North east already has a gm?

[Guest challenge]

2007 proved to be a bumper year here at whitby for cod and reasons for that are quite obvious crab potts the grounds are littered with them this has led to massive drop in trawling on these grounds over the past few years, thus resulting in explosion in cod its been a fantastic year but this has led to what you could call a lot friction between the potters and the keel boats my own son is trawling he even winges about potts but like i said to him its best conservation method know to man where the trawlers are working they are doing very well for cod fish have been left to breed everybody is seeing the benefits once over any potts left on the certain peices of ground would have been towed away if they werent shifted but this is more or less history nowadays potters and trawlers now seem to work together but there is still some friction at times but potts are doing the conservation thing the signs are there for all to see.

It’s a fact Paul that static gear fishermen take up a lot of the hard ground that trawler men would like to have easy access too.

There is a lot of static gear (namely pots) in the waddy at the moment and scattered all over bits of ground aback of there.

There is also a lot of static gear now on the quay sides with more to come I would imagine in the New Year?

there’s still plenty of ground for the trawler men to go at and hopefully the understanding that has been created in resent times between our commercial trawler men and our commercial static fishermen is one that could be recommended to others who have to put up with less beneficial circumstances.

As I have said many times, trawler men (from my experience) don’t tow away static gear on purpose.

Our largest static potting boat in Whitby (and the one working the most pots) is owned by our biggest trawler owner, so conflict of interests can be overcome in a manageable and faire strategies when your mind is put to it.

The amount of gear (static) that we come across on our patrols is massive and must seam very demanding to trawler skippers at times. Vast areas closed (unofficially) to trawling.

I know that potters will leave areas clear so that trawlers can get through and have access to the grounds as well.

Conservation can come in many strange ways Paul, like you say, bad weather, static gear, fuel prices, 60% cut in the size of the fishing fleet, days at sea; allowable catch and many more can contribute to a fishery hopefully coming out of decline.

Regards and all the best for the New Year.