An important part of our work is to promote the socio-economic value of recreational angling, in order to ensure that this aspect of our favorite activity is not being overlooked by fisheries policies, management and legislation.
It is remarkable, how shockingly little our decision-makers know about the scale of recreational angling in numbers of participants and Euros.
In Europe recreational fishing has an annual turnover of over 6 billion euros while the annual turnover from commercial fishing is approximately 3 billion euros. Not to speak about the 1,8 billion litres of fuel that are used for landing 3,5 million kilo of seafood by commercial fisheries. This a half a litre by kilo of seafood landed!
In short: many reasons why the European institutions and Member States must acknowledge the interests of EU anglers and the Recreational Angling sector at the same level as commercial fishing. This is what EFTTA is fighting for!
Together with EAA (the European Anglers Alliance) EFTTA calls for a science-based, long-term focused fisheries policy that considers the insights from the Recreational Angling sector. In this light, we urge for better data to be collected at the EU level - not only about the impact of recreational fisheries on the stocks but also about the economic value that their activities generate. Only with a full overview of the consequences of their decisions can policy-makers make the fair choices for the future.
