EU Article 47 plans to licence sea angling

[Al Greig]

I've just read this in the local rag. Article 47 would require European recreational sea anglers to:

Pay a licence fee

Be subject to a quota

Fill in catch returns in a log book

And the really good bit...

Catch and Release would be banned.


Member of the European Parliament Struan Stevenson is leading the campaign to overturn the proposals - struan.stevenson@europarl.europa.eu

Whatever you think of the licensing proposal, (and personally, I'd like to know what I'd be getting for my money, apart from another layer of taxation and bureaucracy) the last clause is completely ludicrous.

[Stoatstail50]

Avril Doyle MEP for Ireland East and Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee

Speaking after yesterdays meeting of the Fisheries Committee, Avril Doyle said that the prospects for the controversial Article 47 (of the draft proposal on the Community Control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy) concerning the inclusion Recreational Fisheries surviving in its current state are slim to none.

The level of concern expressed from colleagues as well as constituents not only in Ireland, but in Scotland and the rest of Europe has meant that the Rapporteur, Mr. Romera I Rueda, has agreed to revisit this Article.

“The CFP control and compliance system needs reform, with priority on need for equivalence of controls and the harmonising of sanctions across the EU, as well as on the proportionality of responses to infringements as recommended by the European Court of Auditors. The Commission provided examples of fines for the same infringements in different EU Member States which astoundingly ranged from 100 to 6, 000 Euros. This is completely unacceptable.

I will be proposing an amendment to delete Article 47 from the report to remove recreational sea fisheries from the scope of the controls. There is good support in the Committee for this move. While it currently would cover off shore sea angling and fish stocks under Recovery Plans, (Blue Fin Tuna and Cod Stocks) we need to establish a record of even handed EU wide compliance before extending the scope of the Common Fisheries Policy to recreational activities.

Article 47 is unworkable and scientifically unjustified as in the main, recreational anglers have a record as conservationists by nature and have a record of cooperating fully with the management of any vulnerable stocks.

However the Council of Ministers will have the final say.

Scottish Sea Anglers

[Born Again]

I think what is important is what the Austrians / Swiss / Czechs / Slovakians / Hungarians have to say on the matter???

[Al Greig]

hi Stoat,
Thanks for that.

Does 'Elspeth Attwool' actualy exist, or is she a figment of your imagination? She sounds a bit ZA to me...

[Stoatstail50]

No she seems to be a real one.......... but its a blurry line between fact and fiction, innit ?

[Marc LaMouche]

she's got sort of a "Latter Day Manga" look.

[Paul Arden]

I think we have to really get it into their heads that catch and release is good for fish and sport fishing. It's catch and kill that's the problem. Let's hope we can do this otherwise there'll be no fish left in Europe worth catching and they'll still be blaming us.

Cheers, Paul

[MikeRR]

Wow thats scary.. Theres very suspicious people here in the US that think the commercial lobbys are enjoying the push for a saltwater license here in the US on the basis that the license will force at least a few and maybe more from the sport.. The no kill aspect of all this is amazing.. Are there resticitions on bag limits too ? Catch a keeper and you have to go home... Sounds like some want to kill the"angler" and leave the sport to meat fishermen.

[Nick]

If you're talking about fishing in deep water for fish like cod that have a swimbladder, then banning catch and release is reasonable. Any fish that you bring to the surface is going to die,whether you release it or not, so the rules should be that you catch your limit, keep them all and then go home.

I bet that's what they were thinking about when they wrote the rule. One of many problems with the Euro system is that most of the people involved don't understand the first thing about fisheries, either recreational or commercial! A blanket application of C&K is nuts.

N.