Solution Anyone?. Recreational Angling Response

[Leon Roskilly]

Please explain to my simple mind why my fish wholesaler who wants to by British caught fish like he used to, is forced to import his stock?

 

 

It seems that the UK Seafood Industry is happier getting it's supplies from outside of the UK, and doesn't much like the burden of carrying the Uk Catching Sector on it's back!

 

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/...finalreport.pdf

 

Fishing industry v. the seafood industry

 

3. We argue that SFIA is now caught uncomfortably between meeting the needs of the UK-based fishing industry which has traditionally been at the heart of its business, and providing a valued service to the wider seafood industry sourced largely by imported fish.

 

To deal with these tensions and ambiguities about its role, SFIA and sponsor Departments need to develop an agreed statement of how they now interpret the scope of the term 'sea fish industry', and where they consider that its common interests lie.

 

We are not suggesting that a focus on the wider sea food industry implies the necessary exclusion of all activities which support the fishing industry, but it should influence the basis for their selection.

 

The Authority must know what its core remit is if it is to have a sound basis for deciding its programme and priorities.............

 

 

...........37. Over the 25 years since 1981, there has been a very substantial increase in the amount of fish which is imported into the UK from foreign catchers for processing and/or consumption. Only a relatively small proportion of the fish now consumed in the UK is caught by the UK fleet while much of the fish caught by the UK fleet is exported. The health of the UK catching sector is no longer of such central importance to the UK seafood industry........

 

.........49. This is not just an academic issue, nor just a question of fairness. If SFIA is supporting one part of the UK industry at the expense of another, then there is a danger that it is reinforcing inefficient practices at the expense of more efficient ones, to the ultimate detriment of the industry as a whole. If it is engaging in activities which are not justified in terms of the greater profitability of the industry as a whole, then it is undermining the competitiveness of the sea food industry as against other parts of the UK food industry.

 

 

And this could be one reason why:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/fish/story/0,,1713525,00.html

Edited March 31, 2006 by Leon Roskilly

[Guest CJS2]

The problem demand is outstriping suppy there isnt a lot of cod getting landed these days.

 

That what I thought, are we talking 'no cod landed = no fish to catch'. Or is it, 'no British boats to catch the fish to land in UK ports'. Or even, a combination, 'no boats cos' their is no fish to catch economicaly'.

 

Sorry my simple mind again, we anglers keep being told there are fish to catch and yet further down the supply chain, one hears a diferent story.

 

As an angler, in what was, 20 years ago, a good cod fishery, I now find myself scratching for codling big enough to take for the pot. Bigger ones are there, very few and far between, and certainly in traditional comercial terms not in viable quantities, long lines coming back with less than one box of codling, thats codling not cod!

 

I am not sharp enough to take in the finer points of what going on, but the simple facts above seem plain enough. Which leaves the final question is it 'over fishing' or 'global warming', another heading could be 'poor fishery management', if a farmer ran his farm the way those at the top have alowed the sea to be worked, the farmer would go out of business very quickly, slaughter the breeding stock

 

They are running a new series on TV of 'Jimmies Farm' enjoyable watching, seeing the man bumble from week to week, just about keeping the balifs at bay. But even the inept but lovable Jimmy treates his breeding sows like gold dust, each sow producing 8 -10 piglets a time.

 

As I say is it my simple mind? Suppose the same applies to Bass? What ever happened to the nursery areas hailed as such a break throught 15-20 years ago?

 

Edited April 1, 2006 by CJS2

[Leon Roskilly]

Which leaves the final question is it 'over fishing' or 'global warming'

 

Finally, synergistic effects between climate and other anthropogenic variables, particularly fishing pressure, will likely exacerbate climate-induced changes.

 

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/1...48.2005.00871.x

[Leon Roskilly]

What ever happened to the nursery areas hailed as such a break throught 15-20 years ago?

 

 

Details of nursery areas at:

 

http://ukbass.com/seabassandfishery/inshorerules.html

 

 

These are hailed as a success by managers, pointing to the current abundance of small bass in our waters now, although many will argue that it is hard to gauge their contribution to the abundance due to global warming producing conditions more favourable to the survival of juvenile bass in the string of mild winters that we have had in recent years.

 

In talks, officials have agreed that the rules regarding the nursery areas could do with revising in the light of new knowledge and changed conditions, and there may be something along this line on the consultation that DEFRA have promised in moving forward to deliver Phase 2 of the Bass Management Plan.

