OUR CONCERNS – CURRENT NETTING PRACTICES IN SANDOWN BAY
Dear All,
This letter is sent to bring your personal awareness of ongoing concern over current netting practices in Sandown Bay. Aim is to ban the use of ‘Set Nets’ (huge nets left unattended with an anchor at each end) in the Sandown Bay area. We think they are dangerous and are decimating the juvenile fish population which bodes ill for future generations of bass, bream, flatfish and rays and consequently islander’s children’s inalienable right to see local fish species and stocks conserved for their generational benefit.
Please support Sandown Bay Protection Forum by signing the website petition at www.sbpf.co.uk
The SBPF are a group of disenchanted local anglers, who, in one way or another are involved in organising or fishing angling events on the Island. The group preparing to spoke to the Council on the 10th of March as a group regarding the commercial netting of Sandown Bay. The group are currently continuing to raise awareness of this issue so have decided to send a synopsis of our concerns to you to explain their position.
‘Three years ago in an effort to address these same worries, we collected approx.3000 signatories to a petition to Andrew Turner our MP. The feedback from him was that it was purely a local problem that he could not help with! We have the petition for Sandown Town Council to view, should they wish to.
The commercial netting in Sandown Bay has intensified to such an extent that they are depleting the stocks of breeding fish so successfully that hardly any are reaching the shoreline. They are doing this with a barrage of (unidentified, inadequately marked nets) an estimated 10 miles of Tangle netting¹, sometimes stretching from one side of the bay to the other. Some of the nets are so close to the beach that anglers cast into the nets and they are a danger to swimmers. The local Inshore Lifeboat, Pleasure boat owners, Wind and Kite surfers and jet skiers have also experienced problems. We think they are a hazard for visiting Yachts looking for a safe anchorage.
Although we have no firm evidence, we know from experience that Dolphins and diving birds have been caught in the nets. Whilst obeying the law with the fish sizes, hundreds of small nursery fish are thrown back into the bay dead, when the nets are pulled and reset.
We have tried to talk to the people involved in the commercial netting but to no avail. This has been met with arrogance and aggression. They are more interested in making a fast profit at the expense of outdoor leisure activities vital to tourism and the local economy than the impact it has on the many native fish that breed in this area.
Local commercial fishermen who beach launch with small boats in Sandown bay have seen a down turn in catches in the last 3 years. Some of these people have fished the bay all their life, their way of fishing has always cared for and maintained the fish stocks
If the commercial exploitation of Sandown bay by large boats from Portsmouth, Bembridge and Ventnor continues the stock of fish like bass, bream, flatfish and rays which all breed in the bay, will decline dramatically within a very short time. Already the population of flounders (a small flatfish), which have survived in Bembridge Harbor and the River Medina for 100’s of years, have been destroyed in just two seasons by a small group of commercial pirates selling them for 10p each as pot bait for lobsters and crab. Although not illegal, the commercial greed is unethical. Every single major fish species caught in the Bay is on the current watch list as a future endangered species.
Most of the island coastal towns have a Harbour authority charged with protecting and managing their own marine environment. The Solent also has a multitude of organizations dedicated to ecological management. They have their own set of rules which enable them to do this. Sandown bay seems to be under the authority of the “Southern Sea Fisheries” and “Portsmouth Harbour authority” neither of which is a local body. We feel that Sandown Council should have a more active role in the management of one of the best natural resources on the Isle of Wight.
Many angling clubs on the island do a lot of fundraising for charity. The success of the fundraising is based on how many people enter the competitions. Last year Ventnor angling club raised £3300 for “Help for Heroes” in one competition alone, and in previous years have raised many thousands for charities like Haylands farm, Sandown Inshore lifeboats etc. To keep up this good work is not easy when the fish stocks are being depleted at an alarming rate. Beach fishermen lose interest when they know there are commercial boats removing 90% of the stock in the bay sometimes within casting distance! The people that benefit from the gross overfishing of Sandown Bay are a very small minority. The benefits for maintaining the fish stocks will pay dividends for the future of local marine life.
The Isle of Wight already hosts the British cod championships. Within the next 2 years UK HOOKS LTD., a local fishing tackle business, is planning to host a week long angling festival based on shore fishing for bass. THE BRITISH BASS FESTIVAL will be based in the Sandown bay area. This will be promoted throughout the UK. This type of festival already takes place in the Channel Islands and has done very successfully for the last 24 years. On average 200 + people take part spending an estimated 40-50K on local accommodation and local business. If the over fishing of Sandown bay continues at this alarming rate there will be no incentive for events of this type to take place, this will be detrimental to generating income for local business in the Sandown and Shanklin area.
To sum up, the benefits of protecting Sandown bay are as follows-
- We are not against commercial fishing in general.
- The fish stocks will have time to regenerate before it is too late.
- People visiting the island for leisure and angling will increase, which will help local business.
- Fundraising through angling clubs for local charity will be more successful.
- Getting young people involved in angling as a sport will be easier and more fulfilling.
- And although the netting is not illegal there is a moral and ethical issue to consider.
- Incidents regarding Health and Safety eliminated
Thank you for reading.
To bring the plight of the Sandown Bay’s dwindling fish stocks to the attention of the public and the “powers that be”, a group of anglers have organised themselves as the “Sandown Bay Protection Forum” (SBPF). Their aim is to bring the excessive netting in the bay under stricter control. The forum is not looking for a complete ban, just the preservation of fish stocks for the benefit of all. It is also felt that sheer density of “Set Nets” present in the area pose a safety threat to all water based leisure activities, not just angling. A presentation to the Sandown Council by the forum has already begun due process which may lead to the creation of a new bylaw to restrict netting activity. The SBPF has now set up an on line petition which can be found at the Forum’s web site www.sbpf.co.uk . In addition to this the SBPF is now also looking to gain pledges of support from local businesses and all other interested parties to help them in their quest to maintain Sandown Bay as a premier destination for anglers and tourists.’
