BMP

[Steve Coppolo]

The other day, in a lunchtime of particular boredom, I read the last published minutes of our local SFC (looking for another local matter) and was quite surprised to see the bass management plan was actually discussed. The argument against it was based around a "it will stop English fishermen catching fish that the French will still take" line. They (commercials) were also trying to push the idea of a very gradual increase in size limits, delay it as long as possible. On the whole though, the way the minutes read seemed more positive than I would have expected, if only because they didn't just dismiss it out of hand, even though they didn't do anything positive!

 

I don't know which is your local SFC Colin, but from what I've seen of SFC minutes they are a mixture of fantasy and illusion.

 

The strategy for all SFC's seems to have been play the Europe card and propose an increase to from 36cm to 38cm. I don't know for sure, but probably orchestrated by the Association of SFC's. When you take into account that they are worried about the French being able to catch bass that the British fisheren will have to throw back, it makes you wonder why they proposed any increase at all. After all, this would still put the British fishermen at a disadvantage according them. Says it all really doesn't it?

Edited July 7, 2006 by Steve Coppolo

[ColinW]

It's North Wales and North West SFC. This is taken from their website

http://www.nwnwsfc.org/fisheries/fisheries_text.htm

describing "Fisheries" in their area, first there's a load of stuff about Shellfish and then this

 

"Finfish

 

Relatively few trawling boats operate in the NWNWSFC District and much of the fishing concerned with inshore waters is carried out by angling boats.

 

Bass

Bass is a very important angling fish and there are several bass nursery areas in the district to protect juvenile stocks.

 

Skate and Ray

Skate and ray in this area are caught on lines by anglers, by trawling and by tangle netting."

 

I kid you not, that is as far as they go with regard to "finfish". So where the hell are all these Frenchmen they are so concerned about?

[Leon Roskilly]

The scientific advice is that less than 10% of 'UK' bass are now taken by foreign boats (most of 'our' bass spawning inshore).

 

So, the neighbours will get a few, but most of the benefit of a more robust fishery, comprised of larger fish, will come to UK anglers and fishermen.

 

It's like having an apple tree, one branch of which overhangs the neighbour's garden.

 

Do you neglect it so that pests and diseases, and lack of care and nutrients reduce the overall crop because the neighbour gets a few more from your efforts.

 

Or do you prune it, feed it, treat it so that it produces a much better5 crop for you, even though the neighbour gets some benefit as well?

 

 

The same arguments that the commercial fisheries would be devastatd were used when it was proposed that the UK mls be increased from 26cm to 38cm (we eventually got 36cm!) , and when it was proposed that we have nursery areas for bass. (and some illegal netters still justify setting nets in nursery areas, asking why they should let the fish swim away to be taken by someone else, particularly the French)

 

The EU followed the raising of the mls in the UK to 36cm (why should the British have the benefit of a growing decent bass fishery whilst the rest of the EU had to make do with baby fish in their own waters!)

 

Quarterofacenturyago_.doc

Edited July 7, 2006 by Leon Roskilly

[steve pitts]

It's North Wales and North West SFC. This is taken from their website

http://www.nwnwsfc.org/fisheries/fisheries_text.htm

describing "Fisheries" in their area, first there's a load of stuff about Shellfish and then this

 

"Finfish

 

Relatively few trawling boats operate in the NWNWSFC District and much of the fishing concerned with inshore waters is carried out by angling boats.

 

Bass

Bass is a very important angling fish and there are several bass nursery areas in the district to protect juvenile stocks.

 

Skate and Ray

Skate and ray in this area are caught on lines by anglers, by trawling and by tangle netting."

 

I kid you not, that is as far as they go with regard to "finfish". So where the hell are all these Frenchmen they are so concerned about?

 

Hi Colin

 

This was posted on the BASS website ( www.ukbass.com ) some time ago

http://ukbass.com/2006/02/fact-from-fiction.html

 

As you'll see, It is not just the NW&NWJSFC who don't know their r's from their elbows, when it comes to commenting on bass. They believe and repeat what ever fantasies they are told, irrespective of the hard evidence.

 

As has been mentioned in other threads - it is the dominance of one sector on SFCs, which scues the direction of thier thinking and it would be great if a few more anglers turned up at the quarterly meeting to observe the proceedings.

