belfast lough juvenile fish slaughter

i'm looking a bit of info regarding trawler laws in the north after witnessing loads of juvenile fish wiped out during the week. i was collecting some shore crab at my usual spots along hazlebank shore park and the trawler i see all the time was in so close i could have had a conversation with the guy on deck :? . i see this boat all the time working up and down in his grid pattern but i never realised the quantity of dead juvenile fish the guy chucks back in :x . no kidding, the boat left a slick of dead fish in its wake that was truely sickening :evil: :evil: . the gulls were having the time of their lives dropping in from above scooping up fish no bigger than 6 inches. this got me thinking. i don't fish here cos i know all you get is wee fish around the reefs round here and by the volume returned dead, surely this guy must know the same. he trawls here regularly most of the week for hours at a time and this got me thinking. from what i saw returned dead in the space of a few short hours, what would this ammount to in the course of a month?? or a year :shock: :shock: :shock: . i read in this months copy of sea angler about millitant anglers dropping clean engine blocks inshore to fend off trawlers, with the intention of ripping nets to put them off trawling the fish nurseries decimating juvenile stocks. but there must be some legislation to protect these importantly vital breeding grounds. i know that the guy has to make a living, but at what cost???. he must realise that it can't be sustainable. if anyone has any info on this matter please post as i have'nt been able to get my head around this incident, still bugging the life out of me :evil: :evil: if i was more savvy on the laws or legistation mabey there is an authority i could have called to report the incident to. or is that just wishfull thinking on my part :cry: , i really hope it's not

Yea saw the same thing at skerries not so long ago, They dumped a huge amount of small fish (all dead) outside the harbour, I have no respect or sympathy for any of these guy's :evil:

Hi,

I'm not too sure if there is any existing legislation to stop this kind of thing but an educated hunch tells me there's not.

I know they're trying to make a living but a lot of trawler men anger me simply from their contradictory complaints.

I constantly hear them complaining that their industry is in tatters and that they want state aid and bigger quotas. Don't they realise that bigger quotas will just make things even worse!!??

Maybe the militants should just continue to throw the bricks in!!??

All the best,
John D.

Did ya's not hear...... The recent posts fron some suggest its all the seals fault :roll: :roll: :roll: leave this poor man alone hes only dredging what the seals have left for him. Boo whoo :cry: :cry:

Alan, PM me his registration number (letter/s and number) and I shall have a check done and post the findings on here. He is probably quite legal whereas dumping rubbish ie engine blocks at sea is illegal. Typical "Sea Angler"journalism.

cheers gannet, will keep an eye out for the reg number next time i'm out and pm you. as for the illegal dumping of objects to tear trawler nets,,,, well, if john d is correct and there is no legistation mabey some anglers are not prepared to sit back and wait until all the breeding grounds and nurseries lay barren and lifeless before taking action. not saying i agree with it, but as with everything government related, by the time they react it's too late :cry: :cry: :cry: :evil: . and the situation is only compounded by trawler men who hold fast to their guns claiming they have to trawl inshore over breeding grounds and nurseries cos there's not much left out at sea, and until legistation forces them not to they're not breaking the law, and somehow turn a blind eye to the fact they're wiping out our future stocks. talk about a catch 22 situation :roll: :cry: :roll: :cry: :cry: and on a totally different subject that has nothing to do at all with this matter, does anyone know where i can buy a couple of dozen or so second hand transit van engines :?: :?: :?: :?: :twisted:

With so many small fish being caught, there must be a chance that the mesh size being used was too small :?: I understand that people need to make a living, but this kind of practice will leave the sea Lifeless in no time. Personally, I think Trawl netting should be banned totally. Tangle nets with a large mesh size or baited long lines would be a far more selective process.

