Ghost Nets

[Yankeecodman]

Killer ghost nets

[wurzel]

I am presently doing some work with a top scientist who caried out extensive tests on so called gost netting .

He tells me it don't happen, which matches my own experiences.

[johhno]

I am presently doing some work with a top scientist who caried out extensive tests on so called gost netting .

He tells me it don't happen, which matches my own experiences.

 

Well I've got to say my experience differs somewhat - I spent several years on vessels surveying pipelines and underwater structures and nets were quite a common 'debris' and they didn't just catch fish, one also got a Russian mini-submarine off the Kamchatka Peninsula near Japan in August 2005. The submarine’s propeller was snagged on a fishing net some 625 feet below the ocean’s surface. A remotely operated vehicle rescued the crew.

[wurzel]

Hello Johno

 

So you saw nets that had been lost for years still catching fish? or did you find nets that were still in use? or did you find nets with dead fish in them from a few days before? was it a gill net that tangled the submarine or a lost trawl net?

[wurzel]

Hello Fishingfine

 

I try and get a report from the chap I know.

 

 

Quote

The Scorpio's remote-controlled arms cut through at least five cables, some made of steel nearly half an inch thick, according to Admiral Pepelyayev. Once freed, the submarine floated quickly to the surface.

 

I am not sure what sort of gill net is made of half inch thick steel cables.

or even what half inch steel cables have in any way got to do with gill nets.

I supose gulible anglers would not know the difference.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

I supose gulible anglers would not know the difference.

 

Now now Wurzel, toe the line old boy

[big_cod]

I think gill nets do fish for a certain lenth of time when lost on a wreck but in time they will roll up into a rope type with weed and different crustacians and stop fishing.

But i can rember one netting boat working out of whitby he was looseing miles of nets on wrecks and on one particular wreck which i fish it just stopped fishing all together there was nothing alive on it, when i spoke to one of his crew he told me they had lost a full net on the wreck that summened it up now that wreck took 3 to 4 years to start fishing again and believe me it was a very prolific wreck and is now at certain times, there is another one i know after all these years is just dead and that wreck was the number one wreck which is charterboats used to race to every morning because it was so prolific, it is only a small wreck lying approx 20 miles east of whitby ,that wreck was netted a lot because of the amount of fish it would throw out for gill netters and anglers, but for some reason for the last 15 years it is still poisened last year every wreck around it in say a five mile circle were fishing there nuts off and that wreck was just barron in fact i very rarely go near it but will just now and again have a quick go to see if things have changed , it could be that it is lying in 240 feet of water and the bottom doesnt get stirred up like in say 180 ft which will help roll the nets up, the nets on the wreck must be layed across the wreck in such a way that they are still fishing but it seems very strange after all these years.

[DoubleShotDamo]

I think gill nets do fish for a certain lenth of time when lost on a wreck but in time they will roll up into a rope type with weed and different crustacians and stop fishing.

But i can rember one netting boat working out of whitby he was looseing miles of nets on wrecks and on one particular wreck which i fish it just stopped fishing all together there was nothing alive on it, when i spoke to one of his crew he told me they had lost a full net on the wreck that summened it up now that wreck took 3 to 4 years to start fishing again and believe me it was a very prolific wreck and is now at certain times, there is another one i know after all these years is just dead and that wreck was the number one wreck which is charterboats used to race to every morning because it was so prolific, it is only a small wreck lying approx 20 miles east of whitby ,that wreck was netted a lot because of the amount of fish it would throw out for gill netters and anglers, but for some reason for the last 15 years it is still poisened last year every wreck around it in say a five mile circle were fishing there nuts off and that wreck was just barron in fact i very rarely go near it but will just now and again have a quick go to see if things have changed , it could be that it is lying in 240 feet of water and the bottom doesnt get stirred up like in say 180 ft which will help roll the nets up, the nets on the wreck must be layed across the wreck in such a way that they are still fishing but it seems very strange after all these years.

Do you not think that all the boats racing off to the wreck every morning did not have something to do with the lack of fish? As you say, it was a small wreck. You can't keep taking fish from a small, localised area and expect them still to be there the next time you go out! The same rings true for some beach marks for flounder.

[wurzel]

I managed to find this , part of a CEFAS report.

 

Quote

 

'ghost fishing'. Two types of fixed gear, a gill and trammel net, were set by a commercial fisherman ca 1000 m offshore from a rocky coastal area in southwest Wales, UK. One end of each net was cut free to simulate net loss. The nets were then allowed to fish continually for 9 mo, during which time they were surveyed by divers recording catches by direct observation, still photography and video camera survey. Several hours after both nets had been set, a large number of dogfishes were caught, causing the nets to collapse. Within 1 d, 2 commercial crustacean species, spider crabs Maja squinado and brown crabs Cancer pagurus, were attracted to the dead and decomposing fishes. Many of these animals also became trapped in the netting and were fed upon by their conspecifics and other scavengers. Some of these crustaceans also became entangled and died, producing a sequence of captures throughout the observation period. Catch rate began to decline within a few days of the initial deployment, probably related to a decline in the effective fishing area. The results indicate that lost nets could continue to catch commercial crustacean species for at least 9 mo after initial loss.

 

Which is what we find if we ever tangle an old lost net, it might have a crab or two, perhaps a lobster but never a fish.

Any net that is lost on soft sandy ground soon setles into the sand never to be seen again, in areas of strong tide flows I've had this happen with in hours.

[big_cod]

Do you not think that all the boats racing off to the wreck every morning did not have something to do with the lack of fish? As you say, it was a small wreck. You can't keep taking fish from a small, localised area and expect them still to be there the next time you go out! The same rings true for some beach marks for flounder.

 

The wreck in question was layed on a strip of ground and would fill up over night in them days it was very prolific but it did obviously get a rest with bad weather.

As i said upon till gear was lost on that wreck it would fish day after day it was a magnet to cod and believe me we are talking about a lof of fish in them days what you didnt do was take every fish of the wreck that is bad practice and it takes a lot longer to regenerate when this occcurs, but as i said it was nothing to take 80 stone of cod of a wreck 15 years ago .