I went to the CSFC meeting yesterday. They voted to ban all scallop collection in Falmouth Bay.
It was one of the most depressing experiences of my life
The fact that this bunch of ignorant, opinionated and largely unelected cretins (and others like them around the country) are in charge of our inshore waters does not give me much hope for the future
Despite some very good arguments against the ban from Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency, the majority of the Committee thought that if dredging was not allowed, no other collection should be allowed either. The fact that dredging has been banned because of the damage it causes seemed not to compute
A very biased report from the Chief Fisheries Officer (including claims that a scallop dive boat will regularly take 3000+ scallops a day!) convinced the committee that divers are a threat to scallop stocks.
Over 2/3 of the committee members had direct commercial fishing connections.As far as they were concerned, the seas around Cornwall exist purely for the benefit of commercial fishermen. Recreational users were not just ignored, they weren't even mentioned.
The next stage is the DEFRA consultation. Hopefully some sense will prevail there
cheers
dave
drysuitrepair.co.uk