CA lobster pot petition relaunch
Apetition launched by the Cruising Association to make marking of lobster pots safer is to be relaunched after it was shut down by the Government until after the General Election.
The CA’s petition hit a nerve with the boating public, as not only did the petition receive nearly 6,000 signatures in two weeks, but the CA received hundreds of emails from people in the UK and worldwide telling of their experiences. Not only were boats severely damaged – some unrecoverable – but hundreds of lives were put at risk when their boats became entangled in the lobster pot tethers.
Boating people from as far afield as Nova Scotia, Australia and Scotland contacted the CA about incidents they had suffered. The CA has been working to establish a consensus amongst interested parties, including representatives of fishing organisations as well as the RYA, RNLI and others.
A CA spokesperson said: ‘Many incidents go unreported. We need to demonstrate the scale and cost of the problem.’
The RYA recently launched a reporting form which aims to bring all the necessary information together.
The CA asks all supporting its campaign to: n Report incidents to the CA at: www.theca.org.uk and the RYA at: www.rya.org.uk/go/ entanglements. n Sign the petition once it is live again as previous votes can’t be carried over. n Tell your friends, family and club members about it. n Visit the CA stand, J419, at the Southampton Boat Show. For more Southampton Boat Show news, check out our show preview, from page 76.