[Sam-Cox]

(Don’t let them charge us for the commercial fishermen’s sloppy seconds)
I will keep this short and sweet to avoid boring you.
Why should sea anglers have to pay a license or have a strategy (that could find them bound up in restrictions) forced on them?
The commercial fleet have been so badly managed over the past 35 years and stocks of a lot of species have declined so much that most sea anglers don’t get to see a good days fishing. Issues such as bag limits, no take zones and dictating of the methods chosen by anglers could be imposed on them once a strategy is in place. These would not be accepted by sea anglers as it was the commercial fleet that have ruined our sport.We feel that without more and bigger fish it would be grossly unfair to impose a strategy or make sea anglers pay a license without first producing more and bigger fish.
Please take a few minutes to read my e- petition on the Number 10 Downing Street website. The link is below.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/seaanglerlisence/
If you agree then please sign.
Thank you for taking the time to read my petition.
Regards...Sam Cox

 

[richard031073]

it is total crap just another way of getting money out of persons that get the most fun out off the sport.


tony blair get lost :notworthy

 

[Guest]

Here we go again :yucky: :uhuh:

 

[Sam-Cox]

Look you removed it the first time, and I unerstand why as I put it all over your forums. I did this because I thought more people would see it.
Now my petition has 150 sigs and I would like some more so please do not remove it!

 

[Guest]

Look you removed it the first time, and I unerstand why as I put it all over your forums. I did this because I thought more people would see it.
Now my petition has 150 sigs and I would like some more so please do not remove it!

I will not remove it all the time it it stays on topic and does not get out of hand. My personal feeling is that maybe if we had to have a licence it would put us on a level playing field with the commercials and we would be equally entitled to have our say. As long as any money raised goes back into improving the fishing for us and future generations, if it is just used as another form of taxation then I would be against it.

 

[TOM PARKER]

Fresh water fishing is licensed so why not Sea Fishing?

 

[slayer]

I will not remove it all the time it it stays on topic and does not get out of hand. My personal feeling is that maybe if we had to have a licence it would put us on a level playing field with the commercials and we would be equally entitled to have our say. As long as any money raised goes back into improving the fishing for us and future generations, if it is just used as another form of taxation then I would be against it.

Most of the money will be used to shift shingle to back where it washed of from, The Ea already are doing this at dungie and selsey seaford, pevensey bay and many more beaches im sure
I will not be signing the petition as i am not botherd if i have to pay£20/30 a year to fish, The EA do a good job and if they would like to charge me for a rod licence they are more then welcome,
Any one grumbling over a licence fee need to get real ,it aint a big deal and its not alot of money, Also the work the EA do is doing us all a faver ,
I pay for a freash water rod licence every year , some years i dont even cast a rod into fresh water but still find the little money they ask easy enough, this year i will be buying a seatrout/salmon rod licence for about £65 just incase i want to fish for a seatrout,
money spent on licences dose go back into the sport and helps provide a beter fishing enviroment for us all, and hopefuly a few more fish to!!
Count yourself lucky its been free for all these years!!!

 

[Maywood]

Most of the money will be used to shift shingle to back where it washed of from, The Ea already are doing this at dungie and selsey seaford, pevensey bay and many more beaches im sure
I will not be signing the petition as i am not botherd if i have to pay£20/30 a year to fish, The EA do a good job and if they would like to charge me for a rod licence they are more then welcome,
Any one grumbling over a licence fee need to get real ,it aint a big deal and its not alot of money, Also the work the EA do is doing us all a faver ,
I pay for a freash water rod licence every year , some years i dont even cast a rod into fresh water but still find the little money they ask easy enough, this year i will be buying a seatrout/salmon rod licence for about £65 just incase i want to fish for a seatrout,
money spent on licences dose go back into the sport and helps provide a beter fishing enviroment for us all, and hopefuly a few more fish to!!
Count yourself lucky its been free for all these years!!!

