Authentic information about the unexpected rejection decision of the Gersekarát Municipality

The reservoir is owned by the municipality of Gersekarát Municipality, and the municipality leases the right to fish to our Association, which lease expires on January 31, 2025. For almost a year, there have been continuous negotiations on the extension of the lake's fishing rights, which negotiations seemed to be successful until the end of the summer. At the end of August, we made our offer for utilization for the next 10 years according to the Municipal Government's expectations. As proof of our professional competence, we have attached to our offer the statement of support from the president of the Hungarian National Fishing Association, the Hungarian Aquaculture and Fisheries Interprofessional Organization, and the President of the Vas County Municipality. Based on the mayor's positive feedback, the draft of the lease agreement for the next period was already being prepared.

To our complete astonishment, on September 16, 2024, despite all previous promises, the local government's decision-making body decided to reject the Association's offer and take the lake's fisheries utilization "into its own hands". We are publishing the official letter received in the past few days as an attachment to this information. Without emotions and passions, it is difficult to say that after nearly a year of promises, a local government is behaving in an unprecedented way with the county's largest civil organization and its fishing community of nearly 12,000 people.

It clearly shows that there have been no major problems or problems with our activity over the past 15 years, if you now want to continue fishing in Gersekara based on that valuable fish stock and fishing infrastructure . Of course, we claim the possibility of compensation written in the municipality's rejection letter, we are working on determining the exact amount of compensation for our waterfront investments with the involvement of experts. We would like to emphasize that the solution is not HUF 40-50 million compensation, but if we can preserve the fishing opportunities of the Sárvíz lake for our county fishing community, for which we have worked with honor and provided welfare functions accessible to everyone. It is a fact that as a result of the termination of the lease contract, the budget of the Municipality may be burdened with tens of millions of forints in compensation, which could be used for other community purposes in the settlement if our contract is renewed. Although if we look back, there is nothing surprising in this, because in 2022 our Association wanted to apply for 30 million HUF for welfare development (creation of new fishing spots, renovation of toilets, expansion, etc.) on the fishing side and we only asked for cooperation from the Local Government, so that receiving the support in the event that you enter into a lease agreement with us until the end of the 5-year application maintenance period. Even then, they did not comply with our request, rather the settlement was deprived of HUF 30 million fishing tourism support - without self-reliance.

With this, the negative decision also results in the fact that from next year, as part of the unified and affordable county fishing ticket system, the Sárvíz lake will no longer be accessible and fishermen will have to exchange a separate area ticket for the water area, which results in additional costs for them. As a consequence of this decision, our 15 years of work and results for the fishing community and the fish stock of the lake are being disregarded.

The negative decision of the Representative Board of the Municipality ignores the supporting recommendation of the organizations described above and the expertise of the Association, as well as the significant annual rent fixed in our offer, the complete lawn mowing, maintenance, waste collection of the fishing section, operation of the water block, the annual regional ticket discount, as well as the provision of fishing programs at municipal events and the possibility of partnership cooperation in tourism development.

As far as we know, the Local Government intends to give its own company, Gersekaráti Sárvíz-tó Nonprofit Kft., founded in 2024, the operation of the beach as well as the operation of fish farming and fishing. The municipality and the company it owns do not have any experience in fish management and are not members of any professional organization dealing with fish management or fishing, so the professionalism of future fishing utilization and the enforcement of the interests of fishermen are especially questionable.

For your information, we note that only 64 of the 2,411 fish farming water areas nationwide are in direct municipal use, which is 555 hectares of fish farming water areas and 0.4% of the 157,670 hectares of water available for fishing nationally. This also shows that what the Gersekarát Municipality is preparing for is not typical nationally.

If the Municipal decision remains alive, in the future fishermen will have to buy a separate area ticket for the lake. The leaders of the iron fishing associations, and thus the fishermen, will not have any say in the fishing plan and fishing rules of Lake Sárvíz, as well as in the development of the price of area tickets.

This decision is not only an economic disadvantage for fishermen, but also raises many questions regarding the long-term fishing sustainability of the lake and the protection of its fish stock.

Our association continues to keep the interests of fishermen in mind and is committed to maintaining the lake's fishing rights. We also respectfully ask the Gersekara Municipality Municipality to review its decision and use the financial resources intended for compensation and the operation of the fishing pond for the further renovation of the beach of Lake Sárvíz or for developments considered important by the population living in the settlement.

If you also think it would be right to convene a public and fishing forum with the involvement of the Municipality regarding the future of the lake, you can express your opinion with a like or a message.

With fishing greetings:

Vas County Association of Sport Fishing Associations

www.vasivizeken.hu