New chief for North West sea anglers

Thousands of recreational sea anglers in the North West have a new champion to take up their issues with the government.

Stuart McPherson has been appointed a director of the new Angling Trust and chairman of its marine committee responsible for sea angling activities.

He succeeds Richard Ferré, well-known among Lancashire and Cumbria anglers and politicians, especially for working with them a year ago in defeating the government’s attempt to make sea anglers buy licenses to fish.

M. Ferré has stood down, as planned, after three years as chairman of the former National Federation of Sea Anglers (NFSA) which merged in January this year with five other angling bodies to form the Angling Trust.

Mr McPherson, an outspoken critic of apparent bias against recreational sea angling in the management of sea fisheries, says the Angling Trust’s marine committee would be a team representing recreational sea anglers in the North West and in every corner of England.

“It will decide policy by communicating with the membership, then working in earnest to achieve their objectives.”

Mr McPherson has warned that the ethos of the new regulatory inshore fisheries and conservation authorities (IFCAs) replacing the present sea fisheries committees under the new Marine Bill, would be to prove they are efficient.

“They will have inspection targets to meet and it could be easier for them to check the catches of anglers in boats or on the beaches than to prove that a single trawler is fishing in a prohibited area,” he said.

”If that is the case they could very easily reach most of their targets and tick all the boxes required of them and recreational sea anglers could be become the sacrificial lamb to justify their existence.”

Mr McPherson is a retired senior police officer with more than 40 years' senior management experience in the police service, and with a private company.

He said there had always been threats to recreational sea angling and there probably always would be. “But now is the opportunity to counter them as part of a new and strong Angling Trust promoting all disciplines of angling."

He was largely responsible for resurrecting the Yorkshire division of the old NFSA three years ago. He is a member of the North Eastern sea fisheries committee on the east coast, represents sea angling on the Angling Development Board and is actively involved in its programme to form some 40 county angling action groups throughout the country.

Angling Trust Ltd.,
Eastwood House, 6 Rainbow Street, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 8DQ
0845 6010699.
Mark Lloyd, chief executive
Telephone: 0845 6010699 Mobile 07973 468198
E-mail [email protected]
www.anglingtrust.net

In the near future Stuart McPherson will be my guest on At The Waters Edge programme on BBC Radio Lancashire http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2005/12/05/radio_martin_james_profile_feature.shtmltalking about the hopes and inspirations of anglers in the North West of England.