Unification of Angling

There have been some comments on the bulletin boards about SAA not signing letters of intent to join the new body, when it is formed, interestingly mostly from anglers who are not members of SAA.

SAA is fully supportive of the move towards unity and has been pushing the agenda for change for many years. We have no staff to transfer their employment and no assets, belonging to the organisation, so there is no need for us to sign any letter of intent as we only have our cash resources to transfer into the new body when it is up and running. SAA, and our members, has already pledged itself to the new structure and we want to see it up and running with professional management as soon as possible.

Rest assured that SAA will be in the new body and specialist anglers will be represented within that structure. At the moment none of us knows how and when – that is still being discussed.

Fishing industry gets cash boost

News from the BBC - Northern Ireland's fishing industry is to be given a £25m investment by the assembly.

Details of the funding will be made public later on Wednesday by Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew. Ms Gildernew will make the announcement when she visits the fishing ports at Kilkeel, Ardglass and Portavogie.

The funding is ahead of key negotiations at this December's fishing council in Brussels.
ENDS….

So yet again government subsidises the commercial exploitation of our sea stocks.
SAA has to ask, “To what purpose?”

EA Extend Trout Stocking Consultation

The Environment Agency's consultation on the future of trout stocking in rivers in England and Wales has been extended to January 18, 2008. So, if you are an angler, fisheries owner or fish farmer and you have not yet made your views known then contact the EA now.

Details of the trout stocking review and research can be found on the Environment Agency's web site at www.environment-agency.gov.uk . For further information e-mail: trout.stocking.review@environment-agency.gov.uk, or write Dr. Brian Shields, Trout Stocking Review, Environment Agency, Richard Fairclough House, Knutsford Road, Latchford, Warrington, Cheshire WA4 1HT. Alternatively, telephone 08708 506506 and ask for an information pack.

The Environment Agency believes long-term future of native wild trout populations is being put at risk by current stocking practices. That is the finding of an extensive review of more than 300 scientific papers looking at the potential genetic impact of stocking on wild brown trout populations.

"Our wild trout populations are still likely to be genetically diverse despite many decades of stocking, so we still have plenty worth protecting and enhancing. But there are concerns that the continued stocking of farmed fertile brown trout poses a real threat to the future survival of wild brown trout populations when the two successfully interbreed," explained Environment Agency Fisheries Scientist Brian
Shields.

"Stocking trout has been a widely practiced and legitimate fishery management tool for more than 100 years. An estimated one million farm-reared fertile brown trout are released into rivers in England and Wales every year to satisfy the demands of game anglers. We need to be sure we get the right balance between protecting native wild brown trout and continuing to stock rivers to meet the needs of anglers and fisheries owners. This review of the scientific evidence helps us to do this and informs our on-going consultation on how we stock trout in the future. But we also need to know what anglers, fisheries owners and fish farmers think.

Most farmed fish have been subject to long term domestication and are bred for an attractive appearance and rapid growth rates, but they are not well suited to survival in the wild. When farm-reared brown trout breed with wild trout their offspring do not survive as well as those of true wild trout, meaning you have less adults to produce the next generation. Using sterile stocked trout or locally-reared juveniles are likely to be better options."

Government plans “more and and bigger fish” to catch

New measures to maintain and grow the £1 billion recreational sea angling (RSA) industry and provide “more and bigger fish” in the sea to support it, are revealed by the government today (Friday).

It follows a four-year campaign by anglers to put recreational angling high up on Whitehall’s problem agenda for the fishing industry.

The twin objectives of Defra’s Recreational Sea Angling Strategy for England are to “provide more and bigger fish within a healthy and sustainable ecosystem and environment” and “maintain and increase participation in RSA on a sustainable basis…across all groups in society to provide socio-economic benefits.”


It is seen as a positive move to assuage anglers who were outraged last month
when the fisheries minister (Jonathan Shaw) dumped his his predecessor’s
commitment to increase the minimum legal landing size for sea bass to conserve
the species.

Instead the minister consigned this valuable stock to continued and almost
unrestricted commercial predation allowing the slaughter of huge numbers of
immature fish before they were even big enough to spawn.

Today’s strategy is intended as a guideline, primarily for the 12 sea fisheries committees which regulate the marine environment, including fishing, for six miles out around the coast of England and Wales.

Defra says it wants to “realise real improvements” for anglers before any control of their activities, such as licensing. It concedes that “large and sustainable fish stocks and a healthy marine environment are the primary elements which affect the angling experience.”

Defra says there should be better access to angling sites, more boat launching facilities, artificial reefs to attract fish and areas of the sea reserved for angling or where only limited commercial fishing was allowed.

The strategy admits that angling is under-represented in sea fisheries management despite its increasingly significant social and economic contribution to the nation. Managements at national, regional and local levels should recognise the needs of RSA alongside other stakeholders.

The strategy idea came from the conservation group of the National Federation of Sea Anglers in 2004 and a wide group of sea anglers helped draft it.

