Slack lines
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Posts posted by Slack lines
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Not exactly what i expected but hey ho !
OK then Andrew, why not alter this thread a little? Put some groups up that have yet to be naamed.........
CChavs
Buses
Meatballs
etc,etc.. The list can be as big as peoples imagination, and there should be a fair bit of humour amongst the replies.........
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Am I missing something or is there some point in endlessly posting links to news stories without so much as offering an opinion on them ?
Being registered blind, I have problems typing, sorry I'll not bother in future.
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A peculiar batfish has been found lurking on the seabed in waters off New Zealand's north coast.
It was found by scientists with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, carrying out the most extensive survey yet of our continental shelf.
In a 42-day research voyage, crew and scientists on the research ship Tangaroa covered the length of the country, using hi-tech equipment and bringing back about 2600 marine samples.
Programme leader Mark Morrison said the research team surveyed "biodiversity hot spots" around New Zealand's expansive continental shelf.
"They are nursery grounds and places where animals congregate and a lot goes on."
The sites are believed to be a lot less common than they were because of damage done to them over the years. The information on the sites could be used to help protect what was left and look at possible restoration, he said.
The batfish is a small fish with a triangular head.
Its specially modified lower fins looked remarkably like frogs' legs and allowed it to "walk" across the sea floor, Dr Morrison said.
The batfish sample was being sent to Te Papa for further study.
Andrew Stewart, the museum's fish collection manager, said the find was a "very important catch scientifically".
Until he had examined the batfish, he was unable to say which species it was, but it appeared to be a member of the Malthopsis genus. Scientists knew of only four species in New Zealand waters, two of which had not yet been described.
The fish were poor swimmers and used their legs to sneak up on prey, which were likely to be very small invertebrates, Mr Stewart said.
The batfish was found in waters 117 metres deep, at the most northern location sampled, the Middlesex Bank, 30 kilometres north of the Three Kings Islands.
Other finds in this area included a Gorgonian sea coral or sea fan.
Niwa assistant collection manager Sadie Mills said a large specimen brought back showed marine invertebrates – "brittle stars" – living on the coral.
"This would be their main habitat. They sit there their entire life. It's pretty important for these animals."
The corals were more common at such depths than people realised, and provided areas for fish to shelter in, Ms Mills said.
Processing the information gathered on the trip would take about two years and help advance marine spatial planning, Dr Morrison said.Ad Feedback
Information was gathered using a high-definition video and still camera towed along the sea floor at night, and a multi-beam sonar used to produce maps of the sea floor
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/5304124...s-research-trip
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THE Environment Agency has dismissed rumours that fish are being stolen from Fenland rivers in overnight raids.
Anglers had become increasingly worried about the number of fish, in particular bream and eel, left in streams and drains around the region and believed people were not replacing them after they were caught.
An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We have not had reports of fish being stolen from waters around Fenland. The reduction of the number of fish could be down to the seasonal changes and may not be in the same places as they were.”
CONTACT: If you have any information regarding fish theft contact the Environment Agency on 0800 807060.
http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/news/environme...rivers_1_966910
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The reintroduction into the wild of creatures like the beaver and sea eagle that had previously died out in Britain is endangering the countryside, an influential group of vets has warned....................
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environme...ing-mayhem.html
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Defra has launched a consultation on planning for major sewer projects.
The consultation will consider introducing secondary legislation to amend the current Planning Act 2008.
The Planning Act 2008 classifies certain types of major schemes, such as power stations and large sewage treatment works, as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).
The proposed secondary legislation would amend the Act to specify major sewer projects in England above a storage capacity threshold of 350,000 cubic metres as NSIPs.
They would then be able to go through the same planning application process as other NSIPs.
This would mean that a proposed major sewer project would submit a single application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), rather than potentially multiple applications to many local planning authorities.
The public consultation will seek views on three specific questions:
1.Is the draft Section 14 Order's 350,000 cubic-metre (m3) volume threshold for a proposed wastewater transfer and storage infrastructure set at an appropriate level, capturing only those projects which should be classed as NSIPs and so undergo the same streamlined planning process as other NSIPs?
