Environmental
Damage |
The
Market
According
to research, 1 million people are estimated to participate in sea
fishing annually in the U.K. (Target Group Index 1994, quoted in Saunders
et al 1998). The number of active anglers (sea and freshwater) in
the late 1990s is considered to have risen to around 3 million, with
an economic value of over £1 billion per annum.
The retail trade reports that
existing sources of bait from commercial bait collectors and farmed
sources are completely inadequate to meet demand, both in the UK and
overseas. ‘Natura 2000 – Guidelines for managing the collection
of bait and other shoreline animals within UK European sites’
states: “the value of this industry is high, commercial values
of the main bait supplies in the UK suggest that the bait market in
the UK alone is worth between £25 and £30 million per
annum”
Many Recreational anglers drive
100 miles or more to obtain bait for an important fishing session
and commercial bait collectors are reported to visit bait beds several
hundred miles away for periods of intensive collection.
The retail trade reports that
existing sources of bait from commercial bait collectors are completely
inadequate to meet demand, both in the U.K. and overseas. Bait collectors
identify several factors thought to be responsible:
1) Loss of bait beds due to
pollution, land claim or coastal works changing current and sediment
regimes.
2) Closure of bait beds as a result of increased restrictions by landowners
and managers (e.g. in nature reserves, ports and harbours, and on
recreational beaches).
3) Over-exploitation of bait stocks, causing populations to dwindle
in heavily exploited areas.
(Guidelines for managing the
collection of bait and other shoreline animals within UK European
marine sites. December 1999. S L Fowler)
The
market for peeler crab is a typical supply and demand market, where
demand presently outstrips supply by an appreciable margin. Demand
for peeler crab is at it’s highest during the winter months,
precisely when, due to colder seawater temperatures, natural supplies
are non-existent, in all but a few estuaries in the far south of the
country, principally around Plymouth.
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