Angling Trust and the Cormorant

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The Angling Trust and the RSPB go head to head on the culling of cormorants on Radio 4 (the recoring is 4 min's long).


Richard

m8, those bird lovers wanna get their heads out of their hides
the greatest killer of small mammals and birds is the domestic cat

BAN THE CAT FROM OUTDOORS AND SAVE OUR WILDLIFE

simples

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Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon MP announced yesterday a review of the current licensing regime for cormorant control at an Angling Summit, attended by 30 angling and fisheries organisations. This announcement followed a letter to the Minister from the Angling Trust last November, calling for action to be taken to protect stillwater and river fisheries which are suffering significant losses as a result of cormorant predation.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will invite the Angling Trust, as the representative body for all anglers, to contribute to the development of the scope, remit and delivery of the review, which have yet to be decided.

The Trust will be pressing for rapid progress on this issue, and for the review to take the following into account:

* The contribution of angling to the local and national economy (estimated by the Environment Agency to be about £3.5billion each year);
* The impact of cormorant predation on endangered stocks of freshwater eels (estimated by Defra to be up to 43 tonnes a year during the breeding season), which have declined in number by some 95% in the past two decades;
* The impact of avian predation on already threatened salmon stocks – which on some rivers removes about 50% of the juvenile fish leaving the river before going to sea as smolts;
* The fact that more than 75% of water bodies are failing to meet the standards set out in the Water Framework Directive – many of these due to poor fish populations;
* The cost to taxpayers of the current licensing regime, which involves significant bureaucracy and expensive site visits from Natural England staff;
* The fact that fisheries which are successful in applying for a licence are normally only allowed to shoot two or three cormorants; many have twenty times this number present on their fisheries;
* The lack of accurate data on cormorant, goosander and merganser numbers and the impact of local controls on national populations;
* The need for a review of the effectiveness of other methods of control – many of which are required to be tried before licences are granted – such as bird scarers, fish refuges and scarecrows and to consider providing funding to support their deployment by stillwater fisheries;
* The need to develop a UK-wide policy in synergy with the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Angling Trust will be inviting its members to contribute to the review by providing examples of the impact of cormorants, mergansers and goosanders and how their angling and fish stocks have been damaged, and to report their experience of the current licensing regime by post or to cormorants@anglingtrust.net

The Angling Trust will continue to campaign for urgent action to tackle problems with fish populations caused by pollution, over-abstraction, habitat damage and barriers to migration. Many of these problems make cormorant and other avian predation much worse by reducing natural fish population growth and making it harder for fish to escape predation. Weirs, for example, often force fish to move up and downstream through very narrow channels, which make them very vulnerable to being eaten at these points. Similarly, many flood defence works remove overhanging vegetation and other cover from rivers, under which fish would naturally hide.

Angling Trust Chief Executive Mark Lloyd said: “Anglers are conservationists at heart and do more than any other group to protect our rivers and lakes by providing funding and voluntary labour to conservation and restoration initiatives and by reporting pollution incidents. However, until our rivers and coastal fish populations are restored to good health, we must be allowed greater freedom to control local populations of cormorants, goosanders and mergansers where they are impacting on fish stocks."

He continued: “We will be providing our member angling clubs and fisheries with practical guidance about how to apply for licences and other measures they can take to protect the fish on which their societies and businesses depend. We hope that this review will result in much greater freedom for anglers to manage the environment themselves, at less cost to the taxpayer.”

The Angling Trust, along with fisheries charities and angling industry groups, made representations to the Minister at the Angling Summit about:

* the importance of managing marine fish stocks for sustainable recreational benefit which generates economic benefits rather than damaging commercial fishing which is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer;
* proposals for delivery of fisheries and angling management by the voluntary and charitable sector rather than the Environment Agency;
* the damaging impacts of hydropower on fisheries and its minimal contribution to renewable energy targets;
* the importance for all fish species – coarse and game – of the removals of barriers to migration;
* the vital need to implement the Water Framework Directive;
* the potential role of anglers in managing invasive non native species;
* the impact of predators on fish stocks in a managed environment.

A further day-long summit will be held in late March, with 150 invited attendees, which will consider the economic, social and environmental importance of angling and the contribution anglers and fisheries conservation bodies can make to delivering the big society agenda.

Angling Trust Media Release
Angling Rolls Out Its Big Guns To Protect Fisheries From Cormorant Invasion

TV host Chris Tarrant and UK Music boss Feargal Sharkey to join petition handover to Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon.

