A Nice Catch of Mullet

[Cornishman]

Steve Coppolo wrote- A commercial fisherman catches fish and sells them to make money.

So is a charter skipper who sells the fish on a market or privately, which most do in the SW, a commercial fisherman?.

Wurzel- as you can imagine the golden mile hasn't produced many smiles. It will affect hundereds of livelyhoods in Cornwall alone . A very high percentage of punt and tosher fishing is within a mile and usually during poor weather where a lee from the wind can be found.

On the tagging issue. Who will pay for the tags?. How many should Joe Bloggs buy as he hasn't caught a bass for 5 years but had a 1000kgs haul in his trawl on a few occassions before ?.What if Joe is friendly with the angling fraternity and decides to distribute a few to them?.

 

Back to the mullet , seining mullet from Sennen has been taking place for a very long time but they still continue to return in amounts worth catching. We have seen a huge increase in the number and size of mullet shoals in the past 3-5 years . As the minimum size for grey mullet is just 20cms maybe a raise in that would be helpful.

[roryh]

New Zealand is a perfect example of a success story and all who fish in NZ are looked after. On inspection of the drawing, it is plain for all to see why it is a success story. The NZ government values its resource and manages it correctly. The major part of its management system is creating an exclusive economic zone, the important word being ‘exclusive’.

 

JB

 

Agreed but exclusive will never be a word applied to our fisheries, as someone mentioned in an earlier post, control was given to the EU, we will have to find another remedy although the NZ model may well be worth examining for ideas.

[osprey]

Steve Coppolo wrote- A commercial fisherman catches fish and sells them to make money.

So is a charter skipper who sells the fish on a market or privately, which most do in the SW, a commercial fisherman?.

Wurzel- as you can imagine the golden mile hasn't produced many smiles. It will affect hundereds of livelyhoods in Cornwall alone . A very high percentage of punt and tosher fishing is within a mile and usually during poor weather where a lee from the wind can be found.

On the tagging issue. Who will pay for the tags?. How many should Joe Bloggs buy as he hasn't caught a bass for 5 years but had a 1000kgs haul in his trawl on a few occassions before ?.What if Joe is friendly with the angling fraternity and decides to distribute a few to them?.

 

Back to the mullet , seining mullet from Sennen has been taking place for a very long time but they still continue to return in amounts worth catching. We have seen a huge increase in the number and size of mullet shoals in the past 3-5 years . As the minimum size for grey mullet is just 20cms maybe a raise in that would be helpful.

 

i toally agree wit you there the minimum size for mullet should be put up but with the mesh sizes going up you wont see many of the small torpedo mullet bein caught anyway,

[roryh]

[quote Back to the mullet , seining mullet from Sennen has been taking place for a very long time but they still continue to return in amounts worth catching. We have seen a huge increase in the number and size of mullet shoals in the past 3-5 years . As the minimum size for grey mullet is just 20cms maybe a raise in that would be helpful.

 

 

Are the shoals greatly increased everywhere or just down here?

 

Re size limits, what size does a grey Mullet start to spawn?

[stavey]

That's what I expected to show.

I doubt that a catch, like the one pictured, will make any difference to anglers.

It hasn't in the past!

 

Hi jim

 

I dont know about cornwall? but from similar net catches i have witnessed in my area it most definitely has, i have not seen the shoal densities in the last 2 decades up my local rivers any thing remotely like what they used to be in the 70's thats for sure.

[Steve Coppolo]

So is a charter skipper who sells the fish on a market or privately, which most do in the SW, a commercial fisherman?.

 

Those skippers/boats are registered as commercial, so of course they are commercial fishermen. The fact that they take angling parties out to make extra money is neither here nor there. I've heard of a few places where commercial skippers still take angling parties out, but most charter skippers these day are just that, charter skippers not commercial fishermen. The anglers who go out on these boats and "fish for the boat" are in effect commercial fishermen too.

 

Here's a question for you. Is it the fisherman or the boat that is licenced to sell fish?

[Cornishman]

Not all the charter boats are registered and licenced althoughcan still get away with landing pollack and cod . Because they have no licence the MFA are not interested because they can't take anything away from them i.e. licence.

The vessel holds the licence to catch fish .

[roryh]

Not all the charter boats are registered and licenced althoughcan still get away with landing pollack and cod . Because they have no licence the MFA are not interested because they can't take anything away from them i.e. licence.

The vessel holds the licence to catch fish .

 

 

sounds a bit odd! as if the playing field needs levelling in some way?

 

Surely this sort of grey area just muddies the waters.

[Leon Roskilly]

Because they have no licence the MFA are not interested because they can't take anything away from them i.e. licence.

The vessel holds the licence to catch fish .

 

Hmmmm! I can't ever recall anyone losing a licence because of infringement of fishery regulations.

 

 

A day in court, vessel temporarily impounded, loss of fishing gear and/or catch, loss of days at sea, loss of quota and/or a fine (I was going to write 'hefty' fine, but then again in relation to the value of the catch, and probably the number of times that they have gotten away with it in the past, 'laughable' rather than 'hefty' would usually be more appropriate), but the loss of licence? (No matter what they have done, you seemingly can't take away someon's livelihood!).

 

Anglers, charter skippers, they can still be taken to caught and fined.

 

See:

 

http://www.sacn.org.uk/Conservation-and-Po...sized_Bass.html

 

and:

 

http://www.sacn.org.uk/Conservation-and-Po..._Bass_Haul.html

 

 

I wonder if the proposals to allow Fishery Officers to impose on-the-spot fines, rather than going to court for a criminal prosecution is going to have any great effect on the efficiency of enforcement?

 

By the way Cornishman, whilst we are off topic, do you know anything about the last meeting of Cornwall SFC, where apparently DEFRA turned up in force, spending the previous day and evening with the officers, and the committee agreed to introduce bag limits on bass for unlicensed fishermen.

 

Will that include the shore seiners who don't need a licence?

Edited February 7, 2007 by Leon Roskilly

[stavey]

Leon

Again I have to say that it has to do with what you see in that picture.

I thought that a reasonable debate about what was compatible with the different perceptions of the picture in question was quite interesting.

Then of course that’s no good is it? Stavey (bless him) has to jump in head first and deliver his perceptions of the photo.

I cannot and in fact I admire wurzel restraint when he has to read something like that.

 

Hi challenge

 

I will tell you what i see in the picture shal i, i see a group of selfish single minded oppotunists who dont give a f*ck about anybody only themselves, out to make some quick tax free beer money thats what i see!!! much like a lot of the under ten metre inshore part time brigade in this country imo cheers.........

Edited February 7, 2007 by stavey