Would you consider a sea angling licence now?

[Holmesy]

A new series of "The Deadliest Catch" starts tomorrow, fishermen risking life and limb to catch the king crab, they reckon they can earn a years money in 4 weeks but on average there's a death a week. Some people might say that taking that risk for that reward would define greed, not me I'd say it defines stupidity, after all you can earn a years money by working a year.

[JRT]

Hi Peter

 

Defination of greeds is when a commercial fisherman catches one fish on rod and line when a angler can not hence the saying GREEDY COMMERCIAL lol lol lol

 

kindest regards

 

Stephen

 

No, greed is taking everything now with absolutely no thought of the future.

 

Foresters don't cut down the entire forest, they work an area, replant then work another area. Don't the scallop fisherman in Scotland do this with good effect? Seems like a smart thing to do?

 

Also what would you boys do if I anchored 40ft in front of you while you were fishing?

 

JRT

[wurzel]

No, greed is taking everything now with absolutely no thought of the future.

 

Foresters don't cut down the entire forest, they work an area, replant then work another area. Don't the scallop fisherman in Scotland do this with good effect? Seems like a smart thing to do?

 

Also what would you boys do if I anchored 40ft in front of you while you were fishing?

 

JRT

 

Hello JRT

 

You don't see a farmer trying to plough through the woods ,over a swamp,or up the side of a mountain no he sticks to the same square patch as he has always ploughed and cropped, fishermen do much the same.

 

There are idiots in all walks of life, personly I try to work around or with anglers, some times it can be difficult because it can mean the difference in getting a days work or not.

[wurzel]

And you Wurzel, apart from the ploughing and cropping what about the sowing and the manuring part?

 

Hello FishingsFine

 

Think of fish as weeds, no matter how hard the farmer tries to wipe them out, he still gets more weeds turn up every year.

[Holmesy]

I've heard the farmer analogy so many times, "my trawler is like a tractor and my net is like a plough" it's really starting to grate now.

 

Fishermens activities have about as much in common with farmers as mine do as an engineer with a brain surgeon ! Farmers tend fields, they feed the soil, they sow the crops they harvest, they leave land fallow for a season or two to rgenerate.

 

Fishermen leave the "field" dead or dying, they don't plant the crop they harvest (NO INVESTMENT!) and they never leave areas fallow unless they're bound to by law !

 

If your going to justify what you do with analogies FFS at least try to make them reflect what you do. Try to think of something where you just take without investing in replensihing the "crop" you've taken.

[wurzel]

I've heard the farmer analogy so many times, "my trawler is like a tractor and my net is like a plough" it's really starting to grate now.

 

Fishermens activities have about as much in common with farmers as mine do as an engineer with a brain surgeon ! Farmers tend fields, they feed the soil, they sow the crops they harvest, they leave land fallow for a season or two to rgenerate.

 

Fishermen leave the "field" dead or dying, they don't plant the crop they harvest (NO INVESTMENT!) and they never leave areas fallow unless they're bound to by law !

 

If your going to justify what you do with analogies FFS at least try to make them reflect what you do. Try to think of something where you just take without investing in replensihing the "crop" you've taken.

 

Hello Holmesy

I know what you mean.

 

But I do not know of a field left dead or dying, they do leave areas fallow, this happens natrualy through changeing seasons, I can't think of any fishermen that fish the same patch useing the same metheods for 12 months of the year, do you fish the same spot for the same species all year round?

The landing sizes and mesh size are the tools for investing and replenshing the "crop" and on the whole it does work.

[Mikec]

Hello Holmesy

I know what you mean.

 

But I do not know of a field left dead or dying, they do leave areas fallow, this happens natrualy through changeing seasons, I can't think of any fishermen that fish the same patch useing the same metheods for 12 months of the year, do you fish the same spot for the same species all year round?

The landing sizes and mesh size are the tools for investing and replenshing the "crop" and on the whole it does work.

 

Whilst talking about farmers they have 50% of the European budget spent on them. Subsidies for growing tabacco! They are paid not to farm areas. How about increasing the VAT on angling tackle and using the money for the under 10m fleet to stay at home for a couple of years.

 

This would produce many benefits. However, it would have little effect on inshore fish stocks because what the inshore fleet catches is so insignificant to what the French tow away (on the south coast at least).

 

Then anglers will finally see what the real enermy is - the European fisheries policy.

[tobasco]

Whilst talking about farmers they have 50% of the European budget spent on them. Subsidies for growing tabacco! They are paid not to farm areas. How about increasing the VAT on angling tackle and using the money for the under 10m fleet to stay at home for a couple of years.

 

This would produce many benefits. However, it would have little effect on inshore fish stocks because what the inshore fleet catches is so insignificant to what the French tow away (on the south coast at least).

 

Then anglers will finally see what the real enermy is - the European fisheries policy.

 

MikeC,

 

I am personally in agreement with your comments regarding the enemy being the EU and the CFP.

However, your statement claiming that the under 10m fleet is 'insignificant' is absolute rubbish.

The success of a boat is not based on its size. The success of todays fishing boats is based on its technology and engine capacity.

DEFRA should consider changing the law concerning under 10m boats and in doing so make it compulsary for all registered commercial and recreational fishing boats to declare all catches - formally.

This current law excluding boats under 10m from declaring their catch is an extremely old and outdated law that was based on ancient (and long gone) marine fishing technology, and is no longer applicable to the current fishery or fishermen.

If the commercial fishermern are serious about conserving 'our' fish stocks then surely they would be willing to take such measures on board - no pun intended.

 

Regards

Steve

[Leon Roskilly]

DEFRA should consider changing the law concerning under 10m boats and in doing so make it compulsary for all registered commercial and recreational fishing boats to declare all catches - formally.

 

Although landings don't have to be declared, the new Registration of Buyers and Sellers legislation requires all sales of fish from a fishing vessel to be recorded, and the audit trail that produces gives a good idea of what is being landed by each boat.

 

That is giving real problems to the under 10m fleet, as evidenced in a letter to Fishing News last week bemoaning that before this 'under 10m boats have historically always caught a lot more fish than the government percieved'

 

The problem is that the quota that the under-10s are given is claimed to be insufficient to maintain the viability of running the boat, and now there is a way to identify boats that are exceeding their quota, and the amount of fish that the sector is landing, so that the fishery can be closed when the quota for the under 10m sector is exceeded.

[ColinW]

Personally I've always liked the farming analogies. I think if a commercial fishermen turned to farming he would indeed try to harvest his crops with a plough But only until he could get a big enough bank loan to buy a bulldozer.