Jaffa

What's a "pristine" river supposed to look like? Even the idea of a "pristine" river in a country worked for so long by so many seems weird. Lets hear it! So interesting and strange so why don't the AT put in a link to the research (easy thing to do i'd guess) so peeps can read it for themselves (old fashioned take ) I'd guess the research is not the same as the headline spin?

Why "good on them"? Restoration to what btw? Restoration too .. small fish/big fish/ too 3 fish flying up the wall in an episode of Corrie? The mad/ bad/ evil/dredger/trawler/gill netter etc has yet to wipe a single thing from the planet. Its the "restoration of the Thames/Mersey lobby[that scares me. Those rivers were at the center of the world once but are now pretty much backwaters. How come voices from there are still given a serious weight? Im supposed to be grateful too civil servants for recording the obvious? I'd guess Felixstow is the most important port in the uk atm?

London and the Thames as a fantastic brand. Its cute but no thx

Sod only eel stocks, this is spin off the scale imho.. "Alastair Driver, the Environment Agency's National Conservation Manager, said: “In the last 150 years the Thames has been to hell and back, and it has taken thousands of people many decades to restore it to this point. Tighter regulation of polluting industries and our work with farmers, businesses and water companies to reduce pollution and improve water quality, have all helped to make the Thames a living river once again." No idea what the title " Environment Agency's National Conservation Manager" means. Might be the nicest guy in the world that has to promote it but that paragraph sums up how removed they are from reality.

Elton we are surely supposed to see drastic things happening ! We live on an Island which not so long ago was devastated by an ice sheet. Random weird invasions exploiting the new resources as it retreated are exactly what any rational person should expect ? So what!? if a species drifted in on the top of a coconut/ travelled in Charles Darwin's hat/laid low on the Pope-mobiles exhaust/ or invaded the North sea because a ship full of Manga comics happened to discharge ballast at the perfect moment for some species to bloom. None of that is weird or strange. What's alarming to me is the brick wall of lobby groups/politicians and media that are having such a good party. Chris

Prof Roberts splashes on Panorama and the Daily Express on the same day while not actually saying anything interesting, new or of much value to anyone. Realised the Daily excess was a joke when I was a kid. Sad to see the BBC turning investigative journalism into advertising for the highest bidder though.

So if i join Fish legal I get to interfere by proxy in Northern Ireland ! Fantastic fun. Is this a board or a role-playing game btw?

Another "balanced" piece by the Guardian where they seem unable to draw up the dots between local families unable to get homes and their poetic advertising line about Turquoise sea's ...Ker Ching. **** em.

Tide has surely turned Steve?. The serial campaigners and committee men are now being washed out of their rock-pools to face the reality of the sea...

Steve, I depend on my wife or friends to slap some sense into me as I head ever deeper into whatever rabbit hole is dominating my thoughts. Wifes away atm, so can't resist wondering what on earth this fluff is supposed to mean; Life is too short to even spend a minute considering that guff. FFS take time away from all this stuff and enjoy your hobby again. Chris

Who reads sites like that, other than the people that read sites like that?

Sea Angling is discussed as a "product"? It used to be a freedom; certainly has been all my life and for generations going back to.. well i don't know? I realise the people involved in the AT are maybe well meaning, but i wish they would all go live their own lives and stop turning peoples rights into something to be traded in. Chris

Its all getting a bit desperate by the look of it. Banging on with the same old same nonsense: No serious biology, no attempt to connect with with the parts of the UK population that actually do serious fisheries that affect fish stocks - just another call to arms too the rich and vocal who want their perfect lawn and will get into bed with anyone to get there. Having been brought up to think a lawn should look like a cricket pitch and assuming the legislators should back em up, they later decide " their olds "were wrong and it should in fact be a "wild area". The further these people are kept from anything to do with fish stocks (unless you are of the opinion we should not eat or trade fish) then the better as I understand it atm. Its just one persons opinion Chris

They seem to have no qualms about producing evil human beings and then exporting them to the rest of the UK though.

