I have received the following email from the NFA today:
Dear Bob,
I am sorry we have not replied more quickly to your letter of the 31st August ?Barbel Care and Conservation?. We have added the issue of Barbel care and conservation to the next fish welfare meeting which will be attended by representatives from all the major (coarse) angling bodies including reps from the SAA, FACT, CEFAS and PCFA. The intention is that we will start to examine the issue and look for a common way forward. We will keep you informed with our progress on this issue.
I would just like to comment on your statement that ?The NFA will rightly campaign for the retention of barbel in nets as to do otherwise would damage match fishing?. This seems to assume that the NFA?s only concern is with matches, this is not the case. We are concerned with all aspects of the sport ? specimen anglers and occasional pleasure anglers are as important to us as match anglers. We should wait and see what recommendations come from the fish welfare meetings but we will certainly be considering the bigger picture and not just focusing on the narrow remit of match angling.
Sent on behalf of;
Julian Taylor
NFA Angling Development Officer
I replied as follows:
Dear Ben
Thank you for your constructive and optimistic response.
Please do not concern yourself over the delay, if this was a race you would now be the only participant at the medals ceremony as neither the Barbel Society nor the Angling Times have reponded, which saddens me, but there we are. It seems the Barbel Society is set to plough its own furrow which will be a real shame as to pursue a policy of banning barbel in keepnets at all times is wholly unrealistic. The policy might influence their 1400 strong membership, practically all of whom don't use them anyway, but it will have little impact on the wider angling community.
Perhaps there is some merit in you inviting a Barbel Society representative to your meeting though.
Your assumption on my apparent assumption, that the NFA's only concern is matches, says much about your sensitivity to the widely held view that the NFA is only concerned with matches, or is that an assumption?
However, the bottom line is that members of the National Federation of Sea Anglers and those of the Salmon and Trout Association members rarely face the dilemma of whether to put a barbel in a keepnet or not. I dare go as far as to say that neither side's membership spends a fortune on keepnets, in fact they probably don't they carry one between them but what we cannot ignore is that without keepnets you simply don't have match fishing and we do have the NFA to thank for infuencing the world governing body to stop killing fish caught in World Championships and to start using keepnets. As such it is a fundamental issue to yourselves be that when you are managing the England team affairs at the highest level right through to when you represent the occasional pleasure angler.
Good luck with your meeting. Please do let me know how things go.
Bob Roberts
Still no official response from the BS but I will share it with you should I get one.