I received an email this week that I thought I would share with you all and while the content may well be important it might be better used as an aid to go to sleep.

This is democracy in action folks ‘Parliamentary questions and answers it’s what our politicians do and seemingly it’s making all the difference.

Seas and Oceans: Environment Protection

Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Written answers and statements, 23 February 2010

Tim Boswell (Daventry, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) coverage and (b) consistency of its long-term monitoring of the marine environment.

Huw Irranca-Davies (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Marine and Natural Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Ogmore, Labour)

In response to the recommendations from 'Charting Progress', the Government's State of the Seas Report published in 2005, the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (UKMMAS) was created. The UKMMAS is comprised of approximately 250 stakeholders from more than 20 organisations, including Government Departments and devolved Administrations, and has developed a co-ordinated approach to marine monitoring across the UK as a whole.

UKMMAS co-ordinates and brings together data, including that of long-term monitoring, from a large variety of sources. It is currently involved in producing 'Charting Progress 2'-the second integrated assessment of the state of UK seas, which is internationally peer-reviewed. This is scheduled for publication in July 2010.

DEFRA also funds a number of research projects and data initiatives, some of which have helped continue important data series so that we can make assessments of marine trends over time and monitor progress. One such project, funded since 2002, is the Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN). The network consists of UK and Isle of Man organisations working together to collect long-term time series information for marine waters. It also brings together scientists working on various components of marine ecosystems, enabling them to share data and carry out more robust analysis of trends. One of the project aims is to be able to analyse marine environmental change over long periods and determine what is being driven by humans (anthropogenic change) and what change is due to natural variation.

The Government have recently published the first UK Marine Science Strategy, produced by the Marine Science Co-ordination Committee (MSCC). The strategy recognises the key importance of sustained observations to marine science and includes a commitment by the Committee to work with others to develop a prioritisation framework to ensure the provision of secure, long-term data sets. This action is being taken forward by the MSCC's Long-Term Monitoring Working Group.

Up date 26th February 2010

Comment by Bob Shotter 26th February 2010

 

Please correct me if I’m wrong but as I recall the Angling Trust was formed over a year ago now, brining together many of the main fishing organisations in the UK.

The aim being that with unity comes strength.

 Recreational sea anglers (RSA) were encouraged to cough up twenty quid to join and support the Trust in it’s endeavour.

However the uptake in membership fell well short of what was expected and has caused a major rethink within the organisation.

Some publications have indeed questioned the trust’s ability to fairly represent the two very different types of anglers, the Fresh Water Licensed Anglers and the unlicensed RSA’s. This was merely reflecting on the mood displayed by many RSAs both in conversation and on many web forums. Then in one of it’s first moves the Trust supported a ban on the taking of the Silver/Common Eel’s in both fresh and salt water and did so, it is claimed, without consultation or the gathering of facts from the RSA side. They merely took the word of the suites at DEFRA. Yet at the same time the commercial exploitation of these eel’s is allowed to continue. Surly this is ass about face if there is a question over the future of the eel then surly it makes cense to firstly stop commercially fishing for them rather than restrict the rod and line angler who we know will never in a million years make any significant dent in or contribute to a significant saving of the eel population, or any other species for that matter.  

The EU and the UK government have to some degree accepted that fishing by rod and line is totally sustainable by how the rule 47 thing went last year. So how come the organisation that is meant to represent the RSA is suckering up to the conservation lobby when there is absolutely no need for them to do so? Before you know it they will support Bass restrictions and they will be added to the list of fish we cant land while the commercials will continue killing and discarding them or even adding them to there by catch product and landing them.

 

Posted below is a copy of the latest press release from the Angling Trust. It does not cover any of the mentioned topics but rather reads like an advert about how good they are and that you need to be a part of it. You will have to make your own mind up on that one folks. If you would like to comment please use our contact page and get in touch. I promise to publish any mail received as long as it’s not offensive.

Politicians Fish for 3 Million Votes

Press release from the Angling Trust:

 

 

 

 

The Angling Trust today launched a campaign strategy to highlight the concerns of Britain’s 3 million anglers in the run-up to the General Election.

The comprehensive strategy includes calls for the government and its agencies to:

• Protect fish stocks from commercial over fishing by reforming the Common Fisheries Policy and enforcing existing legislation;
• Implement the Water Framework Directive to address diffuse pollution, low river flows and habitat damage;
• Allow greater controls of cormorants by anglers suffering excessive fish predation on their waters;
• Provide more accountability about how anglers’ £26million from freshwater rod licenses is actually spent;
• Stop the march of non-native invasive species such as signal crayfish, giant hogweed and floating pennywort;
• Ensure that none of the thousands of new hydropower installations planned on our rivers damages fisheries;
• Protect the rights of anglers to go fishing and to access piers, ponds and to park near beaches;
• Support efforts to encourage more people to get into fishing;
• Protect fish from diseases imported from abroad.

