RSA Strategy

[Steve Coppolo]

That's a copy and paste from the CEFAS website:

 

http://www.cefas.co.uk/projects/recreation...ea-angling.aspx

 

 

Cooperation from anglers is crucial if the project is to succeed in providing an improved knowledge base to underpin future management of recreational sea angling.

 

 

That line is enough for me to want to give it a wide berth. I go fishing to escape from all the crap life throws at me. Last thing I want is to be 'managed' in this moment of escapism.

 

You would think that line would be enough for any sea angler to want to give the study a wide berth. Unfortunately, there are people speaking on our behalf who love the idea of sea anglers being managed. Not only have they been asking for it for years, but they are still actively encouraging it, even though they know there is opposition from the anglers it will affect. For these people, the more red tape and layers of management, the better they like it. They believe more management equates to more fish.

 

I'm confused by the line where it says the NFSA are supporting the study, though. I wrote to the new Angling trust to ask what their stance is on the gathering of data from anglers; and from the reply I got back, I was under the impression that they haven't decided yet whether to support it, or not.

[Elton]

I'm confused by the line where it says the NFSA are supporting the study, though. I wrote to the new Angling trust to ask what their stance is on the gathering of data from anglers; and from the reply I got back, I was under the impression that they haven't decided yet whether to support it, or not.

 

Maybe they've seen the light, decided to ring the changes and will be opposing it in their new guise?

[Guest challenge]

H A

You’ve got me there? Please could you explain to me why I would want to do my-self any favours when all I am trying to do is put the different sides of the subject of RSA commercial fishing on the table so that people can see what can be lost or gained?

Big Cod

Paul if you accuse me of something and I try my best to answer your allegations then at lest please acknowledge my response.

as for log books, I have a course anglers log book in my possession that was borrowed to me from a college from the EA it has been well put together and would actually give the angler (in my opinion) some enjoyment in filling in.

I believe that it would be away of opening a door of accountability and show that anglers are prepared to disclose simple things like, what they caught what the weather was like on the day they caught or didn’t catch fish, what method of fishing they used, was there an improvement on what they have been catching in recent years? etc

If you want to borrow the log book I can make it available to you. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised at its layout and usefulness.

Regards.

[barry luxton]

Hiyer Challenge, i have started to record trips and what was caught, if the weather had beaten us etc, for the purpose of trying to remember, what where and when. People ask me whats it like etc and quite often i do not remember so i can refer back to it. As to anyone finding a derogatory use for it, i dunno.

 

If someone wants to use it a a leaver regarding restrictions well, for a start, out of eight trips already this year, six have been blown off. That must be natures way of conservation, so i've done my bit already.

[glennk]

Maybe they've seen the light, decided to ring the changes and will be opposing it in their new guise?

 

 

That rates alongside some of the finest I read in this seasons Christmas crackers. Nice one Elton your sense of humour is really shining through these days .

[cleeclive]

That rates alongside some of the finest I read in this seasons Christmas crackers. Nice one Elton your sense of humour is really shining through these days .

 

Well guys personal logbooks were the bibles to commercial fishermen years ago and these were passed down through families, invaluable resources on a personal level but whether we want to hand them over to the scientists is a matter of much debate and division.

 

As we will be managed at the end of the day whether we like it or not, the question is :- how do we want to be managed and on what knowledge base. having worked as a scientist I would wish to conclude my report on the basis of the best possible data. My conclusions will be used by policy makers on the formulation of a management strategy, i.e. what needs to be managed and the strategy and resources required to conduct that management.

From this comes the system and the work on the ground.

 

Do we want to influence this process

 

or

 

Do we want to try and change what is imposed upon us?

 

We can assume that the CEFAS researchers will monitor these forums to get a feeling of what they are up against, so put your scientist cap on and draw your own conclusions.

 

Cleeclive

[wurzel]

'Challenge', I have no real 'beef' with you; but you probably are not doing yourself any favours with stuff you posted here. Certainly, you are not doing me any favours as a dedicated and responsible RSA.

