2006 has been a record year for the ACA. Its most important achievement as been to recover £141,238 in damages for its member clubs, fishery and river owners in 18 separate legal cases. They also provided free expert advice on angling law to more than 100 angling clubs. This is the best performance for at least the last 13 years, apart from 1999 when the ACA settled a huge case on the River Eden. The organisation has also expanded its legal and marketing teams this year, but at the same time balanced its books: a huge success after a decade of eating into its reserves.
The ACA started the year by celebrating the marketing suspension of cypermethrin sheep dip. This was in no small part a result of legal pressure from the ACA. They continue to campaign on this issue, and will seek damages for past and future damage to their members’ fisheries if cypermethrin dips are ever re-licensed. ACA lawyers have battled long and hard with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and have lodged several complaints with the Information Commissioner which are being investigated.
In May, the ACA forced a rainbow trout farmer to pay £10,000 for allowing fish to escape into a wild brown trout river. A Court Order was also secured to ensure that any future escapes could be promptly dealt with and charged to the farmer (which they duly were). Shortly afterwards, the ACA agreed a £50,000 settlement with the Environment Agency as compensation for a flood defence weir on the River Eden which had damaged their member’s salmon fishing.
In June, the ACA forced South East Water to pay damages of £8,500 for pollution of Brick Farm Lake in East Sussex after a burst water main washed sediment and road washings into the lake’s feeder stream and caused a significant fish kill.
In August, the ACA put up a £1,000 reward for information concerning pollution on the River Ribble from repeated dumping of waste oil. This was quickly matched 6 times over by angling clubs throughout the Ribble catchment, which caught the imagination of the angling press and BBC Radio Lancashire. Various leads are now being followed up, and the polluter has not returned. Their legal team then won £2,000 damages for the Guisborough Angling Club for sewage pollution caused by Northumbrian Water, killing 6,000 fish. The Environment Agency had been unable to prosecute, but thankfully the ACA was able to take legal action under common law to get some compensation for the club.
Then the ACA won £2,500 for Whittlesey Angling Club, which hosts the ACA British Pike Championship Final each November, after 2 million litres of raw sewage from Whittlesey Sewage Treatment Works caused a huge plume to kill at least 1,000 fish, most of which were roach and bream.
Still in August, they then won £15,000 damages for the Potteries Angling Society, for pollution of the River Churnet and the Cauldon Canal with farm slurry which had killed thousands of adult fish and fry, including dace, roach, perch, bream, pike, carp, gudgeon and bullheads.
In September, they won the first fish disease case in the ACA’s 58 year history, scoring £13,000 in damages for the Towcester and District Angling Association after diseased fish were supplied and stocked into their waters by Framlingham Fisheries.
In November, the ACA launched the Blueprint for Water, (www.blueprintforwater.org.uk) with 9 other environmental organisations, at a parliamentary reception attended by 50 MPs. The launch saw the ACA on BBC Breakfast, the lunchtime news and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. They are asking anglers to write to their local MP asking them to sign Early Day Motion 306 supporting the plan. 10,000 ACA members will soon receive a copy of the Blueprint.
In December, the ACA won damages of £5,600 for its member club the York and District Amalgamation of Anglers following the pollution of Pocklington Beck with several tonnes of raw sewage. Yorkshire Water finally agreed to settle the claim following years of intransigence in failing to admit the extent of the fish kill.
The ACA wrote earlier this week to David Miliband, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, demanding immediate action to ease the passage of migratory fish through the Tees Barrage and the construction of a new fish pass, 11 years after the current fish pass was built and after countless studies confirmed what everyone knew all along: that the fish pass is not fit for purpose and is hindering the recovery on the Tees.
In 2007, the work will continue in earnest: the ACA expect proceedings in Court in the first few weeks of 2007 on cases on the Rivers Brue, Usk, Thame, Inver, Glaze and possible judicial review proceedings in at least 2 other matters. They continue to be involved in investigating this summer’s KHV outbreak and will fight to defend the rights of our member clubs who have been affected.
Mark Lloyd, ACA Executive Director said:
“The concerted action we have taken for our member clubs, fishery and river owners this year should send a message loud and clear to polluters that if they damage our members’ waters, the ACA will make them pay. We hope that our success in 2006 convinces more individual anglers, fishing clubs and fishery owners to put signing up for membership of the ACA at the top of their list of new year’s resolutions.”
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Support continues to grow for the Fish Welfare Fund following the initial £20,000 contribution by Danny Fairbrass of Korda as announced at the Sandown
Carp Show in December.
The Tackle Box in Kent has committed to donate £100 per month - a £1200
annual contribution, which has delighted Fund Trustees from both the English
Carp Heritage Organisation (ECHO) and The Specialist Anglers Alliance (SAA),
who launched the initiative.
Gary Peet of The Tackle Box said,
" I am delighted to be supporting such a
worthwhile cause to help fund and fight for the future of angling in the
corridors of power."
FWF chairman of Trustees, Ruth Lockwood, who runs Yateley Angling and is
chairman of ECHO, said:
"We are equally delighted with The Tackle Box
donation."
"A monthly donation is a great way to support the current and future
interests of angling. If 50 more tackle traders invest just £100 a month,
the fund would swell by £60,000 and provide a huge boost to our efforts in
monitoring and responding to proposed legislation by both EU and the British
Governments, showing Government departments that the trade is with us,
encouraging youngsters to participate, working within and without angling to
promote the sport and encouraging anglers and fishery managers to take a
responsible attitude to our fisheries."
