latest press release from ICES - long

[Guest NickInTheNorth]

OVERHAUL DEEP-SEA FISHERIES, SHARKS IN TROUBLE, GOOD AND BAD NEWS

FOR OTHER FISH STOCKS.

This Friday, scientists from ICES will release a report calling for a complete overhaul of deep-sea

fisheries. Scientists will recommend that all existing deep-sea fisheries should be cutback to low

levels until they can demonstrate that they are sustainable. They will advise zero catch of depleted

deep-sea sharks, and they will recommend that no new fisheries for deep-sea fish should be

allowed until it can be demonstrated that they are capable of being sustainable.

David Griffith, General Secretary of ICES said today:

“Deep-sea fish such as the orange roughy or the roundnose grenadier are long-lived, slowreproducing

fish that can withstand only low levels of fishing pressure. All our evidence indicates

that the current fishing pressure on these stocks is much too high. We are particularly concerned

about deep-sea sharks such as the Portuguese dogfish and leafscale gulper shark which are now

heavily depleted.”

For all existing deep-sea fisheries, ICES will advise that fishing pressure should be reduced

considerably to low levels, and should only be allowed to expand again very slowly until reliable

assessments indicate that increased harvests are sustainable. New fisheries on deep-sea fish

should be permitted only when they are accompanied by programmes to collect data and should

expand very slowly until it can be demonstrated that they, too, can be sustainable.

In the case of deepwater sharks, the Portuguese dogfish and leafscale gulper shark stocks are

already so depleted that the advice is now for zero catch. Because deepwater sharks are caught in

mixed fisheries for other deep-sea species, ICES will advise that methods will need to be

developed to avoid catching deepwater sharks in these fisheries, or if this is not possible then effort

in the mixed fisheries will have to be reduced to the lowest possible level.

Sharks, skates and rays in trouble

The report will also advise that it is not just deepwater sharks that are depleted; other shark

species such as spurdog, porbeagle and basking sharks are also in poor condition. In the case

of spurdog, the stock is thought to be depleted to a record low and may be in danger of collapse.

Spurdogs are a long-lived, slow-growing member of the shark family, and are considered to form

one stock ranging from the Barents Sea down to the Bay of Biscay. They are mainly caught as a

by-catch although there have been directed fisheries targeting large females. ICES will recommend

zero catch of spurdog across the whole of their range, and will state that an overall reduction in

demersal fishing effort would help to reduce by-catches of this species.

ICES will also recommend zero catch of porbeagle and basking shark. There are no longer any

directed fisheries for basking shark in the ICES area but they are sometimes caught as a by-catch.

The directed porbeagle fishery finished in the 1970s when it became unprofitable, but since then

there have been sporadic targeted fisheries for them and they are also caught as a by-catch.

PRESS RELEASE

International Council for the

Exploration of the Sea

17 October 2005

In the North Sea, ICES will also advise zero catch of common skate and thornback ray which are

both depleted. The advice will be that targeted fisheries should not be permitted and by-catch in

mixed fisheries should be reduced to the lowest possible level.

While some skate and ray stocks are in poor condition in the North Sea, some shark species such

as the lesser spotted dogfish and smooth hound sharks are actually on the increase.

Other stocks: good and bad news

The news for other fish stocks is the usual mixed bag of good and bad news: on the positive side,

ICES will advise that haddock in the North Sea are still plentiful (estimate 266,000 tons in 2005)

as a result of the large 1999 year class (the number of fish spawned in a particular year).

Scientists, however, warn that since the 1999 year class, subsequent year classes have been

below average so unless there is another big year class it is likely that catch levels will decline in

future.

The blue whiting stock - a member of the cod family - is also plentiful at the moment, because of

some successful year classes. The stock reached a record high of over 5 million tons in 2003, but

has since declined slightly. However, ICES will advise that current fishing pressure is too high and

needs to be reduced in line with the long-term management plan agreed for this stock by the EU,

Faroe Islands, Iceland and Norway in 2002. ICES will also advise that measures set out in the

management plan to protect juveniles should be implemented, that the stock should be monitored

more closely and that there should be an immediate reduction of fishing if the number of young fish

joining the stock drops in the coming years.

Another stock that is doing well is the Norwegian spring spawning herring which continues to

thrive (the stock is now over 6 million tons) although fishing pressure has been creeping up in the

last few years and needs to be reduced in line with the agreed long-term management plan.

Meanwhile cod stocks in the North Sea, Irish Sea and west of Scotland remain well below

minimum recommended levels and the advice for these stocks, and Iberian Peninsula hake, which

is also still in poor condition, is zero catch. Whiting in the Irish Sea are also thought to be in poor

condition so the advice is for the lowest possible catch until the stock has had a chance to recover.

ICES will also advise that North Sea plaice and sole need further reductions in catch, or effort, to

let the plaice spawning stock increase and to prevent the sole spawning stock from declining in the

near future.

Anglerfish/monkfish - time for a change of management?

Fisheries for anglerfish are increasingly profitable across the ICES area but scientists have such

poor data about the number of fish that are caught that it is impossible to produce accurate advice

on the status of the stock.

Poul Degnbol, Chair of the ICES Advisory Committee on Fishery Management said today:

“We, and by this I mean managers, fishers and scientists, are all stuck in a vicious circle of bad

data resulting in inaccurate advice and then poor management. To try and change this we are

recommending that the management of fisheries for anglerfish changes from being based on total

allowable catches to being based on effort restrictions - limiting the amount of time that fishers

have to catch anglerfish. Although effort controls won’t solve all the problems they should help to

reduce the incentive for misreporting and discarding, which hopefully will mean we have better

data on which to base our advice. We are also calling for much more stringent monitoring so that

we can get a better idea of what is going on in these fisheries.”

Industrial fisheries: sandeel and Norway pout

Sandeel and Norway pout stocks are both below minimum levels in the North Sea. The minimum

recommended level for sandeel is 600,000 tons while the stock is estimated to be 446,000 tons in

early 2006. The Norway pout stock is estimated to currently be around 58,500 tons while the

minimum recommended level is 150,000 tons. Fisheries for both stocks closed in 2005 and ICES

will advise that they should remain closed until signs of a recovery. Industrial fisheries are fisheries

that catch fish for reduction to fishmeal or fish oil and not human consumption.

What does it mean when a fish stock is below the minimum recommended levels?

When a stock is below the minimum recommended levels it is being fished too hard, the fish are

not being given enough chance to reproduce and the stock may not be as productive in the

ecosystem as it should be. This does not necessarily mean that the stock will become extinct but it

does mean that the current fishery needs to be reduced to more sustainable levels.

[pestguard1]

Nick !

 

 

Talk about a long winded post

did you stay up all night wrighting that.............

[maidstonemike]

Yawn,...

 

[ 18. October 2005, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: maidstonemike ]

[maidstonemike]

Yawn,... tell us something we don't know.

Fish stocks are knackered. Have been for years

Pass the salt and vinegar.

[Ian Burrett]

You lads never heard of copy and paste. Lol