Pair Trawling in the Channel

[Grant]

Chippy,

 

Couldn't see the link as looked at it a bit late, but get the general drift.

 

Maybe we should be heckling Ag and Fish for a bit more pro- active support on this issue locally, especially with the French, and not just pair trawling.

 

I actually had a response from the Guernsey guy when I mailed him a few weeks back, and while I didnt see any action, it was at least a start.

 

In SA at the moment, but speaking to some of the locals, they are also starting to realise the effects on their fishing here.

 

Their stocks are nowhere near our levels in terms of desperation, but when is too early to act?

 

Kayak fishing is also massive over here!

[Leon Roskilly]

http://www.cetaceanbycatch.org

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Leon Roskilly]

If you look back through SACN latest you'll see a few articles on dolphin bycatch.

 

The 'escape hatches' being trialled were being experimented with in New Zealand where sea-lions are often taken in pair trawls.

 

The animals were being ejected from the net, but most were so badly injured that they died anyway (I've got the post-mortem report somewhere if anyone's interested).

 

Anyway, they decided to abandon the trial and give up on the escape hatches.

 

The videotape referred to was unofficially shot by a CEFAS employee aboard a pair team and showed dolphins coming up in the nets at a time when MAFF and the industry was maintaining the line 'there is no evidence that pair trawling causes cetacean deaths'.

 

It was shown to a group of UK and French anglers meeting in France, but legend has it that the CEFAS employee was phoned by his bosses and told he had a career decision to make. He decided to erase the tape.

 

After that, some UK anglers arranged for washed up dolphins to be taken to London for Post Mortem which established that they had indeed suffocated in nets at the time that the pair trawlers were active.

 

Shortly after a Country File programme reported on the issue with footage from the post mortems and then the practice of piercing the bodies to make them sink started.

 

No one knows how many dolphins are being killed, only the numbers coming ashore which are thought to be a fraction of those dying.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Jaffa]

Thanks for your links Leon, cetaceanbyctach.org seems an interesting and useful site.

 

I do look at SACN back and forth but gave up on it for dolphin coverage after seeing stuff like

 

quote:

---

"It was an unequal struggle. A David and Goliath of the high seas.

 

On one side two massive trawlers towing a net to catch bass – and threatening the lives of dolphins. On the other, two swimmers armed only with buoys and protest banners, bobbing in the water just yards from the looming hulls."

---

Aye right.... add attempting to attach the buoys to the gear as its being hauled

 

The two "massive" trawlers in question looking like 55ft boats! and as far as I could see the only Goliath is the Environmental group with money and media power, rather than two small fishing boats ! :confused:

 

The dolphin escape gear might not be working but im glad to see it being tried and the fishermen and scientists working togeather on this. This is a global problem and a gear breakthrough could save species that actually are endangered, unlike those involved here.

 

 

The french fleet involved is five times the size of the UK one. Are the French making any scientific effort on bycatch? Will the removal of those few Scots boats decrease or increase the eventual dolphin toll in pair trawl fisheries?

 

Thanks again for the links, was hoping to get some kind of observers report from the SMRU but perhaps thats for DEFRA eyes only?

 

Chris.

[Jaffa]

They should know the numbers being killed, they have observed enough hauls being made to make an accurate assesment surely? Or am I expected to believe there had been an enormous coverup !? involving The fishermen, CEFAS, SMRU and DEFRA.

[Leon Roskilly]

Jaffa,

 

It took a long time for MAFF to concede that dolphins were being killed, then when the evidence gathered became undeniable their response was to launch a 'three year study'.

 

This angered many campaigners who saw it as a delaying tactic, arguing that the fishery should be closed on the precautionary principle until it could be proved that it could be prosecuted in an acceptable manner.

 

However, the fishery continued, first with some observers on board (the observers were placed on the wrong trawler of the pair!), then they trialled the 'escape hatches' with cameras.

 

It all became ridiculous with the boat engaged in the experimental trawling having to be taken out of service, then coming back into action just as the bass shoals and dolphins were breaking up.

 

A tope was filmed, and a £3,000 camera dropped off the nets.

 

The fact that they didn't observe any dolphins being caught was hailed as giving the fishery a clean bill of health by the industry leaders, but greeted with howls of derision by campaigners.

 

There were official reports published by DEFRA at the time, and stories in Fishing News and by the dolphin campaign groups.

 

With more and more dolphins being washed up every year, more and more campaign groups getting involved, more and more newspaper and magazine articles being published, it politically became time to act, no longer was it good enough to stall.

 

With so many groups now involved in this issue, SACN and other RSA organisations are turning our attention back onto the need to build up good bass stocks, represented by specimens throughout the natural age range, to obtain 'Best Value' for UK PLC as defined as the overaching aim of the Net Benefits report.

 

The French are still at the stage of denying that the bass pair trawl fishery kills any cetaceans.

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

[ 15. March 2005, 04:12 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[Leon Roskilly]

Some links

 

TL - leon

[Jaffa]

Thanks for that Leon.

 

FWIW I don't pay much attention to what industry leaders, eco warriors or MAFF say to the newspapers. Lets see the evidence.

 

Couple of questions.

 

Given that whatever boat the observer is put on is going to be the "wrong" half of the pair for 50% of the hauls, whats the significance of that?

 

Presumably the only hauls that where counted were those where the observer examined the catch?!

 

I am meant to read something into the loss of a camera and the boat breakdowns ? indicative of a badly organised operation or whats the suggestion here?

 

Equiptment gets broken and loss on a regular basis at sea. In the field research is not exactly easy; Unless your greenpeace of course and don't bother with things like peer review and all that boring stuff

 

Leon, I want the pair trawling ended and the Bass to give better value for the economy, but we tread on thin ice with the sentimental stuff the ecowarriors come out with. Public policy and fisheries management should not be done this way. Just MO.

[wurzel]

Well said Cris, I'm glad I am not the only one who does not believe every thing the greens say.

 

you are like me and try and sort out the facts from fiction. often the facts are forgot and mostly fiction promoted, espesaily by the ecowarriors.

 

Steve when a pair trawl is hauled there is a lot of commotion as the two boats come together and the net is passed over to one boat, then if there are several lifts of fish to get aboard it could be quite a while before any dolphins are lifted clear of the water, a powerful animal, they would do themselves damage before they drown.

I still think that for the duration of the tow the dolphins are going in and out of the net at thier lesure.

 

Big Cod There was always a few fishermen at Whitby that had no concience what so ever over discards whether single boat or pair trawling, and the moterway as we called it just off the town will always have few boats working it, but if you let your mind zoom out a bit there is probably no other boats working for 100 square miles.

[wurzel]

leon

I don't want to get all politcal again, but why is it the Scotish boats are getting all the attention, as soon as they joined the fishery the whole world desended on them, the French just plod on as they have done for the last 20 years unmolested.

I think you must know by now what I think about the net benifit report.