An Alliance Between Anglers And Commercials?

[Guest jay_con]

How do you feel about monopolies Nobby.

[Nobby Ford]

@AUTUMN@:

How do you feel about monopolies Nobby.

Generally disprove, why?

[Guest jay_con]

My theory and it is only a theory. Based on observations, the boats in the ports around the country are becoming monopolised. Whereas a port 20 years ago would have say 30 boats owned by 30 ish families (allowing for the odd family that had a couple of boats) Now it appears that a handful of individuals own all the boats in each port - Fat cats is the name ive chosen for them. The guy in the news for overfishing in shetland immediately springs to mind.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4349474.stm

 

Yes he was meeting demand but he also appears to be on hell of a greedy b*****d. Is it greed or good business? I guess it depends on your values.

[spanner]

Quoted from Spanner

A couple of hours in a row boat with a string of feathers and a rubber eel saw a dozen coalfish all well into double figures in the 1920's. In the same place now you might still catch a dozen but the average size will be 1lb or less, and the last double figure fish was caught decades ago.

 

sounds like angling pressure to me.

 

 

Wurzel,

Angling pressure certainly had a lot to do with the demise of certain slow growing and localised stocks like common skate, but not prolific fish like cod, haddock, coalfish, and pollock. Yes, there were some large angling catches in the 60's and 70's, obscene catches in fact, but they were nothing compared to the large scale trawling of the west coast lochs at that time. Followed up by scallop dredges destroying the sea-bed just to finsh the job off properly.

 

It was the commercial 1-2 that did the damage not angling pressure, and that is the danger of fishing down the chain.

[Nobby Ford]

Hi @AUTUMN@

 

I empathise with the loss of small businesses to larger corporations. The monolopy that you assume is happening will only result in lower costs and higher profits from the same number of boats. The number of fish caught is due to the consumer demand, which will relate directly to market value.

The link about black fishing throws up more points. Yes, there is a mint to be made by selling fish; they weren't caught and wasted as by catch. It is horrifically unethical to over catch their quota (by any amount) and quite rightly they have been pulled up.

 

"Mr Divers said £1.6m of the £3.4m had been used up in operating costs and a further £776,000 had been paid in taxes.

The men are part-owners of a new vessel called Altaire III which has cost more than £10m to build"

.

 

Seems a fair turnover generated from just the illegal catch. Obvious benefits for suppliers/customers of their monopoly. My personal values however are exactly the same as those of the "family" fisherman. It would be lovely if an independent boat could catch within quotas and sustain a decent income from valued customers willing to pay the asking price.

It will never go back to that way.

Leads me to a seemingly irrelevant question; Where do you do your shopping, Supermarket or High Street?

 

Aside from all of this, I would be interested to know how many "active" members there are of groups such as SACN and BASS and NFSA. I personally take an interest in the work that is done, but am embarressed to admit I do nothing to help. We anglers grumble that something must be done, are given a viable outlet/platform and still do nothing!!

[big_cod]

Binatone my friend are you using 100ml codend which tends to be sheer slaughter or are you conservation minded one and using the 120ml ,a certain skipper told me only yesterday and i quote not retired that a certain pair team to south of where i live who are working the 100ml codend are slaughtering small codling,he himslf told me that by working the 120ml they were getting the same amount of fish in the fish room per haul as the boats who are using the 100ml but dont have all the discards to throw back over the side makes sence doesnt it or it should do.

[stavey]

Aside from all of this, I would be interested to know how many "active" members there are of groups such as SACN and BASS and NFSA. I personally take an interest in the work that is done, but am embarressed to admit I do nothing to help. We anglers grumble that something must be done, are given a viable outlet/platform and still do nothing!!

 

Yes nobby there is still way to many anglers doing jack *****, but you have to decide if you have the b*lls and the stamina to do something about it, just like i did and lots of other people on this forum has done and continue to do so, of all the hardest things i have found to tackle is sea anglers apathy (including my own) but i think i am just starting to see a chinck of light at the end of the tunnel and thats all i need to continue.

 

Clime aboard nobby, if anything it is an experience to see bemused faces enlightened.

[Nobby Ford]

stavey:

Yes nobby there is still way to many anglers doing jack *****, but you have to decide if you have the b*lls and the stamina to do something about it...

 

Clime aboard nobby, if anything it is an experience to see bemused faces enlightened.

I've got adequate b*lls and I've had no stamina complaints either

I do all that my time allows me. I clear the area on the beach around everytime I leave, I only take anything home if it's above limits and is going to be eaten fresh (fish don't belong in freezers) I've encouraged others to get involved in the sport (schools & youth clubs). I do as much as I can.

[Bob Jerunkel]

Hypothetical question to the commercials on here.

If you were paid a wage by the government to catch fish, what would you do different? would you fish what you consider to be sustainably? What would that mean?Would you use bigger mesh?land less fish?

Or would you still exceed your quotas and land undersize fish?

It seems to me that commercial fishermen know only to well what sustainable fishing means,they are just not willing to do it if it means earning less for a short period of time or earning less than the next bloke.So they get caught up in a vicious circle of getting it before someone else does.sometimes that means not even waiting for the fish to reach the MLS before they take them.

If they were farmers they would all be bankrupt by now.

[Guest jay_con]

Hi nobby,

 

Fruit and veg we tend to get off the high street. Anything else comes from the supermarket including fish unfortunately. There I reasons why I wont buy fish off the high street. Mostly to do with who owns the shop.