Anglers Accuse European Commission of ‘Fiddling while Rome Burns’
The Angling Trust has reacted with dismay to the European Commission’s latest draft of the Common Fisheries Policy Control Regulations, and in particular the retention of Article 47 which could bring in regulation and unworkable bureaucracy for recreational sea anglers targeting cod. The Trust has lobbied the UK Government and the Fisheries Commissioner himself to call for these measures to be dropped, but the Commission has once again ignored these demands. It is not yet clear exactly how the regulations will be applied in the UK. Until that is publicly clarified, recreational sea anglers remain suspicious that this is the thin end of the wedge for the regulation of angling.
Mike Heylin, Chairman of the Angling Trust said: “we are disappointed that the European countries have again failed to introduce significant change to the common fisheries policy with these latest decisions. Sea angling has not been damaging fish stocks for the last sixty years. It is those who take fish and dump them, dead, back into the sea that have done that.â€
TF_geepster.