2.If not, what threshold would be more appropriate and why?
3.Are the proposed "supplemental provisions" in the draft Section 14 Order appropriate?
The consultation is open until 5 October 2011.
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id...sewer+projects+
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There's no way policy can work
THE new Common Fisheries Policy has been announced and has been heavily criticised.
The Commission say they will phase out discards, the practice of throwing overboard any fish caught above EU quotas, but do not say how. Instead it will be up to member states to make this happen, suggesting the EU has no solution to the very problem the Common Fisheries Policy has created.
Equally, they don't state that there should be any penalty for discards, making it unclear how the practice will be prevented, meaning fishermen may actually profit from fish they were not supposed to catch.
The Commissioner has admitted the one size fits all policy making of the CFP was wrong, and is handing back a degree of competence to member states, but it is clearly a case of passing the buck when they themselves have run out of ideas. The commission will continue to decide how much fish can be caught, but leave it up to Member States to decide how to enforce it.
There are proposals to allow transferable quotas, meaning large vessels can trade remaining catching rights with other vessels. This will encourage deals to be made, favouring large companies, and squeeze out smaller businesses.
The fact that the commission have drawn up what critics are calling a vague and incomplete policy reinforces my belief that there should be no common fisheries policy at all. It echoes the mess they have made of a single currency, where it would seem they also no longer know what they are doing. I strongly believe it is time that the UK called for national waters to be controlled and fished by the UK only.
John Bufton
Ukip MEP for Wales
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/story-12...tail/story.html
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The head of the National Marine Aquarium has warned there will be "no fish left in the seas" by 2050 unless practices are reformed immediately.
Dr David Gibson claims that huge advances in fishing technology mean we now have the ability to hunt commercial species of fish "to extinction" and that whole food chains are collapsing as a result.
His comments came as scientists warned that mackerel could "vanish" from Westcountry shelves within three years because giant foreign trawlers and factory ships are being allowed to strip out the entire stock.
Dozens of vessels have moved into the waters around the Faroe Islands and Iceland after the two island states' governments abandoned quota agreements designed to protect stocks.
Mackerel are migratory and the shoals being exploited would normally return to British waters sometime in the autumn. But this year there are expected to be far fewer due to enormous foreign ships processing up to 1,500 tonnes of fish a day.
Britain's fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, said mackerel would top the agenda when EU fisheries ministers meet this week.
Dr Gibson, managing director of the Plymouth-based National Marine Aquarium, spoke out following the EU's outlining of a major shake-up of fishing legislation last Wednesday. For decades the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has divided opinion over the "discards" ruling, which forces fishermen to dump dead fish back into the sea if the catch exceeds tight quota restrictions.
EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki announced new plans to abolish the controversial practice and decentralise responsibility to individual countries.
Dr Gibson said the new initiative – which would see all fish and marine life caught being landed at port – would "drive the fishing industry to develop highly selective fishing methods or give up on wasteful ones."
He said that at present "some highly damaging bottom trawling fisheries" discard 90 per cent of their catch.
"The huge advances in fishing technology, and the ever increasing efficiency of fishing gear and boats, means that we now have the ability to hunt commercial species of fish to extinction – something that a few short years ago was inconceivable," said Dr Gibson.
"Our best estimates are that unless reform takes place now there will be no fish left in the seas by 2050.
"We are seeing whole food chains collapsing and global changes in the stability of the oceans. In some parts of the world they now fish for jellyfish as this is the only thing left to catch."
He added: "If we want our children and their children to be able to enjoy our seas and oceans and to know what cod or haddock tastes like in 10, 20 or 30 years from now then we must act now.
"We commend the European Union for having the courage to make the difficult decisions to place the conservation of our natural resources above short term financial gain."
Dr Gibson's comments have been dismissed as "factually inaccurate" and "alarmist" by fishermen in the Westcountry.
