Dorset Coastal Forum Seminar tomorrow.

[Mal Thomas]

I received a phone call today to say two tickets have been handed back in, we were on the top of a cancellation list so it works sometimes.

Both Martin and I will attend on your behalf and report back, DCF said there are a number of fishing related subjects and thought you ought to be there, so that's nice that they at least remember us. It will be good to touch base with some well respected Scientists some of which we are in contact with. It is a long day and a journey, hopefully we can both stay awake that long. I will report back on what we learn. 

[great white]

Well done Mal and Martin

Keeping the Club up there in peoples thoughts and being recognised for our/your efforts

[Rob]

Thanks!

[Mal Thomas]

Here goes, a brief report on today's events. Not sure how brief I can make it, but I will try.

There is a lot going on in our area and Poole Harbour seems to be benefitting from a lot of funding. Not at all jealous being from Christchurch.

Dorset Coastal Forum are a facilitator, an independent group who bring every one together to get projects off the ground.

 

The Moors at Arne Project, "Making Way for the Sea", a 200 hectare site which has taken 15 years to complete. This is an RSPB site re structured to preserve the Natural Coastal Environment and Habitat, inc flood defence work. Neil Watson is the Chief Engineer and in his words "it has taken far to long and cost £44 million. A bit like the M25, it is almost not enough with climate change happening at such a fast rate. Things have changed more quickly in 50 years than they did in hundreds of years previous. 

Look it up if you want more details.

This is a vast improvement of the area and how it now works and provides a great habitat for wild life. I really liked this presentation and the positive vibe it creates.

 

Coastal Engineering and Sea Defences projects were a big part of the day, surprisingly from all different groups, mostly caused by climate change, the environmental impacts of those climate changes and what is being done to Hold The Line or Intervene with Sea defences such as Rock Armament's, Metal Piling and Timber Groynes. Holes Bay flood defence works has already begun and Bournemouth to Hengistbury Head timber groynes approaching the last phase.

 

Studland Bay "Shifting Shores Project" in Middle beach and North beach is defence work against coastal erosion being done by the National Trust. Albeit retreating rather than Holding the Line, to those that know the area the Toilet block and café may be affected in the next storms.

Barton on Sea Cliffs got a mention as a high risk erosion area due to the direct line to open seas and base of cliff erosion. North Swanage Bay is suffering from Cliff erosion and that is partly caused by surface water drainage and will have several millions spent to slow or change that process.

Did you know!!!! Poole Harbour is only on average 18inches deep at Mean Low Water tide line.

One new strategy put forward from Moffatt and Nichol Consultants was that dredged material, contaminated or not should be sprayed on marsh land to replenish them after the effects of erosion and provide a natural Sea defence. This is in an effort to reduce MMO and the Crown Licenses that constrain dredging. 

 

SIFCA did a presentation and we got a mention in that presentation. Both Pia Bateman and DR Sarah Birchenough were giving the presentation "Navigating Shared Seas" The Black Sea Bream project got an awful lot of attention, in my opinion a little bit too much.

However it has set a president for the next survey which will follow similar lines called the "Rays of Tope" and we will be hearing a lot about that in the coming months and we are likely to be one of the biggest local sources of evidence from Anglers.

All the usual figures were confirmed, Mackerel on the Decline, Brown Crab catches declined, Cod and Sole declined.

Fish catches of Sole declined from 30 stone a day to 3 stone a day on one local boat.

There was a lot of defence for the Inshore Commercial Fisherman, not the bottom trawled gear variety I might add.

The one big announcement that the room did not take on board, but I certainly did was SIFCA are Introducing Flexible Permit Byelaws, this is to reduce the current 4 year turn around on Byelaws. The MMO used this in the past to good effect for the Undulates for those of you who are still awake. I only said I would try to keep it short.

Data poor was a term used frequently by SIFCA and we have heard this previously. Diversification was also a term used, catching Manilla clams puts less stress on native clams, and BFT got a mention as a species on the up and Bass doing well.

Christchurch water quality is under investigation, particularly the E.coli out break which made the news and has made children very ill recently.

That is a very short summary, It was a worth while trip and we learnt a lot about what's going on in our area.

The acronyms for all these groups gets for ever longer and even more confusing, why we have so many separate groups doing similar work is bamboozling.

That's me done for the Day, but I will happily answer any questions I can from all my notes and literature I collected.   

 

 

 

[Kingfisher 126]

Well done guys, a great effort and as you say a lot happening locally.

I suspect the boat catching 30 stone of sole and now 3 stone may of left the area! 😤

A great report Mal. 👏👏

[great white]

Great report Mal, thanks.

 

Looks like you had to pay attention to lots of things during that day.

 

Well done guys.

[jerry.shutter]

Tremendous report and I am sure condensed well.

 

Thankyou for keeping us up to speed.

[Mal Thomas]

Whilst at the Meeting we did speak with DR Sarah Birchenough and Pia Bateman regards the up coming "Rays of Tope" Survey by Plymouth University, today I have received an introductory email to Alice Hall who you may remember gave us a

talk on the fish in our waters by the pier and surf reef that once was in use now broken up and plastic pollution.

They thought our meeting venue would be a good place to have the event, so I have made an introduction to Gill at the club, it is promoted as being February 15th in the evening with a buffet, I will keep you informed if the booking is confirmed. 

Of course I took the opportunity to convey our thoughts on the Rays and Tope in our waters, hopefully after the Survey they can throw some light on why the deterioration of the stock is continuing.  

[Jim]

Mal (& Martin)

Thanks so much for keeping our club in the foreground and speaking for us.    😉

[Maverick Martin]

Agree with Mal that the presentation/meeting was well worth attending.  Also agree that sifca were beating their drum and chests re the black bream project although in truth is its just a minor achievement.  There is a very long way to go to secure stock security for species that need help.  Sifca are not actually responsible for that job unless instructed from above, others above them need to try harder and listen to the scientific and on the ground evidence

 

All the other subjects that Mal has written about were very interesting with a lot more going on than we are ever informed of.