Cod, off the menu

[big_cod]

Hello Paul

 

I would have thought that using the minimum mesh size for cod of 120m (5") would result in a pretty clean fishery.

 

Peter 120m cod end when fishing amoung herring spawn means litterally nothing its all those dabs and other flats which feed amoung the haddocks and small codling which gorge themselves on spawn which block the meshes and create a net with no escape you might as well have a 60m codend on thats why its madness to tow amoung it the discard rate is slaughter in this day and age of so called conservation and talk of restricting anglers its bullshit the biggist pile you could imagine i know the lads have to make a living my son is a trawlerman but this pratice has to stop to think back 10 ,15 years ago when cod was 10 times what it is now just beggers beliefe.

 

paul.

Edited October 26, 2009 by big_cod

[Guest challenge]

Peter 120m cod end when fishing amoung herring spawn means litterally nothing its all those dabs and other flats which feed amoung the haddocks and small codling which gorge themselves on spawn which block the meshes and create a net with no escape you might as well have a 60m codend on thats why its madness to tow amoung it the discard rate is slaughter in this day and age of so called conservation and talk of restricting anglers its bullshit the biggist pile you could imagine i know the lads have to make a living my son is a trawlerman but this pratice has to stop to think back 10 ,15 years ago when cod was 10 times what it is now just beggers beliefe.

 

paul.

Paul. I believe that after next week there will be only 3 trawlers left in the fleet (who work the Whitby grounds) and I believe that there is no compulsory order telling them to fish among this fishery for the few weeks that it is ongoing.

Twenty years ago there where 100 boats fishing the same fishery. Whitby boats that traditionally fish the Norwegian coast this time of year and the silver pits for prawns weren’t tempted by reports of 1000 box hauls on there home towns door step. So I cannot see what grounds you could close the fishery down Paul. Of course there is always a voluntary closed fishery? This would be more achievable considering there will only be 3 skippers involved.

What’s angling got to do with it anyway Paul?

[big_cod]

Paul. I believe that after next week there will be only 3 trawlers left in the fleet (who work the Whitby grounds) and I believe that there is no compulsory order telling them to fish among this fishery for the few weeks that it is ongoing.

Twenty years ago there where 100 boats fishing the same fishery. Whitby boats that traditionally fish the Norwegian coast this time of year and the silver pits for prawns weren’t tempted by reports of 1000 box hauls on there home towns door step. So I cannot see what grounds you could close the fishery down Paul. Of course there is always a voluntary closed fishery? This would be more achievable considering there will only be 3 skippers involved.

What’s angling got to do with it anyway Paul?

 

Y ou could be right john there might be only 3 boats left next week upon till yesterday they hadnt been sold i was talking to one of the skippers and he said nothing was signed it couldnt stand 100 boats going round 20 years ago same as it couldnt stand it now thats why there will be only 3 boats left its looking like an end of an era the 2 skippers you are talking about have done nothing else since leaving school apart from an odd winter years ago working at ICI WILTON it will be a sad day .

 

paul.

Edited October 26, 2009 by big_cod

[H.A.]

Don't you think it's wise to tread cautiously?

 

C'mon ....

 

what they gonna do?

 

 

Money and greed and they're only going to live another 10-20 years .

So what's the problem?

 

"I have a snooker room, a 4x4 and Bose stereo ...."

 

What more can an old fat bloke want?

 

"Making hay while .... "

 

idiots!

 

Greediest farmers in the world.

 

 

 

I think I'm developing a distaste for the lot of them.

 

[wurzel]

Surely though the commercial boats produce records of weights and sizes?

If these contradict the EU spokesmen, then take it from there. Prove them wrong.

If they confirm what the EU bods are saying then what's your beef?

 

Basically, saying "it looks all right to me" won't cut the mustard. Vast commercial fisheries - as we all know - have died a horrible death in the past. Don't you think it's wise to tread cautiously?

 

Hello Glenn

Trying to prove them wrong is easier said than done.

