Bass being commercially exploited again!?

[JimH]

Jim

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF), Clogheen, Clonakilty, Co Cork has responsibility for bass conservation legislation. The Minister responsible for that area is Mr Tony Killeen TD.
Regards...

[Bradan]

Jim

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF), Clogheen, Clonakilty, Co Cork has responsibility for Bass conservation legislation. The Minister responsible for that area is Mr Tony Killeen TD.
Regards...

Who sent you that Jim?

[JimH]

B
this was my question

Response to FIF proposal for commercial bass fishing

Hi.....

I have a detailed response made for the Minister - can you please tell me which minister I need to send it to and the adddress of the relevant office please.
many thanks and

best regards from Jim @
www.probassfisher.com

B - you have a PM

[JonnyB]

I got a reply from Leo Varadkar (a local TD) in the post this morning. He has put a Parlimentary Question to the Minister for Communications,Energy and Natural Resources as follows:

"To ask the Minister if he will outline his intentions regarding the granting of permission to allow commercial fishermen to fish for bass at sea and if he will give details of how he intends to ensure the preservation of the inshore bass stock and if he will make a statement on the matter".

I will post the reply here when available.

It would seem that so far, Tony Killeen has been listening to submissions from the commercial lobby with their usual arguments (difficult economic times, getting a raw deal in Brussels etc), and is keen to give them something to keep them on side. It is likely that he sees the FIF proposal as an easy way to give them what they want without raising too many hackles.

We must make it very clear to him that this is not the case. In my opinion the most important points to emphasise to the politicians are:

1. The economic value of the recreational bass fishery in terms of employment and income in the hospitality and tourism industries as well as the more obvious sectors of fishing tackle retailers, professional guides etc. When the current legislation was introduced, one of the factors that persuaded the then Minister to introduce protection for bass was the fact that it had been calculated that a live bass in the surf was worth about 25 times as much to the economy as a dead bass in a fish box. This point is central to our argument.

2. We need to strongly refute the FIFs suggestion that their proposal will have no impact on the inshore stock. We need to make it very clear that illegal inshore fishing is already a significant problem and has prevented the stock from recovering fully since the protective legislation was introduced. The enforcement of the current legislation (for which Tony Kileen is also responsible) is woefully inadequate, and as such, even if the proposed commercial fishery were restricted to areas outside the 12-mile line this illegal activity would be further facilitated and would be impossible to control. The result would be a devastating collapse of the inshore stock in a very short space of time, closely followed by a collapse in the coastal economy dependent on recreational angling. Before any proposal for offshore fishing for bass by the Irish fleet could be considered, far more robust measures must be in place for protection of the inshore stock and evidence that these measures are working (through a demonstrable increase in size and numbers of the inshore stock) should be available.

3. Although the ICES 2007 report, quoted in the FIF proposal, states that the offshore bass stock appears to be exploited sustainably at present, it notes that the available data is of insufficient quality to permit meaningful conclusions to be drawn regarding the state of the stocks. The report concludes quite clearly that fishing effort should not be increased. If the Minister allows this proposal to go ahead, he is doing so against the available scientific advice (alhough this might not stop him).

Most importantly of all, the Minister needs to be made aware of the number of people with an interest in this matter (i.e, how many anglers votes he stands to lose if he were to approve the proposal) so anybody who hasn't already done so please write to Ministers Killeen and Lenihan AND your local TDs, who are often much more helpful, to let them know of your concerns. Letters are much more effective than emails, so print it out and stick it in an envelope - it only takes a couple of minutes.

I know that there was a suggestion that a delegation might meet with Dan Boyle to discuss the concerns. If such a group was formed, a meeting could also be requested with Tony Killeen (and / or Conor Lenihan) to discuss our concerns directly with him.

I would be prepared to be part of this delegation if required, although I have no expert knowledge of, or professional interest in, the matter, and my opinion is solely that of a concerned angler. Ideally, any such group should have representatives from as many types of stakeholder as possible - tackle dealers, tourism operators / guides, hotel / guest house / B&B ovners, holiday home rental agencies, visiting overseas anglers, any others you can think of?

Would anyone else be interested in forming a lobby group to meet with the relevant Ministers if such a meeting could be arranged?

