THE chief of a fishing authority that has come under fire from the region’s fishermen has responded to their scathing letter of no confidence.
On Monday this week, fishing and angling associations the length of the North Yorkshire and Teesside coast sent a letter of no confidence to NEIFCA (the North Eastern Inshore and Fishing Conservation Authority) calling for the resignation of its Chief David McCandless and Deputy Chief, Ian Davis.
The fishermen are angry over what they say is inaction by NEIFCA and a ‘flippant’ attitude shown by its leaders over the crustacean wash-up in October that hugely impacted particularly shell fishermen in the region.
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In the letter, the fishing groups accused NEIFCA of failing to provide samples when requested by investigators and of not communicating effectively with the industry in the aftermath of the devastating wash-up.
Speaking to The Northern Echo, NEIFCA’s Chief David McCandless said he understood the frustration over the lack of answers as to why thousands of dead crabs and lobsters washed up on the shore, but he refuted allegations that the authority was not taking the matter seriously.
Defra is continuing to lead the multi-agency investigations into the mortalities which have so far failed to identify a cause - but have ruled out poisoning and dredging activity as being responsible.
Mr McCandless said: “We are not and never have been the lead authority in response to the shellfish mortalities, that response has been led and co-ordinated by Defra and we very much play a supporting role and we continue to play a supporting role in that.
“Our primary role and function is to gather samples for testing and support any requests from the agencies.
“We have assisted in taking samples using our vessels on behalf of the Environment Agency and most of our work has involved monitoring wash up of dead shellfish and responding to requests.”
He says NEIFCA’s role will increase in the coming months as the focus moves towards monitoring fishing stock and assessing the ongoing impact of October’s incident.
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He said: “The importance of our role will increase as time goes on, really from this month in terms of us increasing our efforts to gather more first-hand information from the stock to try and get a handle on where our local fish and shellfish stock sits at the minute.
“We might need to consider some sort of interventions to make sure that stock recovers, but it will depend on the release of findings as we move to the monitoring part of things.”
Whitby, North Yorkshire Picture: Pixabay
And McCandless said the fishing groups’ accusation that NIEFCA had not provided samples when requested by CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) wasn’t ‘wholly accurate’.
He added: “It is quite a one-sided view from the industry; in terms of the overall response “The communication has been co-ordinated centrally by Defra and all the agencies have fed into that communication.”
He said the matter of replacing the authority’s leadership was one for NIEFCA’s clerk and chair to consider, but he has every intention of staying on to re-build trust between the organisation and the fishermen.
He said: “I fully get and understand the frustrations of the industry because extensive investigatory work has been ongoing since October with no clear answers provided as yet.
“There is frustration there and as the local IFCA, we are very much on a small scale, we are a regionally-based public organisation, but we are very much at the coalface and broadly speaking we are the first organisation that will bear the brunt of those frustrations and I see that in the letter.
“There are always lessons to be learned, ensuring that communication is proactive, that engagement is proactive and timely.
“Ideally I want to be in a strong position of co-production with the fishermen.”
NEIFCA is based in Bridlington in East Yorkshire, pictured is the town's harbour Picture: Google
Responding directly to the fishing industry’s claim that he was being ‘flippant’ about the wash-up, Mr McCandless said: “Any individual that genuinely knows me and a lot of people do - I have been working as a fisheries manager for 26-years on this coast so a lot of the fishing reps do know me - and that isn’t me.
“I don’t recognise myself in that description whatsoever.
“Through my career I have always been very passionate and worked very, very hard to achieve sustainable inshore fishing.
“You have always got the tension between the fisheries manager and the fishermen and those tensions are quite natural but outside that, I don’t believe it is a fair assessment, but everybody is entitled to their opinions.”
The letter of no confidence sent on Monday was signed by eight of the region’s fishing groups including the Whitby, Redcar and Teesside Commercial Fishing Associations, commercial fishing representatives from Hartlepool and the Whitby Sea Anglers Association.
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