Special Protection Areas

[Ashley Hayden]

Hi,

I have been visiting the SAI site for about eight months now, and this is my first post. I started sea angling back in 1971 as a ten year old. The area that I fished was between Bulloch Harbour and Greystones, both from boat and shore. I have memories of great days and catches, but sadly that is what they are, just memories. Up to the early eighties fishing was good. But through the eighties it diminished. The signs were there, size of fish getting smaller, and species disappearing from certain marks. By 1994, in my opinion it wasn't worth the effort, and I took up fly fishing for sea trout.

However An interest in the marine environment got me back fishing again summer 2007. The prime motivation being to bring myself up to speed as to the state of play of the inshore marine environment. I had an idea what to expect, but I needed to be sure. My forays along the South East coast between July and Dec' 2007 backed up what I expected. Yes, I caught Bass (up to 6lb), Smoothhound (8lb), but every other species, flounder excluded, was small or under size.

1950 is a benchmark year. This is when serious commercial fishing took off again after WWII. When I started fishing in 1971 the waters off Greystones, Co Wicklow could be likened to an aquarium. That was after 20 years of commercial exploitation. One can only imagine what richness was there circa 1950. 1989 was the year that world fish stocks went into terminal decline. We have been on the downward slope ever since. By 2050 we will be eating jellyfish and the biodiversity of the seas will be a thing of the past.

Special protection areas are the only solution. Most demersal fisheries are mixed. It is impossible to target only one species. Bye catch is inevitable. The only way forward is no take zones to include both commercial and pleasure interests. It is about time all vested interests took their collective heads out of the sand. If our grand children are to enjoy seas even as full as they were circa 1970 we have to act now.

If 20% of the worlds seas and oceans were selectively closed to all fishing activity, and world commercial fleets (with no increase in current effort) were reduced by 40%, fish stocks would recover towards 1950's levels within ten years. All would benefit. The time for sacrifice has come, do we have the courage to see it through. Special protection areas are a positive way to protect the environment against development pushed by increasing world populations, both on land and sea. As anglers we should be driving policy and not prevaricating, that is the way to protect our interests. Work with policy makers and become informed. That is the only way forward.

Essential reading: ''The End Of The Line'' by Charles Clover, ''The Unnatural History Of The Sea'' by Prof' Callum Roberts, and ''In A Perfect Ocean'' by Daniel Pauly and Jay Maclean.