Tony Gibbons BASG representative on the Broads Forum assisted by Kelvin Allen and John Currie attended yesterdays (30th July) Broads Forum, in spending an hour presenting the history of BASG and both it’s achievement and more importantly the challenges facing angling within the Broads.
In a well attended forum made up of local stakeholders from across the Broads, members heard how things had changed from the mid sixties when angling matches regularly with over 600 competitions flocked to the Broads, today’s mixture of visiting anglers from holiday visitors, canoeists, predator hunters and still the competitive match angler wanting to enjoy the magical wonderland of the Broads are still an estimated 1.1m strong per annum, making it one of the largest inland visited fisheries in the UK.
How this can be sustained against the backdrop of large government grant reductions and reducing rod licence income, was one of the key challenges identified.
The environmental challenges of Prymnesium and it’s impact and risk through to lake restoration with the ever present challenge of climate change, where all aired which seemed to have gone down well with the audience and many expressed they didn’t realise how much BASG did for the Broads.
