Have YOU supported the: Stop Salmon Drift nets NOW campaign?

Just to get a feel of how many of us are prepared to take a little time to contribute to the Stop Salmon Drift nets NOW campaign, I'm putting up this poll as a head count.

If you go to the link: http://www.stopnow.ie/help.html
There are a few suggestions as to what can be done to help, these are (Most useful ones in bold):

Email the Minister for the Marine: Noel Dempsey (I did this but got a mail from his secretary saying that it's Pat "the Cope" Gallaghers remit and she is forwarding my mail to him. So that was a bit of a waste of time)

Email Minister of state for the Marine Pat "the Cope" Gallagher. Some points to make: State that you are against his stance on the refusal to buy out Salmon netters and that you disagree with his decision to ignore scientific advice regarding the quantity of net caught salmon. No harm to mention that he is acting more on behalf of his constituents than on the behalf of the people of Ireland as a whole which he should be doing as a minister. State that salmon netting should stop now. Add any other points you want but stick to proven facts.

Email the Minister for Tourism:
Some points you can make: Pat "the Cope" Gallaghers policy has the potential to destroy Salmon angling tourism which directly and indirectly employs thousands. We are the only north atlantic country still carrying out this practice, Salmon angling in other countries is going to surpass Ireland making us a less attractive salmon angling location. State that salmon netting should stop now. Again add any other points you want but stick to proven facts.

Make a donation, you can make a minimum donation of €10 via paypal.

Print their posters and ask local shops to display them.

Pat the cope must be getting worried, 2 emails so far from members of this group?? :?: :?: :evil: :evil: I hope this poll isn't indicitave of the action taken by members of this fourm, but I fear if you don't take the time to tick a box as above then you certainly won't bother your barney sending a mail to a smug minister who thinks he can help out his own salmon netting pals while wrecking recreational angling for the rest of us.

Get emailing, I did, I haven't gotten a response, but I don't care, I'll keep emailing him anyway, same goes for the minister for tourism. :lol:

And if you did allready, tick the box above. If there isn't a good response to this then we as a group are going to be pretty ineffective when it comes to getting other issues raised which effect sea angling, and remember if you've done nothing because you don't think it's relevant to sea angling then you're taking a very selfish attitude. If we want to campaign to get measures in place to improve sea angling then we will be relying on support from other groups which are involved in this campaign.

Support this campaign now.

sent mine this morning. it's the very least any one on this forum should do. it's complete and utter laziness on peoples parts if they can't take 10 minutes to compose a few lines, and sign their names to it. typical though

Patrick

Just the kick in the arse I needed frodo :oops:

sent mine

There is a guide to writing an effective letter, authored by Leon, available at http://anglersnet.co.uk/sacn/letter.htm

If you haven't yet read it, I recommend you do so before you begin writing your letter. Ranting like a maniac will get you classed as a fool and your letter consigned to the bin sharpish.

On the other hand, if you jot down your major points first, think about who the letter is aimed at and plan it out a bit, select and check the facts and figures you want to use to illustrate your points, you may even come off as rational, persuasive and well informed.

Oh, one last thing, use the speelcheeker.... :lol:

four.....now we're getting somewhere.......it's not that bloody hard, and it's really starting to p**s me off. it's not as if you're being asked to try and change the world. i don't want to be starting any arguements or offending people, but this is a subject where we might actually get somewhere. we're not dealing with international problems, it's simply emailing a minister, and applying a bit of pressure.a couple of emails arriving in his inbox on a daily basis will eventually spur a response, but four? what the hell will that do? once you've written your original email, all you need do is save it, and continually send it til you get a reply of some sort. it couldn't be simpler. go on do it

Before frodo goes postal, I'm working to get a draft letter written that we can all cut and paste from, use as is, use as a template, or whatever. You are all free to write your own, if you want. I'm not trying to write some sort of party line here.

I'm hoping having some document to work from will make it maybe that little bit easier to get started on a letter writing campaign. I'll get it posted somewhere soon so it's available to all.