Paul Trebilcock, leader of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation (CFPO), said: "On the fish stocks hake, sole and cod are all under long term management plans and fished sustainably with stocks increasing. Many other stocks in the South West are showing trends of improving and management plans are being developed, we are moving in the right direction and it is not an entirely bleak picture as described.
"Therefore this is factually inaccurate, alarmist and on the whole not a helpful context in which to frame the debate."
Meanwhile, the CFPO are calling on the EU Commission to increase the annual cod quota after seeing a "significant increase" on the ground and in their catches for the past few years. In June the ICES – the independent international scientific body that advises the Commission on fish stocks and quota levels – said "high discarding" would occur unless the anomaly was addressed.
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/story-1296369...tail/story.html
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bun fight continues.......................
I think the bun fight is just getting warmed up!
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You must get over the idea that British newspapers are of any use for supplying accurate news.
If you are interested in who "Jordan" is dating or what colour handbag "Posh beckham" has bought then they are useful.
Otherwise..........They are just a joke.
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/Too-much-sm...Guard/92188.php
The link above gives more factual information on what is a proposal by ONE Irish MP, who is worried about his countries ability to combat drug smuggling.
Sorry Dave, I know it mainly is a comic or speculation rag, but "sometimes" it gets things right, perhaps this wasn't one of those times?
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Italy and Spain face further attacks from anxious investors amid fears for the future of the euro. Above, Giulio Tremonti, the finance minister who announced Italy's latest austerity package on 15 July. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty ImagesEurozone leaders are braced for another battering from financial markets this week, amid growing fears that the spiralling sovereign debt crisis is threatening the future of the single currency.
"It's likely to be a very confused and volatile week, with mixed messages from markets and policymakers," said Sony Kapoor, director of the Brussels-based thinktank Re-Define.
After Italy was forced to bring forward austerity plans last week to placate anxious bond investors, European council president Herman Van Rompuy called leaders to an emergency summit this Thursday.
The results of "stress tests" by the new European Banking Authority revealed on Friday that eight banks were vulnerable, and must raise €2.5bn (£2.2bn) to cushion themselves against potential losses.
The EBA did not calculate the impact of a default by Greece or other vulnerable eurozone countries, but it released detailed data about banks' holdings that will allow analysts to make their own assessment. "Everybody's sitting up crunching numbers," said one market insider.
Matt Spick, banking analyst at Deutsche Bank, said: "We expect the sector to still be at the mercy of macro issues."
Unless Thursday's summit results in concrete announcements about how to contain the crisis, analysts are warning that anxious investors will continue to target Italy and Spain.
Neil Mellor, of BNY Mellon, said: "Everyone expects some sort of default to come about but in the meantime contagion is rife."
Italy saw 10-year-bond yields shoot up to their highest level since the foundation of the single currency last week, before finance minister Giulio Tremonti forced through new spending cuts and tax rises. Politicians have been struggling to reach a deal on a new bailout for Greece. Germany's Angela Merkel has insisted that private sector investors must pay part of the price by taking a loss on Greek bonds.
But there is no consensus on how this "private sector involvement" would work –European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet claims there are 36 proposals under discussion.
With the financial panic now hitting Italy, and funding costs for banks rising, leaders are under mounting pressure to come up with a long-term rescue plan for the entire eurozone.
That could mean beefing up the European financial stability facility - the bailout fund created last year. The EFSF has the power to issue bonds and lend the money to crisis-hit economies; but it is much too small to rescue Spain or Italy, and it cannot buy embattled countries' bonds directly, in the event of a crisis.
Jürgen Michels, of Citigroup, warned that any change in the rules for the EFSF would have to be passed by national eurozone parliaments, which could take too long to tackle an emergency over the summer. "Only in situations of emergency are the individual member countries able to overcome the divergent national interests," he said in a research note.
"As a result, we have seen only ad-hoc emergency measures so far, mainly designed to deal with problems in individual member countries. Hence, with the warnings that the euro as a whole is at risk now, a more far-reaching ad-hoc emergency measure looks likely to us, but we still do not expect a comprehensive programme any time soon."
