IFCAs are a'coming

[Leon Roskilly]

Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities, which are due to replace Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) in England in April 2011, will have extended powers and duties.

 

No longer simply existing to regulate commercial fishing, they will have a wider responsibility towards all 'stakeholders' and a far greater responsibility towards the sustainable management of the marine environment.

 

SFCs were criticised for being too focussed on, and under the majority control of commercial fishing interests.

 

'Advice' given to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO - itself now being set up as a new non-government agency) which will be rsponsible for winding down the SFCs and implementing the new IFCAs, includes the following:

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/fisheries...nt-guidance.pdf

 

There was consensus during the Parliamentary processes of the Act that IFCAs should have a more balanced membership than currently exists in Sea Fisheries Committees to ensure they could fulfil the additional duties given to them through the Act, that no one sector is able to dominate the committee and that decisions taken by the IFCAs are subsequently balanced and that the desired „culture change‟ from Sea Fisheries Committees to IFCAs is achieved.

 

Defra also want the membership of the IFCAs to represent the right balance for each individual district‟s economic, social and environmental needs.

 

The needs of the individual regions will vary across the different IFCA districts, and may also vary over time, so Defra do not consider it appropriate to prescribe detailed membership proportions in this guidance note.

 

Those decisions need to remain flexible to respond to local circumstances, and should be taken by the MMO in consultation with the IFCA itself, and with key partners in the regions.

 

(Recreational Sea Angling is one of the sectors that the document suggests should form part of that 'balance')

 

So, how is that 'balance' for each IFCA to be decided?

 

(SFCs are already submitting their views on what is right for their area. Strange really that weight will be given to the views of SFCs criticised for not having a good balance, but understandably wanting to keep things as much the same as possible).

 

And should RSA have anything to do with IFCAs?

 

(They will have much more scope for managing and regulating both angling and bait-digging/collection etc)

 

These questions are urgent as potential membership of the IFCAs are now being recruited, with 'shadow' IFCAs being set up in October, just a few months away.

 

And how things work out will fundamentally affect sea anglers over the next few decades at least.

 

For more information on IFCA recruitment visit http://www.ifcamembers.co.uk.

 

(Applications will be accepted until 12 April, 2010).

 

To find out more about IFCAs see: http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/fisheries...ishman/ifca.htm

Edited February 24, 2010 by Leon Roskilly

[barry luxton]

quote:

 

(They will have much more scope for managing and regulating both angling and bait-digging/collection etc)

 

 

Why is it the need to manage a requirement? What part of the rsa needs managing ? What is wrong with the rsa scene, apart from restrictions tell us what else can management offer the rsa? if the answer is restrictions, what is the point?

 

I have looked at the requirements for joining the new committess previously and the rsa are at the bottom of the list, very low down just like an appendix really. Looks like you need to be green and mean to have a to be of any use.

Edited February 24, 2010 by barry luxton

[glennk]

I really fail to understand what is so bad about recreational sea angling that it needs to be managed ? I continually hear people telling me about all the things that anglers do that they shouldnt, but when you ask for evidence - you never get a reply. Maybe Leon should change his screen name to "The Grim Reaper"

[stevieg]

Easy chaps, with the shrinking of the commercial industry there are a lot of fisheries managers needing something to manage.........and if the clowns are daft enough to jump up and down shouting........"Hey we are over here, come and get us".......who can blame them if their opportunistic tentacles slither RSAs way..........

[Steve Coppolo]

I really fail to understand what is so bad about recreational sea angling that it needs to be managed ? I continually hear people telling me about all the things that anglers do that they shouldnt, but when you ask for evidence - you never get a reply. Maybe Leon should change his screen name to "The Grim Reaper"

 

There is nothing bad about RSA that needs managing, Glenn. The managers just think there is because they have been told so many times by sea angling misrepresentatives that, a) The fish stocks are so bad that something needs to be done about it, b ) There are millions of sea anglers out there, and, c) Sea anglers want parity with commercial fishermen.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Steve Coppolo

[Elton]

What stevieg said.

 

Nobody needs managers more than managers need managers!

[barry luxton]

Anyone imagine a manager following me a mile and a half up a muddy creek to see where and how many worms i dig. How can they manage a worm bed. They wouldn't even know where and what to look for, i certainly wouldn't assist them as i can't really see what the benifit will be to manage worm digging, anyone know. Or does someone want to guess and big it up for the do gooders to further scream for restrictions.

[Steve Coppolo]

Anyone imagine a manager following me a mile and a half up a muddy creek to see where and how many worms i dig. How can they manage a worm bed. They wouldn't even know where and what to look for, i certainly wouldn't assist them as i can't really see what the benifit will be to manage worm digging, anyone know. Or does someone want to guess and big it up for the do gooders to further scream for restrictions.

 

Unfortunately, it won't work like that. All they'll have to do is wait by your car and peer into your bucket when you return to it.

 

The best people to manage worm beds, believe it or not, are professional worm diggers. They have been managing worm beds for donkeys years and still make a living out of them.

Edited February 24, 2010 by Steve Coppolo

[barry luxton]

Unfortunately, it won't work like that. All they'll have to do is wait by your car and peer into your bucket when you return to it.

 

The best people to manage worm beds, believe it or not, are professional worm diggers. They have been managing worm beds for donkeys years and still make a living out of them.

I can just imagine tipping them out and them counting them. I can imagine loads of cctv cameras set up on the coastline as well, nothing queerer than fiction, or is there?

[Brian Carragher]

Well for what its worth I think anglers will have to be involved in the new structures because if they don't we'll be stuffed

 

Everyone will have to contribute in some way big or small even if its just a case of writing a letter or dropping an e mail to the committee asking for the views of anglers to be considered or for angling to be included as a matter of course, when policy or planning for the future by-laws that they will invarably be wanting to introduce

 

If anglers don't get involved at the very outset there is a real possibility that anglers views will be marginalised or even ignorned

 

I had been thinking of getting involved in the new set up but have been reminded of a promise I made some years back not to other outside interests before the family and earning a wage otherwise I think my name would have been in the hat for the North eastern region

 

My only concern is that should someone put forward their name that they might not realise just how much of a committment they would be letting themselves in for and how the day time meeting slots can seriously play havock with your wages when they have to give up a days pay for free