Strategy Officer Mr John Eardley
Email: johneardley@btinternet.com 05 September 2018
Dear Mr Eardley,
Many thanks for your letter of the 13 August. You raise a number of concerns in your letter about the proposed approach to fishing byelaws in Wales. In common with some other fisheries groups in Wales, your questions and concerns relate to deeply technical issues. I’ve decided not to respond to those here as I believe these are best dealt with through continuing the regular bilateral meetings and discussions with my fisheries technical staff. I’ve suggested to my staff that they regularly share with you the procedures and approaches we follow which are put in place usually through agreements between WG, DEFRA, CEFAS and EA to ensure we have consistent and robust evidenced based approaches underlying the decisions we all take and in the interest of managing our natural resources sustainably. I’d like to focus my response to you on how we are trying to improve our engagement. I am committed to NRW continuing to work with fisheries stakeholders and improve our engagement, as aside from the catch and releases proposals we’ve put to Welsh Government for affirmation, we have many shared outcomes that I’d hope we can progress together – such as habitat restoration work. To complement the local fisheries groups, that we will continue to support, I know you will be aware that we are setting up an all-Wales Fisheries group with the first meeting to be held at the end of October. Through this forum and with a wider range of stakeholders we aim to build a common understanding of the problems facing fisheries across Wales, the underpinning evidence and technical assessment techniques that we can work on together and the actions we can all take to improve these fisheries. This group can help us establish the strategic direction for our future work. Whilst I’m aware that we might not always be able to reach agreement on all aspects, as we each have very different roles to undertake, I’d like us to be able to work together on achieving mutual understanding and respect for each other’s positions and roles. I am Ein cyf/Our ref: CX18-018 Ty Cambria / Cambria House 29 Heol Casnewydd / 29 Newport Road Caerdydd / Cardiff CF24 0TP / CF24 0TP Ebost/Email: Clare.Pillman@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk Clare.Pillman@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Ffôn/Phone: 0300 065 4453 www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk www.cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk Page 2 of 2 though convinced that there will be much that we agree on and that we can work together on. The fisheries group will work through our other stakeholder groups such as the Land and Water Management Fora. The work of these groups in turn feeds into our board and executive team discussions. Future proposals for fisheries management can be discussed at the Wales fisheries group and together with our other stakeholder groups and continuing our regular dialogue will help give me assurance that NRW is engaging with the fisheries sector. I’ve asked Ceri Davies of my Executive Team to meet up with you ahead of the first meeting of the group, so you can feed in your thoughts about the group, how we best engage with you and the sector and share our work. Ceri will be in touch shortly to arrange this meeting. In the meantime, I am pleased to note that Mr White has confirmed he will be attending the first meeting of the new group on behalf of the Campaign for the Protection of Welsh Fisheries. In your letters I can clearly see and feel your passion and commitment to fisheries in Wales. I am also heartened that all of the fisheries staff I have met in my first 6 months working in NRW are equally passionate. I am therefore hopeful that in the coming months we will build a constructive and effective working relationship so that together we can secure the sustainable management of fisheries in Wales that our current and future generations can enjoy.
Yours sincerely Clare Pillman
Prif Weithredwr, Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru
Chief Executive, Natural Resources Wales
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