Highplains.
Is this a public workshop?, or is it as the letter say's.
Their words.
( The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has asked the Environment Agency Wales (EAW) to carry out a "review of the Welsh fishery enforcement organisation and activities and proposals to address perceived stakeholder concerns". This arises from recommendations within the report by the I(IFSG) to WAG.
As part of this review EAW will be running five workshops around Wales for our customers to enable us to gain your views on the aspects of enforcement as identified by IFSG. These views will then be considered as part of our review for WAG. The workshops will be run by the charity The Environment Council on behalf of ourselves. )
Now, you are obviously unaware of the Inland Fishery Stakeholder Group, it was made up of anglers in all disciplines, netters and all stakeholders, all the hard work that they did to get these recommendations agreed upon, our LFG had a special meeting chaired by the EAW, we went through all of these proposals on the draft form and amended or agreed with same, this was also done I believe, throughout the area.
The IFSG then presented these to WAG at the beginning of the this year, it now looks like WAG clearly has asked the EAW to review their policies on enforcement. Why do they not get on with it? and do the obvious, we need more officers on the bank as the IFSG clearly states . This is just delaying tactics and wasting much needed money, going over the same old thing again and praying for a miracle, think of the cost of this lot.
Below is the final recommendations tabled by the IFSG.
Look at number 4, it can not be plainer than that.
Give this report your support, why have another so called neutral body, with no experience of fishing or enforcement, commisioned to make yet another one.
In the meantime, all our fish will have gone!!.
REPORT of the INLAND FISHERIES STAKEHOLDER GROUP
to the WELSH ASSEMBLY GOVERNMENT’S OVER-ARCHING WELSH FISHERIES STRATEGY GROUP
FEBRUARY 2006
To the Members of the Over-Arching Strategy Group on Welsh Fisheries: -
The Inland Fishery Stakeholder Group was formally convened on 2nd February 2005 to provide advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on the formulation of a sustainable fishery policy for the management of the salmon and freshwater fisheries of Wales. The Group comprised representatives drawn from private fishery owners, game angling, coarse angling and commercial salmon fishing throughout Wales. Its members were: -
Private Owners:
Coarse Angling
Robert Phillips
Robin Darker
Dr Stephen Marsh-Smith (Chair)
Jon Taylor
Keith Heminsley
Nick Massey
John Roe
Eric Humphries
Salmon Netsmen
Game Angling
Mike Elias *1
Lynn Hughes
Martin Morgan *2
Dr Graeme Harris (Vice-Chair)
Tony Randles
Huw Hughes
Ian Harries
Martin Fowell
Sue Parker
*1 Resigned after first meeting on 5/2/2005:
*2 Resigned after second meeting on 6/4/2005
The Group has met formally on six occasions. Its provisional recommendations were circulated as a consultation document to fishery stakeholders throughout Wales in November 2005. The Group met finally on 17th January 2006 to consider the results of that consultation process and then to prepare its formal recommendations to the Over-Arching Fisheries Strategy Group. These recommendations are now detailed in the attached schedule.
During the course of its deliberations, the Group has been very conscious of two things that have served to influence its deliberations. Firstly, this report represents the first opportunity ever provided to the fishery community in Wales to present its collective views directly to Government. Secondly, it was very aware that times are changing rapidly and that the environmental pressures affecting the status and health of our fisheries, and the organisational, political and social pressures that influence how we now need to manage them, are very different to those that applied in the past. The Group has therefore endeavoured to respond positively and constructively to those changes: not only to the uncertainties and threats that they pose but also to the challenges and opportunities that they present for the future management of Welsh fisheries.
In view of this very welcome and unprecedented opportunity provided by the Welsh Assembly Government to influence the future priorities and direction of fisheries management in Wales, it is perhaps not surprising that the Group has identified a wide range of issues to be addressed in one way or another. However, in listing our 175 specific recommendations, we have attempted to identify those central issues of strategic, tactical and operational importance that are of general concern and relevance throughout Wales as a whole.
Although each of the specific recommendations is relevant in a general or specific context, the Group has taken the collective view that the following ‘Areas of Concern’ are of immediate priority and in need of urgent action. It is considered that until these matters are resolved the inland fisheries of Wales will not realise their full potential to benefit local fishery stakeholders, visiting anglers, local communities and the Welsh Nation. They are: -
1. AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT.
Protection of the aquatic environment from the deleterious effects of over-abstraction and pollution on water quality and water quantity must be given the highest priority in all areas. Diffuse pollution from agriculture, and above all else by sheep-dips, is a major threat on many rivers, while acid mine-waters and acidification continue to cause serious problems in several parts of Wales. The toxicity and impact of sheep dips on aquatic invertebrates has had and will continue to have a serious affect on the aquatic food chain. This in turn is and will impact on fisheries. Immediate priority must be given to tackling and preventing sheep-dips from entering any watercourse.
