Plans are afoot to develop a new suite of national rod and line and net fishery salmon and sea trout protection byelaw measures in England and the ATA is having its say on the proposals.
These are intended to replace the current salmon and sea trout protection byelaws implemented in 2019 along with a number of catchment-specific salmon and sea trout protection rules successfully introduced since that date.
Simon Toms, National Fisheries Management Team Leader and Senior Advisor at the Environment Agency, said: “Our main objective in seeking to implement these new measures is to adequately protect salmon and sea trout stocks to ensure that we maximise the numbers of fish that are available to spawn annually whilst still enabling fisheries, where possible, to exist.
“From a strategic perspective, our intention is to make the implementation of rod and line, and net fishery salmon and sea Trout fishery protection measures as consistent as possible across England whilst also taking the opportunity to reduce the significant future resource burden that will be required to renew existing catchment specific rod and net fishery byelaws as they expire.”
Comments on the formal consultation are still being invited, with a deadline of October 10th for all submissions.
Simon added: “We would be very grateful to receive your views on both the need and scope of the rod and line and net fishing control measures that we are proposing, and which are set out and explained within the briefing document.
“We have already initiated discussions with local stakeholder groups that are being led by our local Area Fisheries Technical Specialists and with the Angling Trust salmon and sea trout advisory group.
“We will be intending to set up a meeting with the salmon and sea trout EFG subgroup to discuss the proposed measures in more detail within the coming months.”
ATA chair Andrew Race is responding on behalf of the trade but you can send additional comments to simon.toms@environment-agency.gov.uk by October 10th.
You can view the full briefing document HERE.