**URGENT** Sea Bass- Italy

[charlieannear]

Hi All

 

No apologies for flagging this as URGENT.

 

Italy is also worried about the decline of Sea Bass and are considering what to do about it. The Med is not covered by the same discussions that we have heard about recently, but it looks like they are having exactly the same problem.

One thing which is being proposed by some sectors (you'll know who when you read the next bit) is the introduction of Bag Limits and a Sea Angling Licence. We know the pros and cons of these, and have our own views on whether we would be happy to pay or not, with some of the main resistance to such proposals being 'How would it be policed' and 'What would happen to the money'.

Well in Italy the suggestion is that 70% of the income from licences would go to the Commercials. Now who do you think is proposing that?

 

Unfortunately we are all in the EU, so we must stand up and let our views ben known about this, both to support our Italian counterparts and to make it clear how we feel about such a proposal here. If we don't say anything, and it gets implemented in Italy, and we end up with the same thing here... we will only have ourselves to blame.

 

 

"There is an amendment in Italian Financial law, to be approved in 20 days which asks for RSA license. 20 euros from shore, 200 euros from boat. Money from it to Commercial fisheries associations."

 

https://www.facebook.com/leon.roskilly   https://twitter.com/LeonRosk

 

EAA’s Italian member APR has this brief on their website:

www.pescaricreativa.org/notizie/news/item/346-licenza-mare-gi%C3%A0-decisi-anche-i-costi.html

 

 

I ran some of the legal text through Google translate (copied in below).

 

Take note that the suggested boating fee 200 euro has been reduced to 100 euro in this latest draft for a bill.

 

70% of the revenue shall be allocated the support of commercial fishing and aquaculture; 30% to recreational/sport fishing

 

Jan K

 

 

5.0.5

(..)

5. A portion of the resources referred to in paragraph 4, at 70 percent, is allocated to the state budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry to strengthen the initiatives of thenational three-year program of fishery and aquaculture products referred to in 'Article 2, paragraph 5-decies of the Decree-law of 29 December 2010, no. 225, converted with amendments by Law 26 February 2011, n. 10, through the financing of the development of competition and the competitiveness of the national fishing cooperatives and companies, as well as supporting employment in the sector, in accordance with Article 117 of the Constitution and in accordance with Community law and the funding to support initiatives in the field of sport and recreational fishing; an additional amount equal to 30 percent of those resources, is intended to increase the authorization of expenditure referred to in that article 2, paragraph 98, of the Law of 24 December 2007, n. 244. 

5.0.6

 

(..)

3 At the time of the communication and any subsequent renewal, the person referred to in paragraph 1 shall be required to pay an annual contribution of € 100 if you intend to engage in sport fishing from motor boats and amounted to € 20 in other cases, be paid according to the terms and procedures established by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, in consultation with the Minister of Economy and Finance and the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, to be issued within 30 days of the entry into force of this Act.

 

 

Full text here: http://www.senato.it/japp/bgt/showdoc/frame.jsp?tipodoc=SommComm&leg=17&id=803936

 

 

In this email thread, this also came up:

A few years ago,  Greek commercial fishermen made representation to the Mediterranean Regional Advisory Council to have recreational sea angling prohibited throughout the Med from 6.00 pm Fridays to 6.00 am Mondays. Their rationale was that the recreational sea anglers were responsible for overfishing and since in Greece, commercials chose not to fish over weekends -  they considered it unfair for recreationals to go fishing on Saturdays & Sundays.

 

The proposal did not get the support of other members of the Med RAC and was dropped.

 

 

LUCKY.

 

And:

I do not know whether licenses were issued by the authorities in other Member States in the same way as they were handed out in UK.

 

 

Member states were required to implement a licensing system in 1992 so that a data of fishing effort was established. Prior to that no one really knew how many boats were fishing!  MAFF decided to issue them without charge. Providing owners were able to provide some documentary evidence to show fish were being sold – irrespective of amounts – a licence was issued. The categories of licences gets quite complex but for our purposes we can stick to the principles. Licences consist of Vessel Capacity Units and the size and power of a vessel determine the VCUs required. For example: a boat 6 metres in length with a beam of 2.5 metres powered by a 30 HP engine requires 25 units.

 

6 X 2.5 + [kilowatt x 0.45]    Kilowatt calculated by dividing HP by 1.341. Some licenses also have shell fish entitlement which means they can access lobsters and crabs without restrictions whilst those boats without shellfish entitlement are restricted.

 

 

Units are available from brokers and I recently saw 60 units available for £20K and 37 units for sale at £8K.

 

Don’t get too bogged down in the detail. The critical thing to remember is that these licenses, until fresh water fishing licenses, or car tax license, or TV license, shotgun licenses, etc. were handed out FOC and commercial fishing boat operators DO NOT PAY [and never have paid] any money to Government for access to public fishery resources for personal profit . Any monies paid for licenses are the result of trading licenses between fishermen. Some fishermen who happened to own large boats, were handed FOC licenses that they eventually sold for substantial sums exceeding £250K.

 

 

UNREAL.

 

 

We need a greater volume of emails landing on MEPs, MPs, EU fisheries committee member’s desks if we are to make a serious impact with the decision makers. This needs to come from the RSA sector who have the numerical potential to make a difference.

 

We could end up paying a licence, the monies from which would pay the Beam Trawlers to keep smashing up Poole Bay, long after it has become economically unviable, and to our increasing detriment.

[charlieannear]

Also, this:

 

http://www.pescaricreativa.org/notizie/item/341-campagna-nazionale-per-la-gestione-della-spigola.html

Sea Bass management - Italian campaign

Sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is one of the most valuable and  important  fish in Mediterranean coastal waters for recreational fishing and its related economy.

The evident decline of the wild stock, which could be naturally abundant in our seas, highlights the urgency of stock and fisheries assessment. Lack of these data makes implementation of  proper management difficult.

The critical situation of sea bass stock  in the Mediterranean adversely affects  the recreational fishing economy with loss of income and jobs.

Italian coastal areas have a huge potential to be exploited which could benefit the recreational fishing sector. More and bigger bass would attract more anglers from Italy and abroad. More recreational anglers means more economy and more jobs to coastal communities and the Italian economy.

With the lack of a national management plan for sea bass, a precautionary approach should be adopted. Technical restrictions to both commercial and recreational fishing are required in order to protect essential fish habitats and to reduce the fishing effort  but they are inadequate for the purpose without a proper control policy and enforcement on  illegal fishing.

What we want in the Mediterranean Fishery

• A research program to assess the wild sea bass stock and the related recreational and commercial fisheries.
• A national sea bass management plan.
• The minimun landing size set at 40 cm to give most fish the chance to spawn at least once.
• A recreational daily bag limit set in number of fish.
• The prohibition of nets, longlines and passive fishing gear within 500 metres from the shore whatever the water depth.
• The inland brackish waters and  sea waters regulation to be harmonized.
• A control scheme on seafood supply chain, enforced at local level, to fight illegal fishing and illegal sales of catches.

[lofty]

Its a minefield for sure

[Stuie]

Thanks Charlie, as is often the case - and no doubt will only get worse - the phrase 'buried by bureaucracy' springs to mind. More talk and no action. We can only live in hope.  Like many I'm keen to pass on my views for any relevant  survey however.

 

Grumpy old man.