Martin Salter joins the Board of Angling Trust

Martin Salter, the new National Campaigns Coordinator for the Angling Trust, Charles Walker, Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Angling Group and Mark Lloyd, Angling Trust Chief Executive

Big names from the worlds of fishing and politics have this week welcomed the appointment of former parliamentary angling spokesman Martin Salter as the new National Campaigns Coordinator for the Angling Trust.

Martin, who stood down from the House of Commons at the last election, has recently returned from 'a fishing and writing sabbatical' in Australia which saw him publish a landmark report - Keep Australia Fishing - on the challenges facing the recreational fishing sector. Martin has made good his pre election promise to return and campaign for a better deal for both anglers and for the fisheries on which our sport depends. This new, part time post has been made possible following donations from the Angling Trades Association (ATA) and two individual benefactors who support the Angling Trust.

Martin is to be based within the Angling Trust but will be working across the sector as a whole to promote greater unity and improved joint working. In addition to assisting in campaigning, fundraising and political lobbying, Martin hopes to help drive up membership and increase participation in both the AT and ATA.

National Campaigns Coordinator - Principal Roles:
* Supporting angling participation programmes
* Liaising with angling trades & other representative angling    bodies

* Parliamentary and Ministerial liaison and political lobbying
* Membership recruitment & engagement
* Campaigns and communication
* Raising the media profile of angling
* Strategy advice and policy development

Martin's appointment has been strongly endorsed by those at the very top of angling in the UK.

Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon MP said:

"I am really pleased that Martin will be active in the Angling Trust working with the Angling Trades Association to promote angling across the UK. Over the years I have built a healthy respect for Martin's knowledge and passion for angling. I look forward to working with him in his new role and to seeing more people of all ages on our river banks and lakes."


Charles Walker MP, Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Angling said:

I believe that Martin Salter has been one of the most outstanding politicians of his generation when it comes to the championing of fishing interests. His depth and breadth of knowledge continues to be appreciated across the political spectrum, as does his campaigning zeal."

Mark Lloyd, Angling Trust Chief Executive said:

Martin Salter is quite simply the best person the Angling Trust could possibly employ to campaign for anglers' interests. He has great contacts in Parliament, an encyclopaedic knowledge of angling and fisheries issues, and huge experience of communicating and lobbying at every level. We are very grateful to everyone who donated to make this possible. We hope that his appointment will encourage more individual anglers to get off the fence and join the Angling Trust so that we can continue to expand our work fighting for fish and fishing."

Martin Salter concluded:

After an 18 month break to re-charge my batteries it's great to be back and fighting for fishing. I particularly grateful to Mark Lloyd at the AT and Naidre Werner at the ATA for giving me the opportunity to put my skills, experience and contacts to good use and for the benefit of the sport we all love.

My first job is to recruit some high profile ambassadors to help me raise the profile of the Angling Trust so that it can become a really strong and powerful voice for recreational fishing and the environment. I'm particularly keen to get some effective outcomes from the current Defra review of cormorant predation which has caused so much damage to fish stocks.

I am already lined up to attend a range of ministerial and other meetings and will be addressing conferences and supporting the excellent work of Angling Trust campaigners Mark Owen (Freshwater) and David Mitchell (Sea Angling) and the legal team headed by Justin Neal. I will be the main point of contact with my former colleagues on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Angling and will be developing and helping to implement a wider angling and fisheries campaign strategy for 2012."

The group state via their website that:

“That the balance of nature is steadily being destroyed and as a consequence angling is under threat. The spread of imported signal crayfish means that the food resources once utilised by fish are now being depleted and their spawn is preyed upon. The seas are being stripped of fish, a phenomenon which has resulted in cormorants being driven inland for their prey, the effect of which is well documented, with John Wilson rationalising that they account for up to 58,000,000 irreplaceable small fish per annum.

Against this background of increasing small fish predation in the early ’70s a programme was put in place to rear otters in captivity and reintroduce them to the wild. The EA Otter Survey of 2010 reveals that the spread of otters has been far-reaching and they are now present in most areas of the country.

Because of the impact of signal crayfish and cormorants destroying the small fish food chain, otters have had to learn to look elsewhere for their normal prey and as a result, their impact on specimen fish has been alarming. They have all but totally wiped out the specimen barbel population and have been responsible for serious damage to, and the destruction of, an increasing number of carp fisheries.

Fishery owners, controllers and fish farmers are in a difficult position when it comes to protecting their interests and livelihoods because otters and cormorants are protected. The authorities are in denial over the predation issue. Notwithstanding the fact that we spend £25,000,000 per annum on licences, anglers are looked on as the poor relations compared to such bodies as the RSPB, English Nature, and so on.

The Angling Trust is there to look after anglers’ interests but they are under- funded and have their hands full. The PAG has been formed to research the predation issue and put together a convincing case for some measure of control of predators.”

In the first instance it is the PAG’s brief to report their findings to the Angling Trust; if that does not have the desired effect then they say it may be necessary to lobby Government directly and are actively seeking funds in order to finance their aims.