It'd be the easiest thing in the world for me to programmatically spam any email address or addresses with any number of emails, all appearing to come from different e-mail addresses, different people, different messages even. They'd even hold up to scrutiny until somebody really went to town on the mail headers.

But then I'd just be an annoying spammer and anything I sent would be treated as spam, and as we all know the only ones who like spam are carp anglers and folk who've got mortgages in Dublin. :wink:

Like frodo says, once you write a letter, save a copy - or have a few different letters - mail off a couple a week - every week. As soon as you get a response, write a nice reply, thanking them for their time. But keep after them. Keep writing, ask if they have discussed the issue, raised it in the Dail, etc. If all it took for a politician to get people off their back was to merely acknowledge them, they'd have mastered that trick long ago.

Persistence is the name of the game.

"But then I'd just be an annoying spammer and anything I sent would be treated as spam, and as we all know the only ones who like spam are carp anglers and folk who've got mortgages in Dublin. "


oooh them sounds like fightin' words!!!! i was going to suggest drawing up a draft letter, perhaps i can be of some help to you sandman?not that i have a particularly good grasp of the english language, but i'm well up for getting stuck into this one. i can't help but feel that this could be the start of something here. maybe tis just my innocence, but this forum is by far the most popular site used by irish anglers, and through it proper and well planned lobbying of drift netting could actually come about, with actual results, rather than just the brick wall we have faced til now.

Patrick

A draft letter or rough template that could be adjusted to the individual would be a great help. It is hard to know where to start and how to structure the letter when there is a lot of new information to take in - it takes me time to internalise and understand the issues.

I know nothing to very little about salmon or even the drift net issue but I support any attempt to stop any over eploitation to the point of extinction of any fish but being truthfulI won't be sending any Email as it has little or no effect as far as I can see on my fishing and I can't complain about something that has no effect on me.

I would suspect this is the reason many others haven't responded to the poll or will and slagging others off for not being as passionate about this issue as you are won't inspire them to do so.

IDonagh

I would comend wholeheartedly any campain to rid the sea of the curse of these gill nets, and contrary to what has been said these netters cause untold damege not only to salmon stocks but bass are also often caught, therefore there is a detrimental effect on anglers whether its freshwater or sea angling and therefore i agree with drawing up draft letters and keeping pressure on goverments to acknowledge the knock on effect to the tourism industry etc, furthermore my belief is that in the long term when salmon stocks have all but been distroyed then the illegal gillnetters will use even smaller type nets to line their back pockets by catching smaller species so ultimately there is a moral responsiblility on all anglers sea or freshwater to lobby at the highest level possible to ensure that the leisure activity most of us cherish is preserved as best as it possilbly can
I shall certainly be adding my support to this topic as will the members of my club.

Good man, Stuart. It's all about spreading the word and making people aware of the issues that threaten the future of angling, and there can be no worse threat than not having fish in the future.

Claiming to be an angler but unaware of the issues is a poor defence for not taking part. The internet is full of stuff. Anglers the world over are all against their fish stocks being plundered by the commercial sector with no regard to the future. The fact that this conservation forum is only a week or so old but has so many posts and views should point out that this is an important issue to the vast majority of anglers. I doubt they surf in just to see my latest rant. :lol:

Contrary to the opinion of some people, as we have seen in the UK, anglers can get to the table and can be a voice for change that cannot be ignored due to the sheer numbers involved in the sport.

We may feel that a couple of letters or emails from us can make no difference in the grand scheme of things. To those who feel this way, consider that the politicians who make policy today were elected yesterday on a one-man one-vote system. Let me assure you, come election time, they consider every single vote priceless.

On the principle of many hands make light work, if we all keep writing together, day in, day out, notice will be taken. It may take time and seem very slow and depressing, but we will get there.

Look on the bright side. There is only an election every few years, so you get very few chances to vote. You can write to your elected representatives as many times as you like every day of the year. And you don't have to be over 18 to do it!

