Laws, For The Use Of Edible Crab On The East Coast Shore ?

[Hook_Line_And_Sinka]

Who if anyone, can tell me the "so called rules" ( do's and don'ts ) for shore anglers using Edible Crab !!!

[fishfinder]

Welcome to nesa H.L and S,its been discussed on here before mate and I think it comes under local byelaw

http://www.nesa.co.uk/forums/shore-fishing/2576-edible-peeler-crab-2.html

[davem2005]

9. Prohibition on Use of Edible Crab (Cancer pagurus) for Bait


(1) No person shall use any edible crab (Cancer pagurus) for bait and Section 17(2) of the Sea Fisheries (Shellfish) Act 1967, which affords a defence to a person charged with an offence under Section 17(1) of that Act, shall not apply within the district.

(2) Nothing in this byelaw shall prohibit the use of cooked crab offal as bait.

Thats straight off the Northumberland seafisheries website. That covers the area from north shields to the scotish border.

Just checked and it says the same thing nearly word for word in the NE sea fisheries byelaws. Thats south shields down to donna nook ...( near hull somewhere)

Dont do it

Cheers
Dave

[Hook_Line_And_Sinka]

Thanks for the very quick reply lads. But what we really need, is for someone with the know how, to explain in detail if possible "WHY we can't use Edible crab". Is it edible Crab or Cod where we have a shortage ? and would it be OK to gut a freshly caught Codling and use it's raw fresh Liver, or maybe an eye as bait ? sounds a bit harsh but seems that the people in our area that make the rules think there's more reasons to protect the edible crab than the Cod. Don't make sense to us !!!
Please remember lads, no offence to anyone and I'm sure that We speak for the vast majority of sea anglers. Happy Hunting To All Danglers...

[dave]

Just looking at the Act and its dated 1967! Concerns about sustainability, maybe, are not just a recent 'hot topic'!

Dave

[sless]

its banned because it has a comercial value

simple as that

[dave]

its banned because it has a comercial value

simple as that

Agree mate,

and the government want to keep it that way hence the 1967 Act of Parliment!

[davem2005]

Sless got it 100%

But...and its a big but..( and in some ways scary but )...its not a law...its a bylaw.

The goverment set the laws but the sea fisheries committee have a power to overturn that in the form of bylaws. They also have it in their powers to do the same for eu regulation.

In the case of both sfc's here in the NE they have gone out of their way to introduce a bylaw directly aimed at item two that they must see as a loop hole that can be used in defence if caught doing it.

Reason why I say its scary that they can do that is that I sit on one of those committee's and my qualifications for that post...well frankly they are zero. Fortunately there are 19 other guys on the committee...who's qualifications are ??????...probably similar to mine.

The bylaw I quoted does not ban using crab it bans people using item two from claiming it as a defence for doing so. The government law bans using crab.

Need to look that up and see what that says....particularly item 2..."reasons why we cant get done for doing so"...and then maybe understand why the sea fisheries committee thought it so important to put a bylaw through to prevent it.

Sorry to go on about it ...but here you see another reason to respond to the RSA consultation and ask that the sea fisheries committees are change to reflect the needs of the majority rather than just the commercials. They were formed in 1890...time for a change I think for the better of anglers

Cheers
Dave

[davem2005]

Item 17/2 in the original law allowed edible crabs to be taken if it can be proven they are to be used for bait.

(2) A person shall not be guilty of an offence under sub
section (1) of this section if he satisfies the court that the edible
crabs found in his possession or alleged to have been sold,
exposed for sale, bought for sale, or consigned to any person
for the purpose of sale, were intended for bait for fishing.

So in step the local sea fisheries committee's and bring about a bylaw saying its law but it doesn't apply in this region.

We need to convince a government if we want anything changed.

Commercials need to convince 20 people on a committee of which 7 of them have commercial interests.....rather one sided.

Cheers
Dave

[fishfinder]

Commercials need to convince 20 people on a committee of which 7 of them have commercial interests.....rather one sided.

Very!!! cheers dave for digging around on this subject..Sooo if we want to get this bye law changed how would we go about it ..would be very interesting to see how far we could go with this one especially as its only in place to benefit the commercials and we need all the help we can get bait wise to catch the depleted cod stocks that again the commercials have spoilt !!!

[davem2005]

Its a long standing law that was very quickly overuled by all SFC's.

We would have to come up with a convincing arguement as to why we wanted to use edibles...a little bit hard after 40 years, but if anglers come up with some facts and reasons I would be happy to put it to the committee.

Is there some reason why we would want to use edibles?

Would the benifits be worth the hastle? That would be hard to prove since in theory no one has used it for over 40 years

It would still leave the law saying soft backed edibles could not be used so little would be gained.

The final bit of bad news is that the current system is so longwinded it would be unlikly to reach any conclusion before the marine bill changes to the working of the SFC;s come into place.

Currently the way would be to raise it with the SFC concerned via your angling representative on that committee. That would be me or Tony Anderson in the case of Northumbria and the NE reps are listed on their website.

Personally I think that it would be better to wait until the reforms of the sfc's are put in place and then put a good case together to change things which need to be accompanied by a valid reason and scientific facts. ( Which probably wasn't the case when the bylaw came in which is probably as good an excuse to challenge the bylaw as any on the grounds there was probably no scientific reason for the bylaw in the first place)

I am more than happy to put anglers issues to the SFC as was the case with the netting off the beaches north of the tyne, however it takes far more than a post on a forum to get a bylaw overturned. It would need a lot of work by a group of people to put a good watertight case together before it could be put in front of the committee.

Cheers
Dave

[Hook_Line_And_Sinka]

Thanking you all very much for the info. Let's see what happens then, and until then we just crack on and crack off...lol

[Hook_Line_And_Sinka]

its banned because it has a comercial value

simple as that

So does COD, MUSSEL,VELVETS, etc