Two day MCZ meeting Blythe. 21/22/10/10.
I will try and keep this short and simple as the process is very complex. Any one or club wanting more detail please contact me via PM or through the Amble SAC website Amble Sea Angling Club and for your information I have been successful in my application to and have been appointed to the soon to be Northumberland Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (NIFCA) unfortunately we have no other RSA on the Authority the game anglers managed to get a bit more representation than us along with the National Trust and other conservation groups such as the European Marine site that runs North from Alnmouth, 3 under 10m commercial fishermen and one over 10m, various Unitary County Councillors along with the new Marine Management Office, Natural England and the Environment Agency. This Authority will come into force next Year with far greater powers than the current NSFC to the point the NIFCA will be able to bring in emergency byelaws immediately for up to one year covering out to the 6 mile limit and will enforce MCZ restrictions out to that limit. So this Authority I believe in the future will have the power to regulate many activities up to the highest mean tide level and along all estuaries and tidal rivers, food for thought. This brings me into the last two days. Sam Harris also attended the meeting on the Thursday and has arranged for netgain to be available at the Nissan Boat and Angling show on the 13th and 14th November along with the possibility of a radio interview with the project manager Steve Barnard I am sure if it comes off Sam will give us details. So for those of you that have answered questionnaires or have been interviewed by the netgain team contributed to the work of the first day by supplying a data map of RSA activity again unfortunately we did not have enough, so some of the coast shows no RSA activity at all but the other data sets we had from commercial fishermen and conservation agency where full on with the exception of some inshore commercial fishermen, needless to say the wind farms Oil and Crown Estates sent there best young brains from London. So to give you a feel for the process at the last meeting we refused basically to draw lines that could be made public because the data was non existent this time we had much more data and we had to put pen to paper. So to try and cut a long story short we have drawn lines in the sea and along the seashore all having caveats to them on control/ management measures regarding activities within those areas also our degree of confidence in the area. The area we have to cover as set down by the Ecological Network Guidelines as compiled by DEFRA is very complex, this has to cover habitat, geology, named species along with many other complex points of interest. The whole group was put into three tables mine having Natural England, Crown Estates, RSPB, Friends of the Earth, commercial fisherman, MMO, INCA( wildlife charity) All data was considered and we drew our lines until about 5pm that day along with the caveats for the draft MCZ we had created. Overnight all data was imputed into the GIS (digital map) and the three tables MCZ were overlaid on one another we then had to reach a consensus as a group to the areas drawn, so the day was made up of the three tables joining the lines together until a consensus was met along with taking out and adjusting areas to comply with the ENG. The most important thing was that all caveats would remain. At this stage we have nothing to fear regarding RSA and the reports I have from other parts of the country are the same but we will be getting down to the detail soon in the next round and I await the restrictions and management controls that some conservation groups may wish to try and get included on the bait collection and digging front. Once again please give data to netgain staff who may come along the shore and ask you for an interview you do not have to be specific about locations but it all helps RSA reps to fight your corner and fight we must, or put it like this if a maps shows no RSA activity what is the harm in making it a no take or catch zone, we have got to be in it to win it because the other conservation group stakeholders and the scientist will make the decision for us. The above data and maps will be made public soon and I will provide the link as soon as it is available. I can tell you we have organised a meeting with netgain and natural England before the next round to discuss the bait digging issue and either I or Alan Charlton will update you on that. Alan Charlton sends his apologies but he had to take a holiday some time.
Mentally knackered
Les
I will try and keep this short and simple as the process is very complex. Any one or club wanting more detail please contact me via PM or through the Amble SAC website Amble Sea Angling Club and for your information I have been successful in my application to and have been appointed to the soon to be Northumberland Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (NIFCA) unfortunately we have no other RSA on the Authority the game anglers managed to get a bit more representation than us along with the National Trust and other conservation groups such as the European Marine site that runs North from Alnmouth, 3 under 10m commercial fishermen and one over 10m, various Unitary County Councillors along with the new Marine Management Office, Natural England and the Environment Agency. This Authority will come into force next Year with far greater powers than the current NSFC to the point the NIFCA will be able to bring in emergency byelaws immediately for up to one year covering out to the 6 mile limit and will enforce MCZ restrictions out to that limit. So this Authority I believe in the future will have the power to regulate many activities up to the highest mean tide level and along all estuaries and tidal rivers, food for thought. This brings me into the last two days. Sam Harris also attended the meeting on the Thursday and has arranged for netgain to be available at the Nissan Boat and Angling show on the 13th and 14th November along with the possibility of a radio interview with the project manager Steve Barnard I am sure if it comes off Sam will give us details. So for those of you that have answered questionnaires or have been interviewed by the netgain team contributed to the work of the first day by supplying a data map of RSA activity again unfortunately we did not have enough, so some of the coast shows no RSA activity at all but the other data sets we had from commercial fishermen and conservation agency where full on with the exception of some inshore commercial fishermen, needless to say the wind farms Oil and Crown Estates sent there best young brains from London. So to give you a feel for the process at the last meeting we refused basically to draw lines that could be made public because the data was non existent this time we had much more data and we had to put pen to paper. So to try and cut a long story short we have drawn lines in the sea and along the seashore all having caveats to them on control/ management measures regarding activities within those areas also our degree of confidence in the area. The area we have to cover as set down by the Ecological Network Guidelines as compiled by DEFRA is very complex, this has to cover habitat, geology, named species along with many other complex points of interest. The whole group was put into three tables mine having Natural England, Crown Estates, RSPB, Friends of the Earth, commercial fisherman, MMO, INCA( wildlife charity) All data was considered and we drew our lines until about 5pm that day along with the caveats for the draft MCZ we had created. Overnight all data was imputed into the GIS (digital map) and the three tables MCZ were overlaid on one another we then had to reach a consensus as a group to the areas drawn, so the day was made up of the three tables joining the lines together until a consensus was met along with taking out and adjusting areas to comply with the ENG. The most important thing was that all caveats would remain. At this stage we have nothing to fear regarding RSA and the reports I have from other parts of the country are the same but we will be getting down to the detail soon in the next round and I await the restrictions and management controls that some conservation groups may wish to try and get included on the bait collection and digging front. Once again please give data to netgain staff who may come along the shore and ask you for an interview you do not have to be specific about locations but it all helps RSA reps to fight your corner and fight we must, or put it like this if a maps shows no RSA activity what is the harm in making it a no take or catch zone, we have got to be in it to win it because the other conservation group stakeholders and the scientist will make the decision for us. The above data and maps will be made public soon and I will provide the link as soon as it is available. I can tell you we have organised a meeting with netgain and natural England before the next round to discuss the bait digging issue and either I or Alan Charlton will update you on that. Alan Charlton sends his apologies but he had to take a holiday some time.
Mentally knackered
Les
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to much:yltype:
