Sea angling licences

[wnion]

Sea angling licences “unenforceable and bureaucratic” says Alliance
March 16,2007 By Elton Murphy


The Countryside Alliance has branded the proposed sea angling licence “unenforceable, bureaucratic and with no obvious benefit to the recreational sea angler”.

The Government has published a White Paper outlining the proposed contents of a Marine Bill, and a sea fishing licence is included in the proposals.

Robert Gray, Countryside Alliance Director of Campaigns, commented: “Any legislation that seeks to improve conservation of our marine environment is to be welcomed, but we have concerns about the White Paper’s proposal to introduce sea angling licences.

“England and Wales have over 2,500 miles of coastline, which will make the task of enforcing sea angling licenses expensive and almost-impossible. The revenue raised by the licences has been earmarked for a range of initiatives such as protecting shore access and improving parking, but it seems unlikely that the revenues will go any further than simple enforcement and administration. We are also concerned that holiday anglers should be liable for a licence that aims to raise revenue to pay for coastal parking.

“It is unclear how much licences are going to cost or how much the implementation of this scheme is going to run to, but sea anglers know full well that it is commercial rather than recreational angling that is the biggest threat to marine conservation, which makes it hard to see any tangible benefits.

“The sea angling industry is worth £538m to the economy, and we should be looking to increase participation and welcome people to the sport, especially coastal tourists, rather than scare them off with a layer of bureaucracy that simply cannot deliver benefits.”

[DAZ]

Well said Al.

[plotter]

Here Here....
Bolox to that..
If there was a licence to fish in the sea, I would have to stop going in the winter. I never catch anything anyway, when-if i ever catch anything it will be a bloody expensive fish with all the money ive spent on rags and macrel, squid..

[wnion]

Sea anglers fail to bite license bait
Monday 19th March 2007

A carrot and stick government promise of improved services and benefits but with a license scheme to fund them has been rejected by sea anglers’ representatives.

It is the core of proposals by the environment department (Defra) to develop recreational sea angling (RSA) in England and Wales by recognising both its economic importance and reliance on effective management of fishstocks.

The National Federation of Sea Anglers (NFSA) strongly opposes it unless Defra first delivers tangible improvements for sea angling. It has kept Defra informed of anglers’ views on its emerging proposals for over two years.

In a White Paper* Defra says it will “help support” actions to improve sea angling but only after making anglers buy licenses to fish.

“That means sea anglers would be paying to put right the damage caused by years of over exploitation by commercial fishing allowed through the neglect of successive governments,” said Richard Ferré, chairman of the NFSA “That is Defra’s responsibility.

“Commercial overfishing must be stopped to allow fish to grow larger and anglers have better access for fishing before they will countenance licensing,” he said.

“Until that happens there are few fish in the sea worth buying a license to catch.

Defra should first provide the scientific data to manage fishstocks, protect and improve access for anglers to beaches, shore structures and car parking and create both artificial reefs to attract fish and more facilities to launch small boats.

He said anglers feared any licence money would go largely to pay for a new organisation to issue and enforce licenses and none would be used to improve sea angling.

Defra also wants license money to pay to display rules, codes of conduct and other data on the shore, at boat launching sites and aboard angling charter vessels.

Mr. Ferré believes the Marine Bill foreshadowed by the White Paper is unlikely to come into force until 2009. “That is plenty of time for Defra to show commitment to helping sea angling to continue to thrive and increase its already substantial contribution to the coastal economies of England and Wales.”

The White Paper says controls will only be imposed on recreational sea angling on a case-by-case basis, for particular species “where justified on conservation or enforcement grounds.” and they would be subject to consultation.

It admits there had been mixed reactions to licensing and bag limits from anglers and other interested parties as a means of controlling their activities but asserted there was some support provided there were clear benefits to anglers from the revenue generated.

Defra says it wants sea fisheries committees (SFCs) to be effective and to focus firmly on fishing activity and its impact on the marine ecosystem. Membership of each committee should be limited to 15 including seven representing commercial fishing and recreational angling.

It wants SFCs to introduce interim measures at short notice to prevent, stop or introduce restrictions on damaging activities such as new types of destructive fishing gear or to regulate long-standing practices in the light of new information.

The White Paper highlights the impact on the marine environment of many activities, including bait digging and bait collection, and the need for sea fisheries committees to manage these through by-laws.

On marine protected areas (MPAs) the white paper says that the government has an obligation to establish an ecologically coherent network of them and that responses to the marine bill consultation document last year “indicated overwhelming support” for such areas focussed on the conservation of biodiversity.

Sea anglers and everyone else interested have until June 15 to tell Defra how and why they believe the proposals in the White Paper should be changed.

[kwilliams]

Having been a fisheries officer for 32 years up to 2005 and an angler of all three disciplinesfor over 42 years I have grave doubts as to the way in which a sea fishery licence would be administrated and subsequently enforced.
In short, I don't think it can be done in the present financial climate of govt cuts in public services and any attempt to do so would bring howls from the public at large when other services are under resourced in services such as Nursing, school. Police etc.
Up to date there has been a considerable reduction in the fisheries enforcement staff especially in Wales where frontline staff were effectively reduced from a historical number of 69 men covering the whole of Wales and the borders from West Kirby on the Wirral Peninsula to the Severn Estuary at the Wye Confluence- now there may be twenty men or women in Wales or thereabouts - I know there are only seven full time staff in North Wales whereas in all that time management staff numbers have never been reduced in a percentage ratio to match the front line losses - a case of succinct managerial self preservation.
If Sea Angling Rod Licences were to be brought in, there would be a dire need to increase staff establishment numbers to effectively patrol the coastline and in Wales this would be a task of nightmare proportions as it is my firm belief that evasion would be wholesale and unmanageable.

