Displaying items by tag: fishing news

Following discussions arising from uncertainty about the accessibility of the Fishomania Competition for disabled anglers, the Angling Trust and the British Disabled Angling Association (BDAA) have agreed to work closely together. They will be meeting up to identify ways in which disabled anglers can have greater equality of access to venues for leisure and competition fishing where safe and practical to do so alongside non disabled anglers.

The two organisations have agreed to meet the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS), the national body responsible for developing sport for disabled people in England with a view to drawing up an action plan to increase the number and quality of accessible fisheries to serve the 44,000 Environment Agency concessional licence holders in England and Wales. This will include setting objectives for improved access, identifying funding to help fisheries with the cost of the works and seeking sponsorship for new and existing competitions.

The Angling Trust is already working with the Angling Development Board to draw up a competitions and performance pathway which will include the needs of disabled anglers and which will assist in securing funds from Sport England in the future.
Disabled anglers wishing to fish in this year’s Fishomania competition should contact the Angling Trust on 0844 7700616 and speak to the Competitions and Events Manager to seek advice about the most accessible fisheries. If they are successful in securing tickets, they should contact us to let us know of their needs so that we can take all reasonable steps to accommodate them at the relevant fisheries.

Terry Moseley, President of the BDAA said: “access and facilities are extremely important for disabled people regardless of the sport or activity to participate equally, we are looking forward to working with the Angling Trust to ensure there is increased equality and informed choice to enhance the future of angling for all disabled people”

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said: “There are about 10 million people in this country with some form of disability. Nearly all of them could enjoy angling alongside non disabled anglers. The Angling Trust will be advising all our member clubs and fisheries about the requirements of legislation in this area, and also highlighting the commercial benefits of reaching out to this significant market. Commercial fisheries in particular offer a fantastic opportunity to provide safe access for all.”

In a ground-breaking Decision, over three years in the making, the Information Commissioner has overwhelmingly endorsed Fish Legal’s case that hitherto secret and redacted Environmental Risk Assessments of pyrethroid sheep dip must be disclosed in full.

Although currently suspended from the market, pyrethroid sheep dips have been responsible for huge damage to invertebrate and fisheries in upland streams and rivers across the UK.

In his Decision (FER0137609), the Commissioner has ruled that the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA):

- did not deal with Fish Legal’s request for information according to the law;
- did not deal with Fish Legal’s request within legal time limits;
- unlawfully withheld information relating to emissions to the environment;
- unlawfully refused to disclose information in order to protect the commercial confidentiality of sheep dip manufacturers;
- was not entitled to refuse to disclose information to protect manufacturers’ intellectual property rights;
- was not entitled to refuse to disclose information on grounds that it was the subject of internal communications

Guy Linley-Adams, Head of Legal at Fish Legal said:
“We believe this decision now drives a coach and horses straight through the cosy licensing procedure for all veterinary medicines and pesticides in the UK.

If residues of these or any other pesticides can find their way into the wider environment, they are to be considered as ‘emissions’ under European law. This has the effect of lifting the cloak of commercial confidentiality that has for so long shrouded the licensing of pesticides in the UK.

Public authorities cannot by law keep secret environmental information relating to emissions to protect manufacturers’ commercial confidentiality.

Over the three years this has taken, we have always believed that this would be the Commissioner’s decision.”

Fish Legal, acting on behalf of anglers across the UK, believes that the risk to the aquatic environment of the use of synthetic pyrethroid dips in real farm situations is just too great and now calls on the Government to make the current temporary suspension permanent.

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of Fish Legal and the Angling Trust said:
“Fish Legal, and the Anglers’ Conservation Association before it, has battled for years on behalf of our members to win access to this information, which is vitally important to the investigation and assessment of environmental damage from these pesticides.”

A full copy of the Decision is available from guy.linleyadams@fishlegal.net

Cranbrook and District Angling Club is offering a reward of £7,500 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of poachers that have netted and stolen specimen fish and left other fish to die on the bank on one of their club waters.

The reward money includes:

• £500 put forward by our friends at Linton Angling Society
• £500 by Carp-Talk magazine
• £500 by Chris Lodgson at Mid Kent Fisheries
• £5000 by Angling Times magazine

It is hoped that other angling clubs in the South East will join them in offering a reward; we are all at risk from these sorts of criminals.

Other clubs or fishery owners that wish to pledge a reward or anybody wishing to pass on information regarding this matter should please contact Kevin Webb, Cranbrook and District Angling Club Secretary, at info@cranbrookanglingclub.co.uk

All information received will be treated in strictest confidence and will be handed over to the Police, the Environment Agency and the Angling Trust.