Edited April 1, 2006 by Leon Roskilly

[seaside]

It seems that the UK Seafood Industry is happier getting it's supplies from outside of the UK, and doesn't much like the burden of carrying the Uk Catching Sector on it's back!

 

....37. Over the 25 years since 1981, there has been a very substantial increase in the amount of fish which is imported into the UK from foreign catchers for processing and/or consumption. Only a relatively small proportion of the fish now consumed in the UK is caught by the UK fleet while much of the fish caught by the UK fleet is exported. The health of the UK catching sector is no longer of such central importance to the UK seafood industry........

 

Could it just be that fish being imported is cheaper and doesn't carry the negative tag of being from ' the UKs threatened stock ' whilst landing in foreign ports allows UK vessels to land fish that would be outwith the size/quota limits of the UK.

[Steve Coppolo]

Imagine that you earned your living from cutting trees down and selling them to a timber merchant.

 

You find yourself a forest, any forest will do, you don't have to buy or lease it from anyone because it's a puiblicly owned resource. You need a licence to cut the trees down, but they gave one to you free of charge so that's not a problem. So you start cutting down trees and earning money. As the years pass you get better at doing it and are able to cut down twice as many trees as you did when you first started. In fact, you're cutting down so many that the market is flooded with cheap wood and the prices you get per tree is very poor. Then along comes a new contraption which enables you to chop down even more trees, so you buy it as the increased production may offset the poor prices you are getting.

 

After so many years, you notice that you are getting near the end of the forest. Most of the big trees have been chopped down and the new ones can't grow fast enough to replace them. Still, you carry on cutting down the big trees. After all, you don't want to stop in case another tree feller nicks "your" forest, and you are still getting paid for the wood. Then one day you chop down the last tree. What do you do now? Look for something else to chop down and sell maybe? But you've got all this know how and tree chopping technology and machinery that you've paid good money for. So you go back to the beginning of the forest, where the new trees are just barely big enough to provide a plank or two, and you start chopping down little baby trees.

 

Chopping baby trees down is a lot easier than chopping down big ones so you are able to chop down twice as many, which is just as well because your timber merchant is now importing big trees from abroad because there aren't any left over here, and you have to export your baby trees to a country where there is a market for them. You know that one day, when even the baby trees are gone, that you will eventually have to stop. You've seen it happen to so many before you. But you might get another few years out of "your" forest yet, so you keep chopping.

 

When it's all over, you look behind you at where the forest used to be and realise that it isn't just the trees that are gone. The birds and other wildlife left ages ago as their habitat was destoyed. Families no longer come to the area for picnics and walks and children no longer play there. You've destoyed it. Not only for yourself, but for everyone else too. If only the government had stopped you from chopping down the baby trees. If only you had taken notice.

[stavey]

Good analogy steve and very well put, if only you lived near eastbourne i would treat you to a well earnt pint mate

[fisherman]

Very very well put Steve. I take my hat off to you.

Dave

[wurzel]

Hello Steve

 

It seems you can't see the wood for the trees.

 

So what you are saying is, stop all tree cutting and use plastic instead.

 

Quote

Could it just be that fish being imported is cheaper and doesn't carry the negative tag of being from ' the UKs threatened stock ' whilst landing in foreign ports allows UK vessels to land fish that would be outwith the size/quota limits of the UK.

 

Hello Seaside

Not much fish is landed in foreign ports by UK vessels. It is exported by the fish merchants. Mainly because the UK population eat very little fish and what fish they do eat 99% are cod.

 

The few times I have landed in a foreign port, their fishery inspectors were all over us like a rash, there was no way we could have landed any over quota or under size fish.

 

Quote

Over the 25 years since 1981, there has been a very substantial increase in the amount of fish which is imported into the UK from foreign catchers for processing and/or consumption. Only a relatively small proportion of the fish now consumed in the UK is caught by the UK fleet

 

Hello Leon

Where all this imported is fish being caught.

How much comes in from Iceland, Norway and Russia?

There never was enough cod in the North Sea; Haddock was always the main stay of the Scottish fleet.

 

As far as I can see after talking to very much older fishermen, the cod stocks around this part of the coast are back to normal after 20 years of being unusually high.

 

All other stocks on my patch are much the same now as they were 20 years ago.

And that includes what I can catch on me rod.

[Steve Coppolo]

Hello Steve

 

It seems you can't see the wood for the trees.

 

So what you are saying is, stop all tree cutting and use plastic instead.

 

Hello Peter

No, nothing like that. Just sensible management measures like increased MLS for all species to stop the taking of baby fish.