one of two authorities involved in a successful buy-back-and-release scheme.

Along with Hartlepool council, it has a joint representative serving on the North Eastern sea fisheries committee which launched the scheme in 1997.

Initially, it was hoped that in four years, 10,000 female lobsters would be bought from local merchants, tail-marked and then released back into their natural habitat to help boost lobster reserves.

But Coun Brian Hogg, the representative for the two councils, said that after only three years, the scheme was already well on the way to hitting its target. "It's an excellent scheme," he said.

The project, which aims to increase the number of mature females in the fishery, involves the committee buying live, egg-bearing female lobsters, marking them with a V and returning them to local waters via fishery officials.

From April, 1998, it became illegal for anyone to fish or take V-notched or mutilated lobsters, with courts able to impose fines of up to £5,000.

Officers constantly inspect catches throughout the district, and fishermen themselves are highly supportive of the scheme.

To date, 7,450 mature egg-bearing female lobsters have been notched.

The committee is an outside body, administered by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and backed by a number of authorities.