Ian Burrett

Hi Barry The reason ssacn was formed, with the complete support of sacn was because Scotland has its own government with a completely different set of rules and regulations. We needed an organisation to take on the Scottish administration with the ability to raise its own funds. To raise funds we needed to become a charitable status which meant a constitution, office bearers etc. sacn has no funding and no bank account and no constitution. We had no alternative and hopefully we will provide the model for Welsh and Irish sacn to follow. just think of us, as of evolving out of sacn I am still the Scottish regional coordinator for sacn and both organisations communicate on a daily basis. Also Barry AN isn't just an English forum and many Scottish folk post on here I hope this helps

If you sea fish in Scotland, or have done so in the last three years this concerns you ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is probably the most important event to affect RSA in Scotland so far and it is crucial as many people as possible respond to show the government how strong the RSA sector is. It's a simple online survey that will take just a few minutes to fill in Every request from SSACN to the Scottish Marine directorate has been met by "Wait until the survey results are published" Please email the URL (website address) to your friends, club secretaries, show it to tackle shops etc etc. The more people that respond the more the government will have to take note of us. From the ssacn website http://www.ssacn.org A team of economists from Glasgow Caledonian University are working to produce an economic assessment of recreational sea angling in Scotland. Although the Scottish Government and the Marine Directorate ‘go the extra mile’ to support commercial fishing activities they have always been reluctant to make any significant moves to support recreational sea angling on the grounds that there is little data regarding how much it is worth !!. When completed, this study will help to ensure that policy makers understand Scottish sea angling’s true significance and how best to realise its future potential. In order to maximise the impact of this work it is essential that as many sea anglers as possible complete the on-line questionnaire at www.gcal.ac.uk/econsurv/seaangler3.htm Please take the time to fill in the questionnaire, pass on the message to your friends and encourage as many others as possible to provide their input. You don’t have to be Scottish, just to have fished here within the last three years.

My lad gets a lot of Mullet and Sea trout on them.

Th fish were just not feeding that well. At times the only indication you got was a doggie like bite. If you didn't react the tope would drop the bait. Probably half of the 36 fish caught on my boat were hooked by winding the bait up as if you were redgilling. The fish would follow the bait and grab it half way up. Sometimes the hook stuck, sometimes it didn't as the tope would pull the bait of the hook. Out of 36 tope I had on the boat probably only a dozen had the typical tell tale screaming run. I had the same lads out today and bagged another 26, so the three lads had 62 tope in a weekend.

Hi Glen Your post made me laugh as it is so true. When you give them a price they then say... "I'll just ring my friends to confirm it". You know you will never hear from them again.

I have met with four UK MEP's and all are supportive of RSA. One of them is even trying to set up an RSA presentation in front of the full members committee.

Hi HA Who is? And where are they landing them?

I have fished a mountain at over a thousand feet in Kenya for snappers of 15 kg three at a time using a 6 lb sash weight to get to the bottom. Trust me it makes skate fishing seem like a doddle. Savage amusement if you ask me.

The 3rd Shark Alliance meeting Ian Burrett and Denis Kelly representing Save our Sharks (SOS) and SSACN have just returned from Brussels where they attended the third Shark Alliance members meeting. They attended various workshops at the meeting and helped make plans for the 2008 European Shark Week. Last years European Shark week resulted in over 20,000 signatures demanding sensible shark management being handed in to the EU Commission. Attending organisations were encouraged to make representations to their countries’ permanent secretaries to raise the profile of the CPOA; an action plan being developed by the commission, which hopefully will provide greater protection for Europe’s sharks. Denis and Ian, along with Nigel Proctor of SACN, met up with the UK permanent secretary David Trip and gave a short presentation, congratulated Defra on their proactive approach to shark management and highlighted their disappointment that Scotland was undermining Defra’s fine work by refusing to unilaterally protect its native sharks and particularly the endangered tope. A ridiculous situation has arisen where it is possible for commercial fishermen to target the packs of tope north of the imaginary line in the Solway and only a daily 45kg bycatch south of the border. The numbers have halved throughout UK waters in recent years. The Scottish government have said they will keep an eye on things but the tope packs could be eradicated before legislation could be brought in place. David was very attentive and promised to pass on our concerns. NB - The Shark Alliance is a not-for-profit coalition of over 50 NGOs dedicated to restoring and conserving shark populations by improving European fishing policy, their mission is two-fold: * To close loopholes in European policy regarding the wasteful and unsustainable practice of shark finning * To secure responsible, science-based shark fishing limits for long-term sustainability and ecosystem health.

