The Pair Trawlers are working :-(

[stavey]

just a thought, is there a law on horse power limit for single trawlers when towing a net within the 12 mile erea or a speed limit? if so when combining two to pair trawl is possible that they could breaking such a law.

[Snatcher]

Leon ! lost for words ! best say nowt cos I have been "moderated" once already tonight - I think!

But it does stink big style.

[Socksy Squirrel]

If they keep on trawling then the bass is heading for the same plug hole that the North Sea cod is now going down.

Long term no fish stocks that are worthy of commercial exploitation will exist worldwide.

 

[ 05. December 2004, 03:07 AM: Message edited by: Socksy Squirrel ]

[Blackvelvet]

http://nesa.co.uk

[Guest jay_con]

Stavey I believe there is something about horse power and net size. Im sure Ive had this discussion before. As usual though there will be a loophole in that law or no-one will care to enforce it.

 

Just keep emailing Ben Bradshaw with all your thoughts. hopefully he will get the message at somepoint.

[Leon Roskilly]

Socksy Squirrel:

If they keep on trawling then the bass is heading for the same plug hole that the North Sea cod is now going down.

Long term no fish stocks that are worthy of commercial exploitation will exist worldwide.

The advice from ICES is that the bass pair trawl fishery is suustainable and because of this you will get short shrift when writing to politicians claiming that this fishery isn't.

 

The problem is what do we mean by sustainable?

 

With bass, they lay so many eggs that relatively few fish need to spawn each year to produce the juveniles taken in their first year of spawning.

 

(What's termed a 'recruitment fishery')

 

Of course when you are a commercial netsmen, it's tonnage of fish landed that is important, not the size. In fact, plate sized bass are ideal.

 

The potential problem is that UK bass are traditionally at the northen end of their range, and in the past, more often than not, whole year groups were wiped out as juveniles in the estuaries where they spend the first few years of their lives.

 

When there were reasonably large numbers of the bigger fish around, (before the pair trawlers located the spawning shoals) that meant that there were plenty of mature adult fish to produce further spawnings, even when successive year classes of juveniles were wiped out by the cold.

 

Now we have a situation where the fishery might be 'sustainable', but that could change very quickly should we return to a succession of cold winters. We are fishing at the limits of ecological viability, gambling that wont happen.

 

If it does, then with the cod gone, we'll have to rely on pouting for our sport.

 

The case that we are trying to make, to the government and fishery managers is that bass, if managed primarily as a sports fish, with plenty of large fish available, would be worth far more to the economy than 8,000 tonee of poor quality pair-trawled fish competing with 60,000 tonne of farmed fish coming from southern Europe.

 

(Larger bass are worth more per kilo to inshore fishermen than smaller fish, so a 3lber is worth much more than 3 1lb fish, an 8lber even more so)

 

If the Bass Manaegement Plan is adopted (see http://www.anglers-net.co.uk/sacn/latest/i...ex.php?view=192 ) that would introduce a close season, protecting spawning bass within the UK 12 mile zone, so your support for the plan is vital.

 

Write!

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

(Can you imagine catching 5lb - 8lb bass most times you go fishing? That's what could be on the cards! - It happened in the States)

[Leon Roskilly]

Blackvelvet:

well get yourself into Service pals and give me a hand..just a  mere woman trying to get some help on the pair trawling..Never heard of it before until I saw tugmistresses post in NESA with your story about the fish..this chap in Sp reckons that boom trawling is a lot worse that pair trawling...now I am getting confused with all these issues.

                    Heather

Sorry BV, I can only manage so many forums (you wouldn't believe the number of emails I get that have to be dealt with!)

 

Yes boom trawling is damaging to the environment.

 

Who says it's worse?

 

Depends on your outlook I suppose.

 

But even if it was, that's irrelevant because Pair Trawling is bad news.

 

Ask him if he would like to die by being bayoneted or shot? Which is worse?

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Guest jay_con]

What about us guys up here in the north leon?

 

Just pouting by the sounds of it.

[Socksy Squirrel]

Thousands of dogfish down here.

They are of little or no commercial value as far as I know, can survive being trawled up and thrown back.

I would say that 9 out of 10 of everything I catch is a dogfish.

You never know, a few might start to move north to take over from the cod.

Life is looking up Winter!!!

[Artfulfisher]

Just saw on the news this morning (BBC) an article on the state of the Sea Fishing Industry...

 

Unfortunately I missed the first part...however I did hear them say there is a move to ban trawling in 30% of British waters...that sounds good..and is a welcome step in the right direction..however then I saw a map of the proposed ban regions and they are all in the North Sea!...Great news for the Cod and hopefully some of you Northern Anglers...but surely they should address some of the other regions too??? (the trawler footage they showed at one point had a tonne or so of small bass dropping onto the deck...probably filmed down south!)

 

This measure will surely just force all of those trawling these areas to head South and East or give up the industry. The former will lead to even more depleted stocks down the South and East Coasts!

 

I'm as passionate about Bass, as Winter is for the Cod...and rightly so (although I think it's illegal to get too passionate with a cod in some northern counties!!! )...but the bass seems to be ignored a little in this scheme...or do all Bass breed in the North Sea?

 

Though I agree with the regions suggested if only for the sake of the mighty cod (a fish I've never even caught)...surely further restrictions equally spread around are coastline will provide regional safe havens...and still allow the trawlers to pull a living out of what remains in the 'gaps'...rather than pushing them all south and east for a b*&^%y 'free for all' before an inevitable ban is put in place!!!???

 

Equally in what I saw there was no mention of pair trawling!

 

Rick Stein was on the sofa along with another guy who my wife reckons is the author of a book on the state of our seas and possible solutions...did anybody catch his name or the title of the book???

 

Apparently he made several references to the USA and how they have managed to turn their seas from depleted waste lands into rich oasis' of life, by various bans etc.

 

They did also focus heavily on the sandeel crisis as mentioned a few times recently on AN...and confirmed that they are being harvested in huge quantities to be turned into pellets for feeding farmed fish!...there's a moral there somewhere!

 

All the above caused by the nation starting to eat more fish...according to my little boy...who did catch the first half of the story...but whos recollection of the facts is sometimes at best dubious! :confused:

 

Anybody else heard or seen more?

 

And please put me straight if I'm missing the point or just plain talking out of my RRRs...cause I'm not sure I understand the big picture that's being painted!

 

Cheers Art