”Ministers and civil servants had no idea then what a sea angler looked like, what they did or how valuable their activities were,” said Richard Ferré, chairman of the National Federation of Sea Anglers. “They have little doubt about that now.”

The anglers’ strategy was taken up by Defra’s coastal waters policy group and presented in detail to all the main stakeholders including commercial fishing, sea fisheries committees and environmental organisations.

“Discussions were vigourous but professional and a document with real positives for anglers has now emerged,” said Mr. Ferré.

“It calls for management plans at a local level for the species of fish most
important to RSA, makes a strong case for better control of trawling and gill
netting close to the shore and anglers’ desire for the “golden mile” concept
of no netting within a mile of the shore.”

He said the strategy calls for sea fisheries committees to be given the objective of developing sea angling, a duty they do not have today, and to make decisions based on socio-economic factors not just on concerns for commercial fishing.

The strategy contains some potential threats to angling, notably licensing and limits on the number of fish anglers could take home. However, these, can only happen under the Marine Bill due to be published next year.

It also calls for co-operation between anglers, sea fisheries committees, local authorities and others in developing voluntary sea angling codes of conduct and best practice.

Mr. Ferré urged all sea anglers to support the NFSA in its continuing engagement with government to achieve its goal of improving sea angling mostly through “more and bigger fish”.

END


National Federation of Sea Anglers
Hamlyn House, Mardle Way, Buckfastleigh, Devon TQ11 0NS
Chief Executive: David Rowe
Tel: 01364 644 643 Fax 01364 644 486 e-mail: ho@nfsa.org.uk

www.nfsa.org.uk

Promoting and protecting the interests of sea anglers nationwide

Proposed Defra Budget Cuts

There are stories circulating (see below) of further cuts being proposed in Defra budgets for fiscal year 2008/9. Any cut in Defra budgets is likely to affect money available for fisheries work and the Environment Agency will be under pressure to save even more money than this year.

You can help change the decision, before it is made, by writing to the Chancellor,

Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
HM Treasury
1 Horse Guards Road
LONDON SW1A 2HQ

Or emailing ministers@hm-treasury.gsi.gov.uk

Fax number 020 7270 4580

There are many volunteer organisations supporting the environment in the country at national and local level. Many of these groups are dependent on small allocations of funds from the EA and local government to maximise their effect. Cuts in these important environmental funds not only damages the environment but also diminishes the perceived importance of the vital community groups. Why would people continue to volunteer when funds are constantly cut by central government for environmental issues?

The community needs volunteers and it should be government policy to ensure that volunteers and community groups can still be motivated by supplying sufficient funds to underline the importance of local contributions by individuals. Cuts in Defra funds will immediately impact on fisheries work by the Environment Agency as well as community works at a local level. The EA is already stretched to deliver on the Water Framework Directive and further budget cuts for Defra from the Treasury can only make matters significantly worse, just at the time when we are all facing increased impacts from climate change.

We are asking the Treasury to ensure that no cuts imposed on Defra have a negative affect on the work of community groups or of the Environment Agency.

Pikers Step Up Campaign Against Culls

Fishery managers across the UK are being urged to think twice before culling pike.

Five hundred of them are being sent a booklet called Pike In Your Waters, which sets out the scientific case against culls.

The report was compiled by the Pike Anglers Club, which has campaigned to preserve the pike and pike fishing for 30 years.

It explains the vital role pike play in a vibrant, balanced fishery and why all culls usually achieve is an explosion of small pike and an even bigger problem.

Copies are being sent to every member of NAFAC - the National Association of Fisheries and Angling Consultatives - with their Winter Newsletter, which also features an article on pike conservation.

The club stepped up its campaign after details of a number of pike culls emerged.

"We're sorry to find that even in this day and age pike are still being killed because they are a conventient scapegoat," A Person said.

"We're hoping fishery managers will read the booklet, weigh up the evidence for themselves and think twice before culling."

The PAC is meeting with Hadlow College, the Kent Fisheries Consultative and the Environment Agency to seek a more positive outcome for the River Darent, where a cull was carried out this season.

The action has won the backing of the Specialist Anglers Alliance (SAA) and NAFAC.

SAA secretary Michael Heylin said: “SAA and PAC have worked together for many years to protect pike in our waters. The natural balance of waters is disturbed by man’s intervention, generally to the detriment
of ecological balance.

"There is little point in all of us working towards stopping the illegal removal of fish from rivers when fishery
managers themselves take short sighted views on predator populations and the results are then widely published on websites.”

NAFAC executive chairman Martin Read said: ‘Fisheries management activities are difficult to carry out in isolation, particularly on river systems.

"Hopefully a dialogue between all the interested will go a long way to achieve a better understanding and outcome in future."

Copies of Pike In Your Waters can be downloaded for free from the PAC website. Just go to www.pacgb.co.uk and click on publications.