The Angling Trust has joined forces with BASC (the British Association for Shooting and Conservation) to launch a new service for members of angling’s representative body.

Any of the Trust’s member clubs, fisheries or riparian owners who are experiencing damage to their fish and fisheries by cormorants can call the Cormorant Control Hotline on 01244 573019 where BASC’s game and gamekeeping department will give advice about the best way to deal with the problem within the constraints of the current cormorant control licence and wherever possible visit the fishery and carry out the shooting free of charge.

BASC’s Game and Gamekeeping Department will also give free help applying for and completing the paperwork required for a licence from Natural England.
Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said “We have experienced a sharp increase in the numbers of our members contacting us for advice on how to control cormorants. The first step is to apply for a licence from Natural England. Unfortunately for the average fishing club secretary this can be a painful process involving a 9 page form. Clubs may also be put off by the need for an experienced shooter with the correct firearm to carry out the pest control. This new service effectively deals with both those problems.”

Christopher Graffius, Director of Communications at BASC said “We applaud the Angling Trust’s continued efforts to assist their members in dealing with the growing numbers of cormorants and the effect on fishing. Many of BASC’s members are anglers too and this new initiative shows how important it is for those who use the countryside to stand together and work to preserve our fisheries, which suffer from over-abstraction, pollution, barriers to migration and a host of other issues.”

Cormorant Control Hotline: 01244 573019

Have you used www.cormorantwatch.org yet?
Click HERE to report your sightings of cormorants, goosanders and mergansers so that the Angling Trust can make Government listen to anglers on this issue.

Is it actually anglers that want the government to listen or is it riparian owners?as an angler cormorants and mergansers are part of the natural surroundings, as a riparian owner of a fishery I might have a different view, as it is , for me its live and let live,easker1

Great to see BASC and the angling trust joining forces

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www.tintotroutfishery.co.uk
www.anglersholidaycottages.co.uk

shooting and conservation , seems like a contradiction, and our local angling trust has provided work for freshwater biologists, but nothing about salmon farms in sea lochs, it has watched Loch Maree go to practical extinction as far as the seatrout is concerned, I have helped them in the past, but each year while hoping for an improvement, we get disappointment,sorry to sound cynical
but I have followed local trusts since their inception, a letter from the Scottish office accused me of being negative about the trusts, easker 1

Just as much a contradiction as the Atlantic Salmon Trust. (many of their members kill fish!)
Lets not split hairs on the names of bodies representing those who partake in country pursuits.
Any shared help, and legal advice, between representative bodies is more than welcome.
Might one day bring us all together under the one umbrella.
Now what a vote catcher that would be!
regards
bert

Easker 1, the Angling Trust does not cover Scotland so I am at a loss as to how you have been working with it?
Bill

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Handeman

there are regional angling trusts throughout Scotland, I would have thought there would be a link , if not I hope yours has more clout than ours, easker1