Pirate hunters of the Po: the nightly fight to clear Italy delta of poachers

Under cover of nightfall, groups of local volunteers board tiny boats to track down the fish mafia and protect the ecosystem

During the day Denny Covezzi works in a fishing equipment shop and Andrea Mocchi at at a factory. But at sunset they don heavy grey uniforms and set out on their small boat to patrol the river.

They're looking for anything suspicious: nets, traps, perhaps a van parked by the bank. They hear a rumble in the bushes, and Covezzi moves the boat closer to check: nothing. It must have been an animal," he says. Later, they notice something in the river - small homemade traps made of wire and plastic bottles. They haul the traps into the boat and break them apart.