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Fish are getting smaller, maturing earlier


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"Today, fishing is the dominant source of mortality in most commercially exploited fish stocks.

 

Since all fish species were genetically adapted to the environmental conditions experienced prior to intensive exploitation, the current, drastically altered conditions cannot possibly leave their life-history patterns unaffected.

 

This evolutionary dimension of fisheries has been overlooked or downplayed for decades, so that fisheries scientists and managers are just now awakening to the challenges posed by further unmanaged fisheries-induced evolution."

 

One subject at this year's ICES Fisheries Science Conference

 

 

See more at: http://www.anglers-net.co.uk/sacn/latest/index.php?view=472

RNLI Shoreline Member

Member of the Angling Trust

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As far as I'm concerned thats another load of waffle.

 

How long does it take for a cod to reach 20 LB or even 30 LB? probably less than 10 years, so a cod stock that has been left alone for 10 years it should be full of large spawning fish produceing millions of baby cod.

If they are produceing millions of baby cod and only 1% survive past the plankton stage the stock ain't going to replenish very quick.

I fish to live and live to fish.

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You don't agree with anything. All you are interested in is being right, all the time. Bigoted would be a mild description of you Wurzel.

If you are representative of commercial fishermen, it's no wonder that we are in the state we are in.

You absolutely refuse to accept any scientific eveidence, on the basis I assume that you are in fact a brilliant scientist yourself, with university degrees in everything.

You seem to know everything, and we are all mis-informed idiots.

Or are you just plain thick. A fisherman. No education, just a desire to make money while destroying the marine environment with no concern for the future.

Grab it now Wurzel, why not. Does it matter that there won't be any fish to take in twenty years?

Not to you obviously. Why are you on this forum? An angler? I think you have another agenda.

You know what it is.

 

 

Whoa there Mike, a liitle decorum, we can see Wurzels comments for what they are, but he is an Angler as well as a commercial fisherman.

 

Interestingly just because we have cod laying millions of eggs doesnt mean we get millions of cod. This is simplistic but if whiting are one of the biggest preditors of cod eggs and there are few whiting due to ... whatever, you might think this would be good for the cod, wrong, because whiting is the main food source for the mature cod. So no whiting no cod food. The whole chain has to be in balance. If you take one food source out of the process you cannot predicyt what will fill its place.

 

Dan

There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot!

 

Its nice here! http://www.twfcorfu.com

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Hello MaidstoneMike

 

Quote

You absolutely refuse to accept any scientific eveidence,

 

You are wrong,

I accept the science that says climate has more effect on cod than fishing effort, I don't need a degree or an oligy to understand what I witness every day of my working life.

 

Quote

just a desire to make money while destroying the marine environment with no concern for the future.

 

I doubt there is a fisherman in the world that fits that discription, one of the reasons I came on this forum to start with.

I fish to live and live to fish.

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Hello Dan

Quote

The whole chain has to be in balance.

 

I agree, but how can it be for all species all the time. some times the chain is in balance for cod but the another time its in balance for bass.

I can't see how you can change that.

I fish to live and live to fish.

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Today, fishing is the dominant source of mortality in most commercially exploited fish stocks.

 

I would never have guessed THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

How much did somebody get paid to come up with that obvious conclusion.

https://www.harbourbridgelakes.com/


Pisces mortui solum cum flumine natant

You get more bites on Anglers Net

 

 

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Hello Dan

Quote

The whole chain has to be in balance.

 

I agree, but how can it be for all species all the time. some times the chain is in balance for cod but the another time its in balance for bass.

I can't see how you can change that.

 

 

Left alone it will balance, nature will always find a way and given a chance will recover, the trouble is if we exploit one resource beyond the tipping point it can have an unexpected impact on another. If you try and save any particular species of fish by not catching any, then if the numbers are too low it will never recover, or at least not within a reasonable timescale, the egg and young production cannot match predation. Along comes another creature to fill the void, and it might be a shellfish/jellyfish or another species of fish. I guess there is a risk that if bass numbers increase without sufficient food supply, mackerel for example, then their good fortune could be the demise of the mackerel, given its vulnerable position, and if those stocks collapse then so will the bass. I do not profess to be a marine ecologists but guess there are sophisticated models that try to predict this.

There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot!

 

Its nice here! http://www.twfcorfu.com

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Big fish are fever today than at any other time we know of, and fish now mature faster/smaller than they used to.

 

I disagree.

 

Cod stocks are way down in some areas, but we are not seeing much diffrence in the size range, as for other fish there are just as many large soles, skate, even in some cases bass,

 

Quote

the stock has been ground down so much that it simply cannot produce enough juveniles to compensate and is in long term decline. You can see this in the figure which shows the numbers of one year old cod produced each year since 1963.

 

That gragh just proves that the stock is not much diferent now than what it was during1962, wich is what I've always maintained.

I fish to live and live to fish.

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The graph shows large increases after 1962.

 

And what happened in the 62/63 Winter. A bloody freeze-up! We had 6 weeks below freezing down here, with snow on the ground till May.

 

The decline seems to have taken place at the same time as rising sea temperatures!

https://www.harbourbridgelakes.com/


Pisces mortui solum cum flumine natant

You get more bites on Anglers Net

 

 

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