The Angling Trust and its partners in the Our Rivers Coalition met with Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies by the Thames on Wednesday ahead of the publication of controversial plans for the UK’s waterways.

Earlier this year, a report revealed that three quarters of rivers in England and Wales are failing European targets on environmental quality. But in the majority of cases the Environment Agency’s official plans – due to be published next month - fail to set out action to tackle the problems such as pollution from fertilisers and over abstraction, which threaten river wildlife.

The Our Rivers Campaign was set up by the Angling Trust, the Association of Rivers Trusts, the RSPB and WWF UK, to help encourage people who know and care about their local river to fill the gaps in understanding.

In an attempt to persuade him to make last minute changes to the plans, campaigners met with Mr Irranca-Davies by the bank of the Thames to hand over a map of all the rivers adopted by supporters, river action groups and MPs during the campaign.

Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Angling Trust said “The Water Framework Directive presented the Environment Agency with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our rivers and the way that they we manage water, and the land around it.

"But the draft plans are lacking in ambition, they fail to capture the knowledge of anglers and others who have an intimate knowledge of their rivers and much of the information in them is simply incorrect. These new plans don’t even offer a vision of what we would like to achieve, let alone how we might achieve it. If Government fails to make significant changes before the plans are published, they will have blown it. Anglers are dismayed”.
 
“The problems are plain to see – pollution killing fish and causing algae and weed to choke our water ways, river beds drying up, invasive species like signal crayfish destroying riverbank ecosystems and more besides,” said RSPB conservation director Mark Avery.
“These plans are supposed to provide a blueprint for bringing the standard of our rivers up to an acceptable level, but there is so much vital information missing it’s difficult to have confidence in them. The whole publication is like a crossword with most of the clues missing – and unless changes are made now we will never get the solutions that our ailing rivers so desperately need.”
Arlin Rickard, director of the Association of Rivers Trusts, said: “Our members were asked to feed into these plans with positive proposals for how to deal with the many environmental problems our rivers are struggling against.

“But despite our extensive knowledge of local rivers gained through many years of dedicated conservation work along their banks, many of our suggestions have failed to appear in the final plans which are limited in their vision. We are doing all we can to help the Government meet its 2015 water target but currently there is a lack of clarity as to how the work on the ground will be funded or delivered.”

The Angling Trust and Fish Legal have reacted with dismay to news that the Government has decided that “implementation of the Free Passage of Fish Order should be postponed until at least May 2011”

This Order would have enabled the UK to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC, establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy) and Council Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007, of 18 September 2007, establishing measures for the recovery of the stock of European eel.

The decision has apparently been taken in light of the current economic climate; the Better Regulation Executive felt that the Order would have a significant impact on businesses. Angling’s representative body believes that the Executive has failed to take into account the long term economic benefits that such an order would have by protecting and improving fish stocks which are essential for the multi-billion pound angling industry.
It’s not just salmon, sea trout and eels which migrate up and down rivers; most coarse fish travel many miles from spawning to feeding habitats. By kicking this order into the long grass, the Government has prevented action being taken to protect all fish stocks, and has shown that it is not committed to delivering the ambitious and visionary aims of the Water Framework Directive.

Salmon and sea trout are the only fish that are currently protected by legislation. Yet even these are prevented from re-colonising rivers and river reaches in which they were formerly present because of the inadequacy of the current legislation.
Important threatened conservation species, such as lampreys and shad, which move from the sea to our rivers have no protection, and neither have the many indigenous fish, including many important to angling such as trout, grayling, barbel, dace and chub. These all may need to access different stretches of river for spawning, feeding or over-wintering but are prevented from doing so by impassable obstructions. Many millions of young fish are lost from our rivers every year by being drawn into inadequately screened abstractions.

The delay will also allow hydropower schemes which damage fisheries greater chance of being implemented. Thousands of these schemes, most of which have a questionable cost benefit ratio, are proposed across the UK.

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust and Fish Legal, said:
“these regulations were proposed by the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review which was submitted to the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in June 2000, nearly a decade ago. The delay in implementation is a shocking example of the Government’s failure to commit to real action to protect fish stocks. We need urgent action now, not a further delay.”

The Environment Agency’s Statement of Intent, published in January 2009, stated: “We must improve the natural passage of fish in order to meet the needs of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), implement the European Eel Regulations and protect our fisheries. The measures proposed in the Passage of Fish Regulations are crucial to our ability to improve fish passage.”

This begs the question: “given that these regulations were ‘crucial’ and that we ‘must’ improve the passage of fish to meet the WFD, how does the Government plan to do this without them?”