Channel Cod fishery Now Closed

[H.A.]

Steve

 

Who knows what your lot really take?

 

The key to the Government's own figures is Spawning Biomass ie. Fish of approx 4lbs and over.

 

Bpa is the minimum acceptable spawning stock estimated 150k tonnes. Actual spawning biomass for this decade has been consistently below that figure - 25k tonnes?

 

Bllm is way below STOCK COLLAPSE!

 

FISHING MORTALITY has been consistently in the danger zone but has declined as the quota system has kicked in more tightly. It was still in the red!

 

Let's face it Steve, you and your buddies in western VIId have, by and large, not fished for the 2005 brood and yet it was estimated that 95% of these 2-3.5 lbs fish would be taken before they joined the spawning biomass.

Paul Joy and his mates certainly tried to make inroads and had the gall to say they could walk across the channel on the backs of LARGE cod.

Don't they understand that these larger fish are the components of the SPAWNING BIOMASS which is so vulnerable and which give rise to their future livelihoods?

 

Asset stripping or what???

 

[steve pitts]

Ummm ... msc???

 

Excuse me? MODERATE SIZED CATASTROPHE?

 

 

How about Mindblowingly Shortsighted Catching-sector?

[hastfish]

we have no way even touched the amount of cods there are on the ground and we take a cross section of the stock. angling actually takes more adults cod then we do .anway the cods will start heading away now.but the few we will catch will still be thrown back dead.no one can see the sense in that surely.the french will still be taking them and any other nation and they dont play fair .why the paronia with the english fleet we have the smallest allocation ie.u/10s and were still blamed for everything .i try my hardest to get all small stuff back in the water ,abide by all the gov stupid rules and try to make a living.we all agree theres good and bad in every industry but dont tar us all with the same brush.some of this science is so old it shouldnt be used we were n,sea cods now we are celtic stock. we were at the meeting when the scientist said that .they also agreed about the amount of cods on the ground but we still only got 54t.anglers,charter boats will take more than that during the year,and we have nomore untill jan 0 9 .someones wrong and it is,nt always us.

[barry luxton]

we have no way even touched the amount of cods there are on the ground and we take a cross section of the stock. angling actually takes more adults cod then we do .anway the cods will start heading away now.but the few we will catch will still be thrown back dead.no one can see the sense in that surely.the french will still be taking them and any other nation and they dont play fair .why the paronia with the english fleet we have the smallest allocation ie.u/10s and were still blamed for everything .i try my hardest to get all small stuff back in the water ,abide by all the gov stupid rules and try to make a living.we all agree theres good and bad in every industry but dont tar us all with the same brush.some of this science is so old it shouldnt be used we were n,sea cods now we are celtic stock. we were at the meeting when the scientist said that .they also agreed about the amount of cods on the ground but we still only got 54t.anglers,charter boats will take more than that during the year,and we have nomore untill jan 0 9 .someones wrong and it is,nt always us.

 

I beleive hastfish that we have a large under ten fleet compared with others in the eu. I understand that the under tens get the crappy end of the stick when it comes to quota. Origionally when it was dished out it wasn't all the uk's fault as at that time there were amounts caught in the uk under declared compared with others who cotton'd on and over declared thier catch, french e.g.

 

To blame the rsa for taking the fish is wrong also to blame the under tens for taking the fish is wrong, if it fishies within the rules and compared with the big boys. It was the desicion by Mr joy to take the quota now or spread it throught the year is the reason why no more can be taken until 09 unless defra can magic up some more.

 

Compared with say the french and spanish fleet, uk is the blue eyed boys for fairness, so we either do something about it or not. The eu is a dino, spending vast sums of monies, wasting monies and management by panic measures and appeasement. Please don't use discard, thowing them back to sea as an issue as you can do something about it by technical measures or just not fishing for them.

 

The science that H A used is upto date, it will be interesting to look at the next lot.

 

I don't beleive that this realtime closures is going to make any diffence to the stock, all it is buying is more days at sea. To back this up there are record landings being reported in the north.

 

I do not believe that the stock, cod has grown, what we are seeing is a small improvement from one possibly two years, they need to stay there to get value from them, take them now, short term gain or leave them alone to grow and breed, what do you really want. It's not the point that 'we only got 54 tonnes' , it's the point of what is going to be there for the future. Again, how do you know that charter boats will take more? Even if they do that is not the problem or the fix.

[Toerag]

Hi Toerag, don't they use the nets for the pollack.

 

You're right, but they do net the wrecks for cod if they have the quota. Recent years of insufficient quota have seen the netters working around the wrecks for flatfish, but apparently that doesn't pay so they're back to netting them for pollack using nets well above the wrecks as opposed to tight onto them for cod. They're certainly netting the wrecks for pollack now, one <10m boat landed 62 boxes in Brixham recently.

[barry luxton]

You're right, but they do net the wrecks for cod if they have the quota. Recent years of insufficient quota have seen the netters working around the wrecks for flatfish, but apparently that doesn't pay so they're back to netting them for pollack using nets well above the wrecks as opposed to tight onto them for cod. They're certainly netting the wrecks for pollack now, one <10m boat landed 62 boxes in Brixham recently.

 

Hi Toerag, thanks for that, If they have no quota and use flatfish for the reason to net tight to the wreck, what about cod discard?

 

What flatties would be of interest . Couple of years ago i had a huge brill from the wrecks, on a shad.

 

Just wondering if the size and number of pollack will deminish now that they are targeted.

[Toerag]

Hi Toerag, thanks for that, If they have no quota and use flatfish for the reason to net tight to the wreck, what about cod discard?

They net off the wrecks to avoid the cod. I guess they get some, but I think they may use trammels rigged flat rather than gillnets to avoid the cod. Discard is inevitable, but they would have had 50kg/month to play with which isn't much as wreck cod tend to be big.

 

What flatties would be of interest . Couple of years ago i had a huge brill from the wrecks, on a shad.

mainly turbot & monkfiush (anglerfish) I believe, but there'll be all sorts of flatties where the beamers can't work.

Just wondering if the size and number of pollack will deminish now that they are targeted.

They've been targetted at this time of year for years, not so sure about the summer, last year was bad for pollack because the netters had lots of the fish during the winter due to murky water so there were fewer around later on. Plus the commercial rod&line/jigging boats have increased in number to take advantage of better prices for line caught fish.