Possible New Fishing Law for the Canaries - Voice your Opinions

[EL INGLES]

The goverment in the canaries are trying to pass a new law which :
only lets you fish with one rod
only from sun up to sun down
no live or dead bait
and you can only fish on thursdays and sundays !!!

Friends of mine are collecting signatures, when i get back there i want to create a cause page on facebook or something. So we can get votes etc.
we can NOT let this law be passed !!

[Aram]

Originally Posted by EL INGLES

The goverment in the canaries are trying to pass a new law which :
only lets you fish with one rod
only from sun up to sun down
no live or dead bait
and you can only fish on thursdays and sundays !!!

Friends of mine are collecting signatures, when i get back there i want to create a cause page on facebook or something. So we can get votes etc.
we can NOT let this law be passed !!

Jason, you & I know that it has no chance in hell of passing, especially as it's being "suggested" to be across the board for all (charters, privates, shore and given that we also know the locals stance) and given that we already have one of the fairest laws & restrictions in Europe (licence requirements, Bag limits combined with MLS, restrictions on number of hooks per rod, special licence for trolling etc....although some of the MLSs are a joke & we've already told them that it's things like that which need addressing first! Not to mention the stricter enforcement of the licence, bag limit & MLSs first!! Fines for littering too!!!). Not going to speak for the other islands but it already serves us well in Fuerteventura (personally I'm finding no shortage of fish for dinner as & when I get a chance to fish....same for most of my locals who know what they're doing & fish conscientiously!)

My own petition (with the help of three quarters of the local police force) is 300+ signatures strong already. The local police are almost twitching to reach for their pistols when the debate gets a little heated Absolutely no chance, as the lads have random days off from duty & there's no way they will accept set days in the week for their fishing. Besides, Fuerteventura? what happens if the wind is up on a Thursday....and Sunday is their family day (if they have it off!).....wait another week....or two....three? NO CHANCE IN HELL! With income from tourism down at least 30% too....the words foot, shoot, the, in, yourself spring to mind.

I'm not gonna talk about the commercials point of view in last Wednesdays meeting

I think we need to keep cool as it's all provisional talk at the moment. Needless to say, if you want to coordinate some kind of 'Islands Union'....you know you can rely on our support from Fuerteventura, if it ever comes to it

Regards,
Aram

[woodsy]

i visit the canaries three times a year, have done fore the last 12 years, spend on average 2000£ each visit.
if these laws come in and i am in the least worried about being held to account i will not visit, me and lots of others.

[STAN M]

Never been to the Canaries for 30 plus years but going to annoy Aram in January for 3 weeks. I go overseas elsewhere a fair bit and detest the touristy stuff, I go to fish, fish and then fish, nothing else.

If such a law was brought in to any country I simply would not visit and I spend a lot of pennies / euros / dollars when I go in the local economy.

Cant see it affecting me in January but the reason for posting is to give you guys over there more ammo for your discussions, many anglers will simply not go to any country given those sort of ridiculous rules. Feel free to C & P for your petitions

[Aram]

Originally Posted by woodsy

i visit the canaries three times a year, have done fore the last 12 years, spend on average 2000£ each visit.
if these laws come in and i am in the least worried about being held to account i will not visit, me and lots of others.

Woodsy, like I said, we need to stay cool. It's just talk at the moment and the islands are, after all, Spain....and even supported laws don't get passed in the greatest hurry.

Saying that however, I do appreciate your feedback and if it ever comes to it, it's bound to help the cause, rather then hinder it.

So keep the comments coming (all regular visitors OR people who are tempted to try a holiday to one of the islands) as it's bound to serve as further ammunition (on top of the point of view of the locals)

When it comes to the crunch it would take a simple "print" of this thread to present, or better still for Mike Thrussell Jr, a link to the thread on this wonderful website of his , submitted to the powers to be, for them to see for themselves

I actually since thought of asking one of the Admin on here (Mike himself or Rob or Terry) of the possibility of setting up a poll, to get the view from visitors to the Islands. Then again I don't think polls have that "human" impact behind them (regardless of the number crunchers love affair with them). You can't beat words, IMO, it represents peoples reasonings so much better.

So I might ask one of the guys about the possibility of making this "Sticky"? Probably a better title would be "Possible New Fishing Law for the Canaries - Voice your Opinions"

I'll get onto it next.

ATB
Aram

[Patudo]

I remember some guy who fished El Hierro was saying in another thread that the charters there were only allowed to go out two days per week or something like that... I thought that couldn't be right for the whole Canaries since the boats in Gran Canaria must go out nearly every day?

If the law does go through Jason, I'll still spend a few days with you tuna/marlin watching. If you don't have a hook in the water you can't be fishing!

[moruntess]

Is December 10th in Spain some sort of 1st April over here ??? Surely you are having a laugh.Just as well I have`nt paid for my flights yet.

[PanamaJack]

Originally Posted by Aram

....So keep the comments coming (all regular visitors OR people who are tempted to try a holiday to one of the islands) as it's bound to serve as further ammunition (on top of the point of view of the locals)

When it comes to the crunch it would take a simple "print" of this thread to present, or better still for Mike Thrussell Jr, a link to the thread on this wonderful website of his , submitted to the powers to be, for them to see for themselves

I actually since thought of asking one of the Admin on here (Mike himself or Rob or Terry) of the possibility of setting up a poll, to get the view from visitors to the Islands. Then again I don't think polls have that "human" impact behind them (regardless of the number crunchers love affair with them). You can't beat words, IMO, it represents peoples reasonings so much better.

