The Angling and Fisheries Summit 2011
Mar 24, 2011 7:24:50 GMT -1
Post by SEAJUNKY on Mar 24, 2011 7:24:50 GMT -1
Warning. THIS IS A LONG ITEM.
The Angling and Fisheries Summit 2011
21st March 2011
Westminster Conference Centre LONDON
Report by Bob Shotter- RSA-UK.org
This year’s summit was the first I have attended and I did so as the RSA representative for the Cornwall IFCA. The Conference was very well supported with around a hundred delegates from every faction of UK fishing, both fresh and salt water along with some of the fishing press.
As the delegates entered the hall we were presented with a fact sheet about data collection, this will be reproduced at the end of this report. This project was the talk on everyone’s lips prior to the start of the summit but strangely only got one single mention during the meeting.
The theme was ‘Working Together’ and first to speak was the Rt. Honourable Richard Benyon Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries.
He started by telling the delegates of the importance angling, which all together contributed over one and a half billion pounds to the UK economy every year, he also said that a white paper with regard the ‘Passage of Fish’ would receive its first reading quite soon.
Licences to control Cormorants would be made easier but recognised that a 50% cull might only improve stocks by 10%. He was also aware of the presence of Killer Shrimp which have now shown at a few locations and close monitoring on them was being carried out.
He was also keen to underline the protection of the various Shark species along with many of the larger Ray’s.
Living in the ‘big society’ he told us equated to the promotion of the sport and recognised the need and difficulty of introducing young people particularly with regard the huge amount of red tape that now surrounded things like tuition.
He finished on a note of recognition that Fish are a national resource and that the CFP needed urgent attention which would be essential to see the stock replenished and that included dealing with the discards, and as far as angling went he recognised the importance of quote ‘A Community Quota’
Charles Walker leader of the all-party angling group made a brief appearance to basically acknowledge his recent appointment and referred us to the web site that would be a way of keeping up with events of this unit.
David Moore was the next speaker who talked us through the various schemes the development board were working on, which were mostly of interest to fresh water angling but were also about the promotion of the sport and how it might advantage young offenders and the less well placed in our society
.
Adam Brown followed with his take on the social and community benefits of angling and went on to explain the various results of a survey that had been conducted by the environment agency in which consideration with regard the amount of physical exercise and other benefits that might be gained from various types of angling.
The final speaker for the morning session was the man from the Environment Agency ‘Andy Schofield’ and the ‘Fishing Wales Project’ he talked about many of the improvements made on the welsh rivers and other fresh water habitats.
This lead the way into the work shop period for the morning session and required answers to three questions from the points highlighted.
Generally delegates found differences between various parts of England and Wales particularly in regard both fencing and access for disabled people. Notably none of the projects were closer than over two hundred miles of my authority.
Comment was also expressed at the need to find ways that could improve the amount of young anglers taking up angling.
The afternoon session kicked off with a brief introduction from Gavin Ross who introduced ‘Mark Lloyd’ from the Angling Trust and his topic was ‘Building Trust’ while again a good amount of his speech was aimed at the fresh water anglers he did say that it was important to get the message out to salt water anglers of both the need of the data collection survey and to allay fears that the information would not be used to the detriment of RSA.
During the questions that followed he was given credit for the work that the trust had done for the fresh water section in one area of England and said he wished all his questions could be that pleasing, needless to say that was not to last as I was the next in line and started by saying how his speech sounded not unlike a party political speech then I asked that given the Angling Trust motto was ‘The voice of Anglers’ and his reference to be ‘Speaking for all anglers’ was wide of the mark in the grand order of things particularly when it came to the marine anglers and building trust had perhaps not been best displayed in the closing of the Angling Trust web forum which clearly demonstrated that the Trust were indeed not consulting those whom had paid to be represented.
In his reply he said that he was aware of the new org that I had set up and with only 65 members of the Angling Trust members signed up to the forum which had descended into a platform for some to engage in a slagging match, then they would be better off without it.
Another delegate made the point that there were obvious problems given the well respected and former director of the marine committee was present at the summit but as an IFCA rep having left the AT.
The remainder of the afternoon session was of interest primarily to the fresh water anglers with a Speech by Geoff Bateman Head of Fisheries and Biodiversity at the Environment Agency whose topic was’ looking forward’ and Arlin Rickard from the Association of River Trust both of whom explained the need and progress of work with regard providing a route around hydro projects allowing access for migration of fish to their natural spawning ground in the upper reaches of rivers, a project that was showing considerable success.
In the final workshop our table that was made up of Stewart Bellbin (Charter Boat operator) Peter Macconnell from ‘BASS’ David Mitchel ‘Angling trust Les Weller ‘Northumberland IFCA’ and Shawn Lennord fresh water federation. We had a lively debate about the various topics from the afternoon session not least the recognition of differences of need and opinions between the various fishing disciplines and which Peter went on to tell everyone present that we had spent the time falling out with one another manly over whether there was the need for regulation, but eventually agreeing in the need to find common ground and thus work together.