I am increasingly loosing patients with the Scientists I have been working closely with in the last few years, they are very clever at obtaining funding for yet another survey and what they tell us on board seem to be very different to what gets passed on to the management, like most of the management industry they rely on poor fish stocks for their living.

 

Not to sure about the horrible death bit , I have not seen any proof that over fishing has been the cause of the demise of any fishery.

 

I don't really mind treading cautiously you can't do much else in a small in shore boat, it's being forced out of business on false pretences I object to.

[barry luxton]

Every thing in Barry's post is crap, it's the management industry at it's worst and I consider Barry Deas of the NFFO more management industry than fishing industry he is the Leon of the commercial fishermen a meetings and committee junky only difference Barry gets paid.

 

 

Excellent counter argument against the scientist's figures used by all including the nffo, now you put them in the firing line as they happen to agree as well. Do you think that is why the scottish contingent split with the nffo as he has become a wet.

 

Yet the scottish contingent appear to be working with the figures.

[GlennB]

Not to sure about the horrible death bit , I have not seen any proof that over fishing has been the cause of the demise of any fishery.

 

Hi wurzel

 

Of NW Atlantic cod :

 

"On average, about 300,000 tonnes of cod was landed annually until the 1960s, when advances in technology enabled factory trawlers, many of them foreign, to take larger catches. By 1968, landings for the fish peaked at 800,000 tonnes before a gradual decline set in. With the reopening of the limited cod fisheries last year, nearly 2,700 tonnes of cod were hauled in. Today, it's estimated that offshore cod stocks are at one per cent of what they were in 1977"

 

 

[

 

If the fishery wasn't trashed by over-fishing, what happened? The fish moved away to somewhere nicer?

[Steve Coppolo]

Well, no.

 

The next census won't tell us exactly how many people there are in the UK but it will be a pretty good guideline. That's all that can ever be achieved with a fish population. You measure catch vs. effort, analyse the composition of the stock and make reasonable estimates. Fishery management isn't a precise science (few are) but that doesn't mean it can be dismissed out of hand as total guesswork.

 

The next cencus might not give us an accurate figure, but it will be a damn sight closer than the cod figures we see bounced around regulalarly and with authority. (Cod can't fill in forms, even if you could find them all to ask them!) Any estimates made on catch reports and landing records is going to very, very, deeply flawed - almost to the point of being useless - but theys erve a purpose by providing a figure that can be used to justify more research, more management, more regulation, etc.

 

Fisheries management has been proved to be rubbish. Believe me, I can, and do, dismiss it out of hand.

[Steve Coppolo]

Hi wurzel

 

Of NW Atlantic cod :

 

"On average, about 300,000 tonnes of cod was landed annually until the 1960s, when advances in technology enabled factory trawlers, many of them foreign, to take larger catches. By 1968, landings for the fish peaked at 800,000 tonnes before a gradual decline set in. With the reopening of the limited cod fisheries last year, nearly 2,700 tonnes of cod were hauled in. Today, it's estimated that offshore cod stocks are at one per cent of what they were in 1977"

 

 

[

 

If the fishery wasn't trashed by over-fishing, what happened? The fish moved away to somewhere nicer?

 

If those figures are based on landing records, how many commercial boats were landing back in the hey day, compared to now? Do you think it might have some bearing on the figures being produced, by any chance? And has the decline in the fishing industry been caused exclusively by over fishing - or has p*ss poor fisheries management and over regulation, based on dodgy figures, played a part in it?

[GlennB]

If those figures are based on landing records, how many commercial boats were landing back in the hey day, compared to now? Do you think it might have some bearing on the figures being produced, by any chance? And has the decline in the fishing industry been caused exclusively by over fishing - or has p*ss poor fisheries management and over regulation, based on dodgy figures, played a part in it?

 

Well, let me get one thing straight before continuing.

Are you saying the NW Atlantic cod fishery did not go into a rapid decline?

And when I say 'decline' I'm talking about the numbers and size of fish that actually existed in those waters during those years of plummeting catches. Do you believe they were (and presumably still are) there in the same abundance as they ever were?