Sorry mate but dont you think we pay enough in taxes allready ? and when it comes to sorting out the sea fishing who do you think this government will side with ? dont take the brains of brittan to work out they will side with Europe,were do they shunt all the usless idiots and scallewags, so they aint goina rock the boat Europe

 

[TOM PARKER]

Tax money goes to the government which is not a particulary slick unit and has huge black holes with regards to where the money goes. The EA seems to manage the money they obtain through licensing very well and as a result the angler benefits.

Some sea fishing venues already charge people to fish such as Brighton Marina which is the equivalant of day ticket fresh water fisheries. I wouldn't mind paying a rod licence fee for Sea fishing. If it did happen I would like to see one licence for both fresh water and saline.

The money raised would help to maintain the fishing locations and improve access for all anglers, among other things.

 

[whopper]

Ive got to say im starting to be swayed in regards to idea of a licence for sea fishing. I just think the initial "Jump" into the licencing is too much for people to bear as the trust for this government is real bad. People (and rightly so) feel that any money paid for a sea licence will be put into the Melting Pot which all the other funds go into and then that money will be lost on other things such as, War,developement,roads,quango jobs in parliament etc etc etc.

I think we should perhaps just take the leap of faith and see if it works, but once again the problem lies that once we do this and the money rolls in for the Government they will start lkiving beyond there means again and there will be no chance of us backing out.

Just my thoughts.

 

[lucky]

What I'd like to know is are these car parks they say they're going to build with the money that's raised going to be solely reserved for people with fishing licences to use? After all they're the ones paying for them! I doubt it - they'll build them with your money, hand them over to one of their mates to run as a private company (with a few poliicians on the board of course) and let anyone who can afford to pay the extortionate parking fee they will charge use them.

Same happened when they first put parking meters in central London several decades ago. The justification for it at the time was that money generated was going to be used for inner city public car parks.

All the public ended up with was a private company called NPC whose car parks cost an arm and a leg to park in.

 

[NickInTheNorth]

Please folks read what the strategy document says.

To be brief it says that there should be more and better fish for the Recreational Sea Angling Sector to catch. So if we can actually get the government to write that into a policy document what is the problem with it?

Don't we want to see more and better fish?

Pick your fights carefully. Licences? Well no, I don't really want to see sea fishing licences, and I am quite happy to campaign against them. But why don't we get smart.

Please read the following carefully.

Give the government what they want. Write to our MP's to DEFRA, MEP's etc and demand a sea fishing licence.

BUT and this is were we are being clever, demand that they only bring in a licence system when they can prove a demonstrable benefit to RSA has been achieved through measure contained within the Strategy Document. Which in effect is what the discussion document says anyway.

Is there honestly anyone here that would not accept (even reluctantly) a Sea Fishing Licence if the sea fishing around the UK was something more like it should be? To my mind being able to go fishing and expect to make a decent catch of fish (either size or number) would be well worth £20 per year.

In the UK we are very very good a shouting "never" to whatever proposal we don't like. What we are not very good at doing is striving for the middle ground. Proper negotiating involves compromise. And within the RSA Strategy there is a lot of good compromise available. Let's stop the confrontational stuff. Let's learn to negotiate from a position of strength.

Tell the government to give us all what we really want - better fishing!

Then give them what they want - a measly £20 a year in return for the fishing we would all like to see.

But let us not compromise on what we want - make sure we demand what we really want in terms of the "fishing experince". (And don't forget, we are going to get the licence whether we want it or not, so lets get it with all the benfits rather than with none.)

 

[lucky]

a measly £20 a year in return for the fishing we would all like to see.

There is absloutely no guarantee whatsoever that this will be the outcome.

(And don't forget, we are going to get the licence whether we want it or not, so lets get it with all the benfits rather than with none.)

How do you arrive at this conclusion? The government admitted itself in its own Whitepaper about a year ago that there was absolutely no justification for the introduction of a sea fishing licence.

Nothing has occured since then that changes that situation.

 

[NickInTheNorth]

Hey lucky, try reading and thinking about all that I wrote, not the Sun Headline version.

But please tell me if we got the fishing we would all like would you object to paying £20 per year?

Since when did the Government need justification for anything?