With handshakes all round and the promise to keep in touch to take things forward and the five marine anglers including Mark Lloyd agreeing that a separate sea summit was thought necessary and would be of huge benefit he also agreed to share information between the Angling Trust and RSA-UK with regard developments on the ten IFCAs and with that the meeting drew to a close. .
seajunky Steve
The Angling and Fisheries Summit 2011
21st March 2011
Westminster Conference Centre LONDON
Report by Bob Shotter- RSA-UK.org
This year’s summit was the first I have attended and I did so as the RSA representative for the Cornwall IFCA. The Conference was very well supported with around a hundred delegates from every faction of UK fishing, both fresh and salt water along with some of the fishing press.
As the delegates entered the hall we were presented with a fact sheet about data collection, this will be reproduced at the end of this report. This project was the talk on everyone’s lips prior to the start of the summit but strangely only got one single mention during the meeting.
The theme was ‘Working Together’ and first to speak was the Rt. Honourable Richard Benyon Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Natural Environment and Fisheries.
He started by telling the delegates of the importance angling, which all together contributed over one and a half billion pounds to the UK economy every year, he also said that a white paper with regard the ‘Passage of Fish’ would receive its first reading quite soon.
Licences to control Cormorants would be made easier but recognised that a 50% cull might only improve stocks by 10%. He was also aware of the presence of Killer Shrimp which have now shown at a few locations and close monitoring on them was being carried out.
He was also keen to underline the protection of the various Shark species along with many of the larger Ray’s.
Living in the ‘big society’ he told us equated to the promotion of the sport and recognised the need and difficulty of introducing young people particularly with regard the huge amount of red tape that now surrounded things like tuition.
He finished on a note of recognition that Fish are a national resource and that the CFP needed urgent attention which would be essential to see the stock replenished and that included dealing with the discards, and as far as angling went he recognised the importance of quote ‘A Community Quota’
Charles Walker leader of the all-party angling group made a brief appearance to basically acknowledge his recent appointment and referred us to the web site that would be a way of keeping up with events of this unit.
David Moore was the next speaker who talked us through the various schemes the development board were working on, which were mostly of interest to fresh water angling but were also about the promotion of the sport and how it might advantage young offenders and the less well placed in our society
.
Adam Brown followed with his take on the social and community benefits of angling and went on to explain the various results of a survey that had been conducted by the environment agency in which consideration with regard the amount of physical exercise and other benefits that might be gained from various types of angling.
The final speaker for the morning session was the man from the Environment Agency ‘Andy Schofield’ and the ‘Fishing Wales Project’ he talked about many of the improvements made on the welsh rivers and other fresh water habitats.
This lead the way into the work shop period for the morning session and required answers to three questions from the points highlighted.
Generally delegates found differences between various parts of England and Wales particularly in regard both fencing and access for disabled people. Notably none of the projects were closer than over two hundred miles of my authority.
Comment was also expressed at the need to find ways that could improve the amount of young anglers taking up angling.
The afternoon session kicked off with a brief introduction from Gavin Ross who introduced ‘Mark Lloyd’ from the Angling Trust and his topic was ‘Building Trust’ while again a good amount of his speech was aimed at the fresh water anglers he did say that it was important to get the message out to salt water anglers of both the need of the data collection survey and to allay fears that the information would not be used to the detriment of RSA.
During the questions that followed he was given credit for the work that the trust had done for the fresh water section in one area of England and said he wished all his questions could be that pleasing, needless to say that was not to last as I was the next in line and started by saying how his speech sounded not unlike a party political speech then I asked that given the Angling Trust motto was ‘The voice of Anglers’ and his reference to be ‘Speaking for all anglers’ was wide of the mark in the grand order of things particularly when it came to the marine anglers and building trust had perhaps not been best displayed in the closing of the Angling Trust web forum which clearly demonstrated that the Trust were indeed not consulting those whom had paid to be represented.
In his reply he said that he was aware of the new org that I had set up and with only 65 members of the Angling Trust members signed up to the forum which had descended into a platform for some to engage in a slagging match, then they would be better off without it.
Another delegate made the point that there were obvious problems given the well respected and former director of the marine committee was present at the summit but as an IFCA rep having left the AT.
The remainder of the afternoon session was of interest primarily to the fresh water anglers with a Speech by Geoff Bateman Head of Fisheries and Biodiversity at the Environment Agency whose topic was’ looking forward’ and Arlin Rickard from the Association of River Trust both of whom explained the need and progress of work with regard providing a route around hydro projects allowing access for migration of fish to their natural spawning ground in the upper reaches of rivers, a project that was showing considerable success.
In the final workshop our table that was made up of Stewart Bellbin (Charter Boat operator) Peter Macconnell from ‘BASS’ David Mitchel ‘Angling trust Les Weller ‘Northumberland IFCA’ and Shawn Lennord fresh water federation. We had a lively debate about the various topics from the afternoon session not least the recognition of differences of need and opinions between the various fishing disciplines and which Peter went on to tell everyone present that we had spent the time falling out with one another manly over whether there was the need for regulation, but eventually agreeing in the need to find common ground and thus work together.
With handshakes all round and the promise to keep in touch to take things forward and the five marine anglers including Mark Lloyd agreeing that a separate sea summit was thought necessary and would be of huge benefit he also agreed to share information between the Angling Trust and RSA-UK with regard developments on the ten IFCAs and with that the meeting drew to a close. .
seajunky Steve