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Sea Angler Issue 585 On sale June 25 – July 22

It’s time for anglers to stand up and be counted. A new review wants to introduce up to 46 sites in England where angling could be banned because it is being treated as equivalent to trawling, dredging and drilling. This is a flawed suggestion and must be changed. Will anglers be banned from such sites? Well, it is possible if Ministers implement the recommendations of the Benyon Review of Highly Protected Marine Areas, published in June. Of course, there’s no obligation on the Government to accept the review panel’s recommendations in full, so there’s scope to influence the outcome.

The Angling Trust was, as we went to press, working up plans to enable sea anglers to make direct and effective representations to their local MPs in support of our right to continue to fish sustainably and responsibly within the areas threatened with closure. Watch out for news on this.

How has this happened? Well, for starters, the Review Panel did not include any angling representatives nor anyone with detailed knowledge of the sector. Instead it was drawn from a small group of representatives from the marine conservation NGO sector, marine industries, academia and, you’ve guessed, commercial fishing. At the beginning of the process, the Angling Trust requested that the recreational sea angling sector should be represented, but this was refused. Quite rightly, the Trust believes the process was flawed.

The only representations the Trust could make was by attending a scheduled session with the review panel and through written evidence. In its evidence, the Trust highlighted good practice, where, around the world, many marine protected areas are recreational-only zones in acknowledgement of the light impact that rod and line fishing has on fish stocks. Actually, the presence of anglers provides a system of enforcement and monitoring.

Now the Trust will, for the next stage of the process, submit recommendations to Ministers to address the failings in the review.

The report says that activities that could have a damaging effect on habitats or wildlife, including both commercial and recreational fishing, construction and dredging would be banned from the potential new sites. Permitted activities could be vessel transit, scuba diving and kayaking.

With 46 sites identified as potential candidates for new zones covering up to 10 per cent of English seas, anglers might see themselves no longer able to fish in places such as Poole, Langstone and Chichester Harbours in the South; the Dogger Bank, Wash, North Norfolk coast and Blackwater and Crouch Estuaries in the East; Plymouth, Falmouth and the Severn Estuary in the South West and Morecambe Bay in the North West.

Martin Salter, the Trust’s Head of Policy, said: “Excluding sea anglers from Highly Protected Marine Areas is not just unfair, it’s counterproductive.” This point, he told me, was made forcibly on a number of occasions. Because the Trust was not a party to the panel’s discussions and did not see a draft of the report before publication, he’s correct in saying the report is unbalanced and its recommendations in need of challenge. For instance, the Review is silent on the impact on the valuable recreational sector including charter boat operators.

The Trust wants anglers to be fully engaged in the next stage of the process. It will submit recommendations to Ministers to address the failings in what it hopes will become a widely supported marine conservation plan. It’s time to contact your local MPs and tell them that recreational angling should not be banned from any places chosen to be Highly Protected Marine Areas. Look out for the advice on doing this.