Campaign For The Protection Of Welsh Fisheries

[Highplains]

The copy letter below is from the Minister in response to a query by Steve Pettite, a keen campaigner on behalf of the sea anglers and a great supporter of the Campaign for the Protection of Welsh Fisheries.

The reason I am posting this copy is to draw your attention to the fact that Minster is clearly not interested in Steve's appeal because previously she had sought views and few were forthcoming. This means we have to keep applying pressure and we have to respond when they seek our views: failure to do so is translated by the politicians as "don't care" or "great, we can do as we like!"

This letter is typical of this Minister. We still await her response to our last appeal.

I think this as well as recent events indicate that many of our politicians are getting a little too self satisfied and complacent.


[IMG][/IMG]

[Highplains]

Launch of new web site

After several months of relative quiet on the Campaign front you could be forgiven for thinking we had given up the fight: not so! We have been working hard in the background to establish a meaningful working relationship with the Environment Agency Wales. Having spent so long knocking the Agency we have now come to the realisation that the target for the Campaign must be the Welsh Assembly Government. We have to persuade them of the necessity to fund the Agency sufficiently for the Agency to employ sufficient bailiffs to protect our fisheries properly. In order to do this we have agreed to work with the Agency to establish a meaningful estimate of the level of illegal fisheries activity in Wales. In order to do this the Agency have agreed to work in partnership with us on the Clwyd and Elwy system in running an experiment, the success of which will be highly dependant upon anglers and the public using the system. (Full details of this scheme are available on the new interactive web site.)

It was our original intention to launch the new interactive Campaign site on the 1st of July this year, and this remains the case, however the Conwy Valley Fisheries Conservation Association is now launching its appeal to the Welsh Assembly Government in an effort to secure the protection of the spawning redds of our salmonoids from the devastating damage caused by canoeists and gorge runners, who are causing untold damage with their unrestricted access to our waters. For this reason we are pre launching the Campaign site as a gesture of our support for this important initiative. We wish them well. (Full details of this initiative can be found on the Campaign web site.)

The new site is interactive and includes a forum for Campaign issues only please, as we have no wish to compete with this or other forums to which the Campaign owes so much of its success.

The new site also has a link for you to report illegal fisheries activity to us and to the Agency. Please call the 0800 80 70 60 number immediately you become aware of illegal activity. The Campaign link can be used anonymously or you may leave your contact details if you wish. We guarantee your confidentiality. Nobody will know who you are!

The new interactive site will develop as you want it to. Send us videos, stills sequences of fly tying techniques, tackle rigs, anything angling related. For the moment you can find on the “FUN STUFF” page:

Videos
Tide tables
Phases of the moon
Weather and more.

If you would like other items please let us know. Your own articles and tips will also be welcome. Oh, and the forum links are there too! If you really are fed up and missing your fishing: feed the fish on the home page, just click over the “pond” to drop bread on the water. (The things we do to get your attention?)

Please go to cpwf.co.uk and have a look around, bookmark the page and visit us regularly. We look forward to your feedback.

Many thanks from us all.

[Highplains]

Campaign News:
International Casting Champion and Celebrity Angler Hywel Morgan has pledged his support to the Campaign For The Protection Of Welsh Fisheries

See the campaign homepage for further details: www.cpwf.co.uk

Other News:
Following on from Medicine's comments:
There is a mini war happening on the campaign website at the moment with regard to the canoeing debate, and we do, without question, need your support and votes. Loads of activity is going on behind the scenes with writing letters to MP's etc etc etc but the canoeists have picked up on the campaign and are trying to out vote us anglers on the CVF&CA webspace we created for them, these votes will be used as part of future discussions with the various agencies and governemnt departments:

Go to this link to see for yourselves: http://cpwf.co.uk/home/?page_id=320

**Also on that page are copies of the campaign letters

Come on - do your bit, the canoeists are, they have amassed approx 275 votes in a couple of days.

The canoesists have also joined our forum and there is a bit of a debate going on, if you fancy giving your two penneth.

Forum Link: Campaign CVF&CA Forum

We do really need your help guys, and while your there vote for all the other initiatives.

**PS - The system only allows you to vote once, so tell your friends, work colleagues - everyone.

Thanks,

Alec
www.cpwf.co.uk

[Highplains]

The Campaign Team may have been relatively silent for the past month or two, but we have not been idle.

You will remember we started by slating the Environment Agency about the appalling lack of enforcement on our rivers. It is a national disgrace, about that there can be no doubt, but what can we practically do about it?

We tried appealing to the Welsh Assembly Government. What did they do?

They instructed the Environment Agency to carry out a review of their enforcement policy nationally.

The Environment Agency did as they were asked: their report was presented to the Welsh Assembly Government.

That report can be read on the Campaign web site at www.cpwf.co.uk . What did it say? In essence and to greatly over simplify “we have no idea of the level of illegal activity taking place on Welsh fisheries and lack the facilities identify it”

The Environment Agency then offered the Campaign the chance to suggest just who should try to establish the truth. The Agency made suggestions: university specialist departments; the police and several more.

We had no faith in any third party because of the very special nature of poaching and the fact the crimes are victimless. (The fish have no voice.)

So where do we go from here?

We take the bull by the horns and offer to do it ourselves!

This is just what we have done and now we have to do it. When we say we, we mean all of us; the angling community and as many of our friends as we can persuade to help.

The 0800 80 70 60 hotline number as lost all credibility: few anglers have any faith in it and even fewer use it. The problem is that the reports from the 0800 80 70 60 number are used as the basis for assessing the level of illegal activity. No reports = no illegal activity. Can we address this issue?

We think so. We have, in partnership with the Environment Agency, set up an online reporting system. You can go to the Campaign web site and report an incident on line, and we get a copy. So now you can use the 0800 80 70 60 number to report an incident that requires an immediate report requiring potentially immediate attention by Agency enforcement staff then, later, you can confirm that report on line and as we get a copy we can start to build our own data base to build up a picture of illegal activity taking place. We can, if you all help. Please encourage all your angling friends and contacts to not only use the 0800 80 70 60 but to confirm their calls on the Campaign Report an Incident page. All details remain 100% guaranteed anonymous: no conditions – anonymous.

Please ask your club or syndicate to add a link to our report and incident page or just to the Campaign site and ask your members to use the facility.

We have been offered the opportunity to help ourselves: please use it.

There are other ideas in the pipeline and as they develop we will keep you informed.

This is our chance to help ourselves. Please join in. This is our Campaign!

Please take a few minutes to have a look at the Campaign site www.cpwf.co.uk and look and see how we are working to start to help protect our fisheries. We are a single issue campaign.

Please hep and please comment here or by contacting us via the web site.

[Highplains]

Guys,

The Campaign web site now has the facility to allow on line reporting of illegal activity on our fisheries. Please add this link to your club or syndicate web site telling your members that they can confirm their 0800 80 70 60 calls direct to the EAW on line.Please ensure they check the North Wales or South Wales box. Mid will be added shortly when we get the EA connection details.

http://www.cpwf.co.uk/campaign/report-an-incident

This is partnership working the Campaign and the Environment Agency Wales working together to try to establish the actual level of illegal activity on our fisheries.

You can of course use the on line facility for reporting any intelligence that may help or indeed pollution or waste thrown into our waters.

Please help us to fight for the funds to enable the EAW to employ more staff to protect our fisheries.

0800 80 70 60 for immediate reporting of an incident in action followed by confirmation on the Campaign web site.

Campaign web site to post any information that may help the existing enforcement staff establish "trends" or help with intel' tips.

Please help protect your fish and fishery