[Tomaszek]

Forgive my ignorance but what "difficult economic times" got to do with opening commercial fishery for bass? If people are buying less fish - catching more of them will not resolve the problem.

[Mohawk]

Forgive my ignorance but what "difficult economic times" got to do with opening commercial fishery for Bass? If people are buying less fish - catching more of them will not resolve the problem.

People are not really buying less fish it is more a case of stocks of some species are depleting and regulations on others are limiting their fishing efforts, I think Tiggs may be right about the Bass proposal that its just FIF flexing their muscles at the politicians in order to gain more say over other fishing quota shares like mackerel where the real big money and big boys hang out!

Another feeling I have is that during the boom years an Irish crew man on an Irish trawler was a rare sight, most were crewed by immigrant workers but now its seems the Irish workers that turned their backs on the fishing are trying to make a comeback so you'll probably find some of the politicians in coastal areas will be right behind them

[SandTiger]

Forgive my ignorance but what "difficult economic times" got to do with opening commercial fishery for Bass? If people are buying less fish - catching more of them will not resolve the problem.

Where was difficult economic times mentioned, Tommy?

[jd]

I think he is referring to JonnyB's post

It would seem that so far, Tony Killeen has been listening to submissions from the commercial lobby with their usual arguments (difficult economic times, getting a raw deal in Brussels etc), and is keen to give them something to keep them on side. It is likely that he sees the FIF proposal as an easy way to give them what they want without raising too many hackles.

[rapala]

Just read this thread right through.
All credit to you guys for the way you are conducting yourself.
I thought my letter-writing days to the Minister for the Marine were over, sadly it seems they aren't.

[dfella25]

2. We need to make it very clear that illegal inshore fishing is already a significant problem and has prevented the stock from recovering fully since the protective legislation was introduced. The enforcement of the current legislation (for which Tony Kileen is also responsible) is woefully inadequate, and as such, even if the proposed commercial fishery were restricted to areas outside the 12-mile line this illegal activity would be further facilitated and would be impossible to control.

Is there and can you get, figures from enforcement agencies that could collaborate this. I know it goes on, you know it goes on and the man on the moon knows it goes on. But without figures for fines, arrests, inspections etc there will be no evidence that it occurs.

[SandTiger]

I think he is referring to JonnyB's post

It would seem that so far, Tony Killeen has been listening to submissions from the commercial lobby with their usual arguments (difficult economic times, getting a raw deal in Brussels etc), and is keen to give them something to keep them on side. It is likely that he sees the FIF proposal as an easy way to give them what they want without raising too many hackles.

Cheers jd, all the more reason for a socio-economic report that positively displays what Bass Angling brings to marginalised rural communities

[John D]

Lads I've been offline for a few days and I've only seen the posters now - BRILLIANT WORK!

Another thing I am really impressed by is the points JonnyB suggested as being the most important to bring to the attention of any decision makers. We all know the reasons why bass shouldn't be exploited commercially again, but it's been a while since I read anything that came across so effective..

John D.

[Tomaszek]

Hi guys,
so far nobody declared number of posters that one may be willing to put in local tackle shops. Lads, Tony Fella declared that can print the posters so please declare the numbers here. I’m sure that more SAI members can at least place the poster in his local tackle shop. We need to make numbers to print them all at once.

I can take 4 (2x white) (2x blue) – 3x tackle shop, 1x angling club.

Who’s next?


PS.
if anyone wants to print posters on it's own - below are attached smaller A4 format posters.

[seanie35]

hi tommy i can do 3 tackle shops, titelines in cappaquin, baumanns dungarvan and phil mahers shop, tony can bring them with him the weekend if hes coming down

[Tomaszek]

Great!

Tomaszek: 4
seanie35: 3


whose next?

[Tanglerat]

Two for me, please.

[jd]

Great!

Tomaszek: 4
seanie35: 3


whose next?

3 a3's for me please

[davetilly]

the posters are great and they will hit all anglers not just bass anglers .i have printed of 10 for the shops i sell bait too great job so far .i am laminating one for my car as i think this will get to more people.

[Bradan]

Lads, check out Mike Thrussell's blog on this on www.worldseafishing.com

[RockHunter]

I will take three posters (2 white, 1 blue).

tony can bring them with him the weekend if hes coming down

If Tony is meeting with Seanie he could pass on my posters to Seanie and I could get them off him.