SACN Press Release - No Licence

[Graham B]

All I can say on the CFP is that I see at work how inefective it actually is. The smaller the nets the fisherman fish with, the more days at sea they are allowed to fish! It just doesn't meke sense! The whitefish boats fishing 120mm gear are allowed less days at sea than the 80mm twin rig prawn fleet which is crazy! The discards on a typical prawn trawler that I see first hand are for say a four hour tow are around 300kg with around 80-100kg of prawns kept.This 300kg of discards is mainly made up of juvenile haddock and mixed flats with a sprinkling of other species. The trawlers only have to get 30 or 35% of prawns to meet the quota to enable them to fish with such small nets. The massacre that goes on by the prawn fleet is truly horrific and has to be stopped if there are going to be any fish left in the north sea as the stocks simply cannot sustain the depletion of all of the juvenile fish. Trawling for prawns should be banned and creeling only brought in and the change in the north sea would be unbeliveable. Even on the whitefish boats I see them dumping cod under 5Lb as they are not top grade and they do not get top prices for them. What hope have us anglers got? And the cheek of it is they were going to make us pay to fish!

[Red5]

Agree with everything you've said there Graham. Have noticed that the under 10mtr boats down south are up in arms as they've been told they're only allowed to land 50kg of cod per month.
It's my belief that the licence idea is and was an idea to try and bring in more revenue for HM government. Simple as that as it's obvious that they have no intention of protecting the marine environment by remaining part of the EU and abiding by the CFP. I think until we have one body that encompasses all parts of Recreational Sea Angling i.e. publishers, tackle manufacturers, tackle shops, charter boats and even the humble angler, then I don't think we can get much further. It's always the silent majority that suffer, while the vocal minority continue to be heard.

Just as an afterthought to what I said about a body to represent our interests and who should be part of that, it was interesting to note that at the meeting at Newbiggin it was made completly made up of anglers with a couple of tackle shop owners....Strangely no MD from Grey's/Hardy's or the other North East manufacturers Century and Titan. Are we as anglers a lone voice?

[LeonRoskilly]

I think until we have one body that encompasses all parts of Recreational Sea Angling i.e. publishers, tackle manufacturers, tackle shops, charter boats and even the humble angler, then I don't think we can get much further.

See: Welcome to Angling Unity | Angling Unity - ‘One Voice for Angling’

[Red5]

Read it all Leon.....

I think the jury is gonna be out on this for a long time until the infrastructure is set up and we see how powerful a lobby group it can be when they face up to the government on issues and get a positive response.
I sincerely hope that Angling Unity will represent us all, but again, I'd ask is it all grass roots anglers or are manufacturers etc going to be part of it all?

[LeonRoskilly]

is it all grass roots anglers or are manufacturers etc going to be part of it all?

It's intended that the new organisation will have individual members, a result for those of us that belong to (say) the NFSA and SAA and the ACA. In future there will only be one organisation to join and one membership to pay.

Hopefuly the Angling Trades Association will also join at some point.


see: Angling Unity (Jan 08)