Thursday 1 March 2018

Cruising Association Lobster Pots Campaign



In the spring of last year the Cruising Association launched a petition to make lobster pot markers safer for small craft.   In two weeks we had 6,000 signatures and numerous reports of boats coming to grief by being caught up in lobster pot chains and ropes.  The petition had then to be abandoned when the General Election was announced but was relaunched at the Southampton Boat Show in September.
Below is a further email from the CA requesting more help.
Dear Commodore,

The Cruising Association petition about small craft safety and the marking of static fishing gear

I'm writing to you as President of the Cruising Association. You may be aware of our campaign to persuade the government of the necessity for a consultation about the hazard posed by poorly marked lobster pots and other static fishing gear.

You may have seen our video featuring Tom Cunliffe which can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7m6bgyPs_U.

Our Parliamentary petition comes to the end of its six-month life on 12 March. When we set it up we had not expected to get anywhere near 10,000 signatures. However, we are now approaching the 8000 mark and perhaps, with one final push, we could pass that milestone. Achieving 10,000 signatures places an obligation upon the government to give a written response. Whatever that may be, and we're not naive about that, it will help us to establish this campaign as something that will continue. That is in all our interests.

I am therefore writing to ask whether you could email your membership with the link to our petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200001 or perhaps put this link onto your organisation's website.

If your members would be good enough to sign, and perhaps encourage their friends and families to also do so, we might just get there.

We hope that this is very much a team effort across the whole of the boating community. The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations who have engaged positively from the outset. The same can be said of the British Ports Authority and the various statutory bodies. This encourages us to believe that by working together, we could improve the situation to the benefit of all concerned.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Best wishes for the future.

Judith Grimwade
CA President

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