Greenpeace

[Old Man of the Sea]

Pair trawling, single trawling - swings and roundabouts. Depends on time of year, type of fishing, and water clarity. The main reason pair trawlers presently pair trawl for most of the year is for fuel economy. If fuel was cheaper, they'd probably only pair trawl when you are known as '@Summer@'. All for tonight, must go...

[Guest johnfranz]

Old man of the sea. Please be careful what you say, your views are starting to sound like mine. Now in the normal world this would be accepted. But on this forum am afraid to say otherwise.

You see autumn with others get easily confused, if you say something that someone has already said that he did not agree with then you becomes that person. Yes you read that correct, he thinks that you, or I or, he are in fact the same person. Bit confusing I here you say but that’s not the end of it. When he becomes so confused as to who you (or they) are he makes up a fictional person and you (or they) become it. Then when you think that your not who your mother conceived he asks you out on a fishing date. His hot spot for these dates is a place called cheese rock? Only known to the fictional person whom his has created. So old man of the sea, if you would like to stay mentally forever young I would advise you to take up golf.

[Guest jay_con]

How was the seaweed Binatone. Which fictional person do you refer too??? Slackline is not fictional m8. Ive seen him at close range. Cheese rock is real too m8. I can show you where it is if you wish

 

Your beginning to confuse me now mate. Have you got alzhiemers?

 

Please forgive me for thinking you all to be the same person I guess I may have been wrong or you have 2 connections or an Ip scrambler. Please forgive me its just you all have one thing in common. A close friendship with the big boat owner.

[Guest johnfranz]

Ok autumn I accept apologies on behalf of myself, the person who you think I am, and the fictitious person whom you created for me to be. And last but not least the several people you are without doubt going to accuse me of being in the future.

As for knowing the man with the big black boat? I think that I do know who you mean, of course in your world that could mean very little.

I started commercial fishing in 1973 I have worked in and around Whitby ever since. I therefore think that he would have to be as elusive as the characters in your imagination, not for me, or anyone else come to that who has fished in Whitby weather it be commercial or otherwise not to have run into him.

Ok am off fish and sea weed to catch.

[Guest jay_con]

You fish very late. Are you an insomniac?

 

So your not the X net and lobster pot mender? or related to the tackle shop owner?.

 

Did you catch any fish on Friday night.

 

Is his boat Black? cant say id ever noticed

[Guest jay_con]

1973. You could still be the first person I thought you were.

[Old Man of the Sea]

@AUTUMN@:

Old man of the sea. You claim to be objective and unbiased. Time will tell I guess.

 

Can you give me your unbiased thoughts on the allegations of illegal fishing within the uk. Ie over quota landings etc?

Once again, apologies for taking so long to get back to you. Don't believe that you get lots of spare time once you retire - it is a myth!

 

On the topic of over-quota landings, or ‘black fish’: In the past, I think that most white fish vessels in the UK, at one time or another, have landed this ‘species’ of fish. In a few cases, some boats have landed more black than white fish. (Apologies to those who have never landed black fish!)

 

Every crime needs a punishment, or at least a deterrent. As I see it, when the guard dog of DEFRA is a Chihuahua and merely yaps a lot, then you learn to ignore it. But if it’s a Doberman, you tend to take notice. For years our EU partners didn’t even have a Chihuahua, they just had a moth-eaten stuffed dog to guard the fisheries. Rules and regulations were openly and flagrantly ignored. For example, we had a five year herring ban. Only the British stopped catching. The rest of the EU countries completely ignored the ban and landed herrings on the open market - and nobody said a word.

 

When our fishermen saw what our EU partners got away with, naturally they wondered what was the point of their trying to toe the line, when no-one else was? I know two wrongs don’t make a right, but I guess our men were just trying to keep the playing field level, and thereby pay their mortgages.

