JUST HAD THE TV PEOPLE ON THE PHONE

[H.A.]

I, for my part, shall continue to draw attention to the unacceptable problems caused by trawling the sea bed, leaving unattended gill and tangle nets and the dreadful 'discard' catastrophes caused by so-called mixed fishery techniques.

 

 

And there will be some who will add unacceptable problems caused by unrestricted angling practises to that list.

 

I'll take that as an acceptance of wrongdoing by use of these commercial methods, then.

 

I'm happy to comment on whatever 'unacceptable problems caused by unrestricted angling practices' are, although I can't actually think of any which are not already legislated against. (unfair methods, that is).

 

[clem]

Challenge

 

Go back 18 months would you be thinking it was benificial for rsa s to have a license then when your livelyhood depended on them. You must realise that imposing a licence even if they were free will decimate the sector you used to work in. Has the worm turned? or is it still turning??

 

Regards.

[barry luxton]

Hi Barry.

There always has been a blanket restriction on recreational shell fishermen, new restrictions on there accountability have been put in place to try and stop any infringements taking place regarding these restrictions.

We also hope to introduce a catch reporting system (on a voluntary basis to start with) where recreational shell fishermen report in there daily catches and area’s fished etc the same as the commercial lads do.

These in the long term can only help the tracking and recording of stocks.

Accountability of shareholders and information gained by a simple licence and tagging scheme.

An increase in applications for this year than last is very encouraging. A positive response from this recreational sector has been very encouraging for future development of the said fishery.

As for figures on enforcement prosecutions, I would say that prior to the new by-laws involving recreational shell fishermen having to have a restricted shellfish licence that on a percentage of convictions in relation to gear in the sea that the hobby fishermen as you like to call them certainly had more convictions brought against them than the full time commercial boys did. That being one of the reasons that a licensing and tagging system was introduced.

 

Big cod.

Paul lets get one thing striate here, I don’t want to see people have to pay for a licence to go fishing.

I do believe that a licensing system could be beneficial to rsa in the same way as licensing has become and will be for the recreational shell fisherman.

the only recreational shell fishermen who wont benefit from it are the ones who will find it much harder to avoid enforcement because of the rules on the accountability of themselves and there gear that has been brought in to help with the enforcement.

 

Glen

The loudest voice that defra can here is the silence from the recreational sector when it comes to accountability.

You can point your fingers at the NFSA or SCAN or advisory group’s glen, but to be honest these are not the people who have **** off the accountable fishermen in this country and certainly not in this part of the world. It’s much closer to home than that.

Regards.

 

 

Morning Challenge, more questions than answers. What is the reason to restrict these fishermen to two lobsters? Are there simular restrictions on commercial? If as we have agreed the non-licenced, hobby sector cannot make a difference to the stock compared with commercial, why the need for restriction.

 

Reporting system. How would that work, the question of the day will be to the guys, 'how many' reply will be two! They ain't likly to say three are they.

 

Who is going to pay for this new level of bureaucracy, rate payers? What encouragement have the rsa lobster guys got if they are preserving something for the commercial sector to gain from? These convictions you mention, can you give us a few links to them, that will be of interest. Shouldn't be too hard to do that as there was so many of them compared with the commercial sector.

 

Why do you think the rsa in general need to be accountable, don't think you have answered that one.

 

You have to agree, the loudest silence you can hear is the non-complience of the member states and also the guys who are within the industry (cfp) to make sure the safe guards of all of the fishstocks are not ignored. Unfortunatly this mis-reporting, non-reporting as identified by the eu auditors is the key to ensure that there are fish in sea for all. The silence of these guys is deafening don't you think.

Edited February 23, 2008 by barry luxton

[big_cod]

Big cod.

Paul lets get one thing striate here, I don’t want to see people have to pay for a licence to go fishing.

I do believe that a licensing system could be beneficial to rsa in the same way as licensing has become and will be for the recreational shell fisherman.

the only recreational shell fishermen who wont benefit from it are the ones who will find it much harder to avoid enforcement because of the rules on the accountability of themselves and there gear that has been brought in to help with the enforcement.

 

John ask any commercial fishermen what he thinks of licences potting or any other way of commercial fishing and you know and i know will what his anser will be and it will probably end in off .

Edited February 23, 2008 by big_cod

[Guest challenge]

Barry.

More questions than answers? What’s that about? You have to put a restriction on a fishery in order to maintain that fishery.

There are limited amounts of full time commercial shell fishing licences issued.

There are plenty of fulltime commercial fishermen who would love a shellfish entitlement licence.

A reporting and accountability system would be very important Barry for the future development of the fishery, the encouraging thing is that the majority of the stakeholders think so.

 

Clem.

Why do you think that a free rod licence would desolate the recreational sea angling industry? It certainly has not desolated other recreational activities connected with sea fisheries, just the reverse in fact...

