‘Public’ shing would perhaps be a
better way of beginning to make
policy makers understand that these
are members of the public – the very
people our elected representatives
are there to represent – and just
perhaps they have a duty of care to
ensure that sh stocks are not only
managed with the public interest in
mind but in some cases with priority
access for public shing where it
delivers the best return in the
national interest.There are countless other examples of
public rights or public access to
commonly or publicly-owned assets
and the term very helpfully reminds
everyone that we all have a stake in
whatever it might be – transport,
land, health service.The term ‘recreational’ doesn’t help to
dispel the misconception that it’s a
hobby and leisure activity and of
lesser importance than the
commercial shing industry which
supports jobs and local economies.Saltwater Boat Angling 89
For some time now I’ve become
increasingly keen to stop using the
term ‘recreational shing’. I know why
it developed and that it was chosen to
distinguish from those who sell sh
for pro t. But the term ‘recreational’
now seems to be being used to paint
anglers as a strange and small bunch
of hobbyists who enjoy nothing more
than playing with sh for their own
recreation. My preferred term by
which to refer to members of the
public who happen to enjoy catching
sh for their own consumption, and
for sport, would be the ‘public’ shery.
After all, isn’t that just what all anglers
are, members of the public shing for
their own publicly-owned sh stocks?This fact seems to be getting lost as
the commercial shing industry,
over-zealous environmentalists and
policy makers get increasingly over-
heated about the impact on sh
stocks of ‘recreational’ shing, as if
this strange bunch of people with an
unhealthy interest in sh come from
another planet.It’s not as if members of the public
who sh for publicly-owned sh
stocks are some kind of fringe special
interest group!A recent report produced for the EU
Parliament has calculated that there
are approximately nine million
members of the public who sh
‘recreationally’ across Europe
contributing to a total overall spend
across Europe of EURO 10.5bn
supporting in the order of 100,000
jobs. In other words, immense! Yet
somehow the term ‘recreational’
shing somehow doesn’t begin to
re ect this.Public access to publicly-owned sh
stocks in the new mantra that anglers
should be calling for. Doctors, pub
landlords, labourers, and bankers may
all be anglers who enjoy spending
their hard-earned money on shing
but at the end of the day they
shouldn’t be de ned as ‘recreational
anglers’ but citizens and members of
the public whose immense spending
power, often in deprived coastal
communities, means management of
publicly-owned sh stocks should be
prioritised around their needs –
locally abundant, large, sh – where
this delivers the best return to society
as a whole.Recreational
or Public?
Th e Angling Trust’s Head of Marine,
David Mitchell,
questions whether anglers should use
a new descriptive term for our activities
Issue 018 48-92.indd 89 11/10/2017 13:42:40