PLEASE BRING YOUR RUBBISH HOME

Evening all,

before you read the following, please note that this is not directed at anyone in particular but it is intended to secure our access to fishing marks around the country.

On several fishing trips recently, I have been upset by the amount of rubbish lying around at certain marks along the Antrim Coast.

A lot of this rubbish could only have been left by anglers (line, bait packaging, tackle packaging, crisp packets, sandwich wrappers, beer cans etc.)

What we all need to be aware of is the undisputable fact that now the tree-hugging brigade have pressurised the government into banning fox-hunting in the UK, their next obvious target will be the 'pleasure angler'.

We can't afford to give these people ammunition to discredit us and therefore make it easier to mount a campaign against our favorite pastime.

When out fishing and if there is no litter bins nearby, please, please bring your rubbish home and don't leave it lying at your backside for others to clear up.

Show your committment to this cause by giving your backing to this post and also make a concerted effort to bring your rubbish home or put it in a bin.

The two most abused marks have to be Red Bay Pier and The Ledges - I hope to see some improvement at these marks soon (I also plan to bring a black bag with me when next visiting and clear some of the crap away).

Thanks in advance.

GG

Last edited by glengormley-gavin on Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well said Gavin, similar problems down here at the mo too, see post on dumping on the wall...

Well said Gavin.

It's sad to see the rubbish left behind by some folk. Our club nominate 1 person on each outing to bring a black bag and collect all the rubbish from each angler as they are leaving the beach or when they are back at the cars. This works well and it's then up to only one person to get rid of the rubbish in a proper manner.

Damien

Cheers Damo,

we are having a club meeting tomorrow night - I'm gonna propose this 'rubbish-plan' at the meeting.

GG

as part of the wider eco-sysytem that brings us all much joy in our pleasurable activity, its something that has been happeningh we all accept for years and needs "tackling". Been caught withy tghe recycling bug a few years back, perhaps like challenging your neighbours about the merits about keeping undersize fish we should all act on this as part of the course and i'm suremost members of this forum accept aand agree on this. Not attributing blame but we should make it our responsible for our continued enjoyment. Haven'fished "the wall" but salvate at all the readings and reports i hear about this natural heaven as with fishing the north Coast especially over the warmer months, particularly get fristrated at the blue pool , ramore head , and to o lesser degree ballintoy. Having expanded my range into the off-beat tracks of donegal and the antrim coast in recent years, the differences can be astounding, refreshing my whole experience and purpose of angling.
its sadly a wider issue, which Blair, bertie and their cronies are going to hae to deal with, especially with lagging behind so much in the Euro recycling leagues! we owe it to ourselves and nature itself without sounding ltoo much ike an old hippy's record and green party anctivist.

I like demo's idea and gonna bring a bigger bag for this purpose when baitfishing next time, i feel i owe it to the sea..
:)

Very good point and a credit to yourself GG.

What's wrong with everyone using the bag they get there bait in to bring all rubbish home. The amount of bait bags and vermiculite that's left behind at all venues is dire!! Do we think the wind is going to dispurse it......?

Would we, as anglers be happy if our bait supplier just threw a pound of rag with vermiculite into our tackle boxes etc and sent us on our way without the bag? I think not!

Whether it is our rubbish or not, we all need to singing off the same hymn sheet here and doing our bit to support angling as a sport and and a way of releasing the pressure of a hard day at the office and not giving people the excuse to bad mouth us anglers..........

The amount of good venues that are now out of bounds to anglers is down to our own stupidity.... and although no one individually is to blame as a group we are all to blame, whether directly or indirectly.

This isn't rocket science, it's just common sence.

Lets get this right lads and hopefully if we need to travel across a piece of land etc to get to a hot spot we are all welcomed with open arms rather than being shunned or chased by the owner.

Maybe a beach cleanup meet could be organised like the guys are doing on WSF :?:

http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/s ... hp?t=19509


Andy

This is something that really pisses me off. Once summer comes and the hordes descend most of the popular marks in Donegal resemble a flaming rubbish dump. Teelin Rocks, St. John's and Fanad Light in particular, the last time I fished Fanad I nearly was physically sick at the shite and rubbish that was strewn about the rock...beer cans, line, frozen bait wrappers, vermiculite, surgical gloves. Last year fishing a mark that involves a good hour to walk into it became obvious from the beer cans that it had recently been visited - now what kind of moron would throw rubbish at their arse in such a remote unspoilt venue? What can you do to stop it? The likes of Sea Angler have shown no leadership on this issue and really should be pushing the no littering ethos in their mag. Rant over.

Pete

At Fanad in June last year , I gathered up enough fishing related rubbish to fill two black bin bags


Andy

So it was you who stole all of our gear :lol: :lol: and it wasn't rubbish!

Tom :)

all great stuff about the leaving of litter. Dont know if anyone else has noticed, but I find that in the summer months especially when hordes of families are out for the mackerel, than thats when you see piles of crap left behind and most of the time its the dads showing the kids how to catch fish. Nothing wrong in that at all, but as soon as the kid messes up and gets a birds nest along comes dad and cuts the line off and its left to blow in the wind. Not only is it a mess but the damage to the bird life is enormous. "Why cant we all be perfect." If only.

Fair play to you Andy. :) Theres not many that would.

I think the 'work' that anglers do is vastly under-rated and definitely totally unrecognised in this country. It's a crying shame. We clean up the litter, highlight pollution, report illegal fishing, practice conservation, contribute who knows how much to the economy and what do we get for it? Ignored, that's what.

At least in Australia, they have a plan...

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/AbFi ... x.php?0007

With enough campaigning here, someday we might get this lucky.

I still think a beach cleanup would be a good idea ... one for north south east and west
inform local papers etc

Andy

I'd be happy to lend a hand with this sort of initiative. However, I feel that a beach genocide of the morons who litter the place would be a more permanent solution. If anyone would care to drop off all the commercial fishing detrius at the department of the marine, I'd be most grateful.

Couldnt say better myself.

I fish the ebro in spain a lot and you would never see rubish. it seems we all belong to a throw away society.

In spain they would never think about droping cans and never line as animals (birds) eat it.

Worst about this is all or 99% that read this would not do this. But few that do run the risk for all. as said above tree dwellers would use anything to get at another country pursuit. and those that do will be left saying i told you they would when they are to blame but then it be to late.

I think the distinction between respnosible anglers and morons with rods who have no repect for the environment is going to have to be clarified to head off the certainty that some over-zealous group is going to try in the future to but the brakes on angling.

To that end, I think every angler should be in a club with recognised affiliation and to join you have to sign up to not littering, slaughtering fish and other environmentally-unfriendly behaviour. Any member caught trangressing should be banned from all clubs nationally.

Of course, this is another layer of red tape in what should be a simple sport - cast, retrieve, (hopefully) release fish. But if we can say as a group that registered, affiliated anglers are not the problem as regards littering, any interest group trying to ban angling will then not have such an easy time throwing out blanket ststements that all who fish are litter louts, etc. It'd make their job a lot harder.....

Once again, it comes down to anglers getting organised.......

Sermon over, must go earn a few squid.....

and lads, when throwing line away(IN THE BIN!), make sure you cut it up into bits small enough not to catch Birds and Animals... :D