LARGE HERRING SHOALS APPEAR EARLY OFF WHITBY ACCOMPANIED BY PILOT WHALES

[big_cod]

Tuna will probably never return to the north sea till the herrings are back to the levels of what they were 50 or 60 years ago i can remember landing scotch herring boats on the fish quay when i was a kid the harbour was full of them and the sea was full of herring, there is nowhere the amount of herring now there was then thanks to the big pursers which hammer them every summer.

[manxlad]

hi all

just to add to this topic, my last trip out in my boat was january of the east coast of the isle of man, fishing was really poor with nothing of note coming over the sides when i noticed the finder suddenly showing the depth had changed from 86ft to 12ft and after a check to make sure all was working we found we sitting over a massive shoal of small six to seven inch herring! the shoal was that dense that it was fooling the sounder that top of the shoal was the bottom. the shoal was about two hundred yards in diameter so we caught a few fish for tea but the oil content in them was poor so were not that tasty, but goes to show that the seas are changing, unknown for around here since the seventies. interestingly there were no predatory fish such as cod or anything else around or underneath them.

reports since then are poor so we are all waiting till the sea temp rises and all will improve hopefully

tight lines to all

[seaside]

Tuna will probably never return to the north sea till the herrings are back to the levels of what they were 50 or 60 years ago i can remember landing scotch herring boats on the fish quay when i was a kid the harbour was full of them and the sea was full of herring, there is nowhere the amount of herring now there was then thanks to the big pursers which hammer them every summer.

 

Historically hammering herring was driven both by changes in catching power and the demand for fish meal and oil which resulted in greater exploitation pressures.

 

During the 1950’s the spawning stock biomass (SSB) fell from 5 million tonnes in 1947 to 1.4 million tonnes by 1957. Recruitment over this period was reasonable, but there were fewer and fewer year classes present in the adult stock, a clear indication that the stocks were being over-fished and were also being impacted by the developing industrial fishery. This led to the complete collapse of the historic East Anglian fishery for the above reasons along with trawlers working on the spawning concentrations, in the English Channel.

 

Fishing mortality in the central and northern North Sea increased rapidly in the late 1960’s and whilst landings peaked at over 1 million tonnes in 1965, around 80% of these were juvenile fish. By 1975 the (SSB) had fallen to 83,500t although the total landings were still over 300,000t (overfishing). At the same time, the spawning grounds in the central North Sea contracted to a point which led to the decline and near collapse of the spawning stock and resulted in the moratorium on the North Sea directed fishery from 1977 to 1981.

 

 

Once the fishery re-opened in 1981 the stock was supposed to be managed by a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) constraint, however it has been consistently exceeded by around 25% each year (66000 tons in 2002) with bycatch in other fisheries accounting for another 20% or so.

Edited April 19, 2006 by seaside

[seaside]

Does any one know what the North sea tempreature was during the 1920 and 30's.

 

I have a feeling that herring seem to favour warmer temps, sand eels favour colder water.

 

I think it is only a matter of time before tunny show up in the North sea, if they are not already there.

 

The longest continuing records of sea-surface temperature in UK waters for specific locations (Dover, Eastbourne and Port Erin) show a total increase in annually-averaged temperature of about 0.6ºC over the last 70 to 100 years.

 

Shorter records, of between about 25 and 40 years, generally show a warming in annual SST of about 0.2°C per decade since the mid 1960s/1970s, but there is considerable inter-annual variability.

 

Records for less than 20 years show this to be accelerating - no suprises there !!

 

Tons of good stuff at http://www.oceannet.org/medag/reports/IACM...htm#temp_05to11

[Colin Brett]

Follow this link for comprehensive catch results off the NW coast of Ireland. It will give an idea of numbers possibly caught off Yorkshire many years ago.

As you will see it ain't easy!!

 

BBC2 NI made a series of 6 programmes on Fishing for predators. Called the Big Six, with Darrell Grimason as the presenter. The Tuna episode included some amazing shots of huge Tuna busting through force 7 seas chasing Sauries.

I believe the Irish record is still held by Adrian Mulloy at 972lbs. The day before I fished with Adrian an 868lber was caught.

We saw plenty of Tuna but catching them is a different matter. One of my most exciting fishing trips.

 

Colin

[glennk]

Hi Seaside,

 

You sound very knowledgable about this situation. Is this an extract from an already existing document or are is it something you wrote yourself ?

[Dan]

Dunno about the North Sea but Lyme bay was 48 F at the weekend, Brrrrrrrrr !!!! and no bass!

 

dan

[skippytheroo]

Its ok Glenn it wasnt overfishing that decimated the herring stocks......it was the sea temperature I think

 

Any peelers up your way yet?

[Norm B]

Its ok Glenn it wasnt overfishing that decimated the herring stocks......it was the sea temperature I think

 

Any peelers up your way yet?

Loads of peelers down here, but we're probably wrecking Sunday. Won't be a crab to be had when we hunt the hounds.

[glennk]

Havent been yet Rob. Probably go for the first time on Saturday. Spent all last night cleaning the shed out ready. I will be filling the tanks tonight. Next week will be spent cleaning out old traps and setting new ones whilst encouraging BC to set his own rather than raiding mine which is a task in itself