Campaigners from the world of angling will be joined by celebrities Chris Tarrant and Feargal Sharkey when they handover a 16,000 signature petition on Wednesday (22nd Feb) calling for action to limit the devastating impact of the UK’s rapidly increasing cormorant population and its effect on inland freshwater habitat and ecosystems.

read the full press release...

Just received this media release from the Angling Trust myself and something really stands out,
according to Martin Salter, angling supports 37,000 jobs and yet they only have 16,000 signatures
for this campaign, a difference of 21,000!
For a sport that often claims the dubious figure of 4 million participants, this really is a sorry showing.

Part of the problem is the Angling Trusts rigid payment scheme, £25 up front or you cant join our club,
They should take a leaf out of the RSPBs payment system which allows, monthly direct debit payments with a level you choose yourself, i think they have "Three million" members.
Think about it, 3 quid a month to protect your fishing.
How much are "Boilies"? £11 a bag.

boilies what are they? i tried to renew my membership online 20 minutes ago and the web site crashed i have paid twice before after this so i,ll have to wait a while before trying again. they send you a sticker and card with your name on if you were a member last year even if you are not direct debit.

James Annear wrote:

Just received this media release from the Angling Trust myself and something really stands out,
according to Martin Salter, angling supports 37,000 jobs and yet they only have 16,000 signatures
for this campaign, a difference of 21,000!
For a sport that often claims the dubious figure of 4 million participants, this really is a sorry showing.

Part of the problem is the Angling Trusts rigid payment scheme, £25 up front or you cant join our club,
They should take a leaf out of the RSPBs payment system which allows, monthly direct debit payments with a level you choose yourself, i think they have "Three million" members.
Think about it, 3 quid a month to protect your fishing.
How much are "Boilies"? £11 a bag.

Sadly anglers very often come across as a very apathetic group of people. It has always been a struggle to get the various groups of anglers (course sea and game etc) together to fight as a a single group. We must all shoulder the responsibility of protecting the sport we all say we love. I cant see a way forward unless more of us stand up for what we believe in. If we're to be taken seriously then we need to show a united front. How many times has that been said before?

This EU Cormorant Platform is a website through which DG Environment will disseminate information about cormorants, cormorant numbers, management and conflicts related to cormorants, fish, fisheries and aquaculture.

Link here

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/cormorants/home_en.htm

It's become a bit of a spat between the Angling Trust and RSPB:

"IT’S HARD TO DEAL WITH HATE" by Simon Barnes

"Hugh Miles hits back at RSPB's magazine article on cormorants"

Martin Salter's blog. Pictures of cormorant damage:
http://fightingforfishing.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/a-rare-brace-of-avon-two-pounders-but-cormorant-damage-is-plain-to-see/

Angling Trust team hails breakthrough over cormorant problem

Anglers and fishery managers have today welcomed the decision by the Natural Environment and Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon to replace the current bureaucratic and wholly inadequate system of licensing the control of cormorants with a new catchment-based approach which will allow for predator control based on local needs rather than arbitrary national limits. The Angling Trust’s Action on Cormorants campaign received high profile political and celebrity backing including from TV presenter Chris Tarrant.

The Angling Trust has invested a huge amount of time and energy over the past three years campaigning for angling clubs and fishery managers to have the right to protect fish stocks from predation by cormorants.

Bird numbers have exploded out of control since the 1980s to the point where the survival of many fish stocks was being dangerously threatened. For example, on the once famous Hampshire Avon Environment Agency surveys have shown a virtual collapse of roach in the middle reaches of the river where cormorant predation is the highest. Salmon smolts attempting to return to the sea have been dangerously depleted in many rivers endangering successful recruitment in future years and rural fishery businesses have seen their livelihoods threatened as a result of unsustainable predation.

Although details are yet to be fully clarified, the main features of the catchment-based system look set to include:

* an end to arbitrary national limits on numbers of birds to be shot
* three regional advisors to be appointed to support fishery managers, funded by Defra
* cormorant numbers to be assessed annually by catchment
* as long as the conservation status of the birds are not threatened, the scheme will continue annually

Full article: http://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?section=29§ionTitle=Angling+Trust+News&from=2013/7/01&to=2013/08/01&itemid=1761

This is good news, while I don't like to see anything killed, this is a sensible move to ensure fisheries can protect recruitment and stock.


Richard

On "The One Show" yesterday fast-fwd to 24 min.

Great solution there from Will Young, dangle old CDs over all the lakes & rivers

He might have a point Ed if they were his CD's... and playing?


