NFSA membership numbers!

[Satchmo]

Looking at the NFSA web site recently, I noticed that they have a total membership of about 5,500. Given that there are supposed to be about a million recreational sea anglers in the UK, many of whom regularly complain about things like fish stocks and access, isn't this a pretty poor state of affairs. Surely a strong body with a large membership would have more clout.

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

Yup more members would certainly give it clout.. whether they would actually do anything with that clout is another thing.. they seem to be struggling as it is.

 

Another point and this is the main one.. they need to represent the Whole of the UK.. not just England.

[Satchmo]

Davy, if they're struggling, then hasn't that got something to do with the amount of paying members they've got. Who else is there to represent our interests?

[H.A.]

Check this .......

 

Buckinghamfastleigh hate me .....

 

I'm very unhappy with the officers ......

 

and I am brave enough to say so ......

 

stirred them into life ......

 

possibly not .....

 

http://www.total-fishing.com/SeaForum.asp?...D3176438&Page=1

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

 

no the seem to be struggling to cope with the numbers of members they have now is what I meant.

As it stands they are totaly bias towards England, a fact that is confirmed with their web site :

title>UK sea angling boat and shore fishing NFSA England title

meta name="description" content="Sea anling by boat or from the shore and fishing in England with the NFSA England sea angler"

 

Not much mention of Wales and Scotland there is there???

 

 

The SACN is by far the most active and it has to be said effective at least they made the attempt to cover the whole of the Uk's sea anglers.

[Cranfield]

H.A. well that was as clear as mud. :confused:

 

Don,t you just hate that style of Foruum ?

Where you have to go to the bottom and read your way up the page, to try to make sense of the posts.

[Tom Pinborough]

Hi Davey

We have had this discussion on other boards, so I can understand some of your concerns,but as a member of the nfsa conservation group , I , along with my colleages , make representations for sea anglers for the whole of the uk, not just England.

 

cheers

Tom

Conservation Group NFSA

[Davy Holt]

Hiya,

 

Tom... I know what the NFSA do but my point is and I've been banging on about this for years is 99% of Sea Anglers up here see the NFSA as being only interested in England.. the statements on the web site just back that up.

 

It's a sad state of affairs when even a lot of the English anglers comment about it being bias to wards the South West of England and having your HQ down there just also happens to compound that feeling.

 

Now I've been banning on about this for over 5 years on line, highlighting this problem on many occasions yet what do we get.... apart from a website that is also bias absolutely nothing.

 

Ok fare enough you are slowly ditching the "only interested matches" label and are now being seen to be taking a positive stance on concervation... yet they are letting a potential source of revenue slip away for some still un known reason...

 

There are a lot of anglers out there, myself included that would happily promote the NFSA if they would acctualy make an attempt at showing some interest in us.

[Gillies]

I totally agree with Davy.

 

NFSA is for England - just look at the web site. I for one have no interest in it at all - if I lived down in England, I possibly would have, but everything in it is geared towards England, its about fishing in England and rightly so, and rightly so - we have the SFSA.

 

For me joining NFSA would be like joining a library in China - I'd pay my membership, but get no use from it !!!!!!!

 

There is Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers ....

and there is EFSA-Scotland - "when I remember to pay my membership" I find that more beneficial to me.

 

Conservation wise - there is not much can be done up here, when you have those Super Trawlers from all over Europe that resemble a cross between a mini ferry and a space ship working away far out at sea. As a club, for conservation Stornoway SAC introduce limits during competitions on a number of species that are more plentiful, and on some of the smaller species we have increased size limits by a centimeter or two above national minimum sizes. Though I have to admit that there is much more that we can be doing in my eyes - ie increased size limit on Pollack and Haddock for one.

 

Getting back to it - if NFSA did encompass the whole of the UK, and not just as it is just now - England - I would seriously look at been a member.

 

Gillies

[Satchmo]

Fair enough! even if the NFSA only represent English interests (which is disputed) that still leaves an awful lot of anglers who can't be bothered. For me, the purpose of joining the NFSA (or even it's scottish or welsh equivalent) is not what I get out of it, but what they're supposed to do in terms of representation to governments and councils about conserving stocks, access, gill netting, illegal trawling etc. I didn't join for the diary and invites to matches etc. but so that hopefully 20 years from now I'll still be able to fish!

 

Satchmo