Chairmans Chat

The Institute gets consulted on many matters of a great variety. Recent consultations include fish health regulations in Europe and effects of burial practices on water. When the consultation period is long, we can usually find someone to take on the task and get members of Council to check that the response is appropriate for the Institute. However, matters often arise at short notice on which the Institute should voice an opinion, such as press articles. Our Press Officer picks up some of these and can sometimes find people willing to respond on behalf of the Institute.

The Institute gets consulted on many matters of a great variety. Recent consultations include fish health regulations in Europe and effects of burial practices on water. When the consultation period is long, we can usually find someone to take on the task and get members of Council to check that the response is appropriate for the Institute. However, matters often arise at short notice on which the Institute should voice an opinion, such as press articles. Our Press Officer picks up some of these and can sometimes find people willing to respond on behalf of the Institute. This is made much easier if the Institute has existing policies, but these were mainly derived as comments on the Fisheries Review and are usually very general.. But, in many instances, we have no clear line to take and cannot consult a range of members to derive a timely opinion for a press release.

There are several controversial topics being discussed at the moment, including the Animal Welfare Bill. Two angling practices are causing problems with this – use of keepnets and livebaiting. It would be very useful for the Institute to have a line to take on these topics. F2 carp also seem to be controversial, but without a line for the Institute to take if asked to comment.

We tried to form a panel of experts to contact on particular matters, but you can see that this is difficult given the variety of topics that may require comment. Another way is to contact a number of members, whether expert or not, and thereby collate opinions that reflect the membership. This has been difficult to practise, but an exciting development should be available soon that will help the Institute and its members in many ways. We are relaunching our website!

The new website will offer news items, regular updates from Branches, a members’ forum, where current topics can be discussed and opinions formed, copies of advisory booklets and past copies of Fish and offer an e-mail forwarding service. Accessibility will be improved to meet current industry standards that take into account those who are visually impaired. We are also taking steps to get it more readily found in searches and thereby linked to by others who find it a useful source of information on fisheries management.

Changes are also afoot in the Institute’s training courses to make them more closely attuned to the needs of members and not solely offered as distance learning, apart from a few specialist courses. Look out for details on the Training pages of Fish.

Finally, don’t forget to come along to the Annual Conference at Salford in November, look out members of Council during social activities or the AGM and let us know how we can improve the Institute. See you there!

Stephen Axford