Richard

Just came across this,
Institute of Fisheries Management - Cormorant Position Statement
http://www.ifm.org.uk/node/210

and so nothing will happen. they get all these expensive reports done, in which someone has the temerity to say:there is a possibility that the population of fish eating birds could/may/might stabalise in the near/short/medium future. and then say oh thats good no further control needed. the only reason the population will stabalise is cos theyve eaten all the flipping fish up.

Watched half a dozen of them feeding just downstream of London Bridge each morning this week.

patrick barker wrote:

and so nothing will happen. they get all these expensive reports done, in which someone has the temerity to say:there is a possibility that the population of fish eating birds could/may/might stabalise in the near/short/medium future. and then say oh thats good no further control needed. the only reason the population will stabalise is cos theyve eaten all the flipping fish up.

Patrick, the IFM are not the be-all-and-end-all concerning the process of legislation and the organisation has numerous RSPB members to boot, so it may be that their position was very much in the balance before their final position was written? In other words they've spun the figures to back up their pre-determined "position" from the outset!     

Regardless - and while I have a great deal of respect for one of the officers of the IFM that I am acquainted with - I will no longer consider supporting them in the future and I hope many anglers will think likewise.

Even with their vastly under-estimated cormorant numbers, the period of 5 months of the over-wintering birds (20,134 pairs), they will eat 6 million pounds of fish (and that's exclusing what they feed their young...) in the the five months they are resident. During the other 7 months of the year - by the undisputed numbers of the RSPB (of all people!   ) - there are 9,018 resident pairs (careful of the language they dress this figure in, as they try to make it sound like 9,018 birds in total but you have to double that figure, as they are counted in pairs), they will eat just under 4 million pounds of fish per annum.... Add goosander, mersanger (sawbill ducks) and naturally herons & grebes, and these last two just by way of mentioning and you can see the building pressure on OUR fish stock.The IFM is wrong and control measures are necessary, anyone with bankside knowledge knows this.

The maths are simple, 1 pound of fish per day (another under-estimate IMO), and the grand total for the cormorant alone, is 10 million pounds of fish per year in UK waters, or if you prefer modern tonnage, 4535t 923.33kg.

Are these acceptable figures in anyone's language? Not if you give two fucks about fish they arn't!


Control measures would also go someway to easing the tensions concerning otters and other situations that are ruinous to OUR fish populations, such as pollution, poor flooding strategies, abstraction etc. and the IFM is WAY out of line and I will tell them personally, as a 'friend' of the IFM (but no longer will I be paying my subs in the future) what I think of their 'position', which looks to be one of being bent over a barrel with their trousers around their ankles.


Richard  

Email sent to the President of the IFM.   


Richard

Massive problem, google tells me that Murtensee is in Switzerland


Love fishing comrades, you have a problem with your stock of fish in the waters?
Then look absolutely and worry! (May also be shared)

Something I've never experienced! I was shocked when I came to the water. From a distance you could see seagulls circling excited and stab into the water! Cormorants on hunting! Nothing new this season.
But as I approached my boat, it took my breath away almost! Around 1000 beasts hunted at a depth of 10-12 meters fish! A massacre, a disaster!

For non-fishing or animal rights - 1 cormorant eats per day 0.5 kg fish ... 100 cormorants per day 50 kg of fish per day ... 1000 cormorants 500 kg fish! Cormorant 1 month 15 kg ... 100 cormorants in the month 1500 kg ... 1000 cormorants in the month 15'000 kg (ie 15 tonnes)

Mostly they are there at least 3 months - that is, 3 x 15'000 kg = 45`000 kg (ie 45 tonnes) fish!
Our little lake can such exploitation might today STILL wear. But what about in a few years when 2000 or more cormorants hunt and eat! There are now smaller waters are fished from the Kormoran empty! These are facts!

We fishermen are also conservationists, cherish lease waters, management and conservation of endangered species, and many x thousands of volunteer hours for the nature, fishing in accordance with the provisions of the Federal and animal protection!

But listen to me on animal welfare! And animal welfare probably at the water surface!

The cormorant is not a native species and must be decimated. Point!

All speak of the loss of professional fishermen, ridiculous! And what about the environmental damage in nature?

Media excerpts:
The cormorant is part of the ecosystem. NZZ, Werner Müller, Schöfflisdorf 25.3.2010
http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/startseite/der-kormoran-ist-teil-des-oekosystems-1.5292707


Cormorants addressed to little damage. NZZ, 07.11.2013
http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/schweiz/kormorane-richten-wenig-schaden-an-1.18114200

Kormoran not solely to blame. NZZ, 01.15.2014
http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/schweiz/kormoran-nicht-allein-schuldig-1.18221181

Music in the film of Jahzzar and Arnaud Conde
Photos in the film from Google!