Should there be a UK Sea Angling license

[falling rain]

This would affect a lot of us as the seashore forager would require a license if he/she is going to drop a hook into the water. It'd be interesting to get a bushcrafters consensus on it. So should there be a UK sea angling fishing license or not. I havn't put any reasons for yes or no because there are too many. Fell free to put your own reasons for your choice in the thread

 

[Seoras]

First I have heard of this but really what would the point of this be? I bet that if you doubled the number of Sea Anglers who fish around our coasts it would have little impact in comparison to the damage that has been done by many trawlers (especially foreign) that have used illegal nets around our coasts in the past. Especially nets designed to take everything. My brother is a trawlerman and has been all his life. Work for him is now so intermittent that he is regularly unemployed. He has known the good times but for him and many others they have now gone.

Growing up on the Isle of Lewis we used to regularly catch decent sized salmon and other fish coastal fishing but where are they now? Coastal fishing up to the eighties was a regular past time that was used by many families to keep the cooking pots full. Now much of this has stopped because it is no longer viable as the fish are just not there in the numbers they used to be. All caught by Sea Anglers I don't think so.

Here is a BBC report on it. Looks just like a way to get more money to fund DEFRA activities in Europe.

I can understand Inland Waterway licences as fish numbers can be maintained a lot more efficiently but how can they say "the government would safeguard sea fish stocks" through the payment of a £22 licence fee from every sea angler?

Also where would the licence money for this go? To restock the missing fish or no doubt be put into Treasury or Local Council funds to be lost in the Ether on some daft project.

I will get off my box now

George

 

[falling rain]

It's been talked about for years and apparently is 'possibly' going to become law in 2009.
I've put my views in the other thread on sea angling license so won't bore you with them all again.
But I agree about the lack of fish about now, I used to fish a lot as a kid in the 70's and pretty much always came home with a good catch of flatties, pollock, gars etc but now a session with a good bag is becoming rarer and rarer. Sometimes your lucky if you catch a weever

 

[spamel]

I reckon there should be a five hundred metre exlusion zone all around the british coast line where trawlers cannot fish. Maybe then some of the fish stocks will get up in size again, but who knows. It cannot be policed, so they should erect wind turbines all around the coast so that we get good clean green energy and if the trawlers come inside the zone they get chopped up by the rotors!

Oh, and a few machine gun nests and trained killer sharks should help aswell!

 

[Greg]

Why should we have to have a licence when everyday while I am in work I see foreign trawlers - mainly Spanish - calling into port (Milford Haven) after taking our fish by the thousands!
I completely agree with you Spamel. Put up a 500mile exclusion zone around the country to stop this and the fish stocks will soon rise.

 

[Andy J]

Lots of discussion on this in the sea angling Mags. To me it looks like another tax thing, how would it be policed? Would some Oik, come asking for your license at 04:00, in the middle of Winter, on your your favourite beach? Doubt it. If all the money was going into the fish stocks issues, then maybe, but as already said here, the commercial fishermen, yes, U.K. fishermen, are the cause of this mess.:BlueTeamE Thanks folks, Andy

 

[falling rain]

I really fear the stocks are going to collapse. There's just too many trawlers fishing our waters not enough is being done to protect the stocks. Catch quotas that don't work because any excess fish just get dumped overboard dead after thr trawlers have picked out the species that will make them the most money like E.G. sole/halibut/turbot The fish have no chance to breed and I predict in 30 years time or so there will be next to no fish in our waters unless something serious starts to be done and pretty soon. I'm writing to all the political parties to ask their policies on this issue. It really, really , really bothers me. There WILL be a disaster. In fact it makes me angry that no-one seems to be taking this issue seriously enough and DEFRA making token fish saving gestures is pathetic.
I read that scientists have predicted that 35% of cod and 65% of bass will decline by 2017 if currant slaughtering by trawlers continues (Boat fishing monthly september 2007 issue) that's very scary and nothing is being done by the people who have the power to do something as usual.:bluThinki

 

[rancid badger]

Definitely not,
It would be incredibly difficult to police anyway.As someone already mentioned, it's obviously a way to generate income for defra. I suppose they would have to appoint 'salt water fisheries bailiffs' so there may be employment opportunities as an argument in favour.

lets be serious though, the amount of fish actually taken by rod and line from the seashore is tiny, I would suspect that the vast majority of people who go shore fishing, usually, draw a blank anyway, even the angling charter boats don't really take amounts worth worrying about.

