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Following meetings with fishing leaders and a visit to the top Cornish
port of Newlyn on Tuesday, St Ives MP Andrew George has urged all sides
to closely monitor the progress of a new voluntary code intended to deal
with the problem of cetacean by-catch.
Mr George, the Lib Dem's Shadow Fisheries Minister, visited Newlyn with
Julia Goldsworthy - the party's Prospective Candidate for Falmouth and
Camborne. While in the port they met Paul Trebilcock, chief executive
of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, for discussions on the recently
established voluntary code for gill netters in Mount's Bay and St Austell
Bay.
The code, which has wide support amongst the local fleet, sets stringent
conditions on the use of this form of static gear.
Up to 100 nets are set on the Cornish coast as part of the winter bass
fishery between now and March.
The code complements the Government's recent ban on the use of pelagic
pair trawling within the 12-mile zone, which is known to contribute to
the unintended deaths of many hundreds of dolphins and porpoises in the
Western Approaches between January and April each year.
The code includes provisions and a responsibility upon fishermen to alert
the Cornish Sea Fisheries Committee if cetaceans are noticed in any areas
where gill nets are being set.
Mr George said: "It is important that lessons are learned from this
measure.
"The first is that fishermen should be congratulated for their constructive
engagement in efforts to find a solution to the problem of, in this case,
porpoise deaths.
"This is the application of good common sense measures to address
some of the concerns about cetacean by-catch.
"Fishermen recognise that if they failed to act then the prospect
of this fishery being closed altogether was not far away.
"We will also have to monitor the impact of this measure on the
viability of bass stocks.
"Naturally, the most benign of all methods of bass fishing - line
catching - should be fully encouraged, whereas gill netting does need
to be very carefully monitored.
"The second lesson is for the Government - it is important that
the Fisheries Minister recognises that the creation of local solutions
like this are significantly less likely if the Sea Fisheries Committee
were to be amalgamated into a less accountable and less localised body,
which would generate a climate of suspicion amongst inshore fishermen.
"The Minister should take heed and withdraw the very unhelpful -
indeed destructive - proposals to abolish the Cornish and the Scillonian
and other Sea Fisheries Committees and replace them with bodies covering
massive and unmanageable Government 'regions'. Voluntary agreements like
this would never be achieved in those circumstances."
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