KEEP THE TRADITION OF SALMON NETTING ON THE TAMAR TAVY

Bravo Orri you are fighting on the side of the under priveleged the people who without you to fight their corner would not have a voice don't be detracted by others and please don't be discouraged by the posts of the disillusioned.

#101: - they have the gear already, probably upgraded to catch everything that swims with the tens of thousands they were given 10 years ago!!

And until anglers came on the scene flashing their cash and demanding sole access there was no need for a puppet organisation like Nasco or EA the 'toffs' were quite happy getting their salmon from the netsmen for their dinner parties and quite willing to let netsmen take all the risks by braving the elements.It was only when the magic words Money,Profit and wait for it Conservation took over that these greedy individuals found a vehicle for control.First they set up the RA/NRA /EA to regulate and restrict other groups from exploiting the valuable resource essential to maximising their profit .Then through lobbying they got Government to legislate that netsmen where no longer one of the stakeholder groups and that all the GIA went into their coffers either directly or indirectly. To make sure they kept control they gave concessions to the anglers by making access easier,building bridges and fencing off land,cutting down trees and offering Catch and Release as well as doing in the name of conservation all the land maintainance free of charge.They set up River Trusts self electing self promoting organisation and paid them for doing the work Riparians should have been doing themselves after all public money was available at the drop of a hat and easy to access,
Now that they've built their little 'Empire' they trying to get rid of the last resistance and evidence of the way it was so future generations won't know what the traditional nets looked like and our rivers lakes mountains and streams will move from public ownership into private portfolio's of the filthy rich.

I agree with most of what you say the public are financing all these projects yet after a 10 year cessation only shows a slight improvement in stocks. Until they face the facts that they are the hypocrites who are depleting the stocks there will not be an improvement on paper because it is their effort and catch statistics that form a major part of the case for a NLO and it won't be in their interests to change the format.

I'd like to put this on record when all the netting effort has been ended through NLO's the stock figures will show a remarkable improvement allowing a full exploitation by rods and that is the cynical intention of these orders. NLO's are being used to get netsmen off the rivers by making it impossible to function it is getting rid of nets by stealth.

#106: Orri - There are nets poaching salmon rivers up and down great britain, including the Tamar in various locations. Add more so called "legal" netting, catastrophe!! stop the license and catch the poachers, time to stop this carnage before its too late

It makes me smile to read in the 2011 Cefas Report 'there are currently no regulations applying catch quotas for salmon in net or rod fisheries in England and Wales' So why are EASW proposing a quota as a condition for a Seine licence? It also states that net licences have decreased by 70% and angling licence take up has increased.There is no regulation on the number of rod licences issued.
Given the fact that there so many restrictive measures in place for the net fisheries (as highlighted by Cefas) and no regulation on rod numbers the potential increase in exploitation of Tamar stock lies with the rod fishery.If rod licence holders are allowed to take 34% of their catch and they increase in number annually they will be exploiting any gains made from the 2004 NLO.What baffles me is why is the Tamar CL 395 eggs/100m squared the highest in the country when it only has 293(ha)accessible wettable area while other areas with bigger awa's have significantly lower CL's ie the Tyne 542(ha)has a Cl of 208 and the TAW 274 awa and a CL OF 211.
After going through numerous Cefas reports I'm amazed at the number of references to the inefficiency of counters both resistivity and acoustic and the number of apologies and corrections made to the data.Given the significance of this counter data in calculating salmon stocks it must question the whole evaluation of the North Atlantic Salmon Stocks and I hope FFO pick this up and question these figures and their consequences past and present at the highest level.

The one I like in the 2006 report is 'although catch limits are increasingly used these currently have relatively little effect on the overall fishing effort.'

So why have them?

#109: Orri - Their time will come, law abiding eyes everywhere now orri. I wonder, if you saw illegal netting would you report it? I think most honest people, who actually know the tamar, fully understand how important it is to protect the low stocks of salmon. Hopefully some prosecutions will take place this year as conservation and protection measures are stepped up, at least while these criminals are in court they wont be taking the last few salmon out hey!!

117 should join the Angling Trust and collaborate with Crimestoppers initiative supported by EA and the Trust even become a bailiff,There are serious concerns that migrant workers are taking fish instead of catch and release and the Trust are looking for volunteers to work with them to try and educate them against taking fish. It seems like a job tailor made for 117.

In a letter dated 2008 Ices report the greenland fishery have reduced their catch from 2,500 tons of North Atlantic salmon to 20 tonnes and Cefas reports that the cessation of the Irish drift net fishery will mean 5,000 more salmon returning to English and Welsh fisheries they also state a 70% reduction in uk netting effort so why are these tonnes of salmon not reflected in the data collected by the the EA ? It certainly puts the returns of the three Tamar Seines into perspective and puts the present rationale about net limitation into doubt.Oh and I forgot the long term reduction of the North East Drift net fishery which was supposedly exploiting English stocks. Could it be that if they're not caught they don't get counted?

#21: conservation - Re:

what a load of bollocks, you fly fishermen have your heads so far up your own arses ,,,,,,,,,,bunch of tree huggers ,,,,,,,money money money ,,,,,,,,IF ONE STOPS ALL SHOULD STOP,,,,,,,YOU WILL BE ALL SAYING EELS ARE BECOMING ENDANGERED SOON ,,,

TAMAR net fishermen fish sustainably ,,,,,,,as for you fly fishermen how many are you allowed to take for the pot in a season ?????

Defra will as usual in these NLO's use that old chestnut of acting on the best scientific evidence available even though its been proven to be underestimated and incorrect and if that fails to succeed they will cite the precautionary approach or some other excuse.With anglers,owners and now trusts they have successfully set up a 'cartel' who have instigated measures and procedures that use conservation as a tool to get rid of nasty netsmen.By jumping into bed with each other they all protect each others interests.Defra don't have to do any work they leave it to the cartel,EA gives them the ammunition in order to maintain their GIA,anglers get to carry on angling and get their assets increased,owners get mates rates and all their maintenance free of charge and the trusts do all the work the EA used to do and get paid for it while claiming thousands of pounds for consultancy.It is the 'perfect storm for netsmen' because this clique have managed through mainly underhanded and covert operations curtailed the netsmens rights in statutory instruments with out informing netsmen of their intention.

Yes it's the classic case of a gang of playground bullies (cartel)who between them have all the sweets but realise that the puny kid (netsman)has some too so they beat up on the kid and steal his sweets he runs to his so called mates(EA) but finds they're part of the gang so he turns to the form prefect (MP) but shes also a past member of the gang so the kid in desperation goes to the headmaster (Minister) to ask for his sweets back but the headmaster's afraid of the gang whose parents have wealth and privilege so he takes the easy way out and expels the puny kid. The gang of bullies end up with all the sweets. If this happened in the playground it would not be tolerated by society so why is it allowed to happen on the Tamar?