 

As I said in my earlier posting, I believe DEFRA is getting to grips with the problem of policing the rules and regulations, and black fish landings by commercial fishermen have come under strict control. There will always be black fish – the odd fisherman may fillet a bit of cod when he is off, and sell it to the local fish and chip shop, or take the occasional lobster or crab to a hotel; and I believe the same thing happens with bass - but I don’t know enough about this to correctly comment. I do know that the days of a trawler filling an articulated lorry with boxes of black fish is a thing of the past!

[Guest jay_con]

Old Man of the Sea:

Originally posted by @AUTUMN@:

[qb] . I do know that the days of a trawler filling an articulated lorry with boxes of black fish is a thing of the past!

Is it true that articulated lorries were filled with Black fish?

 

Lets hope those days are over. Shame they werent stopped 5 years ago then the cod situation may not be as dire as it is now.

 

The grapevine is certainly a lot quieter than it was 2 years ago. I hope this means the activity stopped rather than they just learned that shouting about huge over quota hauls was bound to bring trouble.

 

[ 18. September 2005, 08:59 AM: Message edited by: @AUTUMN@ ]

[Old Man of the Sea]

@AUTUMN@:

@AUTUMN@:

 

 

3. DEFRA and the Royal Navy are starting to show fishermen that they have teeth. Every now and again they bite the wrong man for the wrong reasons, and the rules and regulations are so complicated that DEFRA and the Navy have trouble interpreting them themselves. Unfortunately, the big problem is that they growl at and bite the British commercial fishermen, yet wag their tails at, and lick the balls of, our European partners’ fishing fleets. Until we have a level playing field things will never be right.

Unbiased you claim? Like many you appear too anti europe to be unbiased.

 

You claim that DEFRA and the Navey are having trouble interpreting the rules. Please would you provide me with your proof of that statement.

 

Everynow and then they bite the wrong man for the wrong reason?? Could you please elaborate on that too? CAn you give me an example of the wrong man being bitten?

If you are ‘pro-Europe’, @Autumn@, I think you are probably in a very small minority in this country – which you are, of course, perfectly entitled to be! I have a comprehensive circle of friends and acquaintances from all walks of life, not just seamen, and I’ve never heard any of them display ‘pro-Europe’ sentiments. I would be interested to hear what other forum members feel about the British participation in the EU. For example, does anyone think it was a good thing for angling when Edward Heath signed that dotted line?

 

A lot of the forum read the Fishing News. The headlines of the 26th August 2005 issue read: “INSPECTION NIGHTMARE Top DEFRA inspector and Navy get codend rules wrong”. The story on page three has the heading “FIASCO OVER CODEND RULES COSTS SKIPPER THOUSANDS”. Briefly, officials boarded Willie Ritchie’s trawler, ‘Headway’, wrongly informed him he had illegal codends, and made him destroy them. There followed much haggling and lost time and consultation with DEFRA Head Office and the Navy (the captain of the ship once again refusing to give his name – as he did in the ‘Success’ incident of a few months ago). Skipper Ritchie stated, “… I was read my rights as a criminal for no reason, as no offence had been committed.” He was also threatened with arrest. Ultimately it was established that there was nothing wrong with the nets, and that both the DEFRA and the Navy were in error in their interpretation of the regulations.

 

I realise that newspapers tend to write what the readers want to hear (angling publications written for anglers, Fishing News written for fishermen, and the Sunday Sport written for people who like a little bit of sport), but in this case I feel that this account is fair and accurate, as was the report of the incident involving Andrew Leadley and his trawler, ‘Success’. Neither of these two skippers have political agendas. They both come from a proud fishing lineage and do a similar job – prawn trawling. Both mind their own businesses, keep their heads down, and work hard and professionally at their jobs. Both incidents were shameful on the part of the authorities.

 

That’s all for now.

Over to you!

[Old Man of the Sea]

big_cod:

old man of the sea was my comers and full stops in the right place.

Old Man of the Sea, were my commas and full stops in the right place?

No, but I noted there was a definite improvement, Big Cod. Keep up the good work! And please forgive me if I offended you when I wondered if English was your second language - I was trying to be politically correct, just in case you were a foreigner. These days, being PC is considered to be very important - but it can be a bit tricky navigating the pitfalls.