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Government gives go ahead for New Cormorant and Goosander Management Plan

Will Smith

Will Smith

Senior Member
Government gives go ahead for New Cormorant and Goosander Management Plan

Full news article on the Angling Trust website at this link: Government gives go ahead for New Cormorant and Goosander Management Plan - The Angling Trust

The Angling Trust has concluded negotiations with the Government on the implementation of new measures, announced last year, to improve the protection of vulnerable fish stocks from predation by cormorants and goosanders. The Trust has been campaigning for more than three years for a change to the current bureaucratic and ineffective licensing regime that governs the lethal control of these birds, which can eat between 1 and 2 lbs of fish every day, collectively more than 1,000 tonnes every winter.

The new measures will include:

• The funding of three fisheries management advisors (FMAs), to be employed by the Angling Trust from April 2014, to help angling clubs and fishery owners reduce predation, to co-ordinate applications for licences across catchments and to gather better evidence about the number of birds in each catchment;

• A commitment by the government to review the existing national limit on the number of cormorants that can be shot each year in light of evidence gathered by the FMAs from each catchment in 2014 and 2015;

• A simplification of the licence application form to make it easier for fishery managers to apply to control cormorants and goosanders;

• A removal of monthly limits within an annual licence;

• Extension of the control season to May at times of low flow when salmon and sea trout smolt migrations are particularly vulnerable;

• Agreement to increase the national limit for cormorant controls to the emergency level of 3,000 (from 2,000 last year) in 2014/5 if the need can be demonstrated.
 
Does anyone believe that any of the above will actually achieve anything other than create 3 new jobs at the AT?

These 3 "advisers" will produce a report that will be "reviewed" (aka do nothing)

The license application form will be simplified but it will still be refused once submitted.

There will be a removal of limits on the license that clubs were not able to obtain in the first place. (Catch 22 alive and well in the land of the Civil Servant)

Even if an all out cull was made possible, and every club and controlling body in the land was given permission to kill every Otter Cormorant and Goosander on sight, it would still be unworkable.

What resource do people actually think clubs and controlling bodies have at their disposal that could carry out such a cull in an safe effective manner?

Steve
 
No Steve I don't believe anything will be achieved until they are put onto the list as vermin.

Three more jobs at the trust to be paid for with members money, starts to look like a jobs for the boys organisation.
 
Graham Young said:
No Steve I don't believe anything will be achieved until they are put onto the list as vermin.

Three more jobs at the trust to be paid for with members money, starts to look like a jobs for the boys organisation.
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Agreed Graham/Steve. Just one big boys club. Pretty poor.:mad:
 
The jobs for the FMAs is advertised at 25k to 30k, taking the lower 25k x 3 FMAs = £75,000 or to put it another way the membership payments of 3000 members at £25 each.
 
I read that the government is funding three new roles which will be hired by the trust, hence no members money. There are always those who will baulk at any progress. I actually think that if these roles perform as planned and if nothing else gather the real evidence needed concerning numbers, it gives a platform to move forward from. To date this has been dependant on anglers so would never be done................:rolleyes:
 
Yes, well put Ian. No matter how big or small we believe the step to be, at least it is going in the right direction. What it does show, which links to the position on Otters, is the need for valid and accurate data. It's one of the most powerful weapons you can have.

Let's give this a chance, watch and monitor with interest and support where we can.
 
If anglers are so concerned about Cormorants , Goosander and Otters and the effect they have on fish stocks ?

Why is it nobody shows any concern that a top predator that was introduced illegally to rivers and waterways many years ago is not also on the list for management /culling ?

I wonder how many silver fish etc etc over the years have been taken by Zander that dont belong in our water ways and were stocked illegally .
 
Joe Fletcher said:
If anglers are so concerned about Cormorants , Goosander and Otters and the effect they have on fish stocks ?

Why is it nobody shows any concern that a top predator that was introduced illegally to rivers and waterways many years ago is not also on the list for management /culling ?

I wonder how many silver fish etc etc over the years have been taken by Zander that dont belong in our water ways and were stocked illegally .
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Probably because successive surveys have proven the initial concerns from match anglers were unfounded and that in many waterways silverfish stocks have actually improved. This really is a very outdated view!!
 
