Overfishing of Cod predates trawlers

[Guest stevie cop]

I've spent hours and hours talking to Wurzel about the fishing, and he always talks a lot of sense. I always feel better about it after we speak because I get the feeling that "things ain't so bad after all".

 

However, reading Leon's posts above I am quickly reminded that things ARE bad, and no matter what colour you paint it or what you blame it on, things won't improve until something changes. Leon's comparison to the bank account is spot on. Something has got to give, the question is...... what?

 

It's always been my belief that the politicians know that to save the fish, they have got to enforce strict measures that will lead to a lot of commercial fishermen becoming unemployed. No government that we've had up until now, including the current masters of deception, have had the stomach to do this. I think that they are all waiting for the stocks to collapse totally so that the fishing industry dies a natural death. Then they can't be blamed for it. But we all know that it's only their cowardly ways that have led to the current situation.

 

I believe that the reason that the Icelandic fishery is doing so well is that it's the fishermen who have been made responsible for it's management. O.K, so they have cold water and plenty of Cod, but if we had the same tonnage of Cod in our waters, the current style of management would ensure that it would be squandered in no time at all. Leon has already mentioned the 1996 year class that has been wasted. That's not to say that our commercial fishermen should be left to please themselves, we know that wouldn't work. But with a sensible management strategy and fishermen held responsible for their actions, it might work.

 

Leon. Any chance of getting Bob's article on the tractor factory from SACN posted on here, or are there copyright laws?

[Leon Roskilly]

Steve Coppolo:

Leon.  Any chance of getting Bob's article on the tractor factory from SACN posted on here, or are there copyright laws?

There's no problem with a link

 

The Tractor Factory

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Leon Roskilly]

Leon Roskilly:

 

One of the problems is that there are so few, anglers and commercials, around now who remember what fishing was like then, what it could be now.  Not just numbers of fish but big fish too, and you didn't have to know secret places to find them, or go out miles to a productive mark.

Go to this site:

 

http://www.avalonpier.com/piercam.html

 

and click on 'Fishfotos' on the menu on the left.

 

Now imagine that's your local pier

 

(OK Sun Pier I can't manage, Deal Pier I can!)

 

This is what we want to see, what SACN is all about?

 

I once knew fishing (almost) that good.

 

I'm too old to expect to see it here again.

 

But maybe, today's youngsters ..........

 

If we can just get this right.

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

 

Ps Here's another:

 

http://www.sunglowpier.com/pics.htm

 

Try typing 'fishing pier' into a google search and seeing all of these places where anglers catch proper fish from local piers.

 

Maybe it's time to leave these shores.

 

[ 08. March 2005, 06:31 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[Jaffa]

Thanks for the radio link Leon; very interesting though nothing that has not already been discussed here on AN !

 

Reinforced my belief that Marine reserves, combined with fishermen controlling management outside those areas, is the only way that can work.

 

Steve makes some good points and I think Faroe is another good example. I have heard that the Faroeses head biologist has even been willing to ignore ICES advice, not through political pressure or horse trading, but because he believed it to be the wrong thing for Faroes fisheries. Managers actually risk taking and managing!!; that will be the day in the UK ! as for the EU, gawd help us...

[wurzel]

Big Cod

Glad to hear things are not so bad at Whitby after all, Like Derick said "nay fish at Whitby nay fish in the world" It's a special place.

[Guest jay_con]

Steve. not so long back someone posted a link on AN about Iceland. I was shocked when I read it as it said thier stocks werent doing so well, especially cod. Without warm seas to blame I wondered what the explanation was.

When I read on I was amazed to read there fisheries mp blame gues what ? Over fishing.

[Guest stevie cop]

Charles Clover covers fisheries management very well in his book, The end of the line. He goes into quite a bit of detail about Iceland and how they manage their fishery. If their stocks are in trouble, they will sort it out the best way they can.

 

The way their management system works, it's in the fishermens best interest to cut down, or even stop fishing for a period of time until the stocks have reached sustainable levels again. They know that they will benefit in the long run. I can't remember exactly how it works, but the book is well worth a read. It's all in there, along with all the other management "strategies" that are used, (or not used!), around the world. And guess what? Ours is one of the less effective ones!

[wurzel]

hello Steve

have you got your boat ready for next week? I hope I can live up to every thing we've been talking about these last few weeks, I look foward to showing you some good fishing this summer.

I hope things are not as bad as Leon suggests I'll have trouble paying the bills if they are,

 

1996 was the last proper winter we've had, and bingo a better brood of cod apeared the following year, the suvivors of that year are the 20 and 30 pound fish that were about offshore last autum. If there had been a succession of colder winters does it not make sence to asume a succession of better cod breeding years,A good breeding year (and it was not that good) every 10 years is not enough to sustain any fish stock, let alone the nations favourite fish dish.

 

It nearly makes me wish for an ice age to start right now, so I can say to you all "I told you so"

But then the bass and soles would disappear, I supose I would get the blame for that, I can't win either way.

 

Jaffa I have some veiws on that net fishery you mentioned,I'll post some thing tomorrow,

[Jaffa]

@winter@:

Steve. not so long back someone posted a link on AN about Iceland. I was shocked when I read it as it said thier stocks werent doing so well, especially cod. Without warm seas to blame I wondered what the explanation was.

When I read on I was amazed to read there fisheries mp blame gues what ? Over fishing.

But, that overfishing was due to the scientists miscalculating the stock size for that year and setting the allowable catch too high. Rather different from what we are used to where politician set quotas above recommended levels or fishermen take more than they were supposed to.

 

Very different from the EU situation and I'd imagine the Icelanders will do all they can to improve the science as quickly as possible.

 

When the Faroese for instance realised their quota system for cod was not working, they changed the whole system in less than a year!

 

How long for us? a decade or two?

[big_cod]

quotas what quotas there have been no quotas at whitby anyway, over the last 2-3 years suddenley the shellfish landings boomed so what happened suddenley money became available for tanks to be put on the fish key for velvets ,lobsters, crabs looks like the shellfish population had suddenley exploded but what realy happened was whitefish was been put through the books as guess what, shellfish this is so the taxman didnt get fiddled, this is also public money we are talking about if you ask the the lads what are doing the job day in day out they will tell you the landing are going down every year due to the pressure of boats switching to potts rather than longlining through the winter they keep potting but hey just another fiddle boys there have been so many over the years but it looks like the **** is going to hit the fan this year