RELEASE
“Labour is on course to lose the Angling
Voteâ€
That is the
conclusion that many are coming to in the aftermath of the recent
decision by Jonathan Shaw to abandon previous government policy to
protect the UK’s important and valuable Recreational Bass
Fishery.
With local fishermen’s organisations
protesting that reduced fish quotas for 2008 are likely to drive some
smaller inshore boats out of business, it is becoming clearer why
Jonathan Shaw, the newly appointed Fisheries Minister, has overturned
previous Government promises and sacrificed the opportunity for
building a first class UK saltwater sports fishery, providing many more
business opportunities and livelihoods in the Recreational Sea Angling
sector, by abandoning the previous Fishery Minister’s decision to
increase the minimum landing size for bass.
Bass
are a slow growing and late maturing species, capable of growing to
over 20lbs, living some 25 years and capable of spawning up to 15
times.
But they are now harvested as baby fish
at just 36cm (around just 1lb in weight) and before they have ever had
the opportunity to spawn.
Bass have historically
been a recreational species especially prized by anglers and second
only to salmon in their status and value as a premier sportsfish.
The value of the Recreational Sea Fishery for bass is
worth considerably more than the commercial fishery, supporting many
businesses and livelihoods.
However, increased
inshore netting, as well as the development of the controversial method
of pair-trawling for spawning congregations, means that anglers now
rarely encounter fish of the stamp and quality which anglers most
prize.
The problem is that there is no
commercial quota for bass, and only a meaningless 5 tonne per week per
boat landing limit (an unimaginable number of fish) to ‘restrict’
catches.
The danger is that with falling quotas
for other species, and no cap on the number of boats that can fish for
bass, or the amount of gear that each boat can deploy, fishing effort
on bass will increase significantly, as boats turn to bass to maintain
their profits as the reduced quota for other species is used up.
It is now almost certain that bass of any size will
soon become a much rarer catch for UK anglers and inshore fishermen
alike.
No doubt Jonathan Shaw has followed the
advice of his DEFRA fishery officials in the light of the problems of
the inshore fishing fleet but unfamiliar with the opportunities and
economic importance of the Recreational Sea Angling sector, it is
likely that he has made a grave political and economic miscalculation
which will cost his party dear when the Angling Vote is next cast at
the polls.
John Leballeur, chairman of BASS said
“what he has done by handing bass, the most valuable recreational
species, to the commercial sector for unrestrained exploitation, is to
tear up the assurances given in the past by the Labour Party that
“Angling is safe in Labour’s handsâ€, and ripped the heart from Labour’s
‘Angling Charter’.
That is unless Jonathan Shaw
has other plans to restore the damage that his decision has bought
about.
But it would appear that time is not now
on his side to gain the trust of Britain’s millions of anglers, whether
they fish for bass or notâ€.
