Please anyone involved with the bay and the fishing industry around this area tell us how it will affect you post it on here and we will put all your points forward HAVE YOUR SAY NOW! tell your friends! hurry we only have until the 31st of march!!!!
The fishermen of Hythe bay and the local areas have been trying to work with balanced seas so we can have marine protected zones in place to safe guard the future of our grounds and fish stocks. But now it has come to light that the rich fishing grounds that we were willing to give up for help in this project have been ignored. Now the proposed zones put forward by the wildlife trust are being considered. The problem with these zones are they just shut off big local areas which the local fishermen rely on to make a living. These proposed zones also contain no science that they need any recovery,in fact the science behind the species recommended for protection within the site their numbers have increased over the year. This then leads to the question why do we need such zones that show no signs of recovery needed? Why do we need such zones that shuts off so much ground to fishermen that rely on them. Why can't the real stakeholders (the fishermen) have a real say on where these zones should be placed, after all we know the grounds better than anyone else. We have worked hard and many of us have given up our free time to help with this project, taken our time to come up with zones that not only protect the grounds in the best way but have taken in to consideration that the local fishermen rely on there local grounds to survive which I think is a consideration that has been over looked by the rest of the groups involved with balanced sea.
This will affect more than just fishermen, we are just the tip of the iceberg if we fold its a knock on affect for fish mongers, nets makers, commercial refrigeration, delivery drivers etc all the way down the chain to the consumer, as we will have to import fish from overs sea. fish that comes from 6 miles off our shore at higher prices. so if you have a fish restaurant or a net maker ect or you just love eating local fish please tell us your thoughts this will affect you! write to your mps NOW! http://www.writetothem.com/
Malcolm Gosman ......As a fisherman from Ramsgate Hythe Bay and the surrounding area has become an important fishery for me now as the fishing grounds around the Thanet coast line are getting beyond the point of not being viable to fish because of all the wind-farms now erected, there are now in excess of 400 turbines now and that is a lot of ground gone for ever! as for marine protected zones there all right on paper but in practice that's another thing, the only people who no the grounds are the fisherman themselves but as usual we are not heard because we're nothing more than a nuisance they say they listen but they don't! there are so many implications to think of the main one safety! vessels will have to go further to fish which with a small boat is not always best! so for me I'm for and against MCZ's there all right but there needs to be a bit of fair play and for once sit round the table and listen to the people that know the fisherman.
Save the Fishermen of Hythe Bay 400 turbines......i wonder if Hugh has allowed for that in his 0.001%?! Somehow i doubt it, and there's dozens of windfarms like that and bigger around the coast, does anyone know exactly how many there is? They must shut off hundreds of square miles off our fishing grounds...
Paul Beresford
At the last meeting with the MMO the scientific evidence showed that.in the last ten years the spoon worm had increased from 800 per sq meter to 1400 per sq meter. Every one at the meeting agreed that fishing was obviously not affecting these burrowing creatures in any way. They then said they wanted to use this area as a point off interest to see what might grow there if left alone.This area gets changed by wind and tide regular and being so shallow its doubtful nothing will grow.
Why are these people using our bay and our lively hoods as an experiment? We all agreed on several small areas which we would be interested in seeing what would happen. But as usual they want the whole area. Also we offered them from Dover to Folkestone to three miles out.
But it seems they only want our best fishing areas!