Kev

unfortunatley mac the tangle nets wiped belfast lough clean of rays and spurdog about 20 years ago , the place used to full of good fish ,now totally destroyed :evil: :evil: :evil:
The boat you seen alistar was prob a mussel dredger , they are doing a serious amount of dammage to the seabed around that area ,but it's a designated shell fish area ,so I dont think there's an aful lot can be done ,I'll also see what I can find out as I'll be doing a bit of work with the some people who'll know a bit more about it this week .

ive only been fishing the lough for 3 or so years but ive noticed the quantity and size of fish has decreased dramatically. our boat is moored in bangor but this year we have had to leave the lough in search of good fish whereas last year there were some fine fish within the lough.belfast lough is a breeding for the young fish and there should be a complete ban on commercial fishing within the lough, it really f**** me off to see fish caught and thrown back in dead.

as for the illegal dumping, get the names of the boats and report them.

thanks ronald. that would be greatly appreciated. and thanks everyone else for all the replies 8) . the one thing that seems to stand out clear on this topic is that we all seem to be of the same opinion. fish stocks are at their lowest and still unfortunately in decline. the question i have is this, commercial fishing seems to be packed to the rafters with people mustering to their defence such as statutory bodies, government departments, lobby groups and the entire industry as a whole, but who speaks out in defence of the fish????, and more importantly who speaks for them that will be listened to???? seems to me that we are all of the same opinion. now none of us are marine biologists and we can clearly see the impact thats present in our seas. so what the hell is going on????. is it just another matter of the government lining their pockets with total disregard to the impact on our shores cos theres a profit to be made. i hope not, but if this is so should we really deamonise the millitant anglers who target nets inshore to protect future stocks??? or appladue them for getting up off their backsides and doing something about it?? because if it is really true that the government is turning a blind eye over profit in the here and now mabey it's time all the schindlers of the angling community stood up togeather, were counted and praised for their efforts as the last line of defence for future stocks. after all the only nets that are being torn are the ones fished over breeding and nursery areas. so ordinary conscientious, enviromentally minded commercial fishermen who avoid these areas have nothing to fear. and after all, they claim thats the most of the industry. so the only ones whos noses should be put out of joint are the ones who intentionally target these areas and get torn nets as a result.. or am i thinking too sensibley :shock: :shock: i'll leave it for all you to decide

I work in Carrickfergus and regularly use the shore road. I have seen more than one boat dredging up the lough. They are no more than 100 yards out sometimes. I also have seen this devastation of juvenile fish as I would dig lug-worm on the shore, I have also seen in the last 10 years the mussel beds being devastated by these trawlers. But the biggest danger to any fish stocks in the lough is the DOE they are the biggest polluter, some of the "finds" on the shore whilst digging for lug have been: tampex, condoms, sanitary towels none of which I could use as bait. I have complained before and have had no success, the DOE don't want to know. I know that the EU are going to come down hard on the DOE for the disposal of raw sewage into our coastal waters, but muggins here and many more like me will of course foot the bill for any fines imposed on the DOE. I'm not old enough to remember the glory days of the lough but my dad remembers species like, tope, ray and plaice being caught and also angler fish. I hope that the DOE get it sorted and hope that species like tope and angler fish return to the lough and flourish.

With so many sea anglers located in the general vicinity I'm surprised that there has been no organised campaign to at least try and impose some restrictions on commercial activity. Strangford Lough at least has a ban on mobile gear.

hi julio, i too have see the washed up waste on the beach and it's a disgrace. i still can't believe how crowded the shore is in the summer with hundreds of families bathing in the sea with all the forementioned products floating by :oops: :oops: :shock: :shock: (feeling queezy even now just thinking about it). i recently made a few enquiries about the state of play regarding trawling and dredging in belfast lough and it's impact. i used to do a bit of community work in belfast and used some old ministeral contacts and had my worst fears confirmed. we can make all the noise we want but we will only get the brush off. the best we could expect is that there would be a consoultation peorid to appease us. but thats where it would end. the government will go on regardless to the impact while there is a buck to be made. the only glimmer of hope we have is some new marine bill that is set to come through in the future. but at the moment i don't have too much info on it so if anyone knows what it's about please, please, post to let me know