Councillors’ Disdain For Public Worries Over Fishing

A report alleging public concern over the parlous state of fish stocks and the seabed are being ignored by local councillors who instead support fishermen's’ claims to maintain their catches at all costs, is published today.
The report is on the popular Sea Anglers’ Conservation Network website (link below).

It says many councillors who hold half the seats on the 12 sea fisheries committees in England and Wales, are themselves current or former participants in the fishing industry which they are intended to regulate.The National Federation of Sea Anglers is asking Defra (Department of the Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs) to investigate the report and why it
was apparently kept under wraps for 18 months until SACN revealed it today.

“We have always questioned the role and membership of the sea fisheries committees, which were set up in 1888 to look after the interests of the commercial fishing industry as it was then,” said Richard Ferré, chairman of the federation’s conservation group. “They were set up in a bygone era for a bygone purpose.”

Many people now used inshore waters which are a public resource under extreme pressure. “The chief beneficiary cannot continue setting the rules to the detriment of the environment and other users." The highly critical report came, he said, as Defra was promising to modernise the management of inshore waters and added: “The sea angling industry which
supports 19,000 jobs in England and Wales, expects Defra to pay it serious attention.”

The report* funded by the British Council under its Atlantic Fellowship scheme, was compiled by Professor Josh Eagle, of the school of law at the University of South Carolina, USA. He is an authority on fisheries management, integration of marine science and law, and public participation in decisions on the use of public resources.

He spent seven months in the UK in 2004 researching the committees and attended meetings of nine of the 12. His report says because fishermen on the local authority funded committees can vote on byelaws to manage fishstocks “there exists a strong possibility that the interests of other stakeholders…will be compromised." Councillors needed to be especially vigilant, he says referring to commercial fishermen's’ concerns to maintain high catch levels in the short term, which can directly conflict with long term sustainability of fish stocks.

He collected information on councillors through interviews and detailed written surveys sent to 90 of them, of whom 42 per cent replied. Nearly half (47 per cent) of those who responded to questions, believed that their first responsibility on the committees was to serve the commercial fishing industry, not the public.

This seemed to indicate that “many councillors do not see themselves as representatives of the general public, but of their [commercial] fishing constituents." This was inconsistent with the need for public participation in the long term management and health of fisheries and oceans.

"Interestingly, quite a few councillors reported that they were formerly or currently involved in the fishing business,” he says. Very few of them put the interests of the general public, recreational anglers or seafood dealers and processors were among their important concerns. Their lowest priority was the objective of "ensuring that fisheries do not
harm the marine environment, including other species and marine habitats.”

Alan Brothers, Hon. public relations officer, National Federation of Sea Anglers.7 St. James Street, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1HR Tel: 01273 471 496 Mobile 07957 870 616
[email protected]