Conservation ? what a joke....

[Cranfield]

I paid a visit to the Admiralty Pier at Dover this morning, not to fish, but just to reacquaint myself with the layout, parking, facilities etc.

Its many years since I last fished there.

 

I was stunned , what I saw was almost unbelievable.

There were a few hundred people fishing, in places they were almost shoulder to shoulder.

99.9% had plastic dustbins beside them and every fish caught was put in the bin.

I even saw full bins being taken to the car park and empty ones bought back.

 

I spoke to one old chap (who had no dustbin) and asked him what was happening.

He said that they are there nearly every day in the Spring and Summer, sometimes over 500 of them.

He claims they are all "illegal immigrants, mostly from London" and load the fish into vans and take them away to sell.

I have no proof who they were, but there wasn't a lot of English being spoken and they did look Eastern European.

 

Most were feathering and I saw mackerel, garfish and bass go into the bins.

Some were bait fishing and were mostly catching pouting, all went into the bins, regardless of size.

 

On the way home, I called into Samphire Ho to see if anything was being caught.

Talking to a couple of the blokes there, I told them what I had seen at the Admiralty.

They said that they didn't fish there anymore because of the "illegal immigrants".

But, they assured me they are not there in the Winter.

 

It makes you think about all the fuss lately on here, because someone kept a few bass for the table.

I would suggest some of those that posted criticising, should go down to the Admiralty and have a chat with these "fishermen/bin men".

[spanner]

As it stands I believe the only thing the authorities could do them for would be associated with selling them rather than catching them.

 

This is one example where a Sea Angling licence makes sense. If they have no licence and then they can be done just for fishing there. Similarly if there are size limits or bag limits associated with the license they can be done the mass slaughter.

[Guest stevie cop]

You need to report this to the Chief fisheries officer of the kent and essex sea fisheries committee. They can be done for taking more than what would be a reasonable amount of fish for personal consumption, and for taking undersize fish.

The man you need to speak to is Joss Wiggins.

 

Leon will be able to give you his number, and could bring the matter up at the next K&E SFC meeting in October.

[Guest jay_con]

spanner:

As it stands I believe the only thing the authorities could do them for would be associated with selling them rather than catching them.

 

This is one example where a Sea Angling licence makes sense. If they have no licence and then they can be done just for fishing there. Similarly if there are size limits or bag limits associated with the license they can be done the mass slaughter.

If they buy a licence they are back at square one. Or would you only sell licences to british citizens.

[bryan]

Touchy subject about east europeans living over here. The area I live in Surrey is blessed with course fishing spots and I have heard many times that fish are being taken from these lakes by the immigrants, even on holiday last week in the IOW I was told that one lake owner had a sizeable number of fish taken and the blame was laid on he east europeans, however how do you cathc them?

 

Now I hear this about Dover pier, surely the local authorities should be able to do something, such as a licence for pier fishing? :confused:

[A Worm OOE]

The Fishing on the Admiralty is run by the Dover Club and they could stop selling tickets if they wanted. The problem I believe is that they desperately need the revenue from the annual Mackeral slaughter to keep the piers open. Also I think that any attempt to stop or regulate whats happening would take more than a frail old baliff to enforce.

[spanner]

@summer@,

Thats why the license should come with a code of conduct, size limits, and bag limits.

 

Bag limits are a touchy subject, after all one man's excessive slaughter of mackerel is another's personal supply of pike and skate bait, but it would put a stop to this.

[tyneside tiddler]

Ahh, the spirit of free enterprise eh?

Nice to see that our european bretheren can deplete our dwindling fish stocks to supplement their meagre benefit package.

Come on chaps, How else would they afford to buy Nike Air Max trainers for the 9 children they brought from Bratislavia??

[Guest jay_con]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4486347.stm

 

I aren't saying what is happening here is right but as anglers we seem too quick to blame ourselves for fish stock levels. Just remember that the man in the article above is just the tip of a very large iceberg. The blame for falling makeral stocks doesnt just lie with our eastern european friends.

[101_North]

Good to see a bit of latent racism creeping in here

 

Summer has hit the nail on the head. From my experience there are many, many more locals willing to plunder fish stocks, cheat quotas, land undersized fish etc. etc. etc.

 

I think care needs to be taken to not apply the tag to East Europeans across the board. Yes some are guilty of cheating the system but the majority are over here to work and work very hard at that. It's East Europeans who are holding the UK's service industries together at the minute.

 

It's the same with locals - no point labelling all anglers/fishermen because of the actions of a few!