25 replies to this topic

[big_cod]

Hello Paul

The French fleet (all two of them at the moment) are fishing for whiting of which they have a large North Sea quota, they have a relatively small North Sea cod quota and are monitored closely.

I see that gard duty is still keeping the Whitby fleet afloat.

That only leaves the seals and the French for you to moan about.

Peter 8-10 of them were fishing off whitby a few days ago and with this super **** weather we are having they have disapeared but probably to land somewhere sounds like you dont get bothered with seals with your netts a very lucky man they torture the netters here ask any netter what he thinks about seals i wont print what the anser would be get yourself back up here a fire a few fleets overboard you,ll get back more heads than full fish and thats if they leave you anything plenty of fish knotts.

Peter look closely what other people have seen.

http://www.whitbysea...p?topic=26507.0

paul.

Edited by big_cod, 27 April 2012 - 10:06 AM.

[stevieg]

Peter 8-10 of them were fishing off whitby a few days ago and with this super **** weather we are having they have disapeared but probably to land somewhere sounds like you dont get bothered with seals with your netts a very lucky man they torture the netters here ask any netter what he thinks about seals i wont print what the anser would be get yourself back up here a fire a few fleets overboard you,ll get back more heads than full fish and thats if they leave you anything plenty of fish knotts.

Peter look closely what other people have seen.

http://www.whitbysea...p?topic=26507.0

paul.

Anglers and the activities of fishing boats are a terrible mix, it seems to bring out the drama queen in some people like nothing else on earth.

I remember this "inshore trawler" as it was described (with picture), "raping" the inshore grounds up my way, all in print on the letters page of one of the Sea Angling Magazines........a perfectly understandable mistake give or take 250 feet of OAL.........



Are these French boats a new thing in the area Paul, or is it just the case that some people have discovered the AIS websites, and are suddenly instant experts on commercial fishing boats and their activities.........

Edited by stevieg, 27 April 2012 - 01:45 PM.

[wurzel]

Peter 8-10 of them were fishing off whitby a few days ago and with this super **** weather we are having they have disapeared but probably to land somewhere sounds like you dont get bothered with seals with your netts a very lucky man they torture the netters here ask any netter what he thinks about seals i wont print what the anser would be get yourself back up here a fire a few fleets overboard you,ll get back more heads than full fish and thats if they leave you anything plenty of fish knotts.

Peter look closely what other people have seen.

http://www.whitbysea...p?topic=26507.0

paul.

Hello Paul

I remember that that the seals were always a pain during the spring fishing, during the autumn they are probably feeding on the herring, I have two or three seals patrolling along my nets every day at the moment with a preference for bass along with a few soles , they have even learnt to follow the trawlers and either chew the heads off or pull any soles that are sticking out of the cod end.
While I agree they are a pain and a threat to my wallet I don't think they are a threat to the fish stocks.

I am sure that I read probably in the fishing news an article on the French whiting fishery, they claimed it to be a very clean fishery with little by catch, with the cod recovery plan and cod avoidance schemes I'm sure they would not be allowed otherwise.


Hello Stevieg

The french fleet used to congragate off here at Harwich mainly offshore 30 or 40 miles but for the last 6 or 7 years they seem to favour the ground south south east of Whitby.
One time a freind was fishing nets off shore when several of these boats turned up and started fishing all around and over his nets and as usual with the French skippers they were reluctant to comunicate so he was resigned to looseing his nets but on hauling he found no damage, we can only asume that the trawl nets were being towed off bottom catching the whiting as they come up in the water at dusk.

I think the AIS system is creating several arm chair would be fishery officers, good system though I've had it fitted and find invaluable when steaming or working in busy shipping lanes like we have here , turn it off while fishing though.
.

[big_cod]

Anglers and the activities of fishing boats are a terrible mix, it seems to bring out the drama queen in some people like nothing else on earth.

I remember this "inshore trawler" as it was described (with picture), "raping" the inshore grounds up my way, all in print on the letters page of one of the Sea Angling Magazines........a perfectly understandable mistake give or take 250 feet of OAL.........



Are these French boats a new thing in the area Paul, or is it just the case that some people have discovered the AIS websites, and are suddenly instant experts on commercial fishing boats and their activities.........

Steve these boats have been working further south they caused havoc with the potters out of bridlington and only recently ventured where they are now what surprized me was how they all tow next to each other staggered its like anything swimming to aside of the net ends up into one of the other boats gear its like they trash one area then move on.

paul.

[stevieg]

Steve these boats have been working further south they caused havoc with the potters out of bridlington and only recently ventured where they are now what surprized me was how they all tow next to each other staggered its like anything swimming to aside of the net ends up into one of the other boats gear its like they trash one area then move on.

paul.

I don't know a thing about it Paul but assume they will be working legally, subject to quotas, technical gear regulations etc etc.

I had a quick look at the AIS the other night when I read this, the boats didn't look very close together then, and I can't imagine working as close together as you suggest would be the brightest thing in the world.

