|
|
|
Sea Anglers Urges Ministers to Think Again on Licenses
Recreational anglers today (Monday) urged the fisheries minister,
Jonathan Shaw, to reconsider his controversial plans to make them
buy licenses to fish in the sea.
The minister met a delegation led by Richard Ferré, chairman of
the National Federation of Sea Anglers (NFSA), and David Rowe,
its chief executive, at Penzance pier during a visit to the
fishing industry in the region.
The meeting was arranged by the NFSA at the minister’s
request and included charter boat skippers who take anglers
to sea, owners of fishing tackle businesses and anglers who fish
from the shore or from their from own boats.
The fishing tackle and charter business owners told the minister
that much of their trade came from holidaymakers. If they
had to buy a license to go fishing for a day their trade would be
lost.
Mr. Shaw also watched an NFSA coach giving practical instruction
on the pier to a group of young anglers.
Mr. Ferré explained to the minister that there was little support
for a license because years of carefree commercial overfishing
permitted by the present and previous governments had so damaged
fishstocks that anglers seldom caught specimens anymore and any
fish they did catch were often too small to take
home.
He urged the minister to legislate to protect the run down
fishstocks so they would regenerate and recover to the point
where they would benefit both sea angling and commercial
fishing.
The proposal for a sea angling rod license is expected to be
included in government’s draft Marine Bill next
month. The NFSA believes that such a scheme would not
generate enough cash to allow any to be reinvested in developing
sea angling.
Mr. Ferré thanked the minister for spending more than an hour
listening to and discussing, the problems of sea angling.
The NFSA , he said, looked forward to continuing to work with him
and his officials to solve the problems of both licensing and the
devastated fishstocks in coastal waters.
Last updated on: Thursday, 14th February 2008
|
|
Sea Anglers Invitation to Meet DEFRA
Recreational Sea Anglers Invitation to Meet with DEFRA at NFSA
Offices, Buckfastleigh
A meeting has been arranged with Defra on Monday 25th
February 2008. The meeting will take place at the
NFSA head Office at Buckfastleigh at
7pm.
We would like Sea Anglers from the South West to
meet Defra to talk and discuss the recent released
Consultation on a Recreational Sea Angling
(RSA) Strategy for England Document. This is a
very important document which can be looked up at
Defra website www.defra.gov.uk and all
RSA should send in their responses by 31 st March
2008.
The purpose of this meeting would be to help anglers
prepare their responses and or to ask any questions they
might have to Defra.
Please can I ask, that if you are or know of
any interested parties who would like to attend
this meeting, to contact David Rowe at the NFSA
Head Office on 01364 644643 or E Mail dr@nfsa.org.uk We
would like to get some feel for numbers for this date, so
please reply promptly.
Last updated on: Saturday, 16th February 2008
|
|
Clubs Presentation Night
Around 80 members turned out for the clubs Annual
Presentation Night, up on previous years. Around 100 Trophies were
presented by Tim Bird the Fishing Chairman and Stan Rowe from the
Herald Express during the evening.
Fred Parnell taking Best
Specimen Overall.
Winning
Ladies - (From left to right) P.Scott - J.Scott
& H. Webb
Winning
Juniors - (from left to right) S. Amer - O.Davies -
L.Davies - A.West - L.Corbett & A.
Nathan
Last updated on: Monday, 18th February 2008
|
|
Clubs AGM (25th Feb 08)
Around 60 members turned out for the clubs AGM. Please see
committee members section for the elected officers.
Officers elected: President - B
Heaven; Chairman - S Holgate; Vice Chair and Bar Chairman - R
Shailes; Secretary - L Harding; Assistant - Diana Wherlock;
Treasurer - P Wright; Fishing Chairman - M Wall; Entertainments
- B Amer; Maintenance - vacant; Minute Clerk - P Passmore;
Management Committee - T Berry, A Lake, B Coombes, R Scott, two
vacancies; Bar Committee - R Anders, S O'Gorman, J
Guthrie.Those who attended were welcomed by club president
Brian Heaven as he opened the evening.
He said he was pleased to see a small increase in attendance,
but his opening remarks were similar to those of 2007, when
nominations for some posts were unfilled.
A club of this size should have, and needed, a full list of
those keen enough to help keep the organisation up and running
smoothly.
He thanked those who had worked in all sections through the
year and especially those who had taken on entertainments, for
they had been popular.
Chairman Steve Holgate
then made his report, again thanking all those who had worked
to give members one of the best angling clubs in the South
West.
There had been a slight
setback over efforts to provide an outdoor smoking area for
members, as the planning application for a covered terrace at the
rear had been refused, though this matter is to be discussed
later.