I can see a lot of people turning away from sea angling altogether if the government slips this through the net(groan!) The amount of tackle bought annually would diminish, putting more folk out of business and I can just see some chinless wonder getting thrown off the local pier after trying to confiscate the tackle from a gang of base ball capped charva's ( many of whom can be found fishing from these structures, at least in the warmer months)

So no

Kind regards
R.B.

 

[dtalbot]

And who on earth is going to check the licences of the thousands of kids with their crab lines who occupy the harbour walls and rockey shores through the summer holidays and can and do net the occasional fish with their toys?

 

[demographic]

Would it make any difference to fish stocks? or just provide an income for the water watchers and lovers of red tape

Doing something about the number of trawlers would make a far bigger difference to fish stocks in my slightly uneducated opinion.

 

[hardleyouth]

they should have a half a mile to 1 mile exclusion zone with no trawler fishing in and if they want to fish their they can be blown up by the RAF or the royal navy! thats my view

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Trawlers shoud be made ILLEGAL as it destroys stocks and eco systems.

Quotas ? Seems to work in 'Deadliest Catch'.

Nick

 

[cattyman]

why not just alter the wording on the general fishing licence,they change the wording every year so it cant cost much to do it.

 

[fishy1]

Thankfully this has been dropped.

The general fishing license is not UK wide, fortunately. I don't know if this one would have been either.

I don't like the trawlers either, but then I'm rather biased as they are in direct competion with me. All the methods I use are far more selective.

 

[Lurch]

Thankfully this has been dropped.

For now anyway. It will return though, I'm led to believe it is an EU requirement so it's just a matter of time.

 

[spamel]

It would have been impossible to enforce. I still want an exclusion zone, like they have in the Falkland Islands. For a trawler to fish there costs a ridiculous amount of money in the way of licensing. This has pretty much safe guarded the fish stocks there. If it can be done there, why not here?

Also, with regards to trawlers, I saw a guy testing a new net on a boom trawler on that Huge Furry Whittling Tool programme about fishing. It seems that the type he is testing does a lot less damage to the seabed and allows smaller species to slip through as opposed to the traditional diamond net which closes up the greater the pressure put on the netting itself, thus making escape for smaller fish and debris more difficult. This ends in undersized fish being caught along with smaller animals important to the eco system underwater and they get damaged due to the pressure they are put under. It was evident when they cleared the nets and dropped the relevant catches. One was full of debris and starfish from the seabed, undersized fish (which though they are thrown back often die) and many of the fish were damaged by the netting and debris. The square netting catch was much cleaner, very little debris or undersized fish and little to no damage to the catch. A better way of doing things just by changing the nature of the nets' construction.

 

[canadianwildman]

well the worlds fish are running low so yes they need to have a license to fish

 

[Brocktor]

well the worlds fish are running low so yes they need to have a license to fish

anglers take alot less than commercial fishermen - i usually take none when i get to the sea! lots of people return too and how many fisher men will you see when going to the beach? 0? 1? 2? occasionally more in summer especially if its a hot spot unlike more rural places

 

[Gu3rr1lla]

A license gives a person permission to do something which otherwise, without, would be illegal. I don't see how it's a crime to fish, to gather food? I don't know about you, but over the years I've grown to hate the laws that are in place. I hate this Orwellian world I live in. Like, I mean, I'm not against the government or anything, I just don't want them interveining in everything I do! What ever happened to a small government that goes by the constitution, written by and for free men. Laws and values such as, described by the Bible (although I'm not religious), "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Screw them and their rules.

I understand the depletion of fish, and if the money from the license goes back into our rivers and seas, well, then, by all means I would support it.

 

[Scrimmy]

Trawlers are the problem, not sea anglers, although i have seen Blyth folk, catching 60+ Makerel off the pier and not using them which is a waste, everything which is killed must not be wasted, whats the joys of killing something and then throwing it away, what a waste of a life. Cain