Kapoor said: "On the single biggest source of risk, which is sovereign debt, the policy remains as fraught and unresolved as ever."
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Current situation
Last updated - 14 July 2011
Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, parts of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, and western Norfolk remain in drought. Anglian Water and Cambridge Water who provide public water supply in this area have said that there is no threat to the public water supply as they have enough water to get through the summer.
The recent above-average rainfall in June and the continued cooler and showery weather in July has helped stabilise the water resources position. However, the recent rain has not ended the drought and both the environment and farmers are still being affected.
There are a number of rivers that are exceptionally low for the time of year. This includes the river Dove in central England, the river Don in north east England, and the river Coln in the Thames Valley.
A number of fish have died in channels that form part of the Maud Foster internal drainage area near Boston in Lincolnshire. The river Tarrant (a tributary of the river Stour) in Dorset has dried up trapping fish in pools of water. We rescued a number of brown trout and pike this week and moved them downstream to the river Stour. This river does dry up but this year it has happened earlier than we would expect.
An early indication of the possible long term impacts of the dry weather has been detected in Pevensey Levels, Sussex where we have found low numbers of elvers (young eels) migrating from the sea to freshwater.
The recent wet weather has improved the position for public water supplies. All water companies now say that they do not expect to have to introduce any restrictions on their customers this year. However water companies will need to assess what actions they need to take to prepare for the winter in case the it is dry and cold.
Drought management briefing
We have activated our drought plans and produce a regular drought management brief to keep everyone informed about the latest situation. View the detail by opening the link below:
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Britain's coastguards would be replaced by a new pan- European fleet under 'harmonisation' plans which would see their life-saving work being taken over by an EU coastguard corps emblazoned with the Brussels logo.
The news comes just days after Transport Secretary Philip Hammond performed a partial U-turn on cutting the number of currently operating Coastguard centres from 19 to eight, with just three remaining open 24 hours a day.
After an outcry over the safety risks, he told the Commons last week that 11 centres will remain, all of which will be operational 24 hours a day.
Under the Brussels plan, which will be voted on by the European Parliament in October, an EU Coastguard will be created to 'effectively combat current or future dangers at sea such as terrorism, piracy and trafficking'.
If approved, it would then be put before EU member countries for ratification.
Trevor Coleman, MEP for the South West of England, who uncovered the proposals, said: 'A European Coastguard service would contribute, we were told, towards the single European state "we dream of" and that "member states need to contribute to these structures and relinquish some of their power."
'No one spoke of local knowledge or the use of volunteer Coastwatch personnel.'
Partial U-turn: A public outcry forced Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, to reverse Coastguard station cuts
Partial U-turn: An outcry forced Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, to reverse Coastguard station cuts
UKIP leader and South East England MEP Nigel Farage said: 'We've already had our fishing rights taken away from us. Wanting us to relinquish control of our own marine borders simply must be taken off the agenda at the earliest possible opportunity.
'We've already seen the EU embassies take hold, and seen the EU try to take over defence. And immigration has been a disaster for years because of European rules'.
A spokesman for the European Parliament said: 'Once it is approved by the Parliament as a whole, it will be forwarded to the Commission, Council and Member States. The Commission then may come up with legislative proposals or take measures based on the content of the report.'
Tory Shipping Minister Mike Penning said the proposals would be resisted by the UK Government.
He added: 'A European Coastguard is not a concept that the UK would support. Her Majesty's Coastguard has a long and proud history and has a worldwide reputation for excellence.
'Our first priority is to plan for its future in a way that makes it a more resilient and more efficient service for the UK.'
Announcing the U-turn on the Coastguard closures, Mr Hammond said the Government had been trying to distribute the workload of the Coastguard service more evenly across the UK, while at the same time cutting costs as part of the drive to reduce the budget deficit.
Campaigners argued that safety would be threatened and the skills of experienced Coastguards lost if local centres were closed.
David Cameron admitted in January that Prince William had personally lobbied him against the proposed cuts to the service.
