Fishing

[jetpilot]

I think i am being a grumpy old man recently!

I happened to watch the Hugh Fearnley thing about fishing last night and can tell you i was absolutely gob smacked, shocked and disgusted!

He went out on a Scottish trawler, during their time out they have a quota of certain fish they are allowed to bring to shore, notice i dont say "catch".

The problem is, when they put out their trawl nets they cannot decide what type of fish goes into their nets obviously. So, if they have already caught their quota of whatever fish, mainly cod being the problem, they then cannot bring ashore any more cod for example, so any cod caught in the nets from that point gets thrown overboard DEAD! They estimated on an average trip out they throw away £25k + of cod.

They cannot stop trawling once they have their quota of cod as they need to fill their others quotas for the trip out to become viable, but with each other trawl to fill their other quotas all cod are thrown away dead.

What absolute retard in the EU thought that one up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :Nono!

[trotter]

I think i am being a grumpy old man recently!

I happened to watch the Hugh Fearnley thing about fishing last night and can tell you i was absolutely gob smacked, shocked and disgusted!

He went out on a Scottish trawler, during their time out they have a quota of certain fish they are allowed to bring to shore, notice i dont say "catch".

The problem is, when they put out their trawl nets they cannot decide what type of fish goes into their nets obviously. So, if they have already caught their quota of whatever fish, mainly cod being the problem, they then cannot bring ashore any more cod for example, so any cod caught in the nets from that point gets thrown overboard DEAD! They estimated on an average trip out they throw away £25k + of cod.

They cannot stop trawling once they have their quota of cod as they need to fill their others quotas for the trip out to become viable, but with each other trawl to fill their other quotas all cod are thrown away dead.

What absolute retard in the EU thought that one up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :Nono!

I imagine the same tool that pays farmers NOT to grow stuff to avoid adding to the overflowing \'grain mountain\' that we have. Half the world is starving, and we\'re paying farmers to sit on their arses? Something does not compute gentlemen...

Seriously, the sooner we remove ourselves from the EU the better. Check out Norway and how well they do stuff (high cost of living notwithstanding) before anyone says we need membership.

graeme

[DC-TYPER]

im a sales manager for the largest seafood and fish supplier and it is pretty bad out there.  i see it everyday.  we as a company try our very best to support the fisherman but also think of the stocks. something has to be done really quickly.  not in 2 years
 
 
dc

[Will66]

I was a British Sea Fisheries Protection Officer.  I used to inspect catches at sea and enforce these laws.

The big problem is that the North Sea is chronically overfished such that the Fishermen have to use small mesh nets to make a decent living.  Typically 80mm, with that size net they are not allowed to declare cod as their target species for the trip and therefore cannot land more than 20% Cod as a total weight of their catch otherwise they incur a massive fine.  They also have more stringent laws on the accuracy of recording their catch in certain areas.  

The best thing that happened to North Sea Fish Stocks was World War II, that\'s a little extreme for the recovery of fish stocks I know but purely on a conservation basis a blanket ban on fishing in the North Sea for five years then a restriction on only Fishing with 120 mm nets for 200 days a years would see a far more sustainable fisheries and mean that the demersal whitefish (Cod, Haddock, whiting etc) catch would be of a bigger size per fish and would therefore command a far better price.

What would the fishing fleet do for these five years whilst they couldn\'t fish?  Oil Rig guard ships or a patrol and reporting system of shipping movements in the North Sea, this would mean that anyone illegally fishing would be quickly reported, we\'d also have a good idea of nearly all shipping movements in the area and illegal incursions for whatever reasons would be quickly reported and could be reacted to by the maritime quick reaction forces, whether that is detaining an illegal fishing vessel or dealing with a terrorist organisation intent on blowing an LPG Carrier in the Thames, turning a large area of the South East into what would look like the remains of a drunken barbeque.

[jetpilot]

I am not disagreeing with over fishing. But whats the point in catching the fish only to throw them away?

The system makes no sense buddy, you must agree.

I dont know a lot about trawling, but it doesnt take a genius to realise that is a massively flawed system, surely there is a better solution, from someone who knows like yourself?

[Will66]

It\'s a useless system.  Trawling for demersal fish, the ones that live close to the bottom, is not the world\'s best way of catching fish, it works better for pelagic fish, mackeral and herring and the like.  The target species and net sizes are useless, they result in massive discards that are generally dead and the quality of fish caught is poor.

Long lining for demersal roundfish works better, lots of little baited hooks on buoys, targets the preferred species effectively, catch is landed alive, it\'s easy to discard undersized fish alive or any non-target species that exceed catch allowances.  The fish haven\'t been bashed around in the trawls lots either so they\'re better quality.  Gill netting for pollack and monkfish is also good, static nets set around wrecks as that\'s where pollack like to live.  Pollack look and taste a lot like cod.

[jetpilot]

Thanks Will, my knowledge isnt great on the subject and interesting to hear an opinion who actually knows and understands the problem. I guess its also as difficult to tell a man who has 1 million + invested in a boat and gear how to fish!

Its a shame the tools at the EU dont actually put someone in charge of the situation who actually knows rather than a statistician who only thinks in numbers!

[Will66]

Fisheries management is massive problem, it has literally caused wars.  It\'s another aspect of life where we\'re hamstrung by Europe.

[NeilSR]

Sea fishing from the shore sucks at the moment due to this