Since 2013, bass netting landings in England have decreased by 78%, but incredibly they have INCREASED BY 43% here in Cornwall. So what the hell is Cornwall IFCA doing?

The other day I blogged about how for a while now the local bass fishing has been pretty tough, and whilst I obviously don’t have the answers and there surely have to be a bunch of different reasons, for some reason the post caught on with some of you and the comments started pouring in. What became very noticeable was more and more information and anecdotes about how utterly useless our Cornwall branch of IFCA is. For those of you who don’t know, IFCA stands for Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities, and from the Association of IFCAs website, their mandate is clearly stated as: “The aim of the Association of Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (The Association) is to assist and promote the regional IFCAs to ensure that the authorities develop a leading and effective national role in fisheries and conservation management in line with the IFCA vision.”

So how the hell has this happened, and I quote from a recent Save Our Seabass press release: “Shocking new landing data from the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) shows that landings of sea bass by Cornish netting vessels have increased massively, despite fishing restrictions intended to reduce landings and allow the threatened bass stock to recover. Since 2015, in response to a crash in the bass stock, the EU has introduced drastic fishing restrictions to protect bass and allow the stock to recover. These restrictions include making it illegal for netters to target bass; allowing fixed netters to land just 1.4 tonnes of bass bycatch a year; a closed season in February and March; and increasing the minimum landing size from 36cm to 42cm. However, new MMO data reveals that whilst these measures have been extremely successful across most of England, reducing netting landings of bass by 78% since 2013, in Cornwall bass landings by netters have increased by an astonishing 43%.”

I am going to be honest with you here and admit to a sense of disbelief mixed with anger and also a bit of shame that I didn’t know enough about what the hell has been going on here in Cornwall. Please note that I am not trying to lay the blame for my recent failings as an angler at the door of Cornwall IFCA, rather I am asking in a perfectly open and respectful way why the frigging hell since 2013, bass netting landings in England have decreased by 78%, but incredibly they have increased by 43% here in Cornwall. I am in the same boat as any other angler fishing around Cornwall, indeed it’s not uncommon for me to get a message from somebody asking who they can report what looked like some suspicious commercial fishing activity to. I am no expert in all this but because of what an IFCA is meant to be doing, my understanding is that we should be contacting our local IFCA, indeed I have done so a few times after being out bass fishing at night and we’ve got a dark coloured boat in front of us with no lights pulling in nets literally within casting range of our needlefish or senkos or what have you.

Yep, you guessed it, I got nowhere when I contacted Cornwall IFCA, indeed if I think back to my contacting them, firstly I wish I had kept notes, and secondly, I have never heard another word back from them to keep me apprised of any enforcement measures they are surely bound to be doing - but when it comes to bass fishing and netting it is surely somewhat obvious that squat is being done when since 2013 the bass netting landings have increased by 43% here in Cornwall. I would urge you to please go and read all the comments left by you kind people on my recent blog post here, and aside from a lot of information that really shocked me and indeed make me writing todays’ blog post a necessity once I had the correct facts and figures, one almost unbelievable fact jumped out at me. For an organisation that is surely meant to be fully representative of various marine users as such, how the bloody hell can the chairman of Cornwall IFCA be somebody who has an MBE for services to commercial fishing?

I quote from the Cornwall IFCA website: “Chairman - Tony Tomlinson MBE. Tony is a retired skipper/owner of trawlers fishing around Cornwall for more than 30 years. Awarded an MBE for services to the industry in 2006, he has been Chair of Cornwall IFCA since late 2010. Currently Chair of the Association of IFCAs, Chair of Cornwall FLAG and Deputy Chair of Falmouth Harbour Commsrs.” Now I am firmly of the belief that the world is not flat and that the moon landings were not faked on a Hollywood sound stage, but please excuse a certain level of cynicism on my part when I take into account that Cornwall’s bass netting landings since 2013 have increased by 43% and the chairman of Cornwall’s Association of Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities has those credentials. Are anglers’ interests being fairly represented? Could there be but the tiniest little bias towards the commercial fishing sector when the IFCA chairman has over thirty years of commercial fishing experience himself? Wash your mouth out with soap and water Henry for even thinking such a thing. This is England and we don’t do this kind of thing, surely?

I am very obviously not a lawyer although when I wasn’t fishing I was meant to be studying maritime law when I was at Plymouth University - excuse the irony - but with my basic understanding of what is going on here in Cornwall, surely our IFCA is not doing what it is required to do by law? Let it sink in - the rest of England has seen a reduction in the landing of netted bass, but Cornwall has seen an increase. We stand out like a sore thumb. How about this for an interesting comment on that blog post from the other day, and I know this is true: “Following a freedom of information request, CIFCA informed me that they don't record every report of suspected infringements. Interesting to hear they are legally obliged to.” I wonder if any records were kept of my contacts with IFCA to report what looked like some seriously dodgy inshore netting for bass going on? Me doubts it.

Now I happen to release the bass I might catch, but at the end of the day a lot of anglers go fishing and enjoy eating (some of) what they might catch. How bloody galling is it to be carefully unhooking and releasing bass in the hope that you might catch the same fish again when it’s a bit bigger and might have started breeding and reproducing for the future but we seem to have a netting for bass free for all going on? Again, from the Save our Seabass press release: “A spokesperson for the Cornish Federation of Sea Anglers, said “Cornwall IFCA is supposed to be protecting our valuable bass stock, but this data shows it has allowed netters to increase their bass landings despite the stock being at a dangerously low level. For most of 2018, Cornish sea anglers were not even allowed to take 1 bass for the table, but it seems that restriction was pointless, because at the same time Cornish netters were busy scooping up as many bass as they could find – whilst Cornwall IFCA has stood by doing nothing, and ignored repeated calls for an emergency byelaw to protect juvenile bass and for proper enforcement of the bass laws.”

And then to finish this blog post off (does it count as a Friday Rant from back in the day?), I quote David Curtis, the Director of Save Our Seabass: “Bass angling and commercial hook and lining for bass contribute millions of pounds to Cornwall’s economy and support thousands of local, sustainable jobs. But Cornwall IFCA is putting all that at risk by allowing Cornish netters to increase bass fishing pressure while the rest of England and the EU have cut bass netting landings in order to save the stock. Cornwall IFCA has repeatedly refused to take action to protect bass or to make protecting bass a high priority and this is the sad, but entirely predictable result.”

Now I don’t have the answers and I am not sure what the best course of action is either, but what I would suggest is that contacting Cornwall IFCA to report suspicious commercial fishing activity is at best a waste of time. It all sounds great on the Cornwall IFCA website I might add: “The national IFCA vision - “Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities will lead, champion and manage a sustainable marine environment and inshore fisheries, by successfully securing the right balance between social, environmental and economic benefits to ensure healthy seas, sustainable fisheries and a viable industry.” The Association vision - "The aim of the A-IFCA is to assist and promote the regional IFCAs to ensure that the authorities develop a leading and effective national role in fisheries and conservation management in line with the IFCA vision." Please engage with BASS and SOSB and The Angling Trust at the very least, and if via my contacts in the angling world I come across a course of action on what to do here I will of course let you know. At the very least the heading of this blog post should make any respectable saltwater angler hopping mad with how we collectively abuse the marine environment and seem utterly determined to leave it in the most terrible state for future generations. You all have a good weekend…………...