Sea anglers forced to pay fee

More than one million sea anglers will be forced to pay to fish for the first time under new Government plans for a licensing system.

Ministers want to impose charges on beach anglers, boat fishing and charter trips overturning a tradition enshrined in British common law for almost 800 years.

Environment secretary David Miliband will use the licence fee to help manage fish stocks, protect and improve shore access and car parks, provide launch sites for small boats and create artificial reefs.

Some of the proceeds will also go on managing the scheme. But countryside campaigners see it as yet another stealth tax and say commercial fishing is the biggest threat to marine conservation. They also argue it would be prohibitively expensive to police 2,500 miles of coastline.

The proposal would require everyone over the age of 12 who fishes with a rod and line to have a licence.

Exemptions would exist for the elderly, group licenses for charter vessels and daily and weekly charges. Freshwater fishermen currently pay £24.50 a year for a rod licence.

A Countryside Alliance spokesman said: "Sea anglers know full well that it is commercial, rather than recreational angling that is the biggest threat to marine conservation."

He added: "The angling industry is worth £538 a year to the economy and the Government should be trying to attract people to the sport, rather than scaring them off."

The National Federation of Sea Anglers is opposed to the licences without evidence of tangible improvements for those who enjoy the sport.

Chairman Richard Ferré said: "Sea anglers would be paying to put right the damage caused by years of over-exploitation by commercial fishing, allowed through the neglect of successive governments."

The Government has invited comments on its proposals and a new Bill is not expected until 2009.

A public right to fish dates back to the Digest of Justinian, a Byzantine legal codification, in the sixth century AD.