Just to shed some reality on things, no commercial mobile gear boat could afford to "trash" anywhere, as soon as returns become less than running costs you need to move elsewhere, this is a long long time before anywhere gets even nearly trashed, rocket science it is not. Cold hard economics are a wonderful Conservation tool.

[big_cod]

I don't know a thing about it Paul but assume they will be working legally, subject to quotas, technical gear regulations etc etc.

I had a quick look at the AIS the other night when I read this, the boats didn't look very close together then, and I can't imagine working as close together as you suggest would be the brightest thing in the world.

Just to shed some reality on things, no commercial mobile gear boat could afford to "trash" anywhere, as soon as returns become less than running costs you need to move elsewhere, this is a long long time before anywhere gets even nearly trashed, rocket science it is not. Cold hard economics are a wonderful Conservation tool.

When i was first told about the frenchmen from one of the whitby skippers doing the standby i looked on AIS and it was if they were nose to tail all the fleet look rather strange when you looked at it on the AIS but again my buddy who is on the freezer ships said to thats how the french work all tow as close together as possible obviously just stagered they hammer one area then move on.

paul.

Edited by big_cod, 28 April 2012 - 05:37 PM.

[stevieg]

When i was first told about the frenchmen from one of the whitby skippers doing the standby i looked on AIS and it was if they were nose to tail all the fleet look rather strange when you looked at it on the AIS but again my buddy who is on the freezer ships said to thats how the french work all tow as close together as possible obviously just stagered they hammer one area then move on.

paul.

I spent the entire summer two years ago in the SW approaches/Bristol Channel area working alongside many French trawlers, they certainly did not work like that, they were generally always miles apart and worked over a huge area, you would see them close to you for a brief time, then never see them within 3 miles again for 12 hours or so.

One really bizzare thing about them, in poor weather they always towed beam on rather than before and into the wind and sea like most people. Apparently they place more importance on the net working correctly by not lifting going before and into the swells, than they do on preserving their sanity, it would send you nuts day after day of beam on to huge seas rolling like a pig.......

[cleeclive]

I don't know a thing about it Paul but assume they will be working legally, subject to quotas, technical gear regulations etc etc.

I had a quick look at the AIS the other night when I read this, the boats didn't look very close together then, and I can't imagine working as close together as you suggest would be the brightest thing in the world.

Just to shed some reality on things, no commercial mobile gear boat could afford to "trash" anywhere, as soon as returns become less than running costs you need to move elsewhere, this is a long long time before anywhere gets even nearly trashed, rocket science it is not. Cold hard economics are a wonderful Conservation tool.

I said many years ago that you could scrap all fisheries scientists and Fisheries enforcement officers and leave fisheries management for economics to sort out. When you look at the costs of assessing and policing fishereis compared to other industries it would save the taxpayer a few bob. With the cost of vessels and operating costs no one would be chasing the last few fish in the shoal.

I seriosly doubt if stocks would be in a much worse state if that had been done, the only problem would be if fishermen had received subsidies to help their operations.

This point could lead to another interesting debate!!

[flapper]

Hello Paul

The French fleet (all two of them at the moment) are fishing for whiting of which they have a large North Sea quota, they have a relatively small North Sea cod quota and are monitored closely.

I see that gard duty is still keeping the Whitby fleet afloat.

That only leaves the seals and the French for you to moan about.

Have read through this post and it’s nice to see that some things in life never change. Wild accusations, followed by somebody who actually knows a bit about the subject putting them right. Followed by a truthful (and amusing) comment from wurzel summing up the reality of the original post. Big Cod. why dont you start a Campaign up to have seals culled? Have you got AIS on your boat Paul? Or are you another one of the armchair enthusiasts who sit at home looking at it, seeing French trawlers assume what they are doing, backed up by a few moaning guard boat skippers who are actually having to earn their money by guarding an exposed pipe line. I believe they (guard boats) have been there for months and this was the only time any commercial boats have caused them any concern. The French trawlers where working in international waters. They where boarded twice in the trip you mentioned. They were fishing for whiting. There catches where monitored when they landed back in there French ports. And that information comes directly from someone who was there and not from a wild assumption coming from somebody studying a piece of technology in the comfort of their sitting room.

Edited by flapper, 05 May 2012 - 02:28 PM.

[clem]

Flapper I am slightly re-assured by your information regarding the close monitoring of the foreign armada of large trawlers recently working off Yorkshire maybe thats why they buggered off?
The concerns expressed by the presence of these vessels are perfectly legitimate and your apparent indifference to them puzzling. The nature of the fishery is there will have been a substantial by-catch and discards which when done by a group of such large boats must have some detrimental, if only temparary effect on the local fishing. They have in recent years caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to static gear and do indeed often "dissappear" during darkness in darker winter months who knows why one can only speculate.
As for the seals another perfectly legitimate and growing problem not helped by the rescuing of stranded pups upsetting natures balance.