Latest Report outlining DEFRA's future Intentions

[Simon Everett]

All - including Wurzel - when the FRENCH fishermen start shouting that something has to be done to save the stocks you kow very well that it is serious.

 

The French line fishermen have been careful to practise SUSTAINABLE fishing so as to ensure a long term fishery. That is one where they can make a LIVING (not a KILLING) each and every year. They know that the pelagic trawlers (pair trawls) will scoop up the BREEDING BASS - the very lifeblood of the entire fishery - in one winter and ruin all their careful fishing of the past 20 years.

 

The Bass Management Plan is not an end to catching bass commercially - it is a MANAGEMENT PLAN, so that the commercials can take a sustainable natural harvest (not the entire stock) each year and we sporting anglers can have some decent fish to waste our hard earned cash on - Wurzel, are you so blind that you cannot see we are trying to let you have your cake and eat it?

 

What we want is a sea full of expensive, large fish - ones that you can earn £70 each from, (not the poxy £2 you get now) we are trying to give you an easy, productive, valuable livlihood - one that will still sustain your grandchildren in a very comfortable lifestyle and without destroying the fish stocks.

 

The trouble is, some greedy commercial layabout (sorry, fisherman), will want to sneak in at night, lights blacked out, and TAKE IT ALL FOR HIMSELF, in one haul - then he can go and dump the fish on the quay, depress the price of fish overnight, but retire a happy man with his ill gotten gains - but to hell with all his mates in the other boats. The fact that he has just destroyed their livelihoods is of no consequence to him - because HE IS ALRIGHT JACK.

 

Selfish, stupid, greedy ....I'll stop before I get so cross as to be rude in public.

[sam-cox]

Simon, the problem is that the commercial fisherman do not see that there is a problem.

The few commercials I have spoken to say there are plenty of fish in the sea.

The are all in denial, but until they will see it for them selves there is no helping them, just like anyone in denial.

[Captain Black]

wurzel:

sharkbyte are bass near to extiction then?

No-one is claiming that bass are near to extinction, wurzel. That is one reason why BASS formed and named the 'Restoration Project'. Note RESTORATION. We want to restore the population of stocks of bass in both numbers and size to pre-war years. BASS recognises that there are numbers of juvenile bass - but

a) They are being cropped at a size below which they spawn. Where is the sense in that?

They are only sustaining their numbers because recent winters have been mild and there have not been any large losses of '0' group juveniles. Believe me it is perfectly possible to wipe out a complete year class with a prolonged cold spell.

 

The key word above is 'juvenile' - fish which have not spawned. Anglers wish to catch mature fish; preferably large, mature fish. We are being prevented from doing that by the pressures of a greedy commercial fishery which has no interest other than to make as much money as possible in as short a time as possible. Now, I don't have problem with people wanting to make that money as long as it doesn't impact on others. But in this case it does. It impacts on me and my fishing (and every other angler); it impacts on the environment and ultimately it will impact on the very people who are currently prosecuting the fishery to make that money. Personally, I'd quite happily let you all go to the wall - but the phrase 'we told you so' would be bitter on the tongue.

 

 

wurzel:

Due to colder water tempretures the bass around here have not grown at all this year.so I've been told.

Then the people you are listening to haven't got a clue what they are talking about. Try getting hold of factual first hand data instead of repeating hearsay.

 

 

wurzel:

I think we all know that we're wasting our time here. People like Wurzel will continue to deny there is a problem until the seas are dead.

They think they have a god-given right to our seas and everything in them just because they earn a living from fishing. Like a lumbarjack thinking they can cut down any tree just because they are a lumbarjack.

 

Pathetic.

Ditto, JRT, the more I read wurzels posts the more I am convinced that it is a waste of time even bothering to respond.

 

I'm a bit baffled by your signature, wurzel 'I fish to live and live to fish' - a sentiment I have some empathy with - yet you seem singularly uninterested in ensuring that you have reason to continue to live.

 

John

[JRT]

Captain Black:

I'm a bit baffled by your signature, wurzel 'I fish to live and live to fish' - a sentiment I have some empathy with - yet you seem singularly uninterested in ensuring that you have reason to continue to live.

 

John

[Simon Everett]

Now is the time to act to save the bass stocks from being so hard hit that they may never recover unless such drastic measures, like those that had to be put into place in the USA, are brought in AND POLICED 100%.

 

I cannot undersand the greed of some people - not full time commercial fishermen who most that I have talked to are BACKING THE ENTIRE BMP because they can see the sense in it.

 

The ones who are really doing the damage are the small boat men - whose catches are not regulated - and the ones who are not even registered and sell black fish at the back door. These "takers of fish" are undermining the legitimate fihermen too - which is why they want carcass tagging, licensing and all the other measures, because it would SEVERELY curb the pirates.