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They are the least of the creatures that swim the Catawba River: baby fish, inches-long shad, eggs and larvae. More than 2 billion die in U.S. waterways each year, casualties of the nation's hunger for electricity.
Power plants need water as much as fish do. Water drawn from lakes or rivers condenses the steam that turns turbines. The rush of water traps small creatures against screened intakes or sucks them inside the plants themselves.
An Environmental Protection Agency plan to slow the death rate will affect hundreds of power plants nationwide and, in the Carolinas, eight Duke Energy and six Progress Energy plants.
Industry estimates say it would cost utilities and their customers up to $100 billion to retrofit the plants and save more fish, as environmental groups advocate.
But that might not be a tidy solution: The retrofits could leave less water for people.
The debate also refocuses attention on the electric industry's thirst for water, which competes with growing demand from cities.
Water experts predict more conflicts like the fight between the Carolinas over rights to the Catawba that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was settled last year.
Most power plants return nearly all of the cooling water they draw to rivers and lakes. Still, the scale of the plants also magnifies the amount that isn't returned to its source. For example, Duke's plants, company-wide, pumped 3.9 trillion gallons last year. About 88 billion gallons evaporated as heated vapor - twice as much water as the city of Charlotte pumps in a year.
Models show that "for the next 30 to 50 years out, we don't really see a conflict between water use for humans and electric generation," said Tom Reeder, director of the N.C. Division of Water Resources. "My experience with the utilities is that they're looking for ways to conserve water and get the maximum use of their lakes."
But more frequent droughts, which climate models predict, could hasten that timeline.
"There is a high likelihood that water shortages and warmer water temperatures will limit power plant electricity production in many regions," including the Southeast, the U.S. Global Change Research Program reported in 2009.
Charlotte, for the first time, banned lawn watering during the deep drought of 2007 and 2008, the second to scorch the Carolinas in a decade. Duke largely shut off its hydroelectric plants to save water and reconfigured its McGuire nuclear plant to allow Lake Norman to be reduced 3 feet below its previous minimum.
The industry is researching new water-saving techniques, such as using treated sewage or farm runoff to cool power plants.
"The drought in the Southeast two years ago awakened a lot of companies," said Robert Goldstein of the industry-supported Electric Power Research Institute. "They thought (shortages) were a western problem."
Pros, cons of cooling towers
EPA's cooling-water proposal, which will affect about 1,260 power plants and water-intensive industries, stems from a settlement last fall with New York state's Riverkeeper Inc. and other environmental groups. A public comment period ends in August, and EPA will take final action next July - and is not leaning toward the more expensive option that utilities fear.
The proposal is aimed at protecting the young or small fish killed when they're stuck against cooling water intake screens. Eggs or larvae are most often sucked inside the plant.
Despite the insignificant size of the fish, said Reed Super, a New York attorney representing the environmental groups, "this is the base of the aquatic food chain."
The groups say the best way to protect the animals is to make power plants recycle their cooling water in devices called cooling towers. The towers need only a fraction of the amount used by systems that discharge water after using it to cool their plants.
The EPA has previously recognized their worth. The agency mandated cooling towers, or the technological equivalent, for new power plants in 2001. The agency's new proposal addresses existing plants. The option the agency prefers would not mandate cooling towers.
Duke's Catawba nuclear plant, which has cooling towers, draws 128 million gallons of water a day from Lake Wylie. The similar-sized McGuire plant on Lake Norman, which does not have towers, pumps 2.6 billion gallons a day - 20 times more.
But there's a catch: Cooling towers save fish but consume more water.
Cooling towers evaporate nearly twice as much water as conventional systems, so the water isn't returned to its source. Catawba loses 25 percent of its water, McGuire less than 1 percent.
A group of municipal water systems in the Catawba basin that includes Duke, in comments to the EPA last week, said requiring the towers on Duke's plants would leave cities and industries "exposed to greater risk of running out of water" during droughts.
EPRI, the industry research group, estimates that a nationwide EPA mandate for cooling towers would cost up to $1 billion for each plant. Environmental advocates say those estimates are overblown.
