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To centre on one matter in this Annual Report or indeed any one individual or group would be a travesty of justice, for the works of the Federation over the last year have been many and varied and the input by individuals and sub groups dedicated to their sphere of work has been exemplary.

The main thrust of our work has been to initiate and promote individual membership which as you will be aware is by any stretch of reasoning a major change in that we propose to financially strengthen the Federation while at the same time vastly improving the lines of communication between the individual and the Federation. This financial strength will enable us to carry Out the work of representing, protecting and developing Anglers interests in this constantly changing legislatively charged environment, a more professional and properly funded organisation is the only way forward if we are to make impact in the areas of Conservation and Education and Development

If this challenge to change the direction of thinking of the Sea Angler fails this time then we will continue to work for this change until it is achieved. However, if the weight of opinion gives us this all-important mandate to proceed then we shall have taken the first step on the road of real progress, not only for the National Federation of Sea Anglers but also for Sea Angling in general. Whether we succeed or fail I must pay tribute to the Officers and Members of the Standing Committee, Divisional Officers and their Committees and various Clubs and their officials for their loyal and dedicated support in assisting with our programme of meetings - on a personal note I thank our Development Officer, David Rowe, who has given unstinting of his time and effort to promote the issue of individual membership and where needed given me his valued support on our joint visits.

Conservation is by far the major strand contained within our work programme for without fish to catch the whole exercise of Sea Angling becomes untenable. The need to conserve fish stocks is no longer a
domestic problem - it is no longer a matter of a few local complaints about over fishing or indeed it is just a national issue

It has moved far beyond our shores to control centres within Europe, this is where the battleground for the conservation of our fish stocks will be fought and this is where we need to direct our representation in the most effective and incisive way at our disposal.

The European Anglers Alliance to which we subscribe along with the two other disciplines head up representations on conservation within the European Community. From the Sea Angling standpoint our Sea Group, consisting of Malcolm Gilbert and Tony Williams are leading with extremely important projects concerning the co-ordination and presentation through the NFSA of a response to the Green Paper on the Common Fisheries Policy and a project to establish a definitive socio Economic Survey for all strands of Angling within Europe.

Domestically many matters concerning conservation are also being dealt with by the Group as a whole including bait collection. I thank them all for their unstinting work in these important areas of marine conservation.

We welcome back Colin Bond from his travels abroad, to head up the Competition and Team Selection Group. He is ably assisted in this task by his Vice Chairman, Chris Clark, who for those unaware of the circumstances recently suffered serious injury in an accident at his work but I am pleased to say at this time of writing he is making satisfactory progress and I know you will join with me in wishing him a speedy recovery.

The work of selection teams for this years event both Nationally and Internationally have been completed and the first resounding success was achieved by the Junior Squad who took the Team Silver Medal in Porto Santo with Tom Wells taking the top Individual Gold Award.

I would take this opportunity to wish our Home Boat Team Gold success at Arbroath, Scotland in the Home Championship scheduled for next week, as indeed I wish all our teams success in their endeavours.

In Education Development the prowess of the Joint Plan entered into with the support and guidance of Nick Ryder and Sport England and in unison with the NFA and S & TA has been excellent and sincere congratulations must go to Mike Owen the Joint Development Officer for his work in co-ordinating the efforts and energies of the three disciplines in bringing forward the plan to its present status. We know under his further guidance, coupled with the support of the representatives for each discipline, the joint Plan will reach fruition and in consequence of that be ready for future adoption and development within the individual disciplines.

This year under the auspices of SALC and in conjunction with the Marine Conservation Society we held the second Conference for Recreational Sea Anglers at the University of Wales, Cardiff. It was a great success and for those who were unable to attend there will be a taped recording available at a date to be advised. I will take this opportunity to thank all those involved in preparing for the Conference, all those who presented papers and all those who travelled from various destinations to support the event but in particular Bernadette Clarke of the MCS for her unstinting efforts in co-ordinating these strands of input which went to make an interesting and informative conference.

Finally my thanks go to all my fellow officers and Committee Members for their dedicated work for without it the NFSA could not function and Sea Angling would be all the poorer and I couple with that my thanks for the loyal support of all NFSA Clubs and their members along with our valued group of Personal Members

Best Wishes

Yours sincerely

Michael J North JP
Chairman