Angling is more popular than ever, with freshwater rod license sales soaring last year to 1.5 million from 1.3 million in the previous year. The Trust is aiming to sustain and continue this growth and ensure that there are plenty of fish to catch and safe and clean places for people of all ages to catch them.

Six Members of Parliament recently signed up as Parliamentary Supporters of the Angling Trust, the organisation which represents anglers in England, at a meeting of the All Party Angling Group at the House of Commons. The Group is chaired by Martin Salter MP (Reading West), a long-standing supporter of the Trust and the Labour party spokesman for angling and shooting and includes Richard Benyon (Newbury), the Conservatives' fisheries spokesman.

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said “We are very grateful to these busy Members of Parliament for agreeing to support the Angling Trust. Millions of anglers in England need a listening ear in Parliament to hear their concerns about pollution, over-abstraction, commercial over-fishing at sea, access restrictions and a host of other issues which affect the quality of our sport.”

Mike Heylin, Chairman of the Angling Trust said: “We look forward to working closely with these parliamentarians to ensure that the anglers’ voice is heard. In the run-up to the General Election, the Angling Trust will be working hard to ensure that issues affecting the nation’s anglers are taken on board by candidates of all political parties.”

 

I make no secret of the fact that I see commercial fishing as one of greed. If our farmers were to treat the land as some of the worlds fishermen treat the sea there would be an out cry.

At last this hidden travesty is now beginning to be exposed. Here is a copy of an email received recently….. 

 

Squat lobsters on a cold-water coral reef off the coast of Ireland.
Deep-sea trawling poses a particular threat in temperate regions.
Photograph: University of Plymouth

DEEP SEA "bottom trawling" is causing untold damage to fragile reef ecosystems around the world, many of which are thousands of years old, a leading marine expert warned.

The heavy fishing nets, dragged along the seabed on large rubber rollers called "rockhoppers", smash and flatten coral outcrops that provide vital refuges for fish and other marine species, said marine biologist Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, from the University of Plymouth.

He is calling for concerted international action to ban all bottom trawling from at-risk habitats, many of which are yet to be identified.

Bottom trawling involves scouring the seabed with huge nets 60 meters wide that ride over obstacles on "rockhopper" rollers weighing several hundred pounds.

The technique was originally employed to catch fish such as flounder and haddock in shallow water areas with relatively smooth floors.

But in the past 20 years, dwindling fish stocks and technological advances have led bottom trawlers to descend to ever-greater depths.

Some nets are now sunk thousands of feet below the surface, accessing sensitive seamount habitats that were previously out of reach.

Work by scientists involved in the Census of Marine Life (CoML) – a major worldwide project cataloguing life in the oceans – is now bringing to light the true extent of the destruction wrought by bottom trawling.

Dr Hall-Spencer, a leading CoML researcher, said: "Less than 1 per cent of the estimated 50,000 seamounts have ever been surveyed and our research visits have revealed pristine coral reefs and many species that are new to science.

"However, over the past five years, these surveys have also worryingly revealed that all over the world, deep sea habitats are suffering severe impacts from bottom trawling down to depths of 1,000 meters and more.

"I myself have looked at about 20 reefs, and all but one of them has been badly damaged.

"But my colleagues from around the world have seen hundreds and they all say the same thing.

"It doesn't matter what ocean you go to, these habitats are being trashed by international fishing fleets.

"What is urgently needed is a network of protected areas where any type of fishing gear that involves dragging equipment across the seabed is banned."

Dr Hall-Spencer, who spelled out his fears at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego, California, described the telltale signs of bottom trawling damage.

"The most obvious thing you see is trenches ploughed through the seabed that extend for kilometers," he said.

"You can see that the coral is pulverised and broken. You get this gravel of smashed-up coral with few outcrops remaining. The fish are gone, because fish like to hide behind coral heads.

"It's more like mining than farming, since you're removing a resource and not allowing it to renew itself.

"The typical thing is for a trawler to criss-cross over an area about 33 kilometres square, and that's a very large area being ploughed up."

Many of the most threatened sites were coldwater coral reefs in temperate zones that were still in the process of being discovered and explored, he said.

Studies indicate that the total global coverage of coldwater coral reefs might equal or exceed that of more familiar warm water reefs.

Dr Hall-Spencer carried out one of the first manned submersible dives on the world's biggest coldwater reef off the north-west coast of Norway.

The Rost Reef, discovered in 2002, is a 3km-wide strip teeming with life that stretches for almost 40 kilometres (25 miles) at a depth of 450 meters.

"Unlike every other reef I've seen, this one was pristine," said Dr Hall-Spencer. "It hadn't been touched by human activity."

The Rost Reef is an important success story for conservationists, having been given the protection of a complete bottom trawling ban imposed by the Norwegian government.