Catawba Riverkeeper David Merryman said the costs are a justifiable tradeoff for utilities' free use of a public resource, water, and the environmental damage they cause.
"It's asking them to account for their use of the water," he said.
Limits on fish deaths
The EPA apparently won't force utilities to install cooling towers. But industry officials say utilities will struggle to meet other aspects of the proposal - including limits on how many fish they may kill.
Eric Myers, Duke's energy and environmental policy director, said the EPA's approach doesn't recognize differences among plant sites. Rather than mandating cooling towers, he said, it forces utilities to prove towers aren't needed.
That will mean laborious monitoring of intakes, including collecting fish stuck against intake screens, counting those that die and dumping live ones back into the lake through pipes up to a mile long, he said. Duke contends its plants aren't hurting fish populations.
"We think a pretty important indicator is the overall health of the water body, and that's something that's missing from the EPA rule," Myers said. "We should be focusing on species where we know have problems."
A cooling tower will serve the $1.8 billion addition to Duke's Cliffside power plant, now under construction about 50 miles west of Charlotte. Myers said the tower was included largely because the Broad River, its water supply, has less water than the Catawba.
Downstream, in the S.C. portion of the Broad, the proposed Lee nuclear plant will sport cooling towers and a backup cooling-water reservoir. That's also to take pressure off the Broad when water levels are low during dry spells, Myers said.
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INDUSTRY leaders and fishing communities are gearing up to campaign against proposed changes to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which could throw open Scotland's lucrative fishing grounds to foreign trawler fleets.
Until now foreign fleets, including Spanish trawlers, have been kept out of Scottish waters by access rights, where catches are allocated on the basis of historical landings under the rule of so called "relative stability".
But the disclosure that the country's fishing grounds could be available to Spanish and other foreign trawlers under proposed changes to the CFP, put forward by Maria Damanaki, the European Fisheries Commissioner, has prompted fears that Scottish fishermen could be priced out of the market.
Damanaki has unveiled plans that opponents claim could see Scottish fish quotas for key species such as haddock, cod and langoustines being sold to the highest bidder anywhere in Europe.
Richard Lochhead, Scotland's Fisheries Minister, has warned that the proposed changes represent a "huge threat" to Scotland's fishing fleets. He told Scotland on Sunday: "It's concerning that the commission's proposals could allow our historic fishing rights to be sold off. This could see them end up in the hands of faceless multi-national companies, which would be bad news for Scots fishermen who would be priced out of the market.
"I believe national governments should continue to decide on the quota rights of their fishermen and we should not hand control to Brussels. We simply cannot allow fishermen to sell their quota to other countries, to the detriment of future generations."
Eilidh Whiteford, the SNP's Westminster fisheries spokeswoman, has also voiced her concerns. The MP for Banff and Buchan, home to the white fish ports of Peterhead and Fraserburgh, said: "Selling quota to Europe's highest bidders will erode Scotland's historic rights which in turn could spell doom for our fragile fishing communities."
Damanaki is calling for a system of "transferable fishing concessions" offering a one-size-fits-all system across the EU to cut the capacity of the EU fleet.
The plan calls for an expansion in the international trading of fish quotas - stating "a member state may authorise the transfer of transferable fishing concessions to and from another member state.
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A CRACK team of Environmental Agency officers relocated thousands of fish from a shrinking river in North Dorset before they suffocated.
In a race against time the fish, including brown trout, pike, grayling, bullhead and eels, were removed from a series of pools on the River Tarrant, a tributary of the Stour, before they became trapped by low flows.
Using a system known as electro-fishing, the officers introduced a small electric current to the water using a metal probe.
This momentarily stunned the fish and allowed them to be caught and moved to safer waters downstream.
The latest rescue took place between Tarrant Abbey and Manor Farm at Tarrant Keynson, but the team had to move fast because once water stops flowing over the weir at Manor Farm, the one-mile stretch of river downstream of the weir dries out in just hours.
Jim Allan, from the Environment Agency, said: “The Tarrant is a little gem of a stream and is unique to the area.