 

When the fishery is managed properly then anglers can have fantastic sport - worth travelling for, worth taking a holiday for, worth spending £000s on tackle for and commercial fishermen can earn a GOOD living (not a killing, but a good living) from by taking a sustainable harvest from the excess fish each year - a LIMITED take depending on the strength of the stocks.

 

In Australia, if a certain fish, or area, is being too heavily fished a complete shut down of that fishery can be ordered and implemented in hours - less than 24 hours - and any boat in the area is risking their license by simply being in the prohibited zone - if they are already fishing they have to haul - there and then - and make full speed away from the prohibited zone or they risk a massive penalty, even confiscation of the boat. Each registered vessel is tagged and they monitor the boats position, speed and time it is an area - no dodgy practises over there and the fishery and the fishermen BOTH do better as a result.

 

Don't give up. Now is the time we need to increase our letter writing to the MPs, to DEFRA and to Ben Bradshaw - the cracks in the old system are appearing. If we pick up a sledgehammer and hit the wall NOW, we will see some bricks fall out. Hopefully, when a few bricks have been removed the resulting repairs will be stronger and more permenant for everyones benefit - even that ungrateful old git, Wurzel. By the way folks, his tatty old van is a smoke screen - he has a house in the Bahamas and a grand yacht moored at the end of the garden out there really - but he doesn't want the tax man to know about it

[gerryatric]

If all shell fish and fish such as monk hake herring lemon sole are tacken out of the fram and we consentrate only on fish that sea anglers are interested in , the commercial catch for England and Wales is only worth £50 million . If all the

! million or so sea anglers chipped in we could by the commercials out, close this site and go fishing !.

[Sharkbyte]

A damned good idea and one our American cousins would probably have the balls to do.

 

Would the average sea angler in GB put his hand in his pocket though? I doubt it because as long as they are catching some 'pan sized' bloody whiting (or bass for that matter) they are happy.

 

Settling for second best has become a national passtime.

[gerryatric]

Sharkbyte that place in the picture , the Kentish Knock , that was a wonderfull place back in the early 70's , big bass all over it .A mate of mine had 3 ten pound plus fish in a morning and pleanty good fish to go with them .It fished well until about 1983/4 when a couple of commercials one from N Kent, Ramsgate I think and a Suffolk boat found out about it ,after they had their go the world and his wife was out there and by the mid 90's it was just another bank , shame realy if they wernt so gready it would have still been good today.

[Sharkbyte]

It is a crying shame.

 

What makes me furious is that a greedy few have stolen this chance away from me. I am now at an age where I could have gone out to those marks enjoyed the sport and returned some stunning fish after a photo or two.

 

Commercials often state that fishing is their 'way of life'. Well it's mine too, I work hard on terra firma all bloody week and when the weekend comes around I need to get out whenever I can.

 

Well Wurzel and Co. You are wrecking my way of life so I and others will carrying on doing everything we can to spoil yours for the good of the seas! :mad:

[wurzel]

I am back from the Knock where I've earnt my wages for the week as I have done regularly for the last 20 odd years, A couple of weeks ago there were 4 boats, a total of about 12 thousand yards of gill nets in use in one day on the knock sands, like I said in earlier posts there are around 50 boats working in and around the Thames esturary, most of these boats never existed 20 years ago, none existed 30 years ago, they are all catching enough to make a living, some times some very good catches are made, so to say that there are no fish is just not true, Like I said your share is not the same as 30 years ago. I admit the average size of the bass is smaller than 25 years ago but a large percent of my catch are over 45 cm and through out the summer I have had several large fish up to 13LB.I have't noticed that the skate or smoothhounds are any smaller, If nobody fished the area for 5 years it would be back to how it was 20 years ago.

So whats to be done? do you mean to say you want all these boats abolished with out a thought for the familys because you concider as a stakeholder (I hate that word)you are worth more,if you were one of those boats how would you feel?

Nobody seemed to notice that I said "as I work further offshore the bass increace won't effect me

much" I already do use larger meshes. I was argueing the case for the smaller inshore boats, It anoyed me that nobody cared that they will be effected not only with loss earnings but also the cost of buying larger mesh nets,if most off you had a cut in wages you would be out on strike in a flash. The price of bass will not increace, the market will be flooded with 45cm bass so the price for that size will drop.Farmers are paid for not growing crops they get paid to look after woodlandand, hedgerows and water medeows, so why not fishermen paid to look after the bass stock, MP's don't own fishing boats I suppose.

Got to go now, if I can get one more day at the Knock I might be able to add a bit of jam to the bread and butter that I bought today.

 

P.S QUOTE

"I'm a bit baffled by your signature, wurzel 'I fish to live and live to fish' - a sentiment I have some empathy with - yet you seem singularly uninterested in ensuring that you have reason to continue to live"

 

You are so wrong.