P
Phil Hackett 2
Guest
On BBC Radio 4s Home Planet Programme today, the presenter Richard Daniels made a comment whilst the programme and panel were discussing Herons, their predator status and past persecution, that these birds ?were not the anglers best friends.? The subtle implication of this statement was that, anglers are still persecuting them.
As any angler of many years standing knows, this has not been the case for over 40 years or more. The SAA has had no reports whatsoever of these birds causing any problems anywhere in the country. Nor have we heard of any being culled by anglers legally or illegally, again anywhere in the country. The EA has never raise in any of the meetings the SAA has had with them, any concerns about anglers persecuting these birds, nor has the SAA it raised any concerns about any problems regarding fish losses to them. On the contrary, we have pointed out that the loss of silver fish to cormorants in our view, will impact on the numbers of other fish-eating bird species including herons, kingfishes, etc.
On the Panel was also Baroness Barber Young the Head Of the Environment Agency, whose comment to persecution of these birds was ?you here less of it these days.? This is somewhat disconcerting coming from the Head of the EA. Not what you would call an outright rejection of persecution by anglers on her part, by any stretch of the imagination. .
Given the above facts, I on behalf of the SAA would pose the following question to both the presenter and Baroness Young
?What evidence do you have that anglers are in recent times still persecuting herons??
To Baroness Young
And why, if you have any such evidence has the EA never raised the issue as a concern at any of the meetings with the SAA, or any other National Angling body?
On behalf of the SAA and angling, I would ask you to register your protest to the BBC and Baroness Young by e-mailing the programme voicing you concerns about these comments at home.planet@bbc.co.uk
For those wishing to make a protest by phone, the contact number is 08700 100 222
To listen to the comments online go to the R4 web site at Home Planet at 11 minutes into it programme on RealPlayer. For those that don?t have RealPlayer, it can be downloaded for free from the BBC.
I?d urge ALL reading this to register a protest.
Phil Hackett
Conservation Officer SAA
As any angler of many years standing knows, this has not been the case for over 40 years or more. The SAA has had no reports whatsoever of these birds causing any problems anywhere in the country. Nor have we heard of any being culled by anglers legally or illegally, again anywhere in the country. The EA has never raise in any of the meetings the SAA has had with them, any concerns about anglers persecuting these birds, nor has the SAA it raised any concerns about any problems regarding fish losses to them. On the contrary, we have pointed out that the loss of silver fish to cormorants in our view, will impact on the numbers of other fish-eating bird species including herons, kingfishes, etc.
On the Panel was also Baroness Barber Young the Head Of the Environment Agency, whose comment to persecution of these birds was ?you here less of it these days.? This is somewhat disconcerting coming from the Head of the EA. Not what you would call an outright rejection of persecution by anglers on her part, by any stretch of the imagination. .
Given the above facts, I on behalf of the SAA would pose the following question to both the presenter and Baroness Young
?What evidence do you have that anglers are in recent times still persecuting herons??
To Baroness Young
And why, if you have any such evidence has the EA never raised the issue as a concern at any of the meetings with the SAA, or any other National Angling body?
On behalf of the SAA and angling, I would ask you to register your protest to the BBC and Baroness Young by e-mailing the programme voicing you concerns about these comments at home.planet@bbc.co.uk
For those wishing to make a protest by phone, the contact number is 08700 100 222
To listen to the comments online go to the R4 web site at Home Planet at 11 minutes into it programme on RealPlayer. For those that don?t have RealPlayer, it can be downloaded for free from the BBC.
I?d urge ALL reading this to register a protest.
Phil Hackett
Conservation Officer SAA