Most sea anglers, having grown up with very few rules or regs, and more than likely attracted to the Sea because its not controlled to the hilt , are unlikely to have a clue what an IFCA is. What is an IFCA by the way?

Turkeys and Christmas springs to mind, given they admit all they are not really looking for responses but just a rubber stamp - i'd guess any non on message response will be given loads of consideration Stuff em.What they are really talking about is boxing people and the environment up into things that can be traded.

Looks like a begging letter. Some people have argued and lobbied to be part of the "fishing community" for years and it seems they now have their wish but find its not the nice place they expected it to be. If you fish you fish. If you were lucky enough to do it out-with the "community", as most of us have, then whats going to follow from the political types getting the spotlight on us is going to be a shock; but its okay, by the time it all works through its our kids that lose something, not us.. Just an opinion.

To what end are all these expensive resources being deployed for? The methods are nothing new; there were planes photographing trawlers with their wires out inside the trawling ban zone 30 yrs ago, but can't remember any convictions resulting from their evidence. Hope I'm wrong, or else my taxes are apparently to pay for a few peeps to enjoy some nice jaunts. Maybe things have moved on and i'm missing something, but even if boat "x" was photographed with its wires out 100m from the beach it would mean what in court? Those wires were not connected to a net, but to gear to salvage (creepers) something lost, or they where running the wire out out to sort a problem on the winch (any angler that has never done that is a lier so its a defence..) In all likelihood they will fly their expensive kites, pour other peoples money into the ocean and have very little actual effect. Theres no self destruct button though so guess who they are gonna pick on for their bread and butter? Just MHO.

Could just stop filling their heads with fear and politics and let them loose of a morning?

That MUST be it then

Whats it they want to "preserve them" for? and at what numbers are they considered preserved?

Hi Peter, "They" being certain NGO's? If so then they were banging on about reserves many years before the Copenhagen summit, and i'd guess; though have no way of knowing, that planning for this meeting may have predated that anyway. Either way what you are saying does not add up for me.. I'd love to see a list of who is speaking about what though. You seen or heard anything? By this time next week I will no doubt be fully informed, on every detail of every detail of the football squad, but still may not have a clue who or what is said at this meeting. Is it a genuine bringing in of the top brains on fisheries, or a marine reserve supporters love-in with like minded politicians.. Chris

I doubt any of the government departments will change one bit; they will fight on other peoples beaches to the bitter end,until they catch up with the fact the Empire has gone which looks a long way off atm. Don't see much evidence that either the Labour or Tories are willing to grab THAT bull by the horns. No idea about the history of DEFRA but as a young Assistant Fishery Officer with DAFS (Seerad/seefad/SeeRAD,SeeYou now? ) and having completed, as usual, my days paperwork in an hour , I went exploring the attic and found a load of irons to brand Herring casks with. These were passed on to the local museum but the idea that that the original purpose of "my" "job" was actually to verify the ownership and quality of Herring was a wee bit of an eye opener, given i was was currently being tasked to enforce quotas on Haddock with no tools whatsoever. Watched the breakdown in communication between the fishers and the scientists that used to be taken for granted, saw the Monty Python response of DAFS to their new task; we got issued with scanners to roam the VHF channels,with the slight hitch that we could not act upon anything we heard Got to spend a week fishing for trouts in the flow country when posted to Thurso to "enforce" the differences in east/west Haddock quota. This cunning operation consisted of me, a VHF radio, a pair of binos and a campbed in the Thurso DAFS office. Trout fishing was so so but what a beautiful place. Enforcement activity for the week consisted of one boat reporting in by VHF (think it was the Aberdeen "Bickleigh", me gazing at fog so thick i could not see the lamp-post on the other side of the street and saying on you go then.. Mmm, should have stuck with it and developed me angling