But the next time there is an election and your local politician comes looking for your vote, well, you know what to ask about. Make sure you point out that your work colleagues, fellow anglers, family etc all know the score and that they and their party will forfeit your support if they are not seen to be actively promoting angling interests at the highest levels of government.

Some very good advice there, definatly dont think your ranting and its nice to hear optimism rather than negitivity, you speak truly about when the time comes for the local elections the politicians and councillors will listen when it comes to securing a vote, I believe you have to lobby and lobby hard with a solid voice that will not fall on deaf ears, an angler who simply lies back and believes that this issue does not have an effect on their fishing is naive in non approach and it doesnt take and english literary genius to compile a few points of matter of fact for these so called politicians who are supposedly looking after our welfare in the waters of Ireland. Here in the north competitions on the causway coast have suffered immensly, due to the salmon fishing ( gillnetting & longlining) however since recent quotas have been implemented skips full of undersized flatfish and other species seem to be a thing of the past, I think that now it appears to be more viable for these boats to claim subsidy for loss of notional earnings rather than to drop their nets close to shore during the summer months around areas like benone strand , the proof of success will be hopefully reflected in this years competition returns in the same area : :)

Agree wholeheartedly with all thats said above.
One question though, which politico do we target in Northern Ireland?
As Salmon are a common resource, and gill netting affects all the British Isles, should we all not mail the relevant politicos North, South and mainland?

Bill

We've had 8 different members add messages to this thread but there have only been 5 mails sent to ministers :?: :?: :evil: . As has been pointed out, there's is no need to get carried away when you sent your mail, make the point that you disagree with what is happening and sign your name.
Have a look at the messages under the stickey above, if the letter from Patrick (Posted by Leon) doesn't open your eyes nothing will, I posted the letter that I sent to Pat O' Donoghue there as well, keep it brief, get to the point, express your disapproval and sign it. it won't take you any longer than it took to post a message here.

And as Frodo said resend it again as many times as it takes to get a reply.

Bigbill,

Sorry I missed your post before I posted the last message. Basically I would encourage you to email the Pat the cope (Minister for the Marine) and Minister O' Donoghue (Tourism) down here. The Irish Government are the only ones in Europe who haven't stopped driftnetting, so I would assume that there isn't any happening off the coast of Antrim and Down, However due to Donegals proximity to Derry I would reckon it would be causing as much of a problem in the Roe river (for example) as any down here, drift netting off the Irish coast doesn't just catch salmon returning to Irish rivers but all of Europe due to it's location.

The Irish Government is the problem, anyone in Europe with concerns should email their MEP or email Pat the cope (Minister for the Marine) and Minister O' Donoghue (Tourism).

The more mails the better.

stickified..
(and yes - I will write a letter to my MEP's and TD's - both Dublin and Wexford)
jd

OK Done my bit now., from a tourist point of view, email sent to John O'Donoghue, TD, and copied to Pat Gallager and Taoiseach's Office, Dept of Economic Policy. FWIW extract below:-

Ireland is very much respected by the angling fraternity in the UK for the ban on bass fishing (even though it is poorly monitored).

Ireland certainly isn't respected for being the only Atlantic Ocean country to allow drift netting for salmon. The rest of Europe suffers from that extraordinary situation.

My question to you is simple. Does the Irish government think there is more value in your netting industry (propped up with subsidies) than in your angling industry (which props up your tourist industry, amongst others)?

Will let you know if I get a response.
Tim

just want to apologise, didn't mean for any of my posts to slag people. that wasn't the intention. sorry i'm not the most pc at times..........
just wondering, has anyone heard anything back yet? i'm waiting til wednesday to resend mine.

Patrick

Right, I've sent mails to all and sundry in government about this and did the paypal thing. ?10 well spent if it results in an end to drift netting.

If you do nothing else, send an e-mail or three as suggested at:-

http://www.stopnow.ie/help.html

It'll cost you nothing! So do it every week. Get your mates, family etc to do likewise. But don't go overboard. There's a fine line between honest campaigning and spamming. :wink: