Coarse Fish on the Menu. Important press release!

[RollingPinBoy]

Here is a model letter that i have copied below for you to send to the E.A. You can scroll, copy and print it off. Change and add to it, to personalise it as much as possible, and make sure you ask for a response. If and when you get one, write back again and enter into a debate. Let the guy know how strongly you feel about it. Put your name and address and seek a reply which is important...Ray

 

If you want more ideas, then the full UOFCA 4 page document version can be viewed on the NAFAC website: http://nafac.co.uk where you click on Read Press Releases, then click on Nafac Press Releases, and scroll down the inner window and click on UOFCA letter to the EA. From there it will open itself as a PDF file.

 

 

 

Mr A Taylor

National Fisheries Policy & Process Manager

Environment Agency

Rio House

Waterside Drive

Atzec West

Almondsbury

Bristol

BS32 4UD

 

Date:

 

 

Dear Mr Taylor,

 

 

The Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act is currently under review and I wish to have a say in that process.

 

Allowing rod licence holders to take away or kill a number (varying from region to region) of coarse fish from any water everyday, no matter how large those fish are, is unnecessary in modern times and can only help lead to serious reduction of fishery stocks, especially in specimen sizes.

 

This may not have happened on a national-scale, yet, but it is a rapidly emerging problem with potential for enormous growth due to the influx of people from cultures where it is everyday practice to help your self to fish and eat them.

 

Even in lakes where fish are normally the landowner’s property, current law (and frequently lack of police interest,) give the owner little chance of dealing with the problem. Fish in rivers, classed as wild creatures, have even less chance of protection and the EA no grounds for prosecution.

 

Anglers trying to change bylaws in all Agency regions are unlikely to produce a country-wide consistent, easily understandable, result.

 

I want to see the SFFA changed, making it an offence to take or kill coarse fish without Agency consent (which would be granted for, say, stock management or fish farms supplying the food trade).

 

Regional bylaws would then have to change, making taking of sizeable fish a crime for which the Agency could prosecute in the same way as it prosecutes anglers who don’t have rod licences.

 

The change would also make it more difficult for people to illegally move fish in ones and twos from water to water. The change needs to cover all types of waters, not just rivers.

 

I don’t wish to change the law relating to limited numbers of small fish being used as bait.

 

Thank you for your attention and I would appreciate your reaction and a reply to the ideas I have contributed.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

 

 

Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Address xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxx

[Alan Fawcett]

BUT i like eating coarse fish so if this go's ahead i won't be able to have the pleasure of eating something i have caught myself.

[Brian Carragher]

This would have to be a very carefully drafted piece of legislation and one that addressed real and not just percieved problems otherwise if it is badly drafted and badly worded and enacted, it could create more problems than it tries to solve.

 

I would'nt like to try and ban the eating of coarse fish just because I did'nt do it but I do agree on the upper size limit for removal of any species as they are your best prime breeding stock. The latter point being very difficult to grasp for some club committee members in our (NE) region