 

[jackson]

Licensing might not be a bad thing, but as has been rightly pointed out, the benefits of this will only be real to your average fisherman if a number of criteria are met by such a Strategy Document. We would need improvements and developments outlined and agreed before anything progresses to be confident that things can change.

I for one would like to licensing shape the way for greater protection over our waters, increasing the restrictions on catches from not only our home fleet but other European nations who enjoy the fruits of our fertiles seas.

Licensing would work to unite fisherman as one voice, and give us more strength than as individuals who sporadically get on our soapboxes with little effect. One larger body, saying the same things, will have more control and influence.

One other thing would be to pay our licenses to the commercial fleets on the proviso they don't go out and fish. EVER AGAIN. This way they don't have to winge about being out of business and out of pocket. and the seas will recover naturally. OK, fish will have to be imported from elsewhere and will be expensive in the supermarket, but who cares? We'll all be catching shed-loads!!

 

[lucky]

Hey lucky, try reading and thinking about all that I wrote, not the Sun Headline version.

Nick I actually don't read the Sun however I did read what you wrote and it appears to me to be nothing more than assumption born out of wishful thinking.

But please tell me if we got the fishing we would all like would you object to paying £20 per year?

Unfortunately the problem is you're not going to get what you want. Overfishing is severely depleting fish stocks. If you read the latest issue of National Geographic you will see a 2004 UN assessment that concludes 41% of the north east Atlantic fish stocks are overfished. By "overfished" they mean stocks currently being caught at an unsustainable rate and those whose catch rates have already plummeted. It also concludes that the Atlantic is the hardest hit ocean on the planet. You forking out your £20 a year is not going to change that.

Since when did the Government need justification for anything

So what makes you think they're going to do anything different just because you paid them a "measly £20"?

 

[NickInTheNorth]

Hi Lucky

I didn't mean to imply that you were a Sun reader, rather that they tend to simply pick one bit of a story and ignore the actual details. Sorry for any offence.

You seem to suggest that I am saying we accept a licence and then ask for more fish. That simply ain't the case, and that is why I question whether you have actually read what I had written.

The point of what I was saying was that as so often happens many anglers are currently simply saying no way to licences. That of itself I have no problem with - everyone has a right to say what they think is right.

However the suggestion I made is that if we take a slightly more pro-active approach, and positively campaign for licences - but on our terms - we may be able to achieve what we actually want.

More and better fish!

To sum up.

Campaign for more and better fish - and in return accept a licence. But only whan we have more and better fish.

That way we only start to pay after we get the result we want.

On those terms is it a bad deal?

 

[Why Worry Angling Charters]

Maybe the licence should be £200 a year.That way there is enough in the pot to pay for more commercial decommisioning.After all,this is what the majority of anglers are calling for....Less commercial activity.The problem is,this all comes at a cost that someone has to pay for.
In the scale of things,£200 is not a lot,much the same as a TV licence.

Ron

 

[alan t]

Most of the money will be used to shift shingle to back where it washed of from, The Ea already are doing this at dungie and selsey seaford, pevensey bay and many more beaches im sure
I will not be signing the petition as i am not botherd if i have to pay£20/30 a year to fish, The EA do a good job and if they would like to charge me for a rod licence they are more then welcome,
Any one grumbling over a licence fee need to get real ,it aint a big deal and its not alot of money, Also the work the EA do is doing us all a faver ,
I pay for a freash water rod licence every year , some years i dont even cast a rod into fresh water but still find the little money they ask easy enough, this year i will be buying a seatrout/salmon rod licence for about £65 just incase i want to fish for a seatrout,
money spent on licences dose go back into the sport and helps provide a beter fishing enviroment for us all, and hopefuly a few more fish to!!
Count yourself lucky its been free for all these years!!!

I agree with Slayer .

Alan

 

[thornbackflounder]

Well ive signed it the greedy barstads ,aint getting anymore of my hard earnt dosh,,even out of principal,,,,,,,,can t see it doing ANY GOOD FOR US ,,,humble fisherman enjoying a spot of leaisure