How Gill Nets Work.

[stavey]

disillusioned, what would your local conservation minded? inshore fishermen think of sharing our waters fairly, and helping with enforcement ie, would they support a ban on all netting from the shore to 3 miles out,and ban any vessels of more than 10 mtrs, and any that are not local or registered localy from potting inside this area?

[Ian Burrett]

stavey:

disillusioned, what would your local conservation minded? inshore fishermen think of sharing our waters fairly, and helping with enforcement ie, would they support a ban on all netting from the shore to 3 miles out,and ban any vessels of more than 10 mtrs, and any that are not local or registered localy from potting inside this area?

At the end of the day don't we all want the same thing? i.e. A well stocked sea with sustainable fishing.

The commercial lads i mentioned earlier are trying to get this vessel banned. which shows they also want legislation to protect their livelihoods.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Hi All

 

202

There is a basic difference between the unthoughtful farmer and those who take the sea for all they can.

The dear old farmer is mainly screwing himself because he is P***ing in his own back yard. Those that rape the sea hit area after area thus screwing not only themselves but everybody else.

[samuel-cox]

Commercial fisherman should not be compared withn farmers.

Farmers are subsadised not to grow crops and set the fields aside for the wild life.

Fisherman used to be subsadised but this was stopped and origanly the govement gave them their lisences. The lisences are now worth money, and are bought and sold by fisherman.

There has to be real efforts to conserve our fisheries, this is not for commercial fisherman but for anglers. The reason for this is as mentioned before angling is worth far more to the UK econemy than commercial fishing.

Having said that we can still have a small well managed substainable commercial fishery if hard decisions are made soon.

Shutting off estuaries to commercial fishermen, increasing mesh size, are both direction we should be heading.

There is one commercial fisherman at Bradwell, he fills the gaps in the fishing with other work to make a liveing. He conciders his first job as fishing, although he has down sized from a 35 footer to a 26 footer in the last five years.

5 stone of bass is a good day around 35 fish.

There are a new generation of fisherman at Mersea.The days when son followed father into fishing are still in excistance. But instead of working on the larger boats with their fathers

they are buying small fast boat. These boat get to the inshore marks in minutes. They only go out at the right state of tide, and only use around 1000 yards of gear.The whole proses is normally over in 3 hours.

This sort of fishing should be pushed further ofshore alowing the inshore marks to develop.

This must be best for all concerned in the long run.

[Guest 202]

Unless I am mistaken, who are you talking about Nick??and as for your broad statement ...mmmmm I have lived in mersea most of my life,and worked across the spectrum of all methods persued, my brother has fished out of here ALL his working life, and still does, and as we have just sat and talked about your statement which you are passing on as FACT! lets put the record right,THE only SONS who are fishing with their fathers ...are,Steven, he has the lunar beam,no speed boat!!! and Kevin who chooses to either drive for hgv agencies, or stewards at manningtree,when the fishing is slack,oh, and there is Johny with Andrew,and Tim, Derick,no kids, Robert, no boys, and while you blush cos well you should,think on, I knew Bradwell when the marina did not exist, and Dan Birch was the Man on the water front, and watched the place grow from that mud hole behind the wall to what it is today, my idea of posting on here was in part to balance a status quo, fact and fiction,part of the stuff you come out with relates to the veiws of an Idealist, very nice to, if we could all use hindsight what a buitifull world we would be in,and the rest? well I am not sure you realise what you are coming out with to be quite honest,just for instance, 7 stone box this, 7 stone box that, NO self respecting fisherman would fill a box like that, why? well you should know, bass are not gutted and the ones at the bottom would be like pulp, anyway, out of pure interest, and thats all it is, why are you not running a charter boat?

[spanner]

"The dear old farmer is mainly screwing himself because he is P***ing in his own back yard"

 

Sorry Ken, but agricultural run-off and excess nitrates in the water system means he is pi**ing into more than his own back yard. Algal blooms, huge areas of de-oxygenated sea, and sometimes large numbers of dead fish is a result of this 'dear old farmer'.

[Ian Burrett]

spanner:

"The dear old farmer is mainly screwing himself because he is P***ing in his own back yard"

 

Sorry Ken, but agricultural run-off and excess nitrates in the water system means he is pi**ing into more than his own back yard.  Algal blooms, huge areas of de-oxygenated sea, and sometimes large numbers of dead fish is a result of this 'dear old farmer'.

Spanner

I couldn't agree with you more.

 

I know its been quoted before but "every household in Britain is paying £12 a month in fines to Europe because of the poor state of Britain's seas"

This is because the seas are engulfed with excessive nitrates from Farmers and the government has decided it's cheaper to pay the fines than clean up the sea

[Guest stevie cop]

What people tend to forget is that farmers rotate crops, give the land a rest and re-plant. Commercial fishermen don't do these things. O.K, they target different species at different times of year, but that's to do with availablity, not conservation. Even those that give certain marks a rest from time to time, still visit them every year so the resident fish, especially bass, will be gradually depleted over the years.

 

Yes, farmers and their nitrates are a real pain and probably do more damage to our estuaries than people realise, but there's no real comparison between them and commercial fishermen. I've been lucky enough to be able to spend time talking to a few local commercial fishermen who have their heads screwed on, and are pretty conservation minded. But even they admit that there are those that take the p*** and those that give all commercials a bad name by being irresponsible.

[spanner]

Steve, I wasn't suggesting they were comparable, just that farmers do have more environmental impact than just on their own farm.

[Guest stevie cop]

Yes, I know mate ;o)