[the clock is running out]

Hi & welcome to the forum barry, you're not neils son are you ?

 

Hi Ziggy,

 

Many thanks for the welcome. Thank you for the information regarding factory fishing, I'm not sure of the actuall amounts shovelled up. Some are suggesting a den't in the stocks, some are suggesting depleting the sand eel stocks having a detriment effect on the rest of the food chain, birds, fish, mammels etc. If it is near what i fear, 1 millon tons to the danes, 400,000 for the rest then i have a problem believing the sustaianability of this stock. I'm sure there are alternatives i.e. growing oilseed to burn in power stations, some other feed for fish farms, fertilizer, without the need to remove what the cod feed on.

 

I'm not Neils son by the way, just a concerned rca who takes his fishing more seriously than work.

 

regards barry

[the clock is running out]

we do need strong leadership it is blatantly obvious that over fishing will eventually mean the wholesale destruction of certain specieswhich in turn will effect everything else in the chain.

 

 

Hi, your not referring to a certain speices called sand eel by any chance, there the ones that are shovelled up for 'fish meal' before the cod can eat them?

[Top fishing port......]

I too would say Alderney from a total fishing point of view but as an all round port with regards to fishing variety/quality , facilities and quality of the charter fleet. It would have to be Weymouth. The skippers have all worked really hard together down there to make the most of the fishing available to them and to work together as a team and improve the facilities for the angler.

 

 

I second Weymouth for diversity. Inshore codling whiting, portland race for bass. Off portland for

the deep hole, conger, bull huss, tope. the banks next to the deephole for blondes and bream. Offshore wrecks for decent pollock, cod, conger eel. Then they go to alderney for your anuall jolly or two with all the brilliant fishing to boot.

 

regards barry

[SMALL CODLING ALL OVER THE NORTH SEA]

Could it be that they have arrived from the Varne bank?

 

regards barry

[No Take Zones - Good for Anglers?]

hello Barry

 

Quote

Please enlighten me on the present situation regarding the cod recovery plan. I agree that the mls for cod and also the majority of the fish caught should be radically overhauled upwards. I.E. 300mm for cod? practically the same for turbot. I have previousley stated elsewhere that this is classed as child molesting if it was in human terms.

They have done every thing except increase the MLS, cut quotas,cut the amount of days allowed at sea, increased cod end meshes to 120mm and gill net meshes to 140mm, gill nets of 140 mm catch very few cod of less than 4 or 5lb in weight.

None of these things has done much good, not in the south east any way.

2 chillier winters have produced a couple of better year class of codlings, still nothing like what we used to experience 20-30 or 40 years ago.

 

Barry you keep saying that these codling should be left alone, so, who is acually fishing for them, have you seen any body acually catching loads of small codling? The only people fishing for them here are anglers,I have not heard of any amount of coddlings being landed any where in the South East.

 

Hi Wurzel,

 

Fair point in the last paragath, i do not know what is happening to them if they are not being landed.

 

 

regards barry

[No Take Zones - Good for Anglers?]

[quote name='wurzel' date='Oct 30 2006, 10:53 PM' post='688226'

 

 

 

Hello again wurzel,

 

Many thanks again for your comments. I'm not sure but there was something this year with regards to the french illegal fishing where the EU is fining the french goverment millions of pounds on going all the time the fleet is carring out illegal practises. If so i would imagine it is easier for their goverment to continually pay these fines than clash with their own fleet with the usuall consequences, blockades etc.

 

Please enlighten me on the present situation regarding the cod recovery plan. I agree that the mls for cod and also the majority of the fish caught should be radically overhauled upwards. I.E. 300mm for cod? practically the same for turbot. I have previousley stated elsewhere that this is classed as child molesting if it was in human terms.

 

From memory we used to catch a lot bigger and alot more cod from the varne, so they have gone somewhere. As you say the size of codling is too small to be caught, again i consider that they should be left alone, purley on the chance if they move somewhere and have a chance to grow we all benifit in the long term. This year in addition to a lot more codling on the varne, we have also seen the same on the surrounding wrecks so this can only be a good thing.

 

regards barry

[No Take Zones - Good for Anglers?]

Hello Barry

Welcome to AN

 

Quote

 

I doubt making the Verne a NTZ would make any difference, in five years time if there were no cod on the other banks ie: Ridge or the Sandette there would be like wise none on the Verne.

 

Thanks for the welcome Wurzel. Two posts and you have shot me down in flames already. I state the varne bank as fished out commercially apart from many, many small immature cod that have not and do not get the chance to breed before being shovelled up. From a commercial point of view this fish at that size cannot have a great value. I therefore do not see any problem in making this area a NTZ. From a rsa point of veiw i do not 'get off' from catching this size of codling all day, again i consider it appropriate to make it a NTZ. If after a period of time there is no improvement, then revert back to the same old situation of every one takes all? If there is an improvement then the suggestion is to manage the area sustainably.

 

Thanks again Elton for putting me right.

 

Regards barry

[No Take Zones - Good for Anglers?]

Hi Guys, Although i'm new to this site i have been reading the posts for several weeks. I believe that John's responce to this topic is 100% I believe that the food chain has been and is still being decimated by the use of factory ships destroying the population of sand eels purely for the purpose of 'animal feed'.

 

At the top end of the channel, we used to have a magical area called the varne bank, during the summer seasons there used to be many charter boats drifting with pirks etc for the run of summer cod. Not any more. Anytime the codling regroup or reach say three pounds they are scooped up remorsely with no hope of getting to a reasonable worthwhile size. This is were i believe a NTZ would be more than appropriate if only for a short period of five years to make this area again worth while for both commercial and rca's.

[Time for change?]

Quite happy to let someone else do the work if anyone else could be bothered to get off their arse and write a simple letter when required (e.g. response to a consultation) or a letter to the local paper to highlight something, or try and get peoples views on a subject, gather information on a particular subject and present it to whomever but as I can't see anyone else bothering and i wish to make a difference to the fishing which has been the worst year for me ever this year, I have to do it myself.

 

It comes back the the analogy that If you want something done, do it yourself...

 

 

Hy guys, my first post, don't try to treat me too gently as i assure you that you will have a robust discussion from me. I am a fanatical boat RSA and fish top, middle and bottom end of the channel, this year i did my first excellant channel isle trip, then found out about the proposels for the RSA by the fisheries department.

Personally, i have sent two letters of objection and also have three letters printed in The Guernsey (you forum) press because i do care about the future of boat angling and i know that a huge ammount of others have done the same. Thanks to Elton for getting me online, i apologise if i have messed up my first post due to any technical detail. Regards Barry