Apart from his statements about the cod being unable to recover because of global warming. What happened to that old chestnut

The knock on effect of the fuel price hype is already happening in Scotland with many of the Prawn dredgers working closer to home. This will only add to the demise of the West coast of Scotland's inshore stocks

We have moved over to the Tohatsu's. Apart from a teething problem with one of them they appear agricultural but reliable. They were developed for the commercial Japanese fleet. You would need to use a hell of a lot of petrol to justify going for a four stroke

Hi Barry I am not sure what happened to these lads. The local SFC was looking into it.

A group of so called anglers/unlicensed commercial fishermen brought 30 tope and a porbeagle ashore after a trip from a Welsh Port last summer and sold them at the fishmarket. It does happen

Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN) A charity registered in Scotland - RegNo:: SC039015

This is over a week old so may have been posted before but looks an interesting alternative to all the discards http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.p...h_bloggers.html

I am from a planet that in 1988 I could catch a thousand double figure spurdog a day from shoals 5 miles across and considered them a pest. On this same planet by 1993 they had all gone. My boats have caught three in 14 years. I am seeing the same depressing scenario with tope, Not only have the numbers declined in the UK over the last three years but commercial landing in France and Spain have dropped by 40 per cent since 2002. The stocks cannot stand that rate of exploitation particularly when the larger females are sought. As restriction increase on the spurdog population to try and rebuild the population and expected protection for Porgies and Blues then the demand for tope or soupfin shark as it is called elsewhere will increase. You are quite right that our European neighbours are not affected, which is why SOS is pleased both Defra and Johnathon Shaw are lobbying the commission to make it Eu law The fisheries minister wrote "I realise that this Order is a unilateral measure and does not apply to other Member States' vessels. However, I believe that the European Shark Plan of Action currently being drafted by the European Commission will provide an opportunity to coordinate management measures such as these and research undertaken by Member States in order to protect vulnerable shark species and I will be working hard with my officials to ensure that it does so". Don't forget the reason the original consultation was proposed was as a result of a commercial businessman trying to set up a National targeting for tope. Do you honestly believe that as European Commercial fishermen fish down the foodchain that tope stocks would have remained healthy. Sorry Steve Heads in the shed this morning I forgot to put the link in http://www.ssacn.org/ssacn-library/ssacn-papers/ Read the "forgotten sea" and "Collapsing Clyde" and then Angling centres to get a true picture

Hi Steve There is no quick answer to this. IN Angling Centres we hope to kick out the damaging commercial practise and providing stocks are healthy allow anglers to take home fish The cod stocks on the East and North coast of Scotland are according to the Marine Directorate improving so no problem there. The West coast however is a different matter. You need to read the "forgotten sea" and then "angling Centres" to see our position

I personally think Defra need congratulating for the 5% bycatch on Spurdog introduced last December and now this on tope. The team responsible for elasmobranches at Defra are doing everything they can to introduce sensible shark management.

Check out for the The When, Where & How of Tope Fishing http://www.save-our-sharks.org/page.php?1

Barry if a tope dies its down to bad practise. I have had well over 8,500 tope over my gunnels and my other boats will have had the same between them. I can honestly say hand on heart I believe everyone went back OK. If you start making rules like "If it's dead you can bring it in, then a tope can soon become dead if the angler wants it for eating"

Hi Steve I guess you would have an different reaction if this had been Bass we were talking about. SSACN is proposing the very same thing under the name of Angling Centres

The alternative would be that anglers were allowed to target tope to kill them but commercials couldn't. That would be even more stupid In total 360 individuals/groups/organisations (representing I guess many thousands) responded to the consultation of which 10 were commercial and one of those voted for option 2 332 or 92% went for option 2 and only 2 individuals of those 332 wanted to eat a tope, Seems to me it's a compulsory catch and release because that's what people asked for.

I am not naive Wurzel. This is just the beginning Defra have only made me happy because they are taking the fight to Europe. They have to get their own house in order before they can preach to the Spanish and French. SOS is going to Belgium again as guests of the Shark Alliance in May and October to press the case for sensible shark management. That's where the main battle has to be won. With UK support this will be easier to achieve The soupfin shark is the tope. Galeorhinus galeus Apparently its all bullshit as all shark fins tastes of nothing anyway