The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network

Scottish shark tagging event attracts anglers from all over the UK

Event exceeds all expectations

The greatest shark tagging event ever held in Scotland, the UK and probably in the world - was the overall verdict of those who took part in last weekend's Sharkatag organised by the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (www.ssacn.org).

Two hundred and fifteen anglers of all ages and abilities, coming from as far away as Cornwall and Caithness, attended the event held around the Solway region in South West Scotland, fishing from boats, kayaks and the shore to catch, tag and release various shark species. This kind of response highlights what was meant by the MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Alex Ferguson, when he said recreational sea angling has an "almost unlimited potential" to become a massive tourist business in Galloway.

The event had three goals - to highlight the perilous state of endangered shark species; to start gathering some of the data to support claims for their protection; to continue to press politicians and fisheries managers to recognise the needs of the sea angling community and its contribution to the Scottish economy.

The SSACN project team who put the event together were totally blown away by the response and support it received from the anglers, from the local hoteliers, shops, caravan parks and local skippers as well as the kind words and support given by the local people. Messages of support have continued to arrive following the nationwide TV, radio, internet and written media attention.

However, although the social side was fantastic, the fishing was less so. According to Ian Burrett, SSACN's Project Director, "Around two hundred tope, smoothhound and bull huss were tagged over the three days and that can only be described as poor compared to what the total should have been.

"It really worries me that many of the tope packs have failed to show this year. The whole region seems to be void of the expected male breeding stock and the fish caught were mostly immature females, typically under twenty pounds and a few solitary females in the 50-60 pound range; Luce Bay was especially poor for the time of year."

"Combined with the lack of rays tagged, only three throughout Sharkatag, it shows how urgently plans are needed to help protect and regenerate the stocks. Twenty year ago virtually every boat would have recorded several mature tope and rays."

For decades governments and fisheries managers have made decisions regarding exploitation by the catching sector without the full knowledge of the state of fish stocks and the marine environment. However, when it is obvious to all that many stocks are in serious danger, there is a total lack of action by Scottish fisheries managers to protect stocks due to 'an insufficiency of data'.

To help overcome that 'insufficiency', the information gathered during Sharkatag will feed into SSACN's Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP - www.tagsharks.com) which has been introduced to act as a central clearing point for all data regarding shark, skate and ray stocks in Scottish coastal waters.

Without regeneration, not only will Scotland's marine biodiversity lose more species, but the £150+ million/yr and the £25+ million/yr which sea angling contributes to the Scottish and Solway economies, will also suffer badly. With a little political will and some proactive measures, the biodiversity losses could be halted and the Solway could become a European centre of excellence for sea angling. This would probably bring another £15 million/yr to its economy through increased angling tourism.

Registered taggers will continue the work year round on targeted species, but the next SSACN organised major tagging event will be the annual spurdog 'Tagathon' to be held in late autumn in the waters around Lochs Sunart, Etive and the Sound of Mull when once again, SSACN look forward to welcoming as many 'taggers' as possible.


SSACN Media Enquiries ::

Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN)
62 Lounsdale Drive
Paisley
Renfrewshire
PA2 9ED

SSACN Website :: www.ssacn.org          email contact ::   contact@ssacn.org     tel: 01561 361 960
SSTP Website     :: www.tagsharks.com   email contact  ::  tagsharks@ssacn.org  tel: 01776 840 346

The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN) is a Charity registered in Scotland.

SSACN was established to lead a unified, coordinated and comprehensive approach to international, national and local conservation issues which may affect recreational sea angling in Scotland.

SSACN campaigns and works with statutory bodies for the continual improvement of Scottish RSA fisheries and access for all anglers to them so that sea anglers can effectively enjoy their sport within fisheries managed for the benefit of all and not just a select few commercial interests.

Issue ::

Although many anglers have a deep understanding of sharks and their movements and have long recognised that there are issues with the stocks of many species, governments will only accept scientific data before they will consider implementing shark conservation policies.

Tagging is the only non-destructive assessment of sharks available which will help provide data such as :

• Species migrations
• Growth rates
• Population and stock make-up
• Stock fluctuations dynamics

As no scientific body can afford to pay scientists/marine biologists to effectively tag and release large numbers of fish, the SSTP has been formed to encourage anglers to get involved out of their love for the fish.

Sea Angling in Scotland ::

Recreational sea angling is a selective, environmentally friendly and low-impact fishing activity, it is the # 1 coastal recreation activity in Scotland and is of great social and economic importance.

Scotland should be a major sea angling centre based around species that are not readily available elsewhere in the British Isles, but lack of stocks through inefficient and ineffective fisheries management has left many species virtually extinct and many areas barren and fishless.

Sea angling supports many livelihoods and business opportunities and contributes more than £150 million / yr to the Scottish economy; over £20 million / yr is being lost to the Scottish economy through the lack of fish stocks and facilities.

 

The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN)

SCOTTISH SEA ANGLERS WORTH MILLIONS

Over £140 million a year to the Scottish economy.