Treasurer Jane Parker gave a report on the balance sheet, noting
there had been a slight drop in overall funds, but this could be
explained by the effect of the national smoking ban, and also
there was little chance of a drop in prices generally.
Questions were asked on some figures but these could be answered
by the fact that auditors had to have figures early and some
items had not been entered.
All would be looked into and the management informed.
Secretary Les Harding said there were 54 card holders at the
meeting, but the annual figures showed anglers at 380, social
300, with sporting, junior and life members taking the total to
780.
He thanked those who had put the club news on the website and
recommended all to use the system - a monitor will be installed
in the committee room shortly for this purpose.
He thanked the bar staff and helpers for their work through
2007.
Fishing chairman Tim Bird was next to speak, giving his report on
the year's success.
The club had received good sponsorship for their various open
events, and the RNLI had received £1,000 for their funds.
The club had won the Torbay Shield as well as many festival
awards, and many club records had been set or broken.
He also thanked B Amer and P Wright for their support with
activities.
He said that after four years he was standing down, but that Mike
Wall had been nominated for the post.
Fish recorder Tom Underwood said it had been a very good year -
almost 800 fish had been recorded, with 162 NFSA specimens and
202 at PSAA weights.
Analysis showed that catches afloat and from shore were almost
equal, with 14 new records, eight ladies, two junior and four
seniors had been set across the species.
He said there was a need for more juniors within the club, and as
a help to claims a monthly list of best fish for named trophies
would be displayed.
He thanked Clive Star and Barry Amer for their computer work, a
great help in many ways.
Barry Amer, for entertainments, said that most of the events
organised had been well supported. However, one or two had been
slow and there had been very little interest in the annual
dinner/dance and it had been cancelled.
A programme of events had been arranged, all would be shown on
the notice board in good time.
The election of officers and management committee followed, with
a few positions unfilled.
The one listed proposal was then discussed: "That a fresh
water angling section be formed within the club, providing that
the member had an EA Angling Licence."
Thrown open to the floor there was quite a discussion, with the
stalwarts saying that the club was a 'sea angling' group,
while others said that already several members followed both
disciplines. It was proposed that the wording of the motion be
amended to hold 'an annual EA Licence'.
Put to the floor this was accepted 44 to four, and the main
proposal that the committee look into putting the section into
operation for 2009 was passed 38 to four.
In AOB the patio was discussed, the refusal was based on Roundham
being a conservation area and the effect the area might have on
neighbours.
After a discussion the chairman was empowered to look into an
appeal, depending on cost.
It was mentioned that the 'Vision for the Bay' seemed to
include high-rise blocks within a close distance of the
clubhouse.
T Underwood will continue as records officer, and the post of cup
custodian was filled by Greg Paull following the retirement of
Rebecca Wherlock due to work
commitments.
Last updated on: Tuesday, 26th February 2008
|
|
Meeting with Defra
The meeting with DEFRA arranged by the
NFSA and the Wyvern Division at their Buckfastleigh HQ
attracted more than 50 anglers to hear what Trevour Hutchins and
Nicola Clarke had to say about the consultation paper called,
Recreational Sea Angling
Strategy.
It was a very robust meeting where anglers said in no uncertain
terms that bringing in a licence, that is included in the document,
would not be accepted without cast iron guarantees that the money
raised would be used to better angling. Surprisingly the
majority said they would support a licence if such guarantees were
in place. The annual licence would probably cost in the region of
£15 each.
There was a great debate on bass as you would expect as well as on
other species. "We want bigger fish" was the
message.
Trevour Hutchings said that many options were under consideration,
and those included possibly having RSA areas only and, maybe
selected species for RSA only, as is about to happen with the
tope.
It was a long meeting that started at 7.30 and had to be closed
with still questions to answer at 10.45 as many of the anglers
attending had travelled long distances from Cornwall, Dorset,
Somerset and North Devon.
Last updated on: Tuesday, 26th February 2008
|
|
|
|
|
Join our newsletter to recieve PSAA club mailings.
Paignton Weather Forecast
|
Tue
Heavy Rain |
|
Humidity: 88
Visibility: 6.21m
Wind: 140o 12mph
Pressure: 29.59in
Pressure Falling
Low: 48oF
High: 60oF
Sunrise: 7:24 am
Sunset: 6:38 pm
|
|
Wed
Mostly Sunny |
|
Low: 45oF
High: 59oF
|
Check the tidal times for the next 7 days using the links below:
Keep up to date with the latest goings on with our RSS Newsfeed.
[  ]
|
(01803) 553118
Ravenswood,26 Cliff Road, Paignton, Devon, TQ4 6DH
