Cod Stocks

[Davey B]

Keep reading the header to this post as "Cod Socks" but then I'm very dislexic.

[StuMac]

Quoted from above

 

Stop fishing and start fishbreeding industries and hope the stocks do recover.

 

Whilst this *sounds* like a good idea, it has a major flaw. Cod are predatory fish so what do you feed the farmed fish on??

 

The answer to this question is, almost invariably, fish which has to be caught from somewhere. In effect you're taking fish from the sea no matter what you do. Moreover, the fish caught as fish food tend to be the small species like sand eels which form the base of the food chain. Remove them in large numbers and your fishery will never recover. Fish farming creates a market for fish which would otherwise stay in the sea and provide a food source for wild cod.

 

Comments about the decline in the Canadian fishery are very pertinent. It's also worth looking to Norway and Iceland, which have put a lot of thought intro maintaing their fisheries. If you control supply, you effectively control price. If you restrict the number of cod coming out of the sea, the price goes up and so you don't have to take so many to recoup your costs, which means that their are ample stocks of fish left for furure generations.

 

What's more, the angling in Norway is brilliant - fish off the rocks almost anywhere and you'll catch cod

[StuMac]

Quoted from above

 

Stop fishing and start fishbreeding industries and hope the stocks do recover.

 

Whilst this *sounds* like a good idea, it has a major flaw. Cod are predatory fish so what do you feed the farmed fish on??

 

The answer to this question is, almost invariably, fish which has to be caught from somewhere. In effect you're taking fish from the sea no matter what you do. Moreover, the fish caught as fish food tend to be the small species like sand eels which form the base of the food chain. Remove them in large numbers and your fishery will never recover. Fish farming creates a market for fish which would otherwise stay in the sea and provide a food source for wild cod.

 

Comments about the decline in the Canadian fishery are very pertinent. It's also worth looking to Norway and Iceland, which have put a lot of thought intro maintaing their fisheries. If you control supply, you effectively control price. If you restrict the number of cod coming out of the sea, the price goes up and so you don't have to take so many to recoup your costs, which means that their are ample stocks of fish left for furure generations.

 

What's more, the angling in Norway is brilliant - fish off the rocks almost anywhere and you'll catch cod

[spasor]

Is there any doubt?

Cod fishing in the North sea and the rest of the British Isles should be stopped immediately!!

Nicks M.P. states that 20,000 jobs would be lost? Maggie Thatcher put over 200,000 miners on the scrapheap just to make sure her authority wouldn`t be questioned?

20,000 jobs? That`s just a pin-prick should ever `Fords` decide to bail out of the UK because we don`t enter the `Euro`?

20,000 jobs? That`s about the figure that all governments have allowed for seasonal adjustments in the unemployment figures!!

I heard an interview last week with a representative of the Scottish fishing federation.

He kept on talking about sustainability and local industries. Then, at the end of the interview he suddenly showed his true colours?

`What`s the point of conserving fish. If we don`t have a fleet to harvest them?`.

Yes, I agree?? What`s the point of keeping anything safe unless we benefit from it?

Sorry. I`d rather eat reconstituted veggie burgers and wear plastic sandals. Than have my grand-childrens inheritance be sold to a bunch of short sighted individuals.

We only have this one world to share. 20,000 jobs in the fishing industry!!! B.A. made twice that number redundant after Sept 11. Did the country grind to a halt??

20,000 jobs? More people in London will lose their jobs after Christmas is over!!

:mad: Paul. :mad:

[Davey B]

hihi - Just thinking of Paul in plastic sandals. hihi

[Davey B]

Beats cod sock, hihi

[Ozzie]

In answer to your fish breeding negatives, firstly I didnt mean to breed the fish so they'd be big enough to eat sand eels. getting them through the hatching and initial fry stage would be enough because as you must know the biggest danger to all fish is the egg to small fry stage of which only about 20% max survive to adulthood. and if the fish need food , well breed that as well creating another industry. Its negative attitudes like that is why cod is in the state were in. "nothing can be done so lets do nothing etc"

[rufus]

I agrrrree

 

Seems the only way forward with the North Sea fisheries, now that the natural balance has been tipped firmly in favour of the cods predators, is to manage the fishery as one would manage a farm.

 

For too long the oceans have been treated as a wilderness where commercial interests are free to plunder. Political expediency has led us to the brink of another disaster... which in the light of the Canadian collapse, is unforgivable.

[Alan Taylor]

Davey B:

Reading the book Cod by Mark Kurlansky - An absolute must for anybody concerned and jolly good read also. Amazing facts... and only £7.99 from all good bookshops

I started reading my copy yesterday and have just finished it, for me to read a book is very rare, for me to read one in just 2 sessions is unheard of. It was very difficult to put down. The book is so full of interesting information even if you are not an angler. Just how do you connect wars, slavery, viking raiders, spanish raiders, aristocracy, 3cod wars,Bridgit Bardot, these are just some of the areas that the COD has influenced. Brilliant.

 

Nick, buy your MP a copy and hold a gun to his head while he reads it, he will soon change his tune.

 

Elton, can you post YOUR link to the book supplier?

 

Cheers

 

Alan

 

[ 23. March 2004, 03:33 PM: Message edited by: Alan Taylor ]

[Elton]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...68701/anglernet