 

The same info. was presented on page 19 of the BASS response to the mls consultation.

http://www.ukbass.com/downloads/bass_defra_resp.pdf

and if you ever have another boring lunch-time to fill, you may wish to look at page 8, where we summarise entries from the South West Liners web-site, proving without question that they never catch a single bass over 37.5cm (the Cornish mls for bass)

 

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited July 7, 2006 by steve pitts

[Steve Coppolo]

Hi Colin

 

This was posted on the BASS website ( www.ukbass.com ) some time ago

http://ukbass.com/2006/02/fact-from-fiction.html

 

It's hard to imagine why an industry that has scored so many home goals, still have so much influence over the decision makers.

Edited July 7, 2006 by Steve Coppolo

[ColinW]

Claiming that large bass are an offshore species is beyond belief. The biggest caught in my area in the last few years have all been caught in the Mersey over TEN MILES from the open sea!

[steve pitts]

Hi Colin

 

Lunch-time again eh?

 

You might also be interested in the BASS response to the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) on the bass mls. It ran a little later than the Defra consultation and we used pretty much the same response, but added several pages of info. and data, specific to Wales. We even provided a translation in Welsh of our 'Why do we need a 45cm MLS for bass' advert.

 

Once again the source of this info was widely available from the two presiding SFCs websites and from WAGs own website.

 

If you have a spare 15 mins you might find pages 21 - 26 entertaining

 

http://www.ukbass.com/downloads/bass_wag_resp.pdf

 

Bon Appetite

 

Steve

Edited July 7, 2006 by steve pitts

[steve pitts]

Claiming that large bass are an offshore species is beyond belief. The biggest caught in my area in the last few years have all been caught in the Mersey over TEN MILES from the open sea!

 

I make that 10 miles offshore then Colin

 

I'm surprised that we didn't see this evidence in the SFC response

 

Nil Desperandum

 

Steve

[Marine Bill]

Catches

French pair trawl landings: Estimates indicate 500-1000 tonnes were taken in 1990/91 and 150-650 tonnes in 1992/93, whereas in 1996/97 a catch of 2800-5000 tonnes were taken by this fleet in area VIIe alone. Between 400 and 1600 tonnes were landed in 1998.

 

UK landings: Overall, landings per unit of fishing effort (which provides an index of abundance for the fishable bass population) in the UK inshore fishery have fluctuated around the average level from 1985-1996, with no clear trend, except when the exceptional 1998 year-class recruited to the fishery and catch rates trebled. Annual landings by the UK fishery as a whole were around 600 tonnes between 1985 and 1992, increased to over 2,700 tonnes in 1994 and fell back to around 1,400 tonnes in 1995 and 1996. The UK offshore pair-trawl fishery reported landings of 43 tonnes in 1998 but some 226 tonnes were landed by this fleet in 1999.

 

source http://www.pba.org.uk/Issues/Bass%20Fishery.html

 

 

source http://www.defra.gov.uk/fish/sea/conserve/trawl.htm

 

 

 

Cetaceans

> Bass pair-trawl fishery

> Council regulation 812/2004

Bass pair-trawl fishery

Pair trawling for bass in the south west of England has been demonstrated to have high levels of cetacean by-catch. Sea trials conducted by the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) showed that there was no easy technical solution for reducing by-catch levels through the use of mitigation devices. As a result of the findings Defra banned pelagic pair trawling for bass by UK vessels within 12 miles of the south west coast of England (within ICES area VIIe) in December 2004. Other bass fisheries, such as gillnetting and hand lining, and pair trawl fisheries targeting other species have not been affected.

 

The UK asked that the ban on pelagic pair trawling for bass be extended to the vessels of other Member States, who are currently permitted to fish between 6 and 12 miles off the south west English coast (under Article 9 of Council Regulation EC No 2371/2002), but this was turned down by the European Commission.

Edited July 8, 2006 by Marine Bill

[Ken Davison South Wales]

It's hard to imagine why an industry that has scored so many home goals, still have so much influence over the decision makers.

 

That is very simple to understand, for decades commercials have been the ONLY factor considered by SFCs, we and others are new comers on the block suddenly spouting about things we know nothing about.

 

The reality is "WE" should have been off our backsides years ago but failed to do so and now we are paying the price.

 

I am afraid the old saying you can't teach an old dog (SFC) new tricks is very much the case.

 

I would like to see them all done away with and replaced with a central policy machine made up of new faces and new bodies put into local areas to gather info and enforce the policies agreed.

 

This national identity thing (Wales, Scotland & England) is also working against RSAs by creating more unrequired layers of useless politics and spending money that could be better deployed in a thousand and one places.