NFSA News
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The £1 billion a year the economy
receives from recreational sea angling will start to dry up unless
commercial overfishing in UK inshore waters is stopped and
outlawed.


This is according to a new poll among sea anglers and angling
clubs.  It shows that the prime objective of the country’s
million sea anglers is to fight for a government ban on commercial
overfishing which, they say, has devastated sea fish stocks for 30
years.  

In the poll conducted by the
National Federation of Sea Anglers (NFSA), they said that lobbying the
government to protect fish stocks was the most important of the
federation’s work.  It scored 4.55 points out of a possible
five.

“Their top concern by far was
conservation,” said Richard Ferré, chairman of the NFSA. “Unless the
ruination of marine stocks is stopped and stopped quickly, there will
scarcely be any fish for anglers to go after and people will simply
turn away from this healthy outdoor sport.   

“It will be the same for commercial fishermen and the
fishing fleets will continue to wither away.

“Before there is any thought of an angling licence there must
first be effective steps to regenerate fish stocks,” Mr. Ferré
said.  “These must be actions which can be plainly seen to be
increasing the number and the size of fish in the sea.”

More than 600 anglers and clubs responded to the
poll.  Nearly half (49 per cent) opposed any form of licensing
for recreational sea angling.  Nearly as many (43 per cent)
said they would only agree if government action first improved fish
stocks and if licence fees were invested to continue to produce better
sea angling.  

Only 7.5 per cent of
respondents agreed outright with recreational sea angling licences
now.

Mr. Ferré said legislation for licensing
was foreshadowed in the  Marine Bill White Paper earlier this
month, also limiting the number of fish anglers could take home for
their own consumption and banning or limiting angling in marine
protected areas
 
“We have very serious
reservations on all three because successive governments have allowed
the commercial decimation of fish stocks and totally neglected
recreational sea angling until very recently when they realised its
economic value.”
 

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