Help Angling Fund a National Body - What you can do

SAA members and many anglers have always wanted a single, properly funded, angling body.

SAA has been an active participant in the struggle for unity with NAA, the Unity Working Group and now FACT. All these bodies had one problem, lack of money to achieve anything.

Angling is the last great escapist sport and many anglers are not members of any organisation. This makes it very hard to reach them and their pockets, so funds could always be in short supply.

However the Environment Agency sells most anglers a rod licence each year and a small optional additional sum on the licence fee could supply much needed funds for a centralised, unified, angling body.

Anglers raise in excess of £18.6 million a year for the EA, yet most angling organisations struggle to get by on less than £50,000 a year, from their members.

A properly funded angling body could employ professionals to run public awareness and promotion campaigns to persuade parents that letting their children fish would be better than letting them roam the streets, that angling is a good thing and that anglers really do care for the environment.

The Government recognises this fact, but cannot, or will not, come up with the seed corn finance needed by angling to start down that road or make a commitment to a levy without the support of the Environment Agency.

The Environment Agency acknowledges that angling needs the money but is reticent to assist by supporting the concept of a levy on the licence, for many reasons. Most of which SAA disagrees with.

If FACT had just a 5% levy on the existing coarse rod licence (£1.20 on the cost of your licence) that could produce about £930,000 a year which would be invested in developing new anglers and bringing older anglers back into the sport, monitoring legislation for negative impacts on angling, representing the needs and aspirations of English anglers in Europe and creating a professional image for the sport to encourage commercial sponsorship of our incredibly successful national teams. If and when a sea rod licence is introduced then the same arrangements could apply. In the meantime SAA believes that all anglers should stand together in the interest of the sport as a whole.

You could help is achieve this end by writing to Dafydd Evans, Head of Fisheries, The Environment Agency, Rio House, Waterside Drive, Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol BS12 4UD and asking him to support a licence levy, payable to FACT, to promote and develop angling.

Defending Wild Salmon and Our Seas

On Saturday 14th October, from 11.00am until 12 noon, Salmon Farm Protest Group supporters will be distributing leaflets outside supermarkets in 50 UK cities and towns, including London, Kingston-on-Thames Bognor Regis, Bristol, Abergavenny, Newtonabbey, Edinburgh, Cumbernauld, Aberdeen, Perth, Aviemore, Dingwall, Wick and Thurso.

The SFPG message to consumers is: 'GO WILD FOR REAL SALMON - SAY 'NO' TO FARMED FISH. The leaflet lists ten reasons to think twice before buying factory-farmed salmon; including PCB and dioxin levels in both organic and standard farm salmon, untreated fish farm sewage excreted into coastal waters and the damage salmon farming is doing to wild fish.

"You have to ask yourself what is more valuable, cheap fatty salmon or the long-term health of the sea?" Richard Girling, writer and journalist.

"The barrage of bad publicity that has engulfed the Scottish aquaculture industry over the last few years has not halted dishonest marketing and publicity campaigns. The Action Hour campaign will, I hope, go some way to redressing the balance in favour of wild salmon, the king of fish, and its natural habitat." Donald Rice, riparian owner.

"The impact of salmon farming on the environment and on wild populations of sea trout and salmon is completely unacceptable. This poorly-regulated industry makes huge profits for big foreign companies at the expense of local communities throughout Scotland which rely heavily on revenue from anglers." Mark Lloyd, Anglers Conservation Association

"We no longer sell any form of farmed salmon in our restaurant or bar. We have noticed that most of our guests appreciate the quality and better taste of real salmon and we have never heard anyone complain that it is more expensive. If we cannot source wild salmon we do without." Elaine Lewis, Ben Loyal Hotel, Tongue.

"It takes three tonnes of wild fish from the high seas to produce the fishmeal to make one tonne of factory farmed salmon for the supermarket. Do you think that makes sense for our environment? If not, then stop buying the stuff." Jon Gibb, Fishery Manager, Scotland.

"It's fluorescent, flabby and full of fat and nasty chemicals, damaging the environment and helping bring wild species to the brink of extinction. Give your taste buds and wild fish a chance - don't eat it." Adrian Latimer, angler and author.

SFPG chairman Bruce Sandison said, "Ask your supermarket for wild Alaskan salmon. It tastes wonderful, has no artificial colourants and comes from a sustainable fishery certified by the Marine Conservation Society, a UK charity dedicated to protecting the marine environment and its wildlife."

If you want to join this protest of for further information contact:

Bruce Sandison on tel: 01847611274
Hysbackie, Tongue, by Lairg, Sutherland IV27 4XJ, Scotland


Salmon Farm Protest Group is a company registered in Scotland, No.240223