Time to end the Pantomime

[Bob Shotter]

Time to end the Pantomime

 

One of the most emotive disputes among those in the RSA fraternity is that of dwindling fish stocks.

 

There are those who say fish stocks are in decline, so they are!!!

Only to here many cry out ‘Oh no their not!!!!!’

 

So what is the truth?

What evidence is there for either side of the argument?

 

Could we please have some reasonable post on the subject per chance?

Edited December 26, 2010 by Deene'0

[chesters1]

every things true or false it depends on the outcome your after ,since when has evidence mattered to debates?

Edited December 26, 2010 by chesters1

[wurzel]

every things true or false it depends on the outcome your after ,since when has evidence mattered to debates?

 

 

You got that right chesters.

 

 

Who knows what effects these last winters are going to have and what if they continue the same next year?

 

Some species that have steadily been increasing might well start to decrease and some that have decreased could start to increase, at what point in time do you use as a reference point 30 50 or 80 years ago.

The more I think about it chester's remark is about as accurate as you are going to get in this debate.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I think the bench mark has to be the fifties, this is the time when politicians were pushing the commercial effort in order to get what they thought at the time was cheap never ending quality food on the plate. Behind most screw ups there is a politician

 

The trouble was the corporates started in on the game and the big boys became very efficient at catching fish, the ball started rolling and it grew and like all big balls once rolling they take a lot of stopping:lol:

Edited December 28, 2010 by Ken Davison South Wales

[chesters1]

its down to advantage ,at one time fish had the advantage and skill was needed to catch them but now we have the technological advantage to catch them with little skill ,the fish themselves stayed the same and lost the advantage they had

a fishy "british" disease

[corydoras]

Time to end the Pantomime

 

One of the most emotive disputes among those in the RSA fraternity is that of dwindling fish stocks.

 

There are those who say fish stocks are in decline, so they are!!!

Only to here many cry out ‘Oh no their not!!!!!’

 

So what is the truth?

What evidence is there for either side of the argument?

 

Could we please have some reasonable post on the subject per chance?

Tell me what you know, and how you know what you know.

[wurzel]

Quote

 

So should we conclude that there are netting methods that have little impact and others that do have a very significant impact?

 

Being an RSA rep on one of the governing authorities it would therefore be of use to know which are which, I have my ideas on the subject but would love to have yours

 

 

 

I would not know where to start Bob, it would be better for you to let me know your ideas on the subject and I'll try and get it into some sort of perpective

[Worms]

All I know is that I have caught more and bigger fish in recent years than I ever caught 30 odd years ago.

 

What's changed?....fish stocks, improvements in tackle, more knowledgeable skippers with better fish finding equipment, more skill on my part, more luck on my part?

 

Buggered if I know, it's just that I've had the most exceptional sea angling year of my life when lots say that it's going tits up!

 

Roll on the new season, only three and a half weeks to go to the first trip!

[Bob Shotter]

Well gentlemen I was asking a very open question without trying to direct the answer. That however was probably not the best option so it might help to glen some info if I now respond with my views.

 

A bench mark of the fifties has been suggested by Ken personally I would prefer to start at the end of the WW2 which was before my time I hasten to add. At this time some say the fin fish had, as a result of reduced effort during the conflict, recovered well and there was a plentiful supply of easy to catch, cheep food for our nation.

 

As a very young lad, in the mid to late fifties I recall seeing huge shoals of mackerel from the cliffs of the north Cornish coast. Then in the early sixties we had reports of huge factory ships hovering up these fish at an alarming rate, now that would have been well off shore as we at the time had control of our 200mile limit, at least where that was not impeded with other nations limits.

 

Any way the thing is it was not long before along came the CFP and our own commercial fleet where having to venture further a field to meet the demand.

 

We joined the French Spanish and other nations in the Newfoundland waters leading some say to the collapse in Cod stock there though other commentators point the blame else where.

 

None the less there were then the Icelandic Cod wars followed by the introduction of CFP quotas all of which would suggest there was an impact on fish stocks.

 

As an RSA my thoughts are much more local though some of these events will have an effect as will that most unpredictable thing we call the weather along with slight tidal shifts particularly the track of the Gulf Stream.

 

Inshore commercial fishing methods to have also changed drastically during my life time, with long lines replaced by tangle nets of vast length the introduction of gill nets, which some commentators say can be very selective.

 

Chesters 1 makes a valid point also, in that our ability to capture fish is much better than it once was, so easy to conclude then that fish stocks are indeed under pressure and that the commercial effort is having a detrimental effect.

 

On the other hand nature would in some way suggest that things are not as bad as the conservationist claim, with good catch reports by RSA over the last couple of years. French and Spanish commercial boats are a common sight along the twelve mile line here in the south west again a pointer of good stock conditions, or theirs are very bad.

 

While that is indeed very true there are still many species no longer caught in the numbers they once were. Halibut in the English Channel now very few and far between Common Skate around the IOW gone 40lb Cod gone and those mackerel shoals gone. Some will say they have simply gone some place else for one reason or another and that these fish are still out there which brings us back to the question are they? Oh yes they are!!!! Oh no their not!!!

 

tight lines Bob

[Steve Coppolo]

There are enough out there to keep everyone happy. The trouble is, there are people who can't keep their noses out of everyone elses fishing, trying to reinvent the wheel, when they should be minding their own business.

 

If anyone finds sea angling too much of a challenge, perhaps they should try out a few commercial carp fisheries?