After the salmon buy out - pollock?

I was talking to a commercial salmon netter about the proposed buy out of the drift netters recently. One of things he said which worried me was that once the drift nets had been bought out he stated that most of the nets would be re-rigged and the fishermen would go after pollock and other whitefish on the reefs. A simple case of having to make a living by turning to another species.

That large increase in gill netting isn't going to help inshore whitefish stocks and a consequence is going to impact on the sport of virtually everyone on this website. The pollock is one of the few abundant whitefish still left in inshore reefs but I would fear for it.

Pete

Thats a damn fine point. The wreck of the luisitania for instance is feckin riddled with old and current gill nets and they're sure not there to catch salmon! With the cod on the wane I'm sure many chippers for instance must be using or planning to use pollack as "cod".

I'm sure many chippers for instance must be using or planning to use pollack as "cod".

I suspect that this is happening allready, has anyone ever seen pollock for sale in a fishmarket/supermarket cos I havent?

It's already happening, for example, a close inspection of your generic supermarket-own-brand fish fingers will reveal usually that they are made from a mix of alaskan pollock and coalfish. Won't be long before they start using domestic fish as a cost-cutting alternative.

The only thing about gillnetting shallow reefs is that the seals will destroy most of the catches in the nets anyway.

But maybe when the seals have eaten whatever our own fleet and continental neighbours missed and there are no fish left, they'll find themselves on the menu in turn.....I for one would try a seal-burger just for badness....
:lol:

There is a good market for pollock. Box of pollock, pretty much irregardeless of size makes about 70 euro. Seen it for sale a good number of times in fish mongers, strangely enough its often sold as coley or smoked coley. This is a somewhat strange thing as pollock tastes nicer than coley but the general public seem to be more familar with coley and as anyone in the fish business will tell you customers tend to stick with what they know.

Its often referred to round these parts as a 'Kilcar cod'! Ordered whiting in a restuarant in Kerry last year and got served a fillet of what I thought was a monster whiting, bout 5lb! Asked the chef and he admitted it was pollock and he gave us the meal for nothing. The point I'm making is that pollock, with a bit of culinary doctoring, can quite easily be passed off as any whitefish.

Beginning to see more and more gill nets appearing on the reefs, traditionally the inshore punts/half deckers would have shot some for wrasse and pollock for bait for their lobster pots. During the summer months the lobster and the salmon are far more lucrative than shooting nets specifically for pollock or ling. Remove the salmon out of the equation and pollock/reef fish become important.

As for seals I read somewhere that they are oily buggers, some eatin on one though!

Just think of a seal as a big organically reared cow.... The way the fish stocks are going, they'll soon be being passed off in restaurants as 'marine beef' or some such.... :lol:

But seriously, in parts of the north-west people have all but given up on netting pot bait as the seals simply clean the nets of fish rather than hunting their own food - same drill with salmon nets. Such easy living, and the protection from culling, has led them to breed larger litters with the result that they are well over pest proportions.

But it's not an issue a politician will touch with a barge-pole in case they get attacked by that organisation beginning with P etc.

Lads,

I know of charter skippers, yes, charter skippers here in the south west that sell the boxes of pollack anglers catch to restaraunts where they are served up as cod. This has already been going on with years. It's not enough the man has already made three or four hundred euro off anglers for the day... and these are the guys that are supposed to be interested in sport fishing! What a joke!

Why will seals be a problem? You saw what happened down here last winter, that's the first time it was reported not the first time it happened

Unfortunately some of the commercial fraternity do take the law into their own hands with impromptu unsanctioned culls. I don't condone it in any shape or form. I can see their point though. Like I said, the national seal population is unsustainable and is contributing significantly to the decilne of inshore fish. When you see the damage seals do to nets and how much they cost fishermen, I can see why they do it, because like I said earlier, every politician in the place knows there's a problem but won't address it.

I think the answer is to remove the politicians from the equation by devolving responsibility for seal protection to non-elected bodies who could then decide how and when to regulate the seal population based partly on info they should have on fish populations etc.

Or give the Spanish a seal quota. (y'all know they'll take way over quota, including juvenile stocks and leave gear around that will ghost-fish many more :lol: )

As for charter skippers selling boxes of fish, I have to ask why the fish were boxed on deck anyway. (If they were not going to survive, might as well take them home. Would be a nice touch if they sold the fish and at least gave the money to charity.) I know a lot of fish don't survive being winched at speed from depth, but surely it's the skippers job to try and promote techniques for catch & release. Name and shame I say. It's not like the skippers are ignorant of the importance of stock preservation.

And one last thing, if you know restaurants are mis-selling pollock as cod,
that's fraudulent. One for an anonymous call to trading standards, methinks. Although if you don't know the difference as a consumer, you deserve all you get. Although having said that, our works canteen has been mis-selling haddock as cod for ages and I'm not complaining. :lol:

I was talking to a commercial salmon netter about the proposed buy out of the drift netters recently. One of things he said which worried me was that once the drift nets had been bought out he stated that most of the nets would be re-rigged and the fishermen would go after pollock and other whitefish on the reefs. A simple case of having to make a living by turning to another species.

That large increase in gill netting isn't going to help inshore whitefish stocks and a consequence is going to impact on the sport of virtually everyone on this website. The pollock is one of the few abundant whitefish still left in inshore reefs but I would fear for it.

Pete

Shame realy, I mean with their sea skills and knowledge of the sea bed they would make a killing doing fishing charters. This would encourage them to have some catch and relase to preserve the stocks for their clients and their villages would benifit from the tourists attracted.....I think this should be sold to the gill netters.