Sandman wrote:However, it'd be nice if there was even a token reference to the rest of the population who have every bit as much right to the same fish stocks. Not a share of those stocks - the whole stock. It's an important distinction.
Then you'll be interested in the letter we sent yesterday (attached to an email) to Joe Borg, the EU Fisheries Minister (at
joe.borg@cec.eu.int if anyone else wants to join in :) )
(Jo Borg's speech in full is at [url]http://europa.eu.int/comm/fisheries/news_corner/discours/speech72_en.htm[/url] )
Dr Joe Borg
Directorate-General for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs
Dear Doctor Borg,
We often read your statements with great interest, and the speech that you delivered on the 13th of July, 2005 was read with the usual interest, especially the following:
Statement at the Conference “Sea our future: the regional approach to an integrated European Maritime Policy”
"What we have in mind is a broader and more comprehensive goal: our goal is to contribute to the well-being of Europeans, both present and future. As I have said at the outset, people are at the heart of this policy. Their welfare, and the ability to make sustainable use of the oceans and seas’ resources for their benefit, is the final goal of our efforts. Improving our economic development and preserving the environment are some of the means that we foresee to achieve that goal - means that are, in themselves, undoubtedly worthy of the highest praise and most vigilant efforts.
In so far as the economy is concerned, our oceans and seas offer clear potential for growth, namely in sectors such as tourism, fish farming and sea ranching.”
Whilst heartened that your department’s interest has expanded beyond the traditional pre-occupation with the commercial fishing industry, and that relatively small part of the European population engaged in fisheries, we are concerned that, whilst ‘tourism’ is mentioned, there is no mention of the very important Recreational Sea Angling Sector.
In the UK, a number of studies have shown that, although the sectors are not directly comparable, the economic importance of the Recreational Sea Angling (RSA) sector rivals, if not exceeds, the economic importance of commercial fishing, especially inshore commercial fishing, where resources are often shared by the sectors, yet the shared resources are usually managed only for the benefit of the commercial sector, often to the detriment of the development potential of the RSA sector, even though the socio-economic return from development of RSA would be of much greater socio-economic worth to many coastal communities.
Perhaps, for too long RSA has been overlooked because of an image that angling is an enjoyment of just a few people, whereas the UK studies suggest that there is a vast number of people involved in Recreational Sea Angling, generating many thousands of jobs. (And one must remember that these studies have been undertaken at a time when the quality of the angling product (big fish, lots of fish) has been seriously degraded).
The experience from outside of Europe demonstrates that when the ‘angling product’ is purposefully developed, the growth potential is immense.
Unfortunately, the overseas statistics also include the time and money spent by European anglers seeking the experience of Recreational Sea Angling ‘as it used to be’, in foreign waters, whilst the potential to not only satisfy the demand for a better angling experience within Europe would mean that much of that spend would be retained within the European community, but there are wonderful places here that would attract many anglers from overseas, if there was a better angling product on offer!
Dr Borg, it would hearten us more to hear more frequent references to the Recreational Angling Sector in your speeches and to see that your department understands the huge potential for development of the environmentally friendly and socially important RSA sector, developing practical policies that would make good use of the potential for development of the sector for the benefit of the people and the economy of the European Union.
Yours sincerely,
Leon Roskilly
Sea Anglers’ Conservation Network (SACN)
http://www.anglers-net.co.uk/sacn