Official NFSA Position on the Sea Angling rod licence

[Doc]

Sea Angling Licenses
Members may have read the May edition of Sea Angler Magazine and under the heading \"Licensing is the Way Forward\" have formed the opinion that the NFSA was promoting rod licences for sea anglers.

This is our response:-

In last months NFSA Report in the Sea Angler Magazine an article on the Governments Strategy Report on Fisheries was highlighted, within which there were some recommendations that may not sit well with some sea anglers and it is necessary before my mail tray becomes totally out of control that we need to make it clear that the NFSA is not negotiating away the rights of sea anglers.

The report from the Strategy Unit on Marine Fisheries which runs to some 220 pages is on the whole Fishing Industry with which we share the fish resource for some species. It is very gratifying and a result of much pressure from sea angling organisations, that the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit has recognised this and devotes a whole section to developing recreational sea fishing, which will need a recovery of the fish stocks to enable any development to take place, it highlights that this will come at a cost and suggests a method by which it could be achieved.

However we must all recognise that we have historically never paid anything for the use of the resources, other than a small sum from our council rates that go towards financing the sea fisheries committees, neither has the commercial sector because the fish resource has been rightly viewed as being the property of all of us. If therefore the way forward for the better management of the marine fisheries, which would include being able to enjoy recovered fish stocks, requires all exploiters of the resource to pay towards its management and stock recovery, we cannot but examine our position.

So would sea anglers please relax, we are not promoting rod licences at this time, and nor would we without some substantial benefits to our members, and these would need to be substantial enough to outweigh any argument against their introduction, before we would even consider recommending them to our members. We are not selling our members rights, beside it would need national legislation to implement and the politicians must appreciate how difficult this would be without the support of anglers.

However it does demonstrates how our sport could develop with some serious finances that for us is very difficult to achieve even when the environment affecting sea angling has never been under so much pressure. Years of sustained over fishing using harmful techniques which target the smallest size fish permitted have decimated the fish stocks around UK shores. Shore fishing locations are under threat from estuary management plans, conservationists, commercial pressures and Local Authority safety fears. The increased uncontrolled use of gill nets is impacting our ability to fish some locations and ravaging fish stocks in an uncontrolled way.

The NFSA has therefore to set up a special membership drive and appeal at the AGM in May to encourage all sea anglers to support our work whilst at the same time to receive the substantial benefits of membership including liability insurances etc.

[Charlton]

where does all the VAT we pay on fishing equipment go. If it comes from angling then why is the governement not using it to finance better fish management. This is one Q i have never been able to get an answer to. Maybe the NFSA could get one.

[Doc]

Hi Alan,

an extremely good point, and one which we\'ve discussed on a number of occasions. I guess the answer is, along with where ever the rest of the VAT goes, NHS, MOD, social security and to pay for decommissioning of trawlers!!!!!

At an educated guess I would say that approx. £20m per annum in VAT is generated from RSA.

Cheers