Ian Crook said:
I read that the government is funding three new roles which will be hired by the trust, hence no members money. There are always those who will baulk at any progress. I actually think that if these roles perform as planned and if nothing else gather the real evidence needed concerning numbers, it gives a platform to move forward from. To date this has been dependant on anglers so would never be done................:rolleyes:
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I am not one that "baulks" at anything Ian, I read on the trust website that they will be employing the new roles, I saw nothing about the government funding them, if they are great, if they are not its a lot for the trust to find, perhaps you could point me to where it says that please.
 
Graham Young said:
I am not one that "baulks" at anything Ian, I read on the trust website that they will be employing the new roles, I saw nothing about the government funding them, if they are great, if they are not its a lot for the trust to find, perhaps you could point me to where it says that please.
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Graham, looking at the news release on the AT website, the first measure outlined refers to the funding of three fisheries management advisors. I took that to mean that part of the negotiations had been to secure that funding from the government, albeit that the advisors will be employed by the AT. If they were being funded directly by the AT then I doubt it would have constituted a "new measure". That's how I read it anyway.
 
Ian Crook said:
Probably because successive surveys have proven the initial concerns from match anglers were unfounded and that in many waterways silverfish stocks have actually improved. This really is a very outdated view!!
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Explain if you can Ian , If on waterways where Cormorants and Goosander are present and are having a effect on fish stocks ? and I assume then that is why the the goverment has given the go ahead to manage Cormorants and Goosander and I assume the reason being that Cormorants Goosander eat fish ? and on those same waterways if illigally stocked Zander are also present ? Are you saying that Zander are having no effect on fish stocks ?

I all ways assumed that Zander ate other fish so I find it hard to believe your statement that Zander has no impact on fish stocks ?
 
David Gauntlett said:
Top posting once again Howard.

Cheers, Dave.
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Which only goes to prove that you really can fool some of the people all of the time........................

Surely by now anything that ultimately requires the government of the day to act in our best interests has been shown to be a pipe dream.

Steve
 
Joe Fletcher said:
Explain if you can Ian , If on waterways where Cormorants and Goosander are present and are having a effect on fish stocks ? and I assume then that is why the the goverment has given the go ahead to manage Cormorants and Goosander and I assume the reason being that Cormorants Goosander eat fish ? and on those same waterways if illigally stocked Zander are also present ? Are you saying that Zander are having no effect on fish stocks ?

I all ways assumed that Zander ate other fish so I find it hard to believe your statement that Zander has no impact on fish stocks ?
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Pike, Perch and Zander take the weaker fish out of a fishery, allowing stronger fish to survive, this leads to better brood stocks and more successful spawning. They have had a very positive effect on Rutland and Grafham waters for example

Zander are also a prime target for Cormorants, Goosanders, etc.... Without which more of other species would be taken!!
 
Steve Stringer said:
Which only goes to prove that you really can fool some of the people all of the time........................

Surely by now anything that ultimately requires the government of the day to act in our best interests has been shown to be a pipe dream.

Steve
Click to expand...

This latest initiative may come to not very much at all, it may fall at the first hurdle and be undone by political expediency or mischief or austerity or indeed all of those things. It may also take a great deal longer for meaningful action to be taken and perhaps things have to get a great deal worse before resource and endeavour are really focused on putting things right (whatever "right" is of course). But on the basis that the description of effort leading up to this announcement set out in the AT's news release is accurate, then personally I am grateful that someone is trying to do something. Because I'm not doing much apart from paying my subs. I'm not devoting any of my spare time to help causes such as this. If I actually have any spare time I am usually fishing and moaning about the water temperature or the floods or my broken rod tips.

We can bemoan the political system but it is the system and that means if you do want to effect change then you do need to snuggle up in bed with it. Or if you prefer, you can stand outside and throw stones at it all day long.

I respect those that do engage with the system and try to make it work for a cause. This seems to have been a big effort that has resulted in some good measures and that has to be start. And for me, they have hit the nail on the head in their pursuit of accurate data. I am looking forward, holding my glass half full, to seeing how this unfolds.
 
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