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There are 1000 full and part time fishermen registered in Wales
The WFA’s Chairman, Jim Evans, who is a fish- erman operating out of Aberporth, said: ‘The current model of Marine Conservation Zones being proposed by the Welsh Government will effectively prohibit any commercial fishing or gathering place from taking place within these areas. Implementing this would certainly have a disproportion- ate impact on the economy and culture of coastal communities and there is little to justify this move, both scientifically and economically.
‘As fishermen, we want to see an ecosystem- based approach where the “highly-protected” element is achieved through management rather than the prohibition of activities. Our alternative model is based on multi-use sites which will not only provide high levels of protec- tion to the marine environment, but will also permit traditional access and use of the sites by local commercial fishermen and other coastal sea users to continue.’
HE UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its latest annual report in July, which showed that 24 fishing vessels were lost in 2011 – the most since 2005 – while 8 fishermen lost their lives in the course of the year. Meanwhile Merchant