I write regarding your recent article of Tuesday, July 3 headlined ‘Warning Over New Fishing Restri-ctions’.

Your report was about the recently established Lyme Bay Fisheries and Conservation Reserve Working Group and the voluntary measures adopted by that group to ensure the area can be fished well into the future in a sustainable way.

Unfortunately, the thrust of the Echo report seems to suggest that the Blue Marine Foundation has imposed upon the fishermen static fishing gear limitations through the Lyme Bay Working Group’s new voluntary code of conduct, when in fact it is a code decided upon by the fishermen themselves.

And ask yourselves, why do you think fishermen would limit themselves, if not to protect their own future? The Blue Marine Foundation is merely the facilitator of the Lyme Bay project. The real stars of the project are the fishermen from the four ports within the bay; West Bay, Lyme Regis, Axmouth and Beer. Together with local Fishery Officers from the Southern Inshore Fishery and Conservation Authority and the Devon and Severn Inshore Fishery and Conservation Authority, as well as scientists and conservation bodies, a new way has been found to manage our inshore fishery.

This is a bottom-up approach with fishermen firmly in the driving seat, which the Marine Management Organisation is watching closely in order to consider rolling out around the country.

Lyme Bay has a history of controversial fishery clampdowns.

Without exception, these were imposed from above without real or meaningful consultation with fishermen and this has led to entrenched distrust between fishermen and some conservation groups. The Lyme Bay Reserve project is a departure from those bad old days, a watershed. And when you consider that it is easier to get a horse to climb a tree than to get two fishermen to agree, the fishermen need to be applauded for persevering and helping to establishing Britain’s first multi-use marine national park – which it is in all but name.

This is a good news story, both for the fishing industry and for conservation.

Tim Glover Chairman, Lyme Bay Fisheries and Conservation Reserve Working Group