2. STOCK CONSERVATION.
Science based estimates of salmon spawning populations for 22 Welsh rivers have shown that salmon stocks can maintain the current rate of exploitation on only one river. The other 21 rivers are judged to be ‘at risk’ or ‘in danger’ of a collapse in stocks unless the present rate of exploitation is reduced. The EAW, in partnership with its game fishery stakeholders, must take immediate steps to promote measures to protect spawning stocks by voluntary means, such as catch-and-release, on all Welsh salmon rivers. Where this cannot be achieved on those rivers where stocks are in danger of imminent collapse, such measures must be imposed by mandatory regulation. While our sea trout stocks may appear to be reasonably healthy at this time, there is a parallel need to promote the wider adoption of measures to prevent over-exploitation on each catchment, such as upper and lower size limits and catch limits. There is also a need to commission further studies to fill significant gaps in our knowledge about the migratory behaviour and exploitation of sea trout in coastal waters.
3. HABITAT RESTORATION.
Efforts to reverse the long history of habitat degradation in rivers and lakes throughout Wales should continue to be funded and resourced. Particular emphasis should placed on the removal of barriers and obstructions to upstream migration, the reinstatement and improvement of spawning and nursery areas within each catchment, and the protection of the riparian corridor. Greater use of the angling community could be made in progressing some of these initiatives.
4. ENFORCEMENT
The current approach to fisheries enforcement in Wales must be thoroughly reviewed as an immediate priority. There is a need to re-establish an effective core of full-time bailiffs engaged solely on front-line enforcement activities and to reinstate in some suitable form the system for appointing honorary bailiffs from within local fishery communities to support and supplement the work of the full-time bailiffs on other enforcement activities. Every effort must be made to improve fisheries surveillance and enforcement patrols in estuaries and coastal water by closer integration of the work of the Environment Agency Wales, the Sea Fisheries Committees and the Marine Fisheries Agency in order to make better use of resources.
5. ORGANISATIONAL INTEGRATION.
There is a pressing need to integrate more closely the work of Government departments and statutory bodies with separate remits for the regulation and management of fisheries, the protection of the aquatic environment and the conservation of wildlife. The overall objective should be to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, obtain the best use of limited resources and avoid problems caused by compartmental thinking within those separate remits.
6. PARTNERSHIPS AND UNITY.
There is also an equally pressing need to foster greater unity, awareness and capability within all sectors of the fishing community in general and the angling community in particular and to encourage closer working partnerships between the fisheries community, government agencies and others with a common interest in the protection of the aquatic environment and the conservation of its flora and fauna.
7. MARKETING & PROMOTION
The initial success of the “Fishing Wales Programme” in promoting angling tourism and generating increased economic and social benefits to rural and urban communities throughout Wales has been remarkable. This programme should continue to be developed and refined. Attention should now focus on promoting recreational spending with within the ‘grey market’ and on securing return visits via ‘product satisfaction’ and ‘after-sales support. Continued investment in improving bankside infrastructure and facilities for anglers is considered essential.
8. DISEASE & PARASITES
The enormous threats and consequences to Welsh fisheries by the importation of fish diseases from abroad (such as Gyrodactylus salaris which has destroyed salmon stocks on many Norwegian rivers) requires the development of effective countermeasure and containment strategies for the entire British Isles. This must be fully publicised and enforced and relate to fish farmers, anglers, canoeists and other recreational uses of inland waters.
9. THE WELSH DIMENSION.
The future legislative and administrative framework for the sustainable management of Welsh fisheries must reflect not only the different social, political and cultural history of fishing in Wales when compared with England, but also the often very different problems and pressures that affect their status and wellbeing and the different challenges and greater socio-economic opportunities that they provide to benefit the local communities throughout Wales. The EA must address the widespread perception that the fisheries service provided within its Welsh Region is inadequate to respond to these pressures challenges and opportunities
Stephen Marsh-Smith (Chairman)
On behalf of the Inland Fisheries Stakeholder Group. 15th February 2006