Fish Fight

Just seen this program now and it is total madness. I really think there should be a time quota and let them keep what they like. That way at least we would know what is being caught. Then if the catches keep increasing every year or decreasing you can regulate the time allowed fishing. The fish are being killed anyway so it could only help matters. Another thing too with all the fish being thrown back out at sea, if I was a big cod that's where I would be feeding. Maybe this is why we are only getting tiddlers from the shore, too much food out to sea. I don't know how those guys in hastings keep going how frustrating would that job be? They could make their weekly wage in one or two days and not fish the rest of the week So no more fish killed for the rest of the week. Regulating and checking time on a boat would be simple too.

Tommy

Hi.

I don't know the ins and outs of what this is all about and I'm guilty of not reading every single post in this thread. I suppose you could say I'm shooting from the hip a little.

Anyway all I want to say is that I totally disagree with discards.

However I would definitely hesitate in signing up to this campaign. I say this because I've no idea what the consequences will be. If the alternative to discards is that all skippers on all trawlers are given free licence to retain all their bycatch and land it on shore, then what incentive will they have to stop fishing or to try avoid catching certain species?

There is no question that sea fish stocks are at an all time low. Who has taken all these fish? It wasn't politicians or any other decision makers, it was commercial fishermen. Ok, so the Common Fisheries Policy is flawed and needs reform but the reason that things are in such a sorry state is because for far too long there have been far too many commercial boats fishing for far too many days catching far too many fish!

One of the solutions to this problem is to change the way commercial boats fish. Their methods need to be far more selective. A simple start would be to increase their mesh size. I didn't see that program showing the tonnes of discards that consist of thousands of under-sized fish!?

Anyway I'm in way over my head here and this whole area is so complicated suffice to say that I could be studying it for the next 3 months non stop and I'd still be ignorant!

Anyway I hope to have given somebody something to chew on and if I learn anything more useful on the subject I'll be sure to post it here.

Tight lines,
John D.

Not sure if this anywhere else on the forum or how relevant to Ireland it is, but it's relevant to the fish.

http://www.fishfight.net/

Sign up for Fish sake!!

done

thanks for putting up the post. i just added my support.its worth doing.

Thanks guys!

Anymore getting onboard?? Kieran??

Colin

Hi Colin there is a thread already just down afew in the news section.

Gordon Ramsay - Shark Bait. I watched this programme last night and felt physically sick at what I seen. The death and destruction that is going on in our seas is a far bigger problem than I could have ever imagined. I can't beleive that for the sake of a bowl of soup so many poor sharks are being slaughtered in such a cruel and heartless way. Many of these sharks being killed are endangered species and should be treated as such and protected. For them to be killed in the first place is bad but then to be killed purely for their fins and all for a bowl of soup!!! It's not right and needs stopped and fast.

Not sure if this anywhere else on the forum or how relevant to Ireland it is, but it's relevant to the fish.

http://www.fishfight.net/

Sign up for Fish sake!!

Just signed the petition too,was wondering could the mods here display a banner or something eye catching and the link on the home page.If other search engines etc could do the same on their home pages that would be great too and really let the petition get the justifiable momentom and support it deserves.....

Hugh s programs seem to be working http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... twt_fdWell

Good to see, but I hope the General Public don’t think that just eating the fish listed is going to make a difference. Hugh was trying to make a point that we need to diversify our sea fish eating habits and not just rely on 3 species. If more people start trying different fish the pressure to fish for specific high value catches will diminish skippers should want to keep as much of the catch as possible rather than just throwing it over the side.

Though with that said, fishing days will have to be restricted and net sizing and methods will have to change. As the technology for finding fish keeps getting better and better, and the nets get bigger and bigger, the way things are:

Fish don't stand a chance.

That's a great point immunecfg.

Here's another piece that was passed on to me which is really well worth a read -

"Fishfight or fixed fight!

I have been closely following the fishfight campaign for several months. Because of my work with bass protection and the fact that discards, that there was no evidence of, were being used by the commercial sector in an attempt to change our bass laws I felt I needed to research the issue in some depth.
Basically in my opinion the Fishfight programme about UK discards is completely misleading and is falsely manipulating the general public who are falling for it in their tens of thousands.

I have been studying the discard issue intensively for over a year now and it is indeed a massive problem. The most recent report, which was a major study about UK waters that came out in 2006 paints a very different picture from what you saw on the TV. First of all the true discard figure all around the UK and Ireland is in fact 64%. When this figure was released in 2006 it was actually considered a big improvement on what had happened previously. The vast majority of these fish are either juvenile fish of all the stocks we are familiar with or species that the skipper sees no value in landing. Fish like the ones you saw in the programme only make up a tiny percentage of the discards. Commercial fishermen are very happy to show prime cod and the likes being discarded and of course love to blame the EU, scientists etc., but never show the vast tonnes of small fish or unwanted species being thrown back for obvious reasons.