“It is very productive with its own natural brown trout population.
“Migratory salmon and sea trout still regularly use the Tarrant to spawn, but unfortunately low flows mean the river dries up from the bottom to middle reaches and this makes it difficult for fish to migrate back downstream to the safety of the River Stour.
“Fortunately, local interest in the river is high and people keep us informed when flows become critical. This enables us to respond with actions such as fish rescues.”
Like many chalkstreams, the Tarrant is ground fed.
Flows are reduced and can even stop following prolonged dry weather when groundwater levels drop.
More than 3,000 fish were rescued in a similar operation on the River Tarrant last year.
The Environment Agency has started talks with local landowners and the Tarrant Valley Preservation Society to modify weirs along the river. The idea is to make it easier for fish to migrate down to the Stour and recolonise the upper reaches of the Tarrant with trout and salmon on lower flow years.
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A South West MEP has launched a "Don't Ditch the Fish" campaign which proposes a solution to the problem of fish discards and the wider Common Fisheries Policy.
Conservative Julie Girling says her ideas are aimed at incentivising fishermen, giving them freedom and flexibility, rewarding best practice and stopping the number of fish wastefully discarded into our seas.
Under the current Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) fishermen are forced to dump dead fish back into the water if the catch exceeds tight quota restrictions.
The MEP has been a strong campaigner against the practice, alongside Westcountry chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his supporters.
Ms Girling, who is a substitute member on the Fisheries Committee, has been working with Client Earth, an environmental legal practice, and with the Marine Conservation Society to establish a "sensible plan" for the future.
The proposal suggests fishermen should be allocated an annual credits allowance, with each species of fish having a "credits value." Fishermen would deduct the credits value of each catch from their allowance.
Fishermen would be able to catch any combination of fish as long as they do not exceed their annual credits allowance.
Ms Girling said: "The Common Fisheries Policy is Europe's shameful secret. It is vital that we return control of fishing policy to regions and stop making micro decisions about it in Brussels.
"My 'Don't Ditch the Fish' plan aims to ensure fishermen do not need to discard or worry about going over quota as vulnerable fish – such as those in recovery programmes like North Sea cod – will have a higher credits rating than resilient fish from healthy stocks such as North Sea mackerel.
"So fishermen will be incentivised to target the mackerel and to try and avoid cod to maintain a healthy credits balance. Immature fish will carry a higher credits value than mature fish from the same stock.
On Wednesday EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki outlined long-awaited plans to tear up three decades of the CFP, including potentially handing control over restrictions to member states.
Leading fisherman in the Westcountry called the proposals, due to take effect in 2012, "a step in the right direction."
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{title modified}
Millions of tons of debris that washed into the ocean during Japan's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in March -from furniture to roofs to pieces of cars -are now moving steadily toward the United States and raising concerns about a potential environmental headache.Scientists using computer models say the wreckage, which is scattered across hundreds of miles of the Pacific Ocean, is expected to reach Midway and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands by next spring and beaches in California, Oregon and Washington in 2013 or early 2014.
"Can you imagine San Francisco put through a shredder? A big grinder?" said Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has studied marine debris for more than 20 years. "The area north of Tokyo was basically shredded. We are going to see boats, parts of homes, lots of plastic bottles, chair cushions, kids' toys, everything."
The debris is moving east at roughly 10 miles a day, and is spread over an area about 350 miles wide and 1,300 miles long Ebbesmeyer estimates, with the leading edge approaching the international date line.
While lots of the material will break up and sink, some will not, he said.
"I've seen pieces of wood float for 20 or 30 years," he said. "I have Jeep tires with wheels that floated for 30 years. Things float a lot longer than you think."
But nobody knows for sure the exact area where the debris is spread or its density. And nobody knows what is still floating, what has sunk, or what may be lurking just below the surface. That's because estimates are based on computer models of currents and winds, rather than actual observations from scientists in boats and planes.
Collective Nouns
in Non-Fishing Chat
Posted · Edited by Slack lines
There you go andrew, YOUR thread is safe now!