Please help stop this ridiculous estuary based netting proposal from ever happening, plus it could set a very dangerous precedent
You literally could not make this up, indeed it makes me wonder if anything or anywhere is safe from the nets of commercial fishermen. It’s going to take a bit of reading on your part to fully understand what is going on here, but please, please take the time to do so, and then please get involved. Not only does this scary proposal to allow netting in the beautiful Salcombe/Kingsbridge estuary need crushing from a localised point of view, but now think about the precedent it could set if indiscriminate and legal netting like this was suddenly seen as acceptable. Do you want to see (legal) netting going on in your local estuaries? I thought not. Apathy is not acceptable. Here we go…………..
First off, if you haven’t heard about what is going on then you need to read this piece from the Angling Trust who are heavily involved here in the fight to make this go away - Keep netting out of the Salcombe Estuary – Devon and Severn IFCA launch public consultation. Now we move on to the latest goings on, with the text gratefully copied and pasted from the Angling Trust again (thank you).
Salcombe - An update on the proposals for a netting fishery in the Estuary
We previously published a story relating to Devon & Severn IFCA’s open consultation on changes following a review of the Netting and Permit conditions.
Whilst the consultation deals with some additional items, including recreational and commercial netting of the Emsstrom wreck, our focus has largely been on the regressive proposals that would allow a 6 month netting fishery to occur throughout the entire waters of the Salcombe Estuary.
We have had a number of queries as to what the Angling Trust is doing in this respect, and this news story aims to provide such an update whilst also indicating the steps you can take to influence the outcome of this consultation yourself.
The Angling Trust has dedicated significant time across its marine team since we became aware of the consultation, and the response will be headed up by our Sea Angling Engagement Manager, Grant Jones. Grant is leading a collaborative working group that utilises members of our regional volunteer group from the Wyvern region, members of the Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society and representation from the National Mullet Club, along with further campaigning and communications resource from the Angling Trust.
Engagement across this working group has been taking place with local business, the tourism sector, a wide variety of other water users, groups with an environmentalist or species specific interest, angling competition organisers, individual anglers and very critically, the Duchy of Cornwall who own the seabed and must provide approval for such activity to go ahead.
In addition, the Angling Trust has also been undertaking a number of socio-economic surveys to demonstrate the value recreational angling brings to the local community and the threat that will be posed to this by the opening of the fishery.
Our position is clear. These proposals simply cannot go ahead and will be devastating to a far broader and economically more significant group of stakeholders than the few fishermen who would stand to make a modest but short lived unsustainable profit from the changes.
Whilst the procedural, socio-economic and sustainability points can be made within our own response, it is key that as many individuals as possible feed in their own personalised responses. It has been a habit in the past to provide copy and paste style letters to such consultations, but these will carry far less weight than truly personalised responses addressing how these changes impact each and every one of you.
On the 3rd January, the Angling Trust will be taking part in a BBC Spotlight (local TV news programme) interview on these proposals. On the 4th January, we will be hosting an online angler engagement forum to present on our intended response to the consultation and conduct a Q&A. You can sign up for this event via the following link here.
Consultation responses must be received by Devon and Severn IFCA by the 19th January. You can find all details on how to respond here.
In formulating your response, it is worth considering what the sub committee of the IFCA has proposed as their rationale for this change:
B&PSC’s Rationale for Change
The rationale of the B&PSC Members for the opening of a fixed net fishery within the Salcombe Estuary is as follows:
That the B&PSC considers that a mortality rate of 18.8% of bass caught during the netting trials within Salcombe Estuary is acceptable.
That the B&PSC recognises a reported decline in profitability in pot fisheries.
That the B&PSC supports providing opportunities for commercial fishermen to diversify and boost their winter income by participating in a limited netting fishery within the Salcombe Estuary.
That the B&PSC recognises that sea trout are present at an unknown scale, for feeding purposes, in the Salcombe Estuary but it is not a known migratory route.
Consultation responses should focus on elements to challenge the rationale given, in addition to how you foresee the changes impacting on yourself, the environment, fish stocks, wider economies and the local community.
Whilst the Angling Trust will not give the proposers the benefit of disclosing all of our evidence and challenges at this point, it is abundantly clear that the rationale offered does not hold up to even the slightest of scrutiny. The whole proposal is an appalling attempt by a minority to make a quick profit at the expense of sustainable fish stocks and other economies.
The forum on the 4th January will go through each of the above points in some detail, but our Sea Angling Engagement Manager, Grant Jones, welcomes you reaching out to him to discuss anything about this matter in the meantime. His email is grant.jones@anglingtrust.net and if you include a contact number he welcomes as many telephone conversations on this matter as necessary to achieve the result we all desire. We will post regular updates on this but encourage as many as possible to attend the forum on the 4th January, and be prepared to file your own responses to the consultation ahead of the 19th January deadline.