Regarding various Press reports about the conviction and fines imposed on two Hastings fishermen that, in the main, are unfortunately very one-sided when in fact their two small fishing boats did not break any cod quota or any known law!

Please take your time and read and digest my Special Report that can be viewed on my website Rip-Off Britain (www.rip-off.co.uk) concerning the prosecutions that occured last Monday.

You can read my article at: www.rip-off.co.uk/hastings_fishing.htm

It is also worth reading Christopher Booker's comments in the Sunday Times today, that I have linked to my Report above.

You can also download my Special Report in Adobe Acrobat at:
www.rip-off.co.uk/rx83/Hastings_Fishermen_convicted.pdf

Because of the injustice surrounding this case, we have also set-up an Appeal Fund for both Paul Joy & Graeme Bossom.

Fish quotas and conservation are an emotive issue, but my Report has at least outlined the definitive facts.

Your comments are welcomed.

Kind regards,

Paul Meyer
Editor - Rip-Off Britain
www.rip-off.co.uk

Welcome to AN Paul.

"Interests: Consumer issues & injustice"

How about a story on the ESFJSFC rejection of the Stour & Orwell proposals?

See anglersnet.co.uk/ubb/ultimatebb...ic;f=2;t=003925

Tight Lines - leon

Hiya,

Or a story about the level of "discards" by our Commercial "friends". Things like dumping 40 tones of Cod over the side to make way for a Catch of "prime" Cod that make a better price. :mad: :mad:

http://www.rip-off.co.uk/hastings_fishing.htm

"The Hastings fishermen are not plundering the seas around them, but are carefully 'farming' their fish stock - which are evidently abundant."


Tight Lines - leon

That sounds bloody typical of the idiots in charge of policing our fishery.

Welcome paul and thankyou for that interesting article. The next time they fine some millionaire boat owner £100 for operating outside of the law I shall send them your article and ask for comments on injustice.

Sounds like an interesting site you have there paul. I shall read more when I return from work.

No matter what the rights and wrongs of this case are this would hardly seem the place to plead their case.

Perhaps you are baiting us?

Oh my god, I think I'm going to be sick!

Why do they have to keep coming out with the same old b*llocks. "Oh, we don't usually catch this many fish. You must have brought us good luck! Usually we are lucky if we spend 48 hours at sea and earn £2.50!"

And they are so brave! Gill netting bass up a creek in less than 3 feet of water must be a terrifying experience! And having to drink tea made in a rusty kettle must be horrendous!

On serious note. I obviously don't know the fishermen involved, and I don't know if they've been wronged or not. I do know, however, that the licensing system in this country is a joke. Part time, hobby and seasonal fishermen are all on the same register as full time "proper" commercial fishermen. They are treated the same, and have to obey the same rules. This is wrong as far as I'm concerened. How can you give the same quota to a part time fisherman who earns his living ashore, as to a full time commercial fisherman who relies on what he catches for his living? It is mad!

Full time fishermen should be treated differently from those that "play" at being commercial fishermen. It's mostly the part timers who give all commercial fishermen a bad name by employing bad practices. There should be two registers. One for full time fishermen and one for part timers. The quota should be reduced for the part timers and the extra made available for the full timers. Either that or abolish licenses altogether for part time fishermen.

I think that is a hasty judgement. Yes we may a beef with a lot of the commercial sector but don't forget its poor management at government level that has gotten the fisheries into the state they are. Also, I think it is better to engage in dialogue with the commercials, they are not all greedy pirates etc.

The recent Stour and Orwell fiasco showed one striking thing to me. All the commercials lined up on one end of the policy spectrum and the anglers all at the other end. It was obvious there was no co-operation or compromises there and any inpartial observer would have seen it way. You can win brownie points with policy makers by being willing to co-operate and compromise. At the end of the day that is what is needed to foster a long term sustainable fishery.

We need to find friends amongst the commercials, and these sort of fulltime in-shore 'salt of the sea' kind of guys might just be it, rather than the make a quick buck part timers, or full on mega trawlers.

If you had the choice between maintaining an inshore fleet of small boats with a limited capacity to fish versus maintaining the massive oceangoing hoovers that industrially harvest fish in the 1000s of tonnes per trip, which would you keep?

On the opther side of that equation however, does the taking of fish from the inshore area, with the huge resulting damage to habitat and undersized fish, i.e from what is a nursery area, have a greater impact on fish population than the taking of large shoals offshore?

Maybe the small inshore fishermen are a potential ally since they are likely to see a drop in catch and so return on their work faster than the other commercials, who can move to Africa if need be?

im not far from hastings where i fish, between hastings and eastbourne their another 50 paul joy's opperating in a similar way in an area no more than 12 mile long, all hauling 5 long nets that take 40 minutes for each to collect, these little 10mtr craft may be small in comparison to the larger trawler but combined they are devistating on fish stocks, i have seen this first hand, as for the rights and wrongs leading to their prosicution, that realy is down to themselves you cant tell me they didnt know what they were doing was wrong, paul i think you got a bit of a cheek asking us anglers to bail these people out when they are distroying what little fish stocks are left inshore for our sport.tell them to pay for it out of the blackfish money they earn thats not declared or the cash of the building site also un declared,paul no offence mate but this article is total lot of bullsh*t.