Scottish sea angling’s contribution is greater than that of salmon, trout and coarse angling combined, and at least as valuable as incoming golf tourism according to the long awaited Government sponsored study into the value of Scottish sea angling which was undertaken by Glasgow Caledonian University.

Released on the 29th July 2009 at a meeting in Drummore, Dumfries and Galloway where Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, met with representatives of the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN www.ssacn.org), local politicians and business leaders.

Introducing the report he said

“This ground breaking report shows that the popular sport of sea angling lands thousands of jobs and millions of pounds for Scotland,"

and continued

"The potential for further development is huge and the next step must be to set up a group to take forward a development strategy.”

SSACN understands the group is expected to comprise sea angling representative bodies, local authorities, tourist agencies, marine scientists and other representative bodies and be tasked with delivering a strategic plan before the next Holyrood election.

Our Vice Chairman, Ian Burrett, pointed out to all present that the cost of implementing such a plan will be minimal compared with the rewards and that the cost of inaction will be a worsening ecological disaster, a multi-million pound missed opportunity and more pressure on the economies of coastal communities.

As recently as the late 1980's, Scotland was a major European destination for sea anglers, however, due to poor fisheries management over the last two decades, the stocks of many of those have been almost totally depleted which apart from the tragic loss of biodiversity in our seas, has caused hundreds of jobs and millions of pounds to be lost from the fragile economies of many coastal communities.

Following the meeting, Mr Lochhead joined members of SSACN to experience sea angling at first hand off the Mull of Galloway catching a number of pollack; this enabled him to experience truly sustainable fishing by following the anglers and returning all those caught.

John Scott MSP (Cons), Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & the Environment, who was also at the meeting said later "After two years of silence, it is crucial the Scottish Government comes up with a significant and well thought through plan to ensure the potential of the sea angling industry in Scotland is not lost."

Scottish anglers have spent around £3 billion in the last 20 years on their sport, it is about time they received something in return !



NOTES for editors / background information

The Government Study

Executive summary at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/280284/0084431.pdf

According to the study, over 148,633 adults and juveniles/ yr go sea angling in Scotland contributing  £140,868  million to the Scottish economy and supporting 3,148 full time jobs.

The report was conducted by the public policy division of Glasgow Caledonian University, which has specialized in examining other types of angling.

SSACN Facts

The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN. www.ssacn.org) is a charity pressure group which believes the Scottish politicians are failing in their duty to protect marine biodiversity in inshore waters.

Recreational sea angling is a selective, environmentally friendly and low-impact fishing activity; it is the top coastal recreation activity in Scotland and with over 100,000 anglers regularly taking part is of great social and economic importance.

SSACN is leading the way on marine conservation in Scotland with initiatives such as the Shark Tagging Programme (www.tagsharks.com) to help provide the Government with the data it says it needs to protect certain species.

Last month, we organised Sharkatag, a three-day volunteer tagging weekend which attracted more than 200 anglers from all over the UK to the Solway to help gather data on threatened shark species. The event was worth more than £40,000 to local businesses in Dumfries and Galloway.

England and Wales are moving rapidly towards implementing sea angling strategies yet the Scottish Government is looking increasingly isolated due to its lack of action.

SSACN envisage a number of angling regeneration centres in key areas such as the Solway, Clyde, Moray Firth and Loch Etive in order to :

• Minimise the need for species by species legislation
• Protect inshore marine biodiversity.
• Promote the sustainable use of natural resources.
• Increase public awareness and knowledge of the inshore marine environment.
• Increase the number and diversity of people taking part in the the sport.
• Preserve angling as the nation’s most popular participation sport.
• Demonstrate recreational sea angling leadership in Europe.
  

Contact details . . .

The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network

SSACN Chairman - Steve Bastiman - steve@ssacn.org

Tagathon and the Grand Summer Draw

Just a note regarding the upcoming second Spurdog Tagathon which you may like to highlight on your site .

The SSACN / SSTP Tagathon will take place over the weekend 14th/ 15th of November.

The Tagathon is part of our ongoing campaign to highlight the issues around the stocks of spurdog and common skate in Loch Sunart, Loch Etive and surrounding waters as well as raise the public awareness of the urgent need for protection of Scotland’s critically endangered sharks, rays and skate.

Common skate are on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) ‘red list’; spurdog are at 5% of their original biomass and evidence from anglers suggests that Lochs Sunart and Etive and surrounding waters have unique resident populations which pup in the region, however, hard evidence is required by the government before they will to take any action to allow stocks to regenerate by protecting them from excessive and unsustainable commercial exploitation.

Anglers will be encouraged to tag as many spurdog and common skate as possible from the shore and boat as tagging is the only non-destructive assessment of sharks available which will help provide the required data.

Shortly we shall be adding a couple of pages to the SSTP and SSACN website designated to the coordination of the Tagathon. In the meantime, if you fancy joining what looks likely to be a fantastic weekend then please register your interest at on the SSACN site or here on the SSTP site.

 

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The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network
www.ssacn.org - Fish for the future.
A registered Scottish charity RegNo. SC039015