THE NEED FOR SIGNAGE

Mark West, by email I had a recent fishing session at Scarborough harbour wall on Marine Drive. It was the first time I had been to the venue, after my mate who lives in the area suggested it might be an easy place to try out.

We were both a bit sickened when several people who were fishing there proceeded to put their catches into bags, but they were taking everything they caught, no matter the size or species.

We started to catch a few fish and deliberately checked the size to make it obvious that size matters in this context. Given that they had knives for gutting their catches, it had all the makings of a potential incident, so neither of us felt like trying to enforce or explain the rules to them. After about an hour or so, we left.

The only sign related to fishing was that, if there was any chance of the lines becoming snagged, anglers should reel in their lines when a boat was coming into the harbour. It made me think that every public fishing location like this should have a sign with legal sizes on it. A simple sign could help prevent ignorant people from taking undersized fish in such locations.

I am sure the local councils all around the coast could apply this sort of signage, and the effort (and their cost) would be compensated by increased use of car parks and more visitors who want to fish a good, easy-to-access place.