Conservation Officer- Annual Report 2013-14

[charlieannear]

For the AGM, held 03/04/2014.

 

Marine Conservation, for me at least, is decreasingly about ‘nature studies’ or very the local issues affecting ‘our waters’ or ‘our fish’ and increasingly about being aware of the international factors which are or will be detrimental to our sport.

Globally the last 12 months has seen a huge increase in awareness of and measures to counteract a whole range of these factors, and the internet has been key in this. There is a lot to sort through!

Locally the SIFCA have had their resources and their powers increased, and are working on multi-agency operations with the Police and the MMO, so I would hope that we will begin to see some of the benefits, such as an increased focus on illegal fishing (rather than just shellfish collection) in Poole Harbour, the huge amount of netting in the harbour and close inshore and how they intend to protect the nearby MCZ’s.

 

Our angling, or rather fish populations are under a lot of pressures, globally, from issues such as:

• Overfishing and unsustainable/destructive methods
  • Factory ships, such as the Chinese fishing vessels- Disproportional catches
  • Reallocation of Quotas- Big boats to small boats
  • EU Legislation boat scrappage and subsidies for new kit
  • CFP Reform including the discard ban
• Illegal Fishing
  • ‘Pirate’ fishing
  • Fishing unlicensed in territorial waters
  • Fishing in marine reserves
  • Catching protected species
  • Catching over quota and/or outside of regs
  • Tuna- Direct action by ports in Africa
• Climate change, Ocean warming, ocean acidification and pollution (including plastics)
  • Beach cleans. Big increase in public awareness due to the winter storms.
  • Chinese lanterns.  Public support for a ban increasing.
  • More publicity due to huge fire at plastics recycling plant
  • Economic benefits to manufacturers of not releasing plastics into sea
  • Recycling and salvage
• Other Commercial Activity
  • Marine Wind Farms
  • Sea Bed Mining
  • Dredging
  • Coastal Erosion Protection
  • Go Australia! Dumping dredging sediment on the Great Barrier Reef.
• Economic value of recreational use of fish stocks (and catch and release)
  • Sea Angling 2012

 

What we require is

• Marine Biodiversity
  • Species interdependency
  • Ecosystem balance
  • Species protection
    • Sharks and Rays.
    • Shark Finning, Go Australia! Western Australia Shark cull
    • Forage fish.  Protection for species that are lower down the food pyramid
  • MPA’s & MCZ’s
  • MLS

I am following the following organisations (in no particular order):

• Blue Marine Foundation
• SIFCA (Southern Inshore Conservation Authority) (www.southern-ifca.gov.uk)
• Dorset Wildlife Trust (http://www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/)
• DEFRA/DEFRA Fisheries/DEFRA Regulations/DEFRA Nature (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs)
• CITES (http://cites.org/)
• CEFAS (cefas.defra.gov.uk )
• The Shark Trust (sharktrust.org):
• Lyme Bay (http://www.lymebayreserve.co.uk/)
• Fish2Fork (http://www.fish2fork.com/home/news-index.aspx)
• The Black Fish (http://www.theblackfish.org)
• Oceana (http://oceana.org/en/eu/home)
• CFP Reform Watch (http://cfp-reformwatch.eu/)
• FishSec. The Fisheries Secretariat (FISH). (fishsec.org )
• Marine Management Organisation (MMO) (http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/news/index.htm)
• Hugh’s Fishfight (http://www.fishfight.net/)
• NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) (http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/)
• GOC (Global Ocean Commission) (http://www.globaloceancommission.org/)
• Pew Charitable Trusts (http://www.pewenvironment.org/)
• Angling Trust (http://www.anglingtrust.net/)
• Wessex Angling Trust
• FCF (Fisheries Conservation Foundation) (http://www.fishconserve.org/)
• MRC (Marine Reserves Coalition) (http://www.marinereservescoalition.org/)
• MCS (Marine Conservation Society) (http://www.mcsuk.org/)
• Maria Damanaki (EU Commissioner responsible for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries)
• B.A.S.S (http://www.ukbass.com/news/)
• BBC News
• The Daily Echo
• The Guardian
• Lots of other newspapers

[niggle]

Well done Charlie, it's great that we have you to keep us up to date