A. FISHERIES ADMINISTRATION

[Hoppy]

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE TEXT:

CCW = Countryside Council for Wales:
EA = Environment Agency for England & Wales:
EAW = Environment Agency Wales:
FRAWC = Flood Risk Assessment Wales Committee (formerly Flood Defence Committee):
NRA = National Rivers Authority:
WAG = Welsh Assembly Government.

A FISHERIES ADMINISTRATION

THE WELSH DIMENSION.

The EA must address the widespread view of its fishery stakeholders throughout Wales that its policies, practices and processes are ‘made in England for England’

• In defining its policies and priorities for the discharge of its fisheries and other functions, the EA should take account of and be more sympathetic to the very different nature, management needs, social and economic values and National importance of Welsh Fisheries. It should also recognise the very different angling culture in Wales and note that fishing is a devolved issue with all that this entails.
  
  
• The EA should now carefully consider if the organisational structure relating to the effective discharge of statutory fisheries function and adopted throughout England & Wales is wholly appropriate for its Welsh Region. It should also consider if the remit of the EAW should be extended to encompass the whole of Wales. [See A.4.4.]

A.2.3. FISHERIES LEGISLATION

The Government has accepted the central recommendation of the ‘Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Review’ that the legislation must be updated to allow the salmon and freshwater fisheries of England & Wales to managed in a sustainable way that accommodates modern pressures, needs and aspirations.

• The Government should progress the introduction of new primary fisheries legislation for England & Wales at the earliest opportunity.
  
  
• WAG should then make the fullest possible use of its devolved powers to adapt that legislation to address the special needs of Welsh fisheries and the Welsh Nation.
  
  
• The equally important need to update, amend and consolidate many aspects of the non-fishery legislation relating to the management and protection of the aquatic environment identified in the ‘Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Review’ must not be overlooked and action must be taken by Government in this vital respect..

PRIVATE FISHERY OWNERSHIP & COMMON LAW RIGHTS

Fishing rights are private property that can be bought and sold on the open market: either attached to the adjacent land or separated from it. Fishery owners have a riparian and common law rights to claim compensation through the Civil Courts for damages and injury if those rights are adversely affected in any way by a third-party. This fact is too often overlooked.

• The rights of fishery owners to make wider use of their riparian and common law to protect their fisheries and the quality of the aquatic environment on which those fisheries depend must be more widely recognised by Government and its partners.
  
  
• The EAW should work more closely with fishery owners to use their riparian and common law right to take action in the Civil Courts to supplement and reinforce its own statutory powers to protect fisheries and the aquatic environment by prosecution the Criminal Courts.

ORGANISATIONAL OVERLAP

The dual responsibility for the conservation of some species of migratory and freshwater fish between the EAW and the CCW often creates a ‘conflict of perspective’ because of their different statutory remits. This can causes serious difficulties for fishery owner when applying for formal ‘consent’ from the EAW and formal ‘assent’ from the CCW (on designated SAC/SSSI sites) to undertake schemes of works instream and bankside works to protect and improve their property. This difficulty is further aggravated by the division of responsibilities for ‘fisheries', ‘sustainable development’, ‘conservation’, ‘flood defence’ and ‘biodiversity’ between five different department in the EAW.

• The EAW and the CCW should consider means of streamlining and expediting the way that such applications are currently processed and, in the important context of maximising the social and economic benefits of fisheries to the Welsh community, of overcoming many of the constraints imposed on the nature, scope, timing and manner of construction that often make such works impracticable or even impossible.
  
  
• Where it has powers to do so, the CCW should be actively encouraged to enter into formal management agreements with fisheries owners in an attempt to overcome many of the seemingly unnecessary constraints imposed by the lengthy schedule of ‘Potentially Damaging Operations’ that necessitate applying for formal assent.
  
  
• The EAW and the CCW should issue formal guidance to their field staff on the nature and extent of their statutory powers and the manner in which they are to be interpreted when considering formal application for consent and assent to undertake in-river and bankside works.
  
  
• WAG should give serious longer term consideration to the practical merits of setting up ‘one-stop’ shop for managing all fisheries and conservation issues, perhaps under the aegis of the EAW. This would reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and internal costs from duplication of effort and, of signal importance, help to overcome the inevitable problems caused by ‘compartmental thinking’ between the different remits and perspectives of the separate statutory agencies.