Elin Jones, the Assembly’s Rural Affairs Minister is proposing to abandon over 100 years of successful inshore fisheries management in favour of WAG doing the job itself. Click Here or Click Here to see the consultation (4th August 2008 deadline) Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) are a network of local management regulators covering the coast of England and Wales. Through the Marine Bill currently proceeding in Westminster, England intends to modernise and beef up its SFCs and call them Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) and will be asking them to take a bigger role in protecting the marine environment. We think WAG should do the same. Click Here to learn about IFCAs In Wales, inshore fisheries are managed by SFCs in the North and South. The Minister proposes bringing those organisations within the Welsh Assembly Government and expanding the influence of the Assembly out into the Irish Sea in an expanded ‘Welsh Fisheries Zone’. Is this a good idea? What could it mean for the coastline of Wales and those who work and play there? At the moment SFCs are made up of elected local Authority councillors to keep an eye on how the money gets spent, and local fishery and environmental experts appointed by WAG for their local knowledge. Who will be making the decisions under WAG’s new regime? How will anyone get a say in how things happen? Will they happen either locally or at all? Has the Assembly actually got all the tools, knowledge and information base to do the job or are we to be left with gaps in which the marine environment could be damaged? Conversely will fishing be stopped? Local government is hardly flush with cash but can the Assembly be relied upon to maintain the service of Officers and Patrol Vessels protecting our coastal waters? What say will you have in how that is spent? Can anyone remember when a service was done better by Central Government? Where will the priorities lie? Fishermen, anglers, tourists and conservationists all have a call on the marine environment. How are the conflicting uses to be resolved? What’s going to happen to your hobby or maybe your job? How much more will you have to pay for it? These are just a few of the questions we need answers to. Make sure your concerns are addressed by responding to Elin’s consultation (by 4th August) and tell her what you think!!! What does the SWSFC think? We think that WAG needs to make a better case for dissolving SFCs and provide answers to a whole range of questions. It has no need to rush the process. In the meantime, IFCAs in Wales afford the more certain outcome. More detail is given below : Draft Minutes (14th August 2008) WAG Review response - 12 September 2008 Draft Minutes (extract) 26th September 2008 Marine Bill Bill clauses (Part 5 Nature conservation Parts 6 & 7 Fisheries) Extract (5pp) of Impact Assessment relating to Welsh Fisheries |