So I might ask one of the guys about the possibility of making this "Sticky"? Probably a better title would be "Possible New Fishing Law for the Canaries - Voice your Opinions"

I'll get onto it next.

ATB
Aram

As a starting point I've gone with Aram's suggestions - changed the title and made it a 'sticky'. (In terms of a possible poll I'll leave that for him to reason through and, if necessary, contact the forum administrators.)

Just a couple of questions for Jason and Aram:

- is there a link to the actual substance of this proposed legislation?

- do the Canaries still have any form of special status within the EU?

- in the UK there's provision to consolidate people's opinion's through an on line poll on the Downing Street web site. Does anything similar exist for Spain or, if they still have special status, the Canaries?

- where's the driving force for this proposed legislation coming from? Just seems odd. From the comments made it would potentially have a significant impact on tourism - the islands 'life blood'.

[Aram]

Originally Posted by PanamaJack

As a starting point I've gone with Aram's suggestions - changed the title and made it a 'sticky'. (In terms of a possible poll I'll leave that for him to reason through and, if necessary, contact the forum administrators.)

Just a couple of questions for Jason and Aram:

- is there a link to the actual substance of this proposed legislation?

- do the Canaries still have any form of special status within the EU?

- in the UK there's provision to consolidate people's opinion's through an on line poll on the Downing Street web site. Does anything similar exist for Spain or, if they still have special status, the Canaries?

- where's the driving force for this proposed legislation coming from? Just seems odd. From the comments made it would potentially have a significant impact on tourism - the islands 'life blood'.

Dave,

First of all thank you for "Sticky'ing" the thread.

To answer your questions:

- Yes & No. Yes as in it's being discussed all over the islands & some of it's active marine websites (here's one example, not sure how useful it's gonna prove to be here in WSF as it's all in Spanish, naturally, but no harm I guess. For those who know Spanish, you can see for yourselves some of the responses already. For those who want bits of it translated then PM me, although I would suggest using a translator as I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get back to you) & No as in still no definitive announcement on the Canarian Government website. Saying that, it's at the "anteproyecto" (preliminary project) stage, as I said earlier and these are normally held very close to chest here! (the cat's out the bag though)

- Tricky. Yes & No. Yes when it suits us & No when it doesn't. So I guess it's exactly how you put it Dave "Special status within the EU". Looks like a Yes on this one though, but strangely enough, Joe Borg visited 3 of the islands 2 weeks ago (not FV though and not a surprise either, we are the peasants of the Canaries after all) & eventually attended round table talks in Lanzarote to discuss "The Green Book"...and the following week we were informed of a "possible" change to our already strict but fair directive '182/2004'. For the sake of the future enjoyment of their LOVE, the Canarians were "tentatively" supportive of things leading up to the 2004 act, which ultimately resulted in the compulsory licence & restricted their catches to 5kg (on the smaller species, like their beloved Parrot Fish or the Breams....or one or two bigger fish (predators, depending whether the first one fell under 5kg or not). Now, they can't help but to think that it was a trick then to further screw them now! This one however, would leave nothing in the way of a complete ban....very soon after....which is why...IT WILL NOT PASS! Once bitten, twice shy.

On the issue of making the licence more accessible to tourists hence contributing a little bit more to the local economy; Personally I approached the Ministry 4 years ago in an attempt to be able to issue first time visitors with temporary licences at a reduced cost (as well as the full licence for frequent visitors), for a fortnight max, from the shop (5 euros....instead of the 13 euro for 3 years). Brilliant I thought, more income from tourism for the Island (ALL proceeds to the ministry) & total peace of mine for the tourists (I did a survey with my customers at the time....most were in favour). Wrong...."Too complicated....send them to the capital". Now who the hell is gonna waste a day of their week long holiday (buses for most) chasing a licence between the ministry & the bank down the road and vice versa...then wait 3 months for the proper licence to arrive? This is why the local police boys do not enforce it with passing tourists (putting aside the language barrier). No excuses for the locals though.

- With regards to where we campaign on-line? (Spain or Canaries?) Not sure but thanks for the idea, I'll do a more thorough browse on the canarian government website (I doubt it though). I'm not sure if Madrid are involved or not but what I do know, is that the Secretary General from the mainland (Juan Carlos Martín Fragueiro) attended the same meeting as Borg (to discuss "other" issues apparently). Worth browsing through to see if Zapatero allows the same facilities as Downing Street. Chances are though he'll turn round & say "Why are you bothering me with this? You lot are autonomous!"

- Who/where is the driving force behind it? Do we ever really know in these kind of situations Dave?

What I will do next though, is post my own point of view on what possible effects this could have on the future of the Islands and WHY IT WILL NOT PASS. Sod it, let it go on record here too!

Aram

[PanamaJack]

Thanks for adding that link - http://www.marcanario.com/noticias/a...estrictiva.php - Aram.

Non-Spanish speakers can utilise Google's on-line translation service, here - http://translate.google.com/#es|en| . Click on the link and then post the url above to get a full, albeit slightly stilted translation. (Whoops, slight problem with the way the forum displays urls! You'll need to first click on the marcanario link above to get the page in Spanish up and then copy the full url link. Then click on 'translate' link and paste the url in. That works!)

I notice as well, from that page, there is a link identifying how people can register their objection through a petition. Aram, is that something you could discuss with them? Perhaps there would be some way of other EU nationals to add signatures on-line?

Then is it perhaps worth contacting, minimally, EFSA - http://www.efsa.co.uk/ - to get them to contact their 10 national bodies (alright Russia and Croatia may not have the same clout) to register their disapproval with the Canarian authorities? There may be other organisations like the IGFA and Angling Trust to also take up the cudgel?