Issue 156 MAY 2008
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GOVERNMENT LICENCE PLAN ABANDONED
The government has abandoned its plans to impose fishing licences on a million sea anglers in Britain. The move follows several years of campaigning by the National Federation of Sea Anglers (NFSA) to convince successive fisheries ministers that because fishstocks were so seriously depleted by commercial overfishing, the few fish left for anglers were not worth buying licence to catch.
A provision enabling licences to be imposed has been withdrawn from the government’s big new Marine Bill due to be published shortly. The news came in a written parliamentary answer to Martin Salter (Labour, Reading West) from the fisheries minister, Jonathan Shaw. A survey of NFSA members showed that only eight per cent supported the idea.
The case was argued by the NFSA in its responses to government consultations, face-to-face with civil servants and last month directly with the minister at a "meet the anglers" session in Penzance, and at a meeting in Westminster. Richard Ferré, chairman of the NFSA, said: “The NFSA and anglers throughout the country have worked hard to honestly represent to the Minister their view that a licence would have been unfair, financially unviable and detrimental to the sport. “The minister and his civil servants are to be congratulated for listening to and analysing our arguments and now for taking this decision.”
Mr. Salter who is the Labour spokesman for angling, said that he remained committed to the principle of a rod licence for all forms of recreational fishing but added: “Let’s first get in place the conservation measures necessary to stop the over exploitation by the commercial sector and give Britain’s sea anglers a chance of a decent days sport before we ask them to pay to catch fish that might not be there.” Mr. Ferré said he believed it would herald much needed improved relations between the government and the million-strong recreational sea angling industry which was worth nearly £600 million a year in England and Wales alone and supported 19,000 jobs.
“Our aim is to expand the sport and sustain the thousands of businesses dependant on it. Many of those businesses would have been badly hurt by an unpopular licence scheme deterring thousands of families who go sea angling on holiday every year often introducing their children to a fascinating, close to nature, outdoor activity. Anglers were particularly pleased that the minister has clearly indicated his intention to continue with the action programme they have been lobbying for to improve sea angling which has been seriously affected by declining fishstocks. High on our priority list is the need for new minimum landing sizes to stop commercial fishermen and anglers alike taking fish before they have even spawned once and much improved netting restrictions around our shores.”
BASS WELCOMES ‘NO LICENCE’ DECISION
Commenting upon the recent statement by Jonathan Shaw MP, the Fisheries Minister, that proposals to introduce a sea angling licence are to be dropped, BASS spokesman John Leballeur said "At last this administration is beginning to show some sense when talking about Recreational Sea Angling". At the recent 'Angling Summit' held in the Palace of Westminster, the minister had been told by BASS and other sea angling organisations in the most forceful terms possible that the current proposal for a sea angling licence was unacceptable to the UK's Recreational Sea Anglers (RSA). This was especially so in the light of his decision not to increase the bass minimum landing size (MLS).
The Minister's failure to take this decision to protect juvenile bass meant that he had lost the trust of the UK's recreational sea anglers; the overwhelming majority of whom did not believe he was prepared to deliver any benefits to them, and yet were still expected to pay for a licence. For decades the sea anglers' voice has been ignored whilst at the same time there has been relentless decline in both the number and size of fish available to RSA. Does this announcement mean that the minister has begun to listen to recreational sea anglers? We hope so. We also hope that he will continue to act upon what he has been hearing, and to deliver on his promise to work with BASS and other organisations to improve the UK's recreational bass fisheries by implementing those other conservation measures contained within the Bass Management Plan. However, we will still need to see some positive benefits, in terms of improved fish stocks, before we can be confident that the tide really has turned.
Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society (BASS)
Junior angler Latimer Corbett age 14 years, a member of Paignton SAA, proudly holds his personal best Ling, caught from an offshore wreck mark out of Dartmouth aboard his Dad’s private boat “Deborah Jane” - Tuesday 15th April 2008 – Photo courtesy of Mike Concannon. Latimer is our Shakespeare Junior prize winner this month.
(Left) Mike Johnson, a member of Paignton SAA, proudly holds his shore caught Thornback Ray 22lbs 11ozs 10dr caught on a Peeler Crab bait, fished on a Pennel rig from East Portlemouth beach Salcombe. This fish is the potential new British rod caught record for this species - Sunday 16th March 2008 - Photo courtesy of Barry Aymer. Congratulations Mike, our Sakuma and Shakespeare Shore prize winner this month.
(Right) Stacey Ely was very pleased when she boated her first spurdog which tipped the scales at around 21lb. The fish was one of half a dozen double figure spurdogs caught on the day. The fish was returned after photographing so unfortunately was only weighed on the rocking boat and the weight was around 21lb as the scales were bouncing between 19 and 25 but seemed to settle around 21lb. The fish were all caught on small squid halved so that the fish could pick them up easily. Stacey was using a Fladen Maximus Jerkbait rod and fishing on the Galloper out of West Mersea skippered by Scott Belbin. Stacey is our Shakespeare boat reel winner this month. Full SAN competition details here
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