I don't know if this is the right place to post this so if any admins or mods want to move it I'm fine with that; I just want to put my two-penn'orth in on the fish stocks debate/problem.
We have bureaucrats in highly paid positions sitting in offices without a clue what they are doing trying to save our fish stocks by implementing stupid new rules like increasing minimum size limits for fish species; we all know that only results in more and bigger fish being thrown back into the sea dead and unused. Increasing mesh sizes on nets has little or no effect because once the net is choked with fish it doesn't matter what size the mesh is, everything gets stuck in there.
Now; I don't know exactly how the quotas work or what the quotas are, but I'll make up some numbers just to make my point and it is a VALID point.
Let's say that fisherman Smith has an annual quota of 1000 tons of saleable fish; and his boat can carry 10 tons at a time. He goes to sea and throws his nets; hauls them back several times until his 10 ton hold is full. He heads home, on the way sorting through the fish and throwing overboard anything undersized, out of season, or anything he's not licensed for. By the time he's weighed in his catch he only has 5 tons of saleable fish. He needs to do this 200 times to get his annual quota of 1000 tons; BUT he has also thrown back into the sea another 1000 tons of dead fish.
Would it not be better to tell fisherman Smith that whatever comes up in his nets; whatever the size, whatever the species or whatever the season, he has to keep it all towards his quota; throwing nothing back. Now the 10 tons in his hold all counts, and he only has to make 100 trips to sea. There are no dead fish being thrown back into the sea; wasted. Less disturbance to the sea bed, less fuel being used.
Penalties would have to be introduced for any skipper caught throwing anything back.
I know that small fish aren't always what they want for human consumption, but the smaller stuff could be used in animal feed.
This surely is the only real solution to improving fish stocks.
If anyone wants to tell me that I've got it all totally wrong; I'm willing to listen to a better solution; because by throwing back all these dead fish, all we are doing is increasing the seagull stocks!!!
You could also argue that discards benefit the commercial sector!
Look at it this way, fish prices fluctuate due to supply and demand....i.e, the less fish that are landed, the more indemand they are therefore securing a better price for the fisherman and the boat owners.
What would happen if all of a sudden, all the cod that were caught were landed rather than being chucked over the side?....The market would be flooded with fish and the price of cod would tumble therefore meaning the fisherman doesn't make as much money.....How does he then make more money to cover the cost of his trip? Does he continue to discard, artificially lowering the number of fish caught so he continues to make enough money, or does he retain more fish, selling some through official channels with a better price and other fish enter the market through other means, so skewing the number of fish officially recorded and we end up with no real difference to conservation?
I think Hugh did an alright job, but he skirted a the main issue, which is technological creep and destructive fishing practices.
If only he had emphasised more on the under 10m boats in Hastings at the end as a method of best practice rather not condeming trawling and its indescriminate method of catching fish and destroying the sea floor. The fish monger also hit the nail on the head in terms of carbon miles and how he had to now source his cod from Scotland instead of on his doorstep caught in nets with larger mesh size, rather than trawled form the sea bed
Considering the majority of the fish consumed in the UK is White fish, why can't they be targetted by long line like the old days, therefore negating the need to drag nets and tonnes of metal along the sea bed.
Maybe Loopy can clear this up for me, are there alternative methods of catching nephrops such as huge creels akin to what they use on the deadliest catch (albeit with smaller mesh), rather than creating vast swaithes of muddy desert along the sea bed, that only nephrops can now inhabit?
The solution is a return to smaller boats, fish caught in by non-destructive practices so negating the need for discards and the fishermen getting a better price for their fish through a market not flooded with mass caught produce!