 

 

 

 

 

That's easy .... RSAs have a tendency to put back a large proportion of their catch.

They don't sell fish ... otherwise they are 'scummers' in your book and mine.

 

You may not like regulation, but it's coming one way or another.

 

I've dived and fished where regulations are very strictly imposed.

 

When I saw your boat's catches I was not envious, but ashamed that you (is it a Whitby thing?) pose as a Charter Skipper, but make and prepare catches not dissimilar to many hard-working Under 10s.

 

If I wus a Wurzel, I'd think of you as 'dark side'.

 

I'm all for freedoms and minimal regulation, but it's because of you, bottom scrapers and scallop dredgers that we have near-reached a 'tipping point', when we have to make serious and responsible decisions to safeguard our fisheries.

 

If you wonder why I speak in this manner to you, take a charter out of Langstone, Poole or Weymouth and see how skippers and RSAs treat their catches.

If I catch 25 bream, I keep 4! Nothing wrong with that.

 

Thassit.

 

That's the way it'll be, with or without regulation, if we want to keep our inshore stocks both for recreational and sustainable commercial fisherman in the immediate future.

 

 

Not half as dark as you Ha, with your self righteous clap trap.

 

I ask again do you really think that the skippers and RSA of Langstone, Poole or Weymouth would keep 4 out of 25 if they were cod and not bream?

 

Only last weekend I heard a angler telling his mate on the radio that he has taken over an hour to fillet his catch, good luck to him I say, as Barry says he might be blown off for the next 6 weekends and by then the cod could have moved off out of his range and I doubt he will have the same enthusiasm with smooth hounds.

 

And if you can catch 25 on a single hook sat on the bottom of all that ocean just imagine how many there must be on the grounds from horizon to horizon and beyond, some tipping point you

have there.

 

Is there such a thing as inshore stocks? I've never come across one.

[barry luxton]

We can assume that the CEFAS researchers will monitor these forums to get a feeling of what they are up against, so put your scientist cap on and draw your own conclusions.

 

Cleeclive

There will be anglers and company sponsers looking, one of the items during this recession will be the dark clouds formed over Whitby where huddled into small groups, whispering as they don't want anyone else to hear how bad it is or how long the recession is going to last in Whitby, in particular they don't want anyone else to join in with the sadness.

 

Edited February 23, 2009 by barry luxton

[barry luxton]

Not half as dark as you Ha, with your self righteous clap trap.

 

 

 

Only last weekend I heard a angler telling his mate on the radio that he has taken over an hour to fillet his catch, good luck to him I say, as Barry says he might be blown off for the next 6 weekends and by then the cod could have moved off out of his range and I doubt he will have the same enthusiasm with smooth hounds.

Hello Wurzel, how the devil are you. I have to concede that when i'm wrecking nearly all of the fish i catch certainly don't go back. I do however make up for it when targetting other specis and also take the weather into consideration to some extent, i must be some kind of greenie then. don't come close to what has happend up off scotland though this week.

[Steve Coppolo]

Do we want to influence this process

 

or

 

Do we want to try and change what is imposed upon us?

 

 

That sums the situation up perfectly for me. If we co-operate with data gathering and support their plans to manage us, in any way, we won't have a leg to stand on if we don't like what we end up with. (And I don't believe a word of the claptrap being spouted by our misrepresentatives about how, "we'll be alright", "socio economic importance", "low impact user", etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.)

 

If we want to live to fight another day, we've got to think seriously about what they could do to us - and the likelyhood of it being good, or bad. Personally, I don't trust them. They have shown us in the past that they have no intention of doing anything good for sea angling, or fish stocks. Why do they want to manage us? Why do they, (and some misrepresentatives), think we need managing? There is a hidden agenda and we don't know what it is yet.

 

The RSA strategy, angler log books, data gathering excercises, scientific studies into sea angling, and management measures are not necessary. So, you have to ask yourself, why are we facing all of them?

Edited February 23, 2009 by Steve Coppolo