Anglers views to parliament

[Newt]

Interesting reading indeed.

 

Can someone(s) help me out here. From this page of the report I read a statement that seems totally contrary to what I've gathered from reading on the forum and a few other places. The bolding and italics are mine and highlight the part that is puzzling.

 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/c...2-i/uc12202.htm

quote:

---

Ms Atherton: This Committee has taken evidence on septation by-catch, as I am sure you are aware. Are you aware of the suggestions that the 12-mile exclusion is being breached off Devon and Cornwall at the moment by pair trawlers? I crave your indulgence.

 

Q93 Chairman: It is an indulgence; let me have a brief answer.

 

Mr Portus: I read the Western Morning News every morning on which it is published and I see the pictures that are published in it, and I have heard from fishermen who are in my organisation who have told me that fishing vessels are going inside the 12-mile limit. As I understand it, the law in terms of the bass pair trawling has not actually been brought into force yet and so anybody fishing within the 12-mile limit at the moment is doing so perfectly legally. I am on record as saying that at the time this law was brought in, or the Bill was brought in, that the Minister was really clutching at the only straws that he could because he was knocked back in Brussels from bringing forward an international cross-community regulation. Clearly the French have their opinions about pair trawling for bass and the economic wealth that it brings to them, and I do not think that that is arguable. If it were the case that pair trawling for bass was bad for bass then I think the Minister would have a much stronger case to argue in the Community to have it banned, but it seems that the bass population is standing up to this level of activity, so I am told, and in that respect dealing with septations, regrettably, is something that the Minister is unable to do.

 

Chairman: Just satisfy my indulgence as well. These vessels are presumably French that Candy is complaining about?

 

Q94 Ms Atherton: Scottish!

---

[Leon Roskilly]

Newt,

 

The advice from ICES is that the bass pair trawling is sustainable.

 

(vessels taking part are limited to a landing of 5tonne per week, although there is no quota for bass, so the number of vessels is not limited. As other areas/species are closed some are joining in the bass fishery).

 

 

'Sustainable' can mean different things.

 

In this context, because bass produce a huge brood of eggs, and nature mops up the 'excess', it needs relatively few fish to spawn successfully to produce enough juveniles for the following years' fisheries.

 

It is acknowledged that the pair trawl fishery is a 'recruitment' fisherey.

 

ie it isn't just removing a sustainable excess from the population, but the fish being taken are being replaced by spawnings.

 

What the fishery has done, is to remove most of the adult fish from the population.

 

Bass can live 25 years, spawning 15 times and growing to over 20lbs. Now most fish are taken around (before or after) their first spawning.

 

ICES regard this as 'sustainable'

 

The big worry is that in the UK, bass are at the Northern limit of their range.

 

In previous years, more often than not, juvenile fish (which spend the first 4 years of their lives feeding in the estuaries and inshore waters) would be wiped out by cold winters.

 

A good stock of older spawning fish, survivors of good winters, ensured that there would be future spawnings.

 

Now we have a very dangerous situation where a run of severe winters could almost wipe out the species and the plentiful juvenile fish that ourselves and the trawlers are now used to would fast become a memory, taking another 10 years or so of mild winters to rebuild.

 

Unfortunately, the politicians are comforted by the fishery advice from ICES that the pair trawl fishery is 'sustainable' and do not see the danger, nor the ecological damage being done by only allowing the population to consist almost entirely of juveniles, nor the lost potential that would come from the development of a world class recreational bass fishery based on a properly structured stock consisting of both juveniles and plentiful adult fish.

 

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

ps see details in the BASS bass manage3ment plan - http://www.anglers-net.co.uk/sacn/latest/i...ex.php?view=192

[Newt]

Thanks Leon. Sounds very much like one of my children's financial situation - she and her husband are in great shape as long as absolutely nothing goes the slightest bit wrong.

 

Overall, there were some very interesting players in those Q&A sessions - both questioners and answerers.

 

How was it to participate?

[Leon Roskilly]

Newt:

 

How was it to participate?

Beforehand the three organisations (who had each previously submitted written evidence) had spent some time by email considering questions that were likely to come up and points that we were particularly loooking at getting across.

 

On the day, we met earlier in London, to go over things together and to decide who would be lead spokesman on particular issues.

 

Outside of the Houses of Parliament, we were met by a TV crew from Meridian TV (by prior arrangement), then after the interview we went into the parliament building (the one next to Big Ben), were frisked and passed through security, then directed through medieveal staircases and corridors to where the evidence sessions were being heard, up near the roof.

 

We were kept waiting for quite some time, as an important bill that was being debated and voted upon was running into problems, and the MPs were being summoned by the division bells (a bit like a fire alarm constantly going off) to go into the voting lobbies.

 

Finally we were called in to sit at a table, facing some officials and a stenographer and behind them were faced by the sub-committee sitting in a horse-shoe facing us (just a little intimidating!).

 

Behind us were other interested parties sitting in several rows listening to the evidence (some faces we knew, friendly and otherwise).

 

Thanks to our careful preparation beforehand it all went reasonably well, though as always once it was over, there were points we felt that we could have made better, and answers given that could have been dealt with a little differently - isn't that always the way! (we have the opportunity to correct any errors, just a couple, and to expand on some points in writing).

 

We were really just warming to the questioning when we were thanked and it was time for us allow time for the next witnesses to follow us (remember the sessions were running late, so it felt as though we were under some time pressure).

 

After leaving we retreated to the nearest pub for a debriefing session, and had to endure further the division bells ringing in the pub!

 

Tight Lines - leon

[big_cod]

pair trawling for cod is amassive threat to any cod recovary progame it also must be stopped

[skippytheroo]

sheesh that was heavy going I dont like the sound of Diana one bit