Should there be a UK Sea Angling license

[fishy1]

I don't particularly like trawlers, but some of these quotas are a joke.

For example, when I net cod commercially, which I do a bit, the maximum amount of catch retained of cod if I target them is 30%. This leads to me having to set nets to catch species that are pretty useless and not worth catching, just so cod can be landed. That is surely a strange thing. Why not just impose max catch weight of cod per boat?

 

[Dytiscus]

firstly their are quotas in place these are set by the European Union not the British government which means there are more foreign boats fishing our waters then British boats and then theres the Size Quotas for example quite recently the government rejected proposals to increase the size of the Bass minimum size limit so trawlers still have the same limit of 36cm shore anglers are not allowed to take fish under 41cm yet most sea anglers would not even consider taking them at this size because they are still very young and may not have spawned at least once yet so they usually only take older bigger fish that have usually spawned a few times yet you can go into a supermarket and see bass for sale under the size of 36cm's it's the sea anglers who (the majority) anyway look after the coast like reporting trawlers that are working too close to the shore not that a lot gets done about it even when you do phone defra or cefas to bring in a license for sea angling will just drive good people away from the sea leaving the types who don't give a monkeys about a freshwater fishing license let the guys a saw the other day a big group with a couple of crates of larger taking every fish they caught and leaving a string of littler down the beach took me 20 min's to pick up the rubbish they left

 

[elevenses]

sounds to me like another tax for no reason other than to tax us

I really don't believe any money brought in from a sea licence would go towards our coastline's

then also who would be paid to police it ?

I can feel a rant coming on so ill stop now !

As for trawlers I am not a trawler man or a commercial fisherman and have no affiliation to one but I do think the laws around commercial fishing are on its head.

as with all businesses (trawling is a business nothing more nothing less) there are bad business owners and good ones IMHO

 

[Bernie Garland]

Well we need a licence for everything else,so i suppose we should

Bernie

 

[Dano]

In an attempt to be objective I have not read the replies to this threado after posting

So my response is I don’t really mind paying for a license, I do for a freshwater license but what is the point for saltwater shore fishing other than generating revenue, where will the money go, who will police it, and do the shore anglers actually have a significant impact on fish stocks, after several years of fishing from the shore I still have to catch a legal sized bass, all that I have caught goes back unharmed because they are too small, I don’t really understand the entire ecology of the subject but from what I understand the trouble is the nets, trawlers and decimation of habitat / prey of all species, what I really don’t understand is trawling the sea bed for sand eel only to crush them up and feed them to cows or fertilise crops, its all really screwed up, the restrictions need to be placed on the commercial boats and conservation areas established where stocks can mature

 

[pothunter]

NO, reply to short so NO NO NO!!!!!

 

[mortalmerlin]

No, a license is the first step along the path to a ban. First it will be easy for anyone to get a license for anything then certain fishes and practices will drop off one by one until there are not enough people to fight the eventual ban.

It's a basic right and should not be infringed (as every other hunting right in the UK has).

 

[mortalmerlin]

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.

I couldn't agree with you more. I guess many won't but sanity is not statistical

 

[Tadpole]

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.

by Free men you of couse mean "white landowning free men" and not poor people.
Do you wear glasses? or like to wear a poly-blend like gortex, maybe you like shellfish, crab, lobster and the like, or pork maybe takes your fancy. all are forbidden by the laws and values of the bible. Stoning someone to death for shaving, cutting their hair, trimming their sideburns having a tattoo, or even kneeling on smooth stone. Are thse the laws you mean?

Too many rules, with no one to enforce them, make a mockery of the important laws. Shore fishing shold be free, whereas boat fishing for gain should be regulated

 

[FGYT]

Well we need a licence for everything else,so i suppose we should

Bernie

No they removed a short while ago the Game licence that had been around for years to hunt Phesant Duck deer etc

it Should be licenced if there is a good reason
to limit fish take and preserve stocks .......mmmmmmmm.......well i suspect one factory ship or a few trawlers take more fish than the entier UK sea angling fraternaity etc

ATB

Duncan

 

[CLEM]

Absolutely NOT! What should happen is Britain should take back her fishing waters,there wouldent be an overfishing problem then!

 

[fishy1]

I just had an interesting thought. If a sea angling license became mandotory, an easy way to bypass it would just be to claim you are a commercial fisherman. If non motorised, or from the shore, in most cases you do not need licensing or quotas. Even if motorised, you could easily get around it by failing to catch anything to sell commercially, and just taking the stuff home to eat.

And I heavily doubt the government would dare try banning commercial fishermen, particularly enviromentally friendly versions, so not much risk of that loophole closing.

With the price of diesil rising, plenty of guys are looking at 25' or so sailing vessels, easy to put out a few nets or a lot of pots or even longlining with them.

 

[sandspec]

Licensing anglers will NOT make one bit of difference to the fish stocks. They were depleted years ago by naive overfishing by various european countries. By the time quotas were introduced, it was far too late to be of much help to the major species such as Cod etc.

 

[rapidboy]

NO, it will do more harm than good.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

No, but trawling should be banned, not from a canoe but ships.

Nick

 

[saddle_tramp]

I think its the portugese anglers that got the most to complain about.

They had a sea licence imposed on them last year, but instead of the money going to the good of the anglers or the improvement of fish stocks. . . . . . wait for it!

The money is to pay for a retirement fund, for retireing commercial fisherman!!!

 

[Chopper]

I have no personal interest in sea fishing, nothing wrong with it, but its just not me.

We have far too many licences, restrictions and taxes in this country already, we do not need to make it any worse.

 

[mayobushcraft]

A license/Tax Should be for services rendered by the government. If used to replenish stocks and such then then I dont mind paying for a license. But more than likely the money would be spent only to enforce the license and the exess would be lost to other expences. So I would then say NO.

 

[catweasel]

sea angling licence: worst idea ever

the idea of a licence for 'normal' fishing was to pay for the upkeep of the waterways like maitinece, stocking ect... How would you re-stock the sea?

 

[rik_uk3]

Absolutely NOT! What should happen is Britain should take back her fishing waters,there wouldent be an overfishing problem then!

SEND IN THE GUNBOATS,,,,,,,,Oooops we don't have any left