Overfishing of Cod predates trawlers

[Guest jay_con]

Surely the quota system stops them landing 1000's of boxes of cod a day?

 

Black Fish? No way that is possible in a small port like Whitby surely?

[big_cod]

those days are now gone winter i think? but is no good when the horse has bolted, just been down on fish key talking to a couple of skippers they said they had plenty of roe in the cod this week

[Guest jay_con]

Wurzel, Not so long back there were posts made to this forum by an american chap from the east coast. He posted links to his website. There were huge cod being caught and also smaller ones, and plenty of them. When I questioned the water temp it turned out to be warmer than ours never mind the grand banks.

 

I have no doubt global warming is a Factor here, But I beleive overfishing is a larger one. As big cod says 1000's of tons of cod have been taken daily from our area alone, Given that our area is one of the most populated for cod in the english north sea and a main breading ground you can see what impact taking large quantities of fish has had.

Global warming is yet another tool in the lockers of the of the commercial sector, another of many smokescreens, a way of passing the Buck. Not so long back in our local paper, seals were constantly blaimed for the lack of fish. Now they latched on to global warming the seals seem to be off the hook. They will use anyway possible to pass the buck for what they have done themselves.

[Guest jay_con]

Do you really beleive those day have gone?

[Guest jay_con]

There should be punishment for what has happened. wether the horse has bolted or not. A large fine or other measures would do the trick. That way if there are years in the future when a large spawn helps out the stocks, the skippers will be deterred from trying to scoop it all up and land it when mr Lucan is on 1 of his alleged jollies.

[big_cod]

those days are now gone winter i think? but is no good when the horse has bolted, just been down on fish key talking to a couple of skippers they said they had plenty of roe in the cod this week

[Guest jay_con]

An Echoe

[big_cod]

yep for some reason didnt think it had gone first time comp went mad but it was worth mentioning again

[Guest jay_con]

Why do you think those days have gone?

[Jaffa]

Hi Wurzel,

 

I'd like to see that report but if its on your computer rather than the internet I don't know how to get it on this site. Perhaps Newt will know, or if you post the reports title it could be Leon already has it or knows where a link is. That said, love to see it myself if you could email me it. I'll PM you my address. Cheers.

 

I'd imagine changing conditions were a big underlying factor with the Grand Banks cod too; just never seen the research.

 

As I understand it the speed with which the Grand Banks Cod collapsed, then failed to return, was a big mystery a few years back but evidence is emerging that it may have actually been a succession of stock collapses, masked by the fact that the fishery management treated the whole stock as one. Identifying these stocks within stocks has now become easier due to micro satalite DNA techniques.

 

If that is the case its entirely possible that some stocks could recover around the banks while others may be effectively extinct. Imagine a sub stock that fed/was fished on on the Banks but whose spawning area was located in a place that meant its fry drifted into a plankton of good food, and another stock who had several years of poor recruitment due to poor plankton conditions (blame natural variation, climate change whatever), yet the adults of both are being trawled for on the feeding grounds. All will seem well to the fisheries managers yet they are now dependant on good recruitment from fewer stocks... couple of bad years for the remaining stocks and the collapse comes faster than anyone expected or understood.

 

Yet more "slack" is taken out of the system and its ability to cope with changing environmental conditions by the age compostion of a heavily fished stock. Its been shown that the older fish produce more viable eggs and larvae yet few of them remain now. Fishing also reduces the genetic variability in a stock so that it is less able to respond to changes in environment ie if the plankton timing/species changes there is more chance of some larvae with the genes able to cope being among them.

 

Our North sea stocks are in a bad shape now; few large fish in any of the main commercial species, even the "healthy" stocks like haddock and whiting are dependant on just one or two years classes, yet we know that the plankton are changing in species, and those changes will lead to mis-matches in fish spawning times and the availibility of food just when the larvae need them. Whats happening with sandeel looks extremely worrying and I have seen nothing serious to suggest thats fishermens fault , rather it looks like changes in the ecosystem (but those changes have got to have repercussions for our whitefish and they are already under huge fishing pressure..)

 

Fishing/ climate change its surely both? , and very hard to unravel which bit is due to which.

 

 

Winter, that cod can be found in warmer water is no surprise. Its what conditions are like for the eggs/ larvae that matters and if those conditions produce enough plankton of the right kind at the right time. Cooling, warming, change in a current, all sorts of factors can effect that.

 

Big Cod, Winter, perhaps the fishermen around your way are a bunch of greedy idiots, how would I know? , but its not my experience elsewhere. This disaster has happened TO the fishermen IMO, due increasing technology, to bad science, poor enforcement and oceanographic changes.

 

People will do what they have to do to survive?, adopt new technology as it comes up? Course they bloody will ! The management regime needs to include that.

 

BTW can we expect the charter boats to pack up fishing for the remaining large cod soon? anglers to stop digging white rag, taking undersize edibles for bait? We all going to give up using so much energy? demanding the latest Japanese reel, shipped halfway around the world on a container ship with far eastern ballast water? We are all so perfect eh?

 

Chris