At the moment the FWF is busy responding to Defra on its plans to make koi
herpes virus, KHV, notifiable and suggesting methods by which the disease might
be controlled in the future, speaking at conferences on KHV and fish health and
helping to drive the unification of angling through FACT initiatives.
For further information contact:
Ruth Lockwood
01252 861955
07743 826144
lockwoodr@hotmail.com
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Source: Specialist Anglers Alliance Press Release.
There has been some discussion recently about the right to live-bait in England and Wales , given the potential ban in Scotland that comes before their Assembly for consideration on the 24 th of January 2007 . SAA have raised our concerns with the Environment Agency that Scotland ’s potential move could lead to restrictions in the rest of the UK .
We have discussed this in depth with Adrian Taylor, Fisheries Policy & Process Manager at the Environment Agency, and are pleased to advise that they have given us an unequivocal assurance that they have NO restrictions either planned or considered to restrict the use of live-bait in England and Wales .
Furthermore, to answer the concerns of our predator group members we would like to elaborate on the individual points that have been raised with the EA, with their replies below;
2. “Could the proposed Secondary Legislation that is being used to enable sections of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review, be used to restrict live-baiting?”
“The EA already has the powers to bring in such bans if they were justified, but there are NO plans or thoughts to ban live-baiting. As far as EA head office is aware there are also no plans to look at any other local bans similar to the NW situation. In theory new secondary legislation could be used but the Animal Welfare Bill would have been the logical route for this-see point 3 below.”
2. “If Scotland moves to a ban, surely England and Wales will follow?”
“Regarding the potential Scottish ban, geography and game fish heritage create an issue for the whole of Scotland , under the fish conservation ticket. The proposal has been driven by the translocation of unwanted species. The proposed ban is NOT based on taking a moral stance on live-baiting. It does not therefore set a precedent for the UK , and the EA have NO plans OR intention to ban or restrict live-baiting.”
3. “Surely a ban is being considered “behind the scenes”, it would be a logical extension of the NW ban?”
“If a ban on live-baiting had been sought on fish welfare grounds then the Animal Welfare Bill was the perfect opportunity. However fishing overall, and by definition that includes the use of live-bait, is specifically excluded from the Bill. The Act is now current legislation.”
To sum up, the EA have no plans to either extend the existing local ban, or to introduce a national ban on live-baiting.
SAA would urge all predator anglers to act in a responsible manner in future and abide by the PAC/SAA Codes of Practice with regard the movement of fish for live-baits. These must not in future be moved without Section 30’s, which would ensure the EA do not have any reason to reconsider the matter. Individual anglers who flout the rules will place the right to live-bait at risk for all of us!
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Following entries to Fish ‘O’ Mania we have had a number of queries from applicants who have received bank statements showing funds being taken by their banks prior to the draw. The NFA would like to re-assure all applicants that this is not the case and as such provide the following guidance.
All Fish ‘O’ Mania payments are classed as ‘PreAuth Payments’, which means that our system requests a bank authorisation at the time of the transaction. Authorisation is obtained from the banks the moment the card details have been either, forwarded to our online payment systems or entered by the applicant on our secure payment pages. This allows us to capture the card details, check that the credit card is valid and check that it has sufficient funds available at the time of the pre-authorisation.
The transaction is immediately ‘reversed’ so that no funds are exchanged. However, p lease note that not all issuing banks support reversals, so in some circumstances you may still see a Pre-Auth payment on your card from the original authorisation .
We must stress that NO PAYMENTS are actually taken from your account, the funds will only be reserved for a limited period depending on your bank.
When a transaction is authorised, the applicant’s bank/card issuer will allocate the funds owed by placing a 'shadow transaction' on the applicant's account. This will remain on the account for up to 6 days ensuring that the applicant does not spend this allocated fund anywhere else. As you never settle the original authorisation, this ‘ shadow transaction’ will eventually expire. This does not affect your ticket allocation as once the draw has been made we will re-process your transaction adjusting the amounts as necessary.
If you require a Pre-Authorised transaction/shadow to be cancelled then we will need to request the bank authorisation code from our online payment company, so that you can contact your card issuer to request the authorisation is cancelled from the card, as it is down to your issuer to remove this.
Please note, in some cases the Issuer will not cancel the 'shadow transaction' even with an authorisation code. If this is the case, then it will remain on the card for approximately 6 working days. This decision depends on the administration procedures of the individual bank/card issuing company not the NFA.
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Environment Agency officers will be releasing thousands of fish into the River Don to restore stocks killed in a freak pollution incident last July.
Around 10,000 fish including roach, bream and dace will be brought from the Environment Agency’s Calverton Fish Farm at Nottingham and released at locations in Kilnhurst, Conisborough, and Thrybergh as well as in Sheffield city centre on Wednesday, January 10.
Restocking recovering rivers helps to improve their ecology and water quality. This month’s restocking follows a stocking on the Don in December when 10,000 roach, 2,600 dace and 1,400 chub were released. Further stockings are planned for this March.
Fisheries team leader Pat O’Brien said:
"The pollution in July killed thousands of fish, so we have boosted the Don’s natural recovery by stocking it with fish which were destined for other rivers in West and South Yorkshire. We have a three-year programme which targets rivers and stillwaters that would benefit most from restocking, but we have changed this programme to stock those rivers in greatest need."
Stocking is only one part of our recovery plan for the River Don and the team is talking to anglers about how to help restore the fishery to its full potential, and encourage them back to the riverbank.
In July Environment Agency officers worked against the clock to save fish in the River Don from Rotherham to Doncaster following a collapse in water oxygen levels.
The low levels were due to dry weather and a low river flow which was then followed by intense rainfall. This caused sewage from storm overflows to enter the river in Sheffield and Rotherham
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