Dr Hall-Spencer said similar bans existed at a number of other sites around the world, but more needed to be done.

"The good thing is that people are waking up to the problem," he added.

 

There is more to this general technique than appears in this report. Some of the smaller inshore commercial vessels drag a spiked roller in front of a hopper.  It's purpose is to rake out Scallops from the shingle. They even work in areas that are supposed to be protected where indeed trawling is prohibited at all times.  The spiked roller impales flat fish, which crew members of such vessels commonly refer to as "Spiked Fish".  This method too needs urgent review as it causes untold havoc amongst our marine species.

 

 

Monday 22nd February 2010

Government Response to Petition on Article 47

Some months ago we asked you to sign a petition on the 10 Downing Street web site, asking the Prime Minister to "Resist the proposed changes from the EU, in relation to Recreational Sea Angling".  The Prime Minister's Office has now responded to that petition.

 

The Government’s response

The UK Government opposed the proposals in their original form because of their potential impact on recreational sea anglers.  Our discussions with stakeholders including the Angling Trust, supported and further informed our assessment of the impact of the original proposal as a complicated and unwieldy measure that would have introduced strict controls without any real appreciation of the impact of recreational fishing on the wider marine environment.  As a result of the opposition mounted to the proposal, the scope of the measure has been confined to recreational fishing from a vessel and only for stocks subject to multiannual plans (cod, hake and certain sole and plaice stocks).  It does not include fishing from the shore.  Also, recreational catches for these stocks are no longer required to be counted against quota – as was set out in the original proposal.  Member States are though required to monitor such catches by way of a sampling plan. 

Before Article 55 of Regulation 1224/2009 (previously Article 47) is implemented further detailed rules must be adopted.  These will be negotiated in the coming months and will include agreement on the form the sampling plans must take.  The UK Government will look for rules that allow it flexibility to target its efforts in those areas and on those vessels likely to be having the greatest impact on threatened fish stocks, but which do so in a way that will not place undue burdens on the vast majority of recreational sea anglers. 

The UK Government will consult stakeholders, including angling representatives, before finalising its national arrangements.

Article 55 and the End of the Line

In response to the article 55 thread which now seems to be covering many basses I would like to say that Dave Gibson has mentioned the film documentary on channel four ‘The End of the Line’ If you have not seen it I recommend, if you are in any way interested in Sea Fishing then you should check it out. Unfortunately it is not currently on 4OD the channel 4 equivalent of the BBC i-player. This is not a film about what might happen it is a film about what has happened.

The film focuses on collapse of the cod population saw the end of 40,000 jobs. The Blue Fin Tuna is being hunted to extinction. The fact that it takes five kilos of anchovies to produce one fish farmed salmon. While there are some positive signs, with Wal-Mart and McDonalds both selling fish from sustainable sources, some outlets here in the UK still sell endangered species. The final chilling conclusion is that unless more radical steps are taken globally, including the reduction of over fishing, it will take just 50 years for the world's ocean's to be all fished out.

From this you will come to realize just how important it is to have stakeholders who are not commercial fishermen on the local authority committees.

Let me be quite clear I am not anti commercial fishing but I detest the arrogant greed of those who knowingly fish in an unsustainable way. The biggest problem is that huge sums of money have gone into the investment of such fishing operations many funded by governments with short sighted views on providing food and cashing in on the tax revenues from employment down to fuel tax and every other tax in between. The EU has on many occasions set take limits (quotas) well above what they have been advised are more than sustainable. Then there are the greedy fishermen, who lie and cheat knowing full well that they are unlikely to be caught and some who fish within the law are required to discard as much as they land no conservation in that method. So we need to get some order about when where and what fish can be taken with a close season on many species, not just the ones we eat but those in the eco system that support the ones we eat.

Barry Luxton has shown that the AT (Angling Trust) might not be as good as it promised having supported the ban on taking of Silver / Common Ell while allowing a commercial take to continue not a good start and just one point on which they have shown a weakness.

Finally what needs to be done both globally and here at home, some fishing methods have to be outlawed, the likes of heavy roller trawling and Scallop dredging, both of which destroy the sea bed and habitat of many species and restriction on some of the netting practices that are beyond belief. There are nets over a hundred miles in length along the continental shelf when these should be fragmented. Other netting particularly in our waters needs to be restricted to so that fish can be allowed to re populate. Most important of all is getting rid of the huge factory type trawlers, it is these large boats that are reeking havoc and have because of there efficiency destroyed our own fishing fleet that for years fished in a sustainable way, keeping many in employment. They are also hitting shoals of fish that have no quota attached which is why we are seeing less bass and more worryingly less mackerel. The cost to the eco system with regard mackerel is huge.

I know that these ideas may seem a pipe dream what with our weak political establishment but let’s look at how whaling has been all but banished, it has to be done or as the film says there will be nothing left for our next or future generations.

Tight lines Bob Shotter