Conwy Outcome

[Leon Roskilly]

SACN report of the meeting with the Sea Fisheries Committee on 25th, now available at:

 

www.anglers-net.co.uk/sacn/latest/i...ex.php?view=101

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Guest jay_con]

leon ive been readiong this, and masny other topics. I read with interest of your meeting with ben bradshawe. Sounds like you do some good work for the bass fishing brigade.

 

Does anyone represent recreational cod fishing at these meetings? Is ther anybody from the north east of england at the meetings. Or do only bass matter. ( ill probably get a slating for writing that, but hey my shoulders are broad enough).

[Leon Roskilly]

SACN is not just about any one species.

 

In fact we came in for a lot of criticism when we backed the ICES call for a total ban on cod fishing.

 

Tom Pinborough is still in charge of the SACN cod recovery campaign.

 

Bass currently have a high profile because of the work put in over the last few years by the BASS restoration project group, culminating in the recommendation from the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit that 'the evidence be reviewed for re-designating some species wholly for the purpose of recreational angling, starting with bass'

 

(We are already drawing up a target list of species that are important to anglers, but of no great interest to commercial fishermen eg, mullet, wrasse, conger etc)

 

And during that time BASS have gathered a wealth of evidence and scientific facts that back up their claim that the country would obtain a far better socio-economic return from the resource if bass were managed as a recreational sports fish.

 

(It's no good just saying so, you have to produce good data that will stand up to rigorous and hostile examination if you want someone to listen to you)

 

Cod, if they are not fished to extinction is always going to be a fish that is of great importance to the commercial fishing industry, so a different approach will be needed.

 

Principally pushing the conservation message, in alliance with WWF, Greenpeace etc and looking for certain areas to be reserved for recreational angling.

 

eg wrecks

 

But that needs wreck anglers and the boat associations to get together and start doing for their fishing what the members of BASS have been doing for theirs.

 

The National Mullet club have already started to gather evidence from mullet anglers as to how important that species is to anglers.

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

[ 29. May 2004, 03:48 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[Guest jay_con]

sorry leon. but I disagree. the majority of cod in our restaurents,and chippies is imported from the faroes. so I believe that the fish in our waters are of far less importance commercially than to the recreational angling scene. As you point out cod anglers so far have very little data to back up their theory, but I feel pretty certain that cod fishing recreationally in north east england is worth far more to the economy than it is commercially.

 

thousands of geordies, townies (people from middlesbrough), maccams, yorkshiremen, spend vast amounts of money on their hobby of rock fishing for cod. Many anglers; spend thousands on equipment, spend large amounts of cash on petrol to get to scotlad, or the solway for their white rags and peelers, Thousands on petrol to get to their chosen venue which is often over a hundred miles return journey. thousands of pounds are spent on charter fishing trips (each summer half of south yorkshire travels to whitby for its yearly fishing trip. my list is endless and could go on for hours. All the direct and indirect cost of recreational fishing are surely worth more to the economy than the money attributed to the small amount of commercial boats in our area.

[Norm B]

Well done Leon. All of you at SACN and BASS do a fantastic job for ALL sea anglers, not just the bass anglers. Whether we get anything from this or later governments will be down to the likes of You, Malcolm, Tom etc. I'm more than happy to give you space in exchange for all the hard work that is done by you all for sea anglers, we ALL owe you a great debt and I mean it sincerely, to quote Hughie Green. Cheers, Norm B.

[Guest jay_con]

my sentiments entirely. shame someone isnt as active on the cod front.

[Leon Roskilly]

Norm B:

 Whether we get anything from this or later governments will be down to the likes of You, Malcolm, Tom etc.

No pressure then Norman? LOL

 

To be fair, theirs quite a few others beavering away, but it's the letters and emails from 'ordinary' anglers that are really making the difference.

 

Although they are often seemingly brushed aside in a discouraging way, the number of anglers taking the time to hassle their MP etc really does make a difference, and when we go knocking on doors they are much more readily opened to us.

 

I've little doubt that the Conwy issue would have stayed buried were it not for the fuss made by many anglers lobbying the DEFRA, the Welsh Assembly etc. I suspect that we are going to be consulted much more by SFCs all around the country in future

 

And don't forget that the political parties are now moving into election mode!

 

A few anglers going along to their MP's surgery of an evening will bring real results in moving the prospects for the development of a strong reacreational sea fisheries sector up the political agenda.

 

The space that is devoted to conservation issues in Sea Angling News helps enormously

 

Pity that some of the other journals so rarely follow suit.

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

[ 30. May 2004, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]