Cornishman

I think you'll find they have been fined close to 800,000 pounds plus the cost of their own legal fees. Probably not far short of a million.

Colin W its about time you realise that anglers have been and will continue to land fish for profit without a licence. If a commercial breaks the rules they deserve to be prosecuted but to what level seems to be very inconsistant. There are good and bad in every walk of life and the sooner you realise this the better. I've witnessed the capture and landing of about 10 tons of pollack in the last few months by anglers who have paid a charter fee, the boat owner who is licenced then lands them for profit , what is he an angler or commercial. These pollack caght by bank managers, teachers , docters etc all reduce the quota for the commercials, is this fair?. I have mentioned the following before , if the so called 2 million anglers catch 1 bass a year this equates to about 1500 tons of bass, surely this must make a dent on stocks. There are plenty of other species that are heavily caught by the angling world . Anyhow gotta rush, agree or disagree the fact is lots of anglers sell their catch, ask any fish merchant.

I fully understand and respect the reasons to protect and conserve all types of marine organisms but sometimes the rules put in place to achieve this appear fantastic in principal but practically will have no positive effect. The market price for Tope is around 80p - £1.40 . Many boats will never need thier 45 kgs and some may land a few Tope in number every now and then but some boats have been known to catch between 500kgs - 1000kgs on occasions without targeting them, the situation now will see £1000 of dead tope being dumped back into the sea.

I still cant find the Tope rule on my licence either?. With the MFA doing a u-turn on the porbeagle front hopefully they'll revise the tope aswell. The word on the street is the number of Porbeagle's per landing is to increase to 13 if they have been caught accidentally, a move like this for tope would be sensible aswell. 45 kgs a day is not enough, the tope are still going to be caught and killed.

Last summer when we were paying 35- 40p the french were paying 20p after they had the subsidy.

The price of diesel is now 64p . Some supplies have indicated that it could reach 70p in the next few weeks. Some SW beamers are laying up with many small trawlers also contemplating their futures. With the price of petrol forcasted to hit £1.50 by the summer the price of diesel will probably be nearer 90p. Cant see many beamers operating on this price but i'm sure our EU cousins will continue to receive their fuel subsidies. Whatever line f work your all in I feel we're all in for a very rocky ride.

thedogs wrote-'I did hear that netted fish were being sold as line caught, dont know how true this is.' This did happen , a large fish firm from this end of the woods decided it would be a good idea to have their own tags made and attach them to netted bass. Luckily a handline fishermen noticed this in his local supermarket . I believe Trading Standards became involved which resolved the issue.

Defra need congratulating!. What planet are you from?. What difference do you honestly think this is going to make. Tope are still going to caught and thrown back dead, another massive step forward in fish conservation. I bet this consultation has cost millions of pounds and a few years to dream up, when you would get a more efficient measure from the nearest primary school. Its so convenient that our European neighbours are yet again unaffected. Out of interest was the idea of introducing an MLS ever discussed?.

'TWO men were arrested in Newlyn on Thursday concerning allegations from DEFRA relating toan alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The men aged 46 and 60,and from the Penzance area, were arrested on Thursday morning. A spokesman for DEFRA declined to comment. The two men were released on bail until February 5, 2008.' Published today in local paper, anyone know what its all about?.

There will be no increase in the MLS of Bass..

How would commercial fishermen be able to use rod and line fishing on a more efficient scale than the rsa barry?. Most of the charter boats in the SW take upto 12 men who are paying for the trip, these 12 men then catch a nice amount of pollack for the skipper/owner who over the season probably makes more through the sale of the fish than the fee paid by the passnegers. Are these people classed as commercial fisherman? I fish from a small port in SE Cornwall and now dont bother with pollacking because the marks are generally fished out or are being fished by a number of rsa's. Their landings also have an effect on the price because there is a greater and more consistant supply. I have also heard that it has gone this way down West aswell.

Hi Must go fishing. Must agree on closing fishing areas in spawning seasons. The trevose box which was lobbied for by fisherman and their representitives has been working resonably well I believe but as with most conservation measures that have been suggested inthe past 20 years we're still talking about them today whilst we still wrestle with the poorly managed and useless quota system. Not all the fish were that 'stamp' but the majority 80% are 1-2kgs with most of these being closer to 1 kg than 2kg. The problem here is pollack have increased in value over the past 5 years and the charter boats have realised that there ismore money in letting a dozen anglers catch small pollack for themal day than there is shifting from mark to mark trying to find larger fish. The fish were just gutted and some of the boats are licenced at quite an expense which relly proves their aim.Why spend 15-20 grand on a licence if you have no intension of making money with it. Two ton of pollack shared between 6 boats is only 330 kgs per boat this is around 400 fish so about 30-40 fish perman , quite realistic on an 8 hr trip.

In reply to MustGoFishing. All fishing vessels are restricted by quota allocations whatever their size. The way these allocations are handled do vary between over 10metres and under 10 . Most over 10 fish from 'pools' that consist of members own fish which is the track record attached to each boat which varies between species and weight. All this fish is 'pooled' and then shared equally between the members vessels. Some boats catch more of one specie than others so from month to month there are rises or decreases in allocation. For the under 10 Defra or now known as the MFA control the quota. Until recently there has been many occasions other than sole where the boats have had monthly allowances but as many over 10 owners have deccomissioned or sold up and then had massive under 10's built with oftengreater catching efficiency than their previous boat. Along with quota cuts this has led to greater pressure onthe under 10 fish pool and many species being given monthly limits i.e. cod,pollack.sole etc. As you say 50kgs is not lot and many tons of cod were dumped by <10's this winter from my home port. The MFA has recently allowed the leasing of fish for<10's but will review this for next year. Allow having to pay upto 60p a kilo for cod it beats throwing them back. Now we move onto your other concern of wreck fishing during spawnng months. 95% of the Pollack I catch in gill nets are 6lbs and over , this makes them around 6-7 years old I believe but feel free to correct me. The other 5 % are never below 4lb. These fishhave had 3-4 breeding years whereas the small 2-3lb pollack which are being heavily targeted by 6 charter boats consisting of upto 50 people have never spawned. This past weekend alone there was 2 tons of pollack landed by anglers which also has an effect on quota . Got to go but look forward to your reply

The measuremnt is from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail ( the longest of the 2). The forks of the tail can be forced together which adds a few mm to the fishes overall length.

Thats because they are a coplete waste of yours and my council tax. I'm a commercial and I want more prosecutions to made by them. My name might give a clue to which sfc i'm policed by but they are powerless. They leave the harbour at 9.30 and return by 4, dont work weekends and probably do less than 100 days in 12months. You dont need to einstein to conclude what time is best to carry out your naughties.