 

Big cod

Paul, what do you suggest then? No licensing whatsoever for all? Let’s lift all the by-laws that have recently been enforced and have 80ft pair trawlers trawling all over your precious fishing grounds?

Of course fishermen will say that they would love to be unrestricted and have no rules and regulations to follow, who wouldn’t? But like the advert says Paul, “it doesn’t work like that”

Anyway Paul, good luck with your campaign, you have got plenty of backing from a strong delegation within the SFC in this part of the country.

Regards.

[clem]

Clem.

Why do you think that a free rod licence would desolate the recreational sea angling industry? It certainly has not desolated other recreational activities connected with sea fisheries, just the reverse in fact...

 

 

I Strongly believe that if the licence was free (which it will not be obviosly) it would still deter all those people who enjoy the odd days fishing and would not be bothered with the hassle of obtaining one for a few hrs. fishing.

[Guest challenge]

Clem.

Why do you think that a free rod licence would desolate the recreational sea angling industry? It certainly has not desolated other recreational activities connected with sea fisheries, just the reverse in fact...

I Strongly believe that if the licence was free (which it will not be obviosly) it would still deter all those people who enjoy the odd days fishing and would not be bothered with the hassle of obtaining one for a few hrs. fishing.

So you think that any sort of licensing would decimate the industry then Clem?

18 months ago I would have agreed with you Clem, but having witnessed other licensing schemes involving recreational participants in sea fisheries in resent times I now beg to differ.

Regards.

[barry luxton]

Barry.

You have to put a restriction on a fishery in order to maintain that fishery.

 

bass are an unrestricted stock don't you think they are more important, what hope have they got?

 

 

A reporting and accountability system would be very important Barry for the future development of the fishery, the encouraging thing is that the majority of the stakeholders think so.

 

Have the rsa lobster fishermen been clearing out the fishery then, what about the court cases, got any for me. How would the fishery develope if they are restricted in any event.

 

Accountability, how would this scheme work, where the question of the day is, 'how many' answer two , they aint gonna say three are they, what is the point. All the stakeholders require is a standard one liner, two,etc.

 

I agree with accountability if it's going to achieve something, that is why i asked why stakeholders and governments are ignoring the cfp rules and not reporting as required, that must be hiding a huge amount of damage to the stock don't you agree, again, compared with a few lobsters. What is the importance of a few lobsters in that context?

 

What about the new level of bureaucracy, should the ratepayers have to pay for counting lobsters and checking all the nice shiny new licences, additional blue chip pensions. What about the rsa bass bag limit restriction if implemented, cod as well, who would pay for that, for what purpose, if it aint gonna make one iota of difference to the stock Compared with commercial discard for example.

 

More questions than answers Challenge.

Edited February 24, 2008 by barry luxton

[barry luxton]

So you think that any sort of licensing would decimate the industry then Clem?

18 months ago I would have agreed with you Clem, but having witnessed other licensing schemes involving recreational participants in sea fisheries in resent times I now beg to differ.

Regards.

 

What about the portuguese licence then, does your licencing schemes include for that one? Yes, i know they have to pay for it but, that one has caused an awfull amount of anglers not bothering to the detriment of the industry, shops, skippers as well?

[Guest challenge]

Have the rsa lobster fishermen been clearing out the fishery then, what about the court cases, got any for me. How would the fishery develope if they are restricted in any event.

 

Accountability, how would this scheme work, where the question of the day is, 'how many' answer two , they aint gonna say three are they, what is the point. All the stakeholders require is a standard one liner, two,etc.

 

I agree with accountability if it's going to achieve something, that is why i asked why stakeholders and governments are ignoring the cfp rules and not reporting as required, that must be hiding a huge amount of damage to the stock don't you agree, again, compared with a few lobsters. What is the importance of a few lobsters in that context?

 

What about the new level of bureaucracy, should the ratepayers have to pay for counting lobsters and checking all the nice shiny new licences, additional blue chip pensions. What about the rsa bass bag limit restriction if implemented, cod as well, who would pay for that, for what purpose, if it aint gonna make one iota of difference to the stock Compared with commercial discard for example.

 

More questions than answers Challenge.

Barry

The recreational shell fishermen want to see a healthy fishery as much as the commercial man does; the restricted licence holder is not restricted on what he can catch, but what he is allowed to take home.

Hence the numbers of lobsters that these licence holders are catching (if reported accurately) could be of great beneficial information to future stock evaluations.

 

If we keep on turning round and saying that it’s all just a waste of time as long as the commercial fishery’s have discards then what is the point Barry.

I know where you’re coming from and I can understand your frustration at times. But let’s get our own house in order first so that a united effort can be made to improve things on a larger scale.

As for who is going to pay for all this? It all comes out of a budget my friend the same as everything else that makes the world go round.

Regards.