Please help...

... angling by completeling this short survey. Never mind if you are an ATr supporter/member or not, you can really help defend angling for just a couple of minutes of your time:

Can people pass this around please, other forums, friends etc.

Geoff


Angling Missing from Welsh Outdoor Survey

Dear members and friends,

We need your help to complete a 5 minute online questionnaire before the 20th of September please.

We have recently been alerted to a survey of outdoor activity in Wales that is being carried out by the Welsh Assembly Government which does not include angling as one of the activities. It is very important that the Government is made aware of the importance of fishing to the local economy at the moment, particularly as it is currently considering bringing in new legislation to introduce universal access for canoes to all rivers in Wales.

If you, or anyone you know, has fished in Wales in the past year, please complete the survey and enter “Angling” in the “Other” box at the bottom of the list of possible activities and then describe how much you have spent on recent fishing trips.

It really does take only 5 minutes and you don’t have to give your name or e-mail address if you don’t want to (but you can win a voucher of £100 for outdoor activities or goods if you do).

Wales Outdoor Activity Tourism Visitor Survey

The link to the survey for individual anglers is here: Wales Outdoor Activity Tourism Visitor Survey

Wales Outdoor Activity Tourism Business Survey

If you run a club selling day tickets, or a fishery, please click here: Wales Outdoor Activity Tourism Business Survey

Thank you for your help.

All best wishes,

The Angling Trust

All done Geoff, put it on the Barbel Society facebook page and forum.

We got booted after the first question because we clicked 'NO' - We have fished in Wales but coarse and game angling (and most sea fishing) in the UK is generally NOT an 'adventurous' activity.

Suspect this is why angling is not included in the survey, which is specifically aimed at adventure sports, as per the examples given.

You try wading my stretch of the Wye with a fly or trotting rod - damn right it's adventurous. You risk your life that some unsupervised pair of drunk teenagers on their first trip in a canoe might ram into you - and as soon as you lose your footing it's life and death.
Then there's the pike!

Still worth a yes click FM admin!

Just done it Geoff, would be rude not to in my case!

All done Geoff

just completed cheers!

The survey now notes that angling is one of the pastimes specifically EXCLUDED from the questionnaire...

We don't like to say we told you so but...

Thought it had been changed, I tried fishing instead and it seemed to register!!


Link page is now different BUT at the bottom of the page 5 activities including http://www.visitwales.com/things-to-do/activities/fishing

They have reworded it halfway through, then taken the site down - dunno if its still down. I confronted the survey compilers yesterday and got the following response.

The original message read as below, the response and counter are below that:
====
Hello

I recently was fwrd a Welsh Outdoor Survey to complete which I'm told you compiled. If it wasn't you then please ignore this. If it was...

Whatever were you thinking of to ignore Angling, a 3 billion pound industry in England and Wales alone, dwarfing the all other activities you list even when they are all added together.... tut tut tut

Geoff Maynard


Subject: Re: Outdoor Activity Survey

An interesting response Nick. Particularly where you comment " It is not an attempt to steer legislation on countryside access, or to comment on the shared use of the landscape." Why should you even mention that I wonder, because I certainly didn't. Perhaps there's a case here of 'the Lady doth protest too much.' ? Because selective use of surveys like this will be always be used by some people for exactly the reasons you mention.
As anyone who has ever looked at a quarry down the length of a barrel, been for a gallop on horse, or been attached to a powerful fighting fish will tell you, these are indeed adrenaline sports - as can some types of cycling be. Adrenaline is not really not that subjective a word. It appears to me that either you were steered to avoid selecting some activites or you guys are rubbish at your jobs, and I don't think either of us believe the latter for an instant.

Thanks for your response anyway

Best regards

Geoff


----
Dear Geoff
Thanks for your e-mail to my colleague Mair. There appears to have been a certain amount of misunderstanding about the survey that you refer to. We were commissioned by the Wales Activity Tourism Organisation to undertake a study of “adrenalin sports” in Wales, that is the outdoor sectors that comprise their membership. This is confirmed in the first question of the survey, viz:


1. Have you undertaken an adventurous outdoor activity in Wales in the last year?
(An adventurous outdoor activity includes anything from climbing, mountaineering, watersports and airsports to a ropes course or zipwire. The activity could have been organised as part of a group or undertaken independently.)

There is no oversight or attempt to marginalise angling, which, as you point out, has enjoyed a certain amount of research and already has economic value assigned to it. The survey also excludes road cycling, rambling, shooting and horse riding, for example.

The overall study is aimed at assigning an economic value to a tourism sector that is little understood, on behalf of WATO members. It is not an attempt to steer legislation on countryside access, or to comment on the shared use of the landscape.

I hope this helps to clarify things. I should be happy to have a chat if you would like to discuss this further and my direct line is as below.

All the best,

Nick

An interesting use of words by them - adventurous and adrenalin sports. As Geoff rightly points out, angling is an adrenalin sport. What do you think the shakes are when you playing and landing/landed a big fish? Adrenalin coursing through your veins.
Is it adventurous? Well it can be if you like fishing the out of the way and in accessible places and I fished a few of them on the Upper Severn when I was a lot younger. To bloody old and knackered now to get in some of the spots I did but still push it to what is my adventurous limit even now. So yes fishing to me is adventurous!

What they meant but couldn't print it is "do you take part in dangerous activities that are potentially life threatening every time you do it!"
That would really open up a can of worms

The bad one said:

What they meant but couldn't print it is "do you take part in dangerous activities that are potentially life threatening every time you do it!"

Click to expand...

Not to even mention, "do you take part in dangerous sports that when you get it wrong requires others to risk their lives in order to save yours?"

Plonkers!