Ban on Sea Angling from 2012

[JustMark]

If the figures I was shown at today's meeting with Finding Sanctuary, the Quango set up to decide where proposed new Marine Conservation Zones should go, the majority of the Southwest coast and waters out as far as the middle of the channel and up to 200 miles to the continental shelf could become no go areas for anglers.

In his introduction to the "Recreational Sea User Workshop" which was attended by invited representatives of many of the recreational activities that take place on the coast and in British waters including Angling, boating and diving, Tom Hooper of Finding Sanctuary showed some early proposals that have been identified as those being used the least for such activities.

The group will use the data they have collected to make recommendations which the government will have the final say on in late 2011.

Herein lies the problem.

Due to the way the data has been collected, the figures they are working on are wildly innacurate. A fact that led every representative there from all activities to voice grave concern.

I was of course involved in the angling section. Finding sanctuary have so far contacted 13200 of the estimated 250,000+ sea anglers in the south west but are treating the responses as indicative of all the angling activity in the region.

Subsequently, Plymouth looks on their charts to be quite busy, whereas Torbay area has very little activity recorded. If you take their figures litterally, which they appear to be doing, Hope's Nose and Berry Head have little or no angling activity at all. Despite being two of the most popular fishing spots in the country!

Finding Sanctuary have just 5 months to finish compiling their data. This will not give them time to get a true picture if they continue to use their current methods.

The only way we stand a chance of getting our true opinion across is for each and every one of us to supply them with the information direct via the questionnaire on their website.

Finding Sanctuary are of course the South West arm of this process. The rest of the country have their own quangoes who are working in exactly the same way we were told today.

Please folks, if you don't want our sport to be severly restricted because not enough of us did what we could to correct the misleading result of a poorly planned and executed process, tell them NOW!

[geejayy]

went for a look ,
& signed up.

interactive map don't seem to work , either that or no one wants to say where wots left of the fish stocks are congregated

it says they've been gathering info from anglers where they find them, i doubt if thats likely at venues when i'm there ie. 2am & a mile walk from anywhere.

http://www.mczmapping.org/MainPageOpt.aspx#

[JustMark]

The problem is they have concentrated their efforts on talking to a few angling clubs. This is not a crticism of angling clubs, but realistically they represent less than 25% of the angling population.

One of the suggestions that came out of our group was to send their guys to places like Hope's Nose and Chesil beach to meet real anglers on the spot.

The whole of Lyme bay from Dartmouth to Poole is showing as almost insignificant as far as angling goes. Plymouth shows a blip, then it's virtually nothing again right up the North Cornwall coast and Bristol Channel.

[geejayy]

they need to understand that a vast amount of anglers are not club members and do not write to the internet.

i'm just sorting some pdf software so i can veiw the online survey, though i think i did one last year, - i found that one based mostly to the south west of the area where i fish most and barely applicable in most cases

[NICK R]

it will not happen

How are they going to police it ?

[JustMark]

Don't be too sure Nick.

This is driven by a European Directive, as such, it may not be policed by just the UK. Why else do you think the EU is planning a Federal armed force? This is just one area it could be deployed to the detriment of individual member states.

If the French blockade ports and burn sheep again, send in the Feds.

If the British fish for Bass in an area the Spanish claim under the CFP, send in the feds.

I'm not really a conspiracy theorist, but you have to wonder where this is going. Everything that is happening within the EU is almost exactly as planned by the third Reich assuming they won the second world war

[geejayy]

better on inside p**sing out than outside pi**ing in, but i guess that was the logik behind signing up for the eu inthe fust place.

[JustMark]

Worst thing the UK ever did was signing up to be ruled by corrupt politicians that weren't even our own.

It was sold as "The Common Market" but soon became a federal vision for Europe. British Politicians soon Identified it as their next step up the ladder.

The UK politicians expenses scandal would be dwarfed as sweetie money compared to the Euro MP expenses if it was ever published