Meeting with David Miliband.

[davem2005]

It seems there are three no trawl zones not just one as mentioned in the marine bill white paper. They are considerably larger than I exected and all three extend out to the three mile limit (now theres a thought)

One has been in place over 100 years and all were put in place in the intrests of commercials.

There is an interim report on a survey done of the fish stocks in these areas compared with the surrounding area, but the full report will not be published untill august so we will have to wait and see what that says.

I have forwarded this information on to the Mp as requested and also to the WWF so they are aware these areas exist. I will start another thread with details of the regions involved and an appeal for information from anglers as to how they would compare catches in the regions concerned with those from other regions.

Cheers
dave

[davem2005]

Sorry to bump this back to the top.

Things in government circles move very slowly to say the least.

Following the promise to meet NE anglers by Milliband things were set in motion to set up that meeting.

Then government changed so people moved on. I emailed Millibands replacement to ask if would honour the promise. that got booted along the system to the new person in charge who sent this reply on friday with a very definate NO.



So a meeting will not take place but it at least lets the fisheries minister know we exist and proves that if you contact an MP they will at least reply (eventually)

The marine bill has been put on hold for now but anglers still need to be pushing their MP's for the introduction of a golden mile.

Cheers
Dave

[LeonRoskilly]

Jonathan Shaw will be attending the NFFO AGM, where I'm sure that he will be told what a ridiculous idea the Golden Mile concept is, and how any increase in the bass mls will lead to unacceptable levels of discarding (but no mention of how preventing fast trawling within shallow waters (ie the Golden Mile) would reduce the current unacceptable level of discarding of undersized bass etc!).

He's also been touring the commercial fishing ports, to listen to the views of commercial fishermen (but hasn't yet bothered dropping in on Angling charter skippers, local tackle shops, bait diggers etc whose businesses and associated livelihoods depend upon the recreational sea fisheries).

Now would be a good time to contact your local MP and get him to send a message to Jonathan Shaw that RSA is not only valuable economically, and important in maintaining a diverse economy, but that a lot of the 1 or 2 million sea anglers will be looking for delivery of some benefits before the next General Election, before deciding where to place their vote.

If you don't know how to contact your MP, have a look on http://www.theyworkforyou.com who make it easy.