The checking of rod licences is a task which is performance related duty and one that is viewed by some staff though not all I might add as a totally onerous task to the extent that if it can be avoided , it must be at all costs very often by finding alternative tasks.
Such is the PRP lifestyle that now haunts the EA it has been found that been found that by visiting the the fisheries that are match angling orientated and highly populated, the PRP scores are easily attained thereby allowing management boxes to be ticked as a task completed, this in itself causes dissent from staff within who feel severely pressured to carry out these tasks whilst fishery owners who on big fisheries feel they are being specifically targetted as recently commented upon in the national angling press by Mr terry Knight of Burton Mere in Cheshire who's complex is visited by Welsh region officers.
As there is a attitude of some officers who show a complete disdain for licence enforcement, how would coastal rod licence enforcement be carried out effectively and what would more importantly happen to the tasks of carrying out operational surveillance of illegal netting in estuaries which is rife on the Likes of the Dee estuary at night where on one occassion 5 kilomertes of drift net was discovered being used in the Mostyn area by Defra and Royal Navy Fisheries patrol boat officers.
I for one was always commited to my duties and more than prepared to put in often beween 12 to 15 hrs a day on fishery enforcement, however such dedication comes with a price as I was unfortunate to learn.
I for one have no faith whatsoever in the EA Managers of Nth Wales implementing new additional enforcement duties if they were imposed to to the operational table.
Whatever Defra proposes or implements under the Marine Bill will also require a fundemental and radical overhaul of archaic beliefs that are entrenched within the Sea Fishery committees of which the EA also hold such responsibilities espcially on the Dee.This is a river that is totally unregulated when it comes to the control of drift net fishing by operatives in the Black Economy and untill the EA begines to admit this responsibility completelyand brings control upon the neting activities that impact both Migratory fish stocks and Sea fish such as bass and Mullet that are being fished for extensively then there is no faith in their abilities.
it is a fact that the Sea Angling community on the Dee are presently demanding greater control on commercial fishing activities in the estuary and if the managers continue to bury their heads below the tideline then surely a continuing spiral in the lack of confidence will continue.
I can recall a few years back whilst a member of the regional Fisheries Byelaw Panel demanding increased controls through improved byelaws for nets on the Dee and i was told in no unceratin terms to forget the sea Fish issues as the Agency had no time to deal with those issues as it had enough on its plate
with salmonid fisheries protection.
What those managers failed to realise was the impact that the curtailment of unregulated drift nets would have had in reducing the effort in fishing for species such as bass and mullet would also complimented the protection of Salmon and Sea trout stocks and vice versa....... how short sighted that decision was and now how topical in present day terms such poor decisons reflect upon the present manager of the fishery.
If this attitude prevails nationwide as surely it must then the Sea Angling rod licence will never truly copy the sytem as implemented the US Fisheries Enforcement system which truly reflects game fish management in coastal and esturial waters.

see www.fws.gov/fishing/ for enlightenment.

Such a dream will never happen here until there is a greater enlightenment of the commercial sector who must realise the need to promote no fishing zones for trawlers , drft netters and Fixed nets and a need for greater Minimum landing sizes to allow greater spawning potential in inshore waters.
As has been said previously, Magna Carta has been a mainstay component of english fishery law and must reamain so for sea anglers of England and Wales until the Fishery Minister wakes up to he fact that the Defra fisheries dept and its forbears have abysmally failed in its role as fishery guardians so far to date.

[watermole]

DEFRA's claim that it will "help support" actions to improve (?) sea-angling-but only AFTER making anglers buy licences to fish encapsulates this whole business in one.

I feel that I am not alone in thinking that machinating minds within that Department have long regarded sea-angling simply as a vast, hitherto untapped source of revenue, in return for doing very little more than sitting on their overpaid backsides, churning out rhetoric by the bucket load about 'conservation' (and let's not forget good old Global warming) 'preservation of species' etc. etc. all to convince us that it is somehow a matter with achievable goals.
Quite how they mean to "help support" or 'improve sea-angling' in ANY way is frankly, beyond me. Perhaps a re-stocking programme is on the agenda-who knows?
One thing's for sure; whatever scheming is going on, it is the ordinary Joe Soap rod-angler, the softest target to hit, who will have to fund it, their own words have made that abundantly clear. If you add up all the fish caught by all the rods in the U.K.-including all caught by boat rod fishers-the number STILL pales into insignificance compared to that taken by the Commercial boats from seemingly, the whole of Europe, who ply our waters without let or hindrance.
I say, let DEFRA first make some tangible progress-preferably within my lifetime-on the current fishery matters which have become strangulated by overpaid beaurocratic incompetance before moving on to such a shallow and unjustified proposal as this.
There's an old saying: -'If you want to put the World right, then start by sorting out your own corner first!'

Yours, very cynically, but justifiably so,

Watermole.