Conservation ? what a joke....

[Guest jay_con]

All 4 I think skips.

 

But I definately do not condone the use of black plastic bins.

[skippytheroo]

I use a white plastic bucket Is that ok? Its only ever had the one mackerel in it tho

[skippytheroo]

and 2 bass

[Fastd]

I think different nations have different attitudes to fish stocks.Most countries have no legal limits or if they do they are uninforced. So untill someone with official powers brings these people to task it will continue. Perhaps they are breaking no laws but it is certainly not good for the image of shore fishing.

 

I fish for pleasure . these people fish for profit (or just to exist). I think when put into context with an article posted here about a shetland boat taking double its quoat illegaly...the figures being "thousands of tons" ... a few hundred dustbins are not going to make a major difference.

 

So should the authorities chase these immigrants or focus their resources on the guy taking 1000's of tons over his quota! I am not sayng that what is happening on the pier is right, just that the resources available are far better utilised chasing the big offenders,

 

Dave

[Guest jay_con]

Not condoning what has happened on this pier I would be happiest if my taxes were spent bringing Pirates like that guy from the shetlands to justice, Makes me so angry that someone has made millions from something illegal.

 

I read another article on this man which suggested the authorities are finding it difficult to tackle this shetland guy. Appears he has no assets at all - allegedly.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4486347.stm

 

[ 03. August 2005, 10:02 PM: Message edited by: @SUMMER@ ]

[Leon Roskilly]

There is no regulation on anyone taking fish from the shore and selling them (or from any unpowered vessel), whether they are caught in nets or by rod and line.

 

There is no limit to the number that can be taken.

 

They can only be prosecuted for taking fish below the minimum landing size, or protected species (ie Allis shad - I once had one from the Admiralty!) etc

 

So there isn't much that Joss Wiggins could do about this

 

Just to put this in context is this information that was sent to me recently:

 

------------------------------------------------

 

From a bait supplier

 

"Just to put some perspective to the number of mackerel killed by commercial boats and dumped, I have a story from the late eighties.

 

I was collecting small mackerel (pike bait size) from a vessel landing into Plymouth.

 

The boat was one of the smallest bulk catchers landing most of its catch (larger mackerel) to the big processor, Interfish.

 

My small truck at the time could take about 1 tonne and the agent advised me to be on the quay mid afternoon.

 

Interfish have a fish pump system installed on the quay so the larger fish were being pumped out of the hold directly into the factory.

 

Eventually the pumps closed down and it was my turn for loading.

 

The skipper used what we call a craning net -- a huge landing net suspended of a pulley--- and dipped into the fish hold of small fish, picking up about a tonne in one lift.

 

This was then unceremoniously dropped on to my fish boxes laid out on the quay.

 

I was left to roughly equalise the fish into the boxes and load them.

 

The skipper then asked if I wanted any more?

 

I said I couldn't carry any more and in any case the tonne was as much as I could process in one go.

 

The skipper said "OK, I'll have to dump what's left."

 

He then proceeded to lift five more tonnes and about a further half tonne out of the hold and just let go back into the harbour!

 

Those fish were mostly between 20 cm and 25 cm total length. Say 90 gramme fish.

 

For ease of calculation lets call them 100 gramme fish.

 

That's 55,000 mackerel dumped by one boat on one day!

 

On other occasions, Divers in Falmouth reported dead mackerel on the sea bed up to three feet deep.

 

Trawlers reported they were unable to tow because of dead mackerel spread over miles of ground.

 

I am not saying anglers should not worry about wasting mackerel, but just bear in mind that large pelagic boats will on occasions dump literally hundreds of tonnes if the size of fish in the shoal is wrong -- that's a lot of fish!"

 

--------------------------------

 

"Just as an aside to *****'s point (above), we were carrying out some seabed sampling in Plymouth sound back in 1999, and around the Cawsand Bay area we were getting dead (but fresh!!!) mackerel in almost every other grab (size 0.1m sq), we then put the ROV down to ground truth the benthic grab samples and the seabed was littered with dead mackerel.

 

This was confined to just the Cawsand bay area, we never saw any further mackerel in our other survey areas (Torpoint, Breakwater, Yealm Estuary, Jennycliff Bay)."

 

----------------------------

 

Sometimes I think that anglers should think about asking for sensible daily catch limits.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Tony U]

Ive got to say the annual Mackerel Slaughter at the Admiralty Pier has been going on for the twenty odd years I have been fishing there and was certainly happenning long before the illegal immigrant debate sprang up.

I remember fishing there in the early 1980s when car loads of fish were being carted away in black dustbin liners.

No one blamed immigrants then, just greedy B*******s.

[Leon Roskilly]

R. Soles:

You need to report this to the Chief fisheries officer of the kent and essex sea fisheries committee. They can be done for taking more than what would be a reasonable amount of fish for personal consumption, and for taking undersize fish.

They could be done for taking undersized fish.

 

But they can take as many sizeable fish as they like

 

I think that you may be thinking of the recent legislation regarding the registrationn of buyers and sellers of first hand fish (and the audit trails that must be produced by them and thereafter, until the fish is consumned).

 

This allows anyone to buy up to 25kg of fish from a fishing vessel for personal consumption without the need to register as a buyer of fish.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Guest jay_con]

I understand the fact that we have to have our own hous in order if we dont want to be called hypocrites when we complain, but what Leon has just said really does put the whole thing into perspective. Now untill recently I understand that makeral stocks have never been dangerously low. So why all of a sudden is there a problem? god only knows but my guess is as I said earlier. That Shetland case must surely be a very small tip of a very large iceberg.

[Cranfield]

I would guess that mackerel made up half of the fish I saw, but there were lots of small bass, garfish, pouting and dogfish as well.

 

These people are there all "Spring and Summer" apparently.

The mackerel are not there that long, so its not the "annual Mackerel Slaughter".

 

The purpose of my post was to highlight the inequity of a group of anglers getting flamed on here for taking one or two bass each, from a mark not a million miles from the Admiralty Pier (probably less than 2 miles) .

With all the comments about, damage to breeding stocks,what a disgusting sight, sad, etc.

Yet this is going on every day.

 

I am quite aware of the law , as explained by Leon and I know that there is nothing that can be done to stop this, even if the Authorities were interested, which I doubt they are.

 

I just wonder how many of the highly principled Conservationists are going down to the Admiralty, to educate these Chaps about breeding stocks etc.