They don't have to catch all these small fish. All they need to do is let the fish grow and use much bigger mesh size but in spite of the fact that the much maligned EU beauracrats and fishery scientists have been trying to get commercial fishermen to change their methods for years, the fishermen have constantly refused to do so and continue through their own choice to discard millions of tonnes of small and unwanted fish. This is the real reason why the inshore stocks available to anglers are in such a dire state.

In my opinion sea anglers in the UK and Ireland who believe that signing up to the fishfight may improve their catches are fooling themselves. At least as it stands there is no incentive to target fish outside your quota. (unless of course you have a camera crew and H. F. Whittingstall on board!!) If after this campaign these fish now can be sold then of course they will be targeted. The suggestion that days at sea would be limited is something that has been fought 'tooth and nail' by the commercial sector for years.
Let me say that I am compleetly against discards but you must show the full picture. This is not a simple issue and people deserve to know all the facts if they are to make an informed decision.

Something else that there is no reference to anywhere in the Fishfight campaign for obvious reasons as it might interfere with the unquestioning sympathy of the general public for the commercial sector is the widespread practice of high- grading.
High- grading is where a boat discards all or part of their catch even though they have quota for them because they have caught bigger ones which have a much higher value per KG. and of course they want to fill their quota with the highest value fish.

Why is it that the same fishermen who claim they hate discarding have no problem doing it by high-grading? Last year one fishing vessel on one trip discarded 500 tonnes of mackerel all at once because they found shoals of slightly bigger fish. Where was their moral outrage then? Did they bring in the TV cameras to show that? Did they hell.

Some of the small boats that were shown on the south coast are using up to 40km of gillnet/tanglenet to catch their quotas and of course the discards are colossal - up to 85%. Any attempt to encourage more 'selective' gear has been blocked by the commercial lobbyists time and time again because monofilament nets are cheap and incredibly effective. Did fishfight cover this? I'm afraid not.

I understand why people are signing up to the campaign in their thousands. I saw the programme and as a PR stunt for the commercial sector it was superb. It shows that by giving out selective information you can paint whatever picture you want.

People can only form an opinion on a subject based on the information available to them. It is not peoples fault if the information available is manipulated, misleading, or simply withheld. I feel it is time the truth is revealed but this is much easier said than done.

Now unfortunately for some people it may be a case of 'I've made up my mind about this so don't bother me with the truth'."

Very interesting read and highlighting some issues i never thought about, good find there John.

jaysus john,,, i never really thought about it like that . i know high grading is a serious problem with the commercial sector and if it was a case of just letting them go at it with impunity with days at sea i suppose we'd be back to square 1 with as many fish going back over the rail. mabey live stream cams over the deck would be the way to go. just don't give them the option of having them, make it mandatory. then we could see what really goes on aboard. but it's a pretty complicated issue by all accounts. so mabey they should use the norway method as a framework as they seem to have a very healthy and sustainable fishery from my understanding.

it was sticking out a mile what their hidden agenda was. all the skippers wanted to show was cod going back over board.while hugh was in hastings with the smaller boats and they brought in the discard all they brought in was cod. no doggies ,coalfish,spurs ,smoothies ect, the fisherman said he had a quouta for 30 tons of pollock. a fish he claims he hasent caught in hastings. id have to ask why?loads of cod and no pollock perhaps they wiped them out.they all had the same story the scientists are wrong the north sea cod are jumping in to the nets.there is so many of them.if we just get an increase on our qoutas its a pity i have great respect for the makers of the program for highlighting what they did
but the fishermen jumped on the band wagon. on sunday gordon ramsey also showed whats going on with sharks. this affected me worse than the trawlers did and well worth a look http://www.channel4.com/programmes/gord ... od#3153606 how they will control this is beyond me . but something will have to be done before there is nothing left in the oceans for our children. all for the greed of a few

Twinkle, yeah that was one part of the story highlighting the discard issue, yeah the trawlers where just showing the dumping of high value fish, but another part of the story was trying to educate the public that there isn’t just cod in the sea. There is a vast amount of fish which have commercial value out there I just wish the general public would vote with their wallets and not what Captain Birds Bye pedals.

The shark fin story is just one problem which is affecting the rest of the world, I seen most of the program and think that this was very good documentary showing where and how this "Shark Fin Soup" comes about. Looking at the Chinese restructures I think they where genuinely shocked that this was taking place, even showing the barbaric butchering of a large Hammer Head and throwing it back alive minus fins.

People need to wake up and think where this food I’m eating actually comes from, how it was made etc etc

Ignorance is a shameful thing!

something CAN be done - right on OUR OWN doorstep but theres more to it than signing a website from a warm office

www.wexford.ie/wex/Departments/Planning ... 05,en.html

just because its Wexford doesnt mean it cant be applied to every coastal county

There's another perspective on this link that seems to hit the nail on head http://wakeuptotheworld.blogspot.com/2011/01/hughs-fish-fight-right-bait-wrong.html

a bit of an impossible task. you would never get everyone to stop eating fish for a month . but liked the comment about the japenese chopping up a tiger.it does make you think