joe duffy show

RTE 1 radio NOW on bass fishing

for anyone who missed this
http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rte ... %2D2011%3A

I did bring up the topic of a bass fishery being opened up a while ago on this forum. Looks like I was correct

It matters little that the trawler men say that they are fishing outside the 12 mile limit. How many of us meet them not far from the shore I have certainly met them in my own boat when I have been just a mile or two out .

It is important that we as a group speak up and keep the pressure on to protect our bass fishery

It would be great if more anglers emailed or rang Joe Duffy tomorrow to make our voices heard.

I did bring up the topic of a Bass fishery being opened up a while ago on this forum. Looks like I was correct

It matters little that the trawler men say that they are fishing outside the 12 mile limit. How many of us meet them not far from the shore I have certainly met them in my own boat when I have been just a mile or two out .

It is important that we as a group speak up and keep the pressure on to protect our Bass fishery

It would be great if more anglers emailed or rang Joe Duffy tomorrow to make our voices heard.

I just emailed him there.......


.......as much as I despise him!!!

Great. keep the pressure up

more acting and make belief than 'Fair City' on that show. It's just a pity Joe was more interested in causing a divide than reality he tried to correct Ed from kilowatts to kilograms in measure of fishing vessls...

more acting and make belief than 'Fair City' on that show. It's just a pity Joe was more interested in causing a divide than reality he tried to correct Ed from kilowatts to kilograms in measure of fishing vessls...

Agreed. I thought yer man Ed put the pros and cons of the issue very well, but "People's Champion" Joe was just looking for a target for mindless outrage, as usual.

Hi Lads,i listened with disbelief as joe duffy disagreed with every logical comment made from the pro bass ban anglers and the marine doctor.He jeered the tourist industry with his jibes of 'we will keep the bass for manuel and pedro to catch them with their rods'.He totally ignored the facts about the millions of euros to the economy from bass and indeed angling tourism.
His nationalism was misguided,he believed the commercial skipper without knowing any facts,and worse not intrested in anybody else's point of view.He should know both sides of the argument before he opens his mouth,like matt cooper or pat kenny, professional broadcasters.No nationality should be allowed land bass on irish soil,isnt that why the commercials feel victimised ?Ban all forigen vessels landing bass and will they be happy ? No. They will find another excuse to wipe out the 20 years of saving the bass population.
Commercials have only a quick buck in mind and have no regard for fish stocks or indeed anybody else.Please email Joe duffy
and explain what really is going on.
Thanks

Hi Lads,i listened with disbelief as joe duffy disagreed with every logical comment made from the pro Bass ban anglers and the marine doctor.He jeered the tourist industry with his jibes of 'we will keep the Bass for manuel and pedro to catch them with their rods'.He totally ignored the facts about the millions of euros to the economy from Bass and indeed angling tourism.
His nationalism was misguided,he believed the commercial skipper without knowing any facts,and worse not intrested in anybody else's point of view.He should know both sides of the argument before he opens his mouth,like matt cooper or pat kenny, professional broadcasters.No nationality should be allowed land Bass on irish soil,isnt that why the commercials feel victimised ?Ban all forigen vessels landing Bass and will they be happy ? No. They will find another excuse to wipe out the 20 years of saving the Bass population.
Commercials have only a quick buck in mind and have no regard for fish stocks or indeed anybody else.Please email Joe duffy
and explain what really is going on.
Thanks

I caught a few minutes of the show,the man is a pig..you can't reason wit animals..he wasn't interested in listening to sense

Lads,

This is the email that I sent to Joe.

Hi Joe,


Re: Today's programme

In the 60's and 70's bass were a common fish around the Irish coast. One of the reasons for this was that salmon were also plentiful and more valuable to commercial fishermen. Bass did not have a great commercial value. With the decline in salmon and the increase in value of bass matters changed.

Little was know about bass at this stage by the average angler or commercial fishermen.

As a child and teenager I fished nearly every day of the summer for bass around West Waterford and to a lesser extent around Dollymount. During the aforementioned decades we caught fish nearly every day.

It was amazing how quickly bass were almost totally depleted by commercial netting. In fact they were so scarce I gave up fishing for them in the 80's. Beaches that had many anglers on them often never saw an angler on them. This phenomenon occurred right throughout the country. Even places like Kerry, a county legendary for its bass, had their bass population annihilated. The thousands of bass anglers that came from Europe to our shore gave up coming.

I did quite a bit of research to see why such a magnificent fish was almost wiped out.

In a nutshell our bass live in localised areas and do not tend to travel much. This is quite different to other fish which tend to move either out deep or to other countries at certain times of the year.

So when a local bass population is gone it is gone forever. If it is badly depleted it takes years to recover.

Bass are a very slow growing fish and a sexually mature bass maybe be up to 10 year old. As you can imagine life in the sea is not easy and the casualty rate among bass is quite high. Add nets to this and the casualty rate is horrendous.


I should also point out the difference between our bass stocks and those in Europe. For instance there is quite a lot of migration of stocks between England and France. Other European populations may also migrate between the various countries. Another very important point is that bass in warmer waters grow much more quickly and so reach sexual maturity at a younger age.

During the last number of years the Irish bass stock have been protected from commercial fishing. They have begun to recover and the stocks of school bass around the country are beginning to increase. The outlook for the future looks good but ONLY if the ban on commercial fishing is maintained.

Anglers are now returning. I have met large numbers of anglers from European countries that come here specifically to catch bass. The current law states that no angler may kill more than 2 bass in a day. In fact most anglers that I know keep very few fish.

Over this year I have only kept 6 bass and that its in 8 months fishing. All of the others were returned.

The value of bass fishing to the economy must be worth a lot of money and if populations are allowed to grow could be worth a fortune. I do not know the value of a rod caught bass as opposed to a bass caught in a net but I imagine it is probably worth at least 20 times as much.

Finally, there is no need to open up the bass fishery to commercial fishing when farmed bass are readily available in fish shops all around the country.

Regards,


Stan Ryan


I though that the fisherman from Kilmore was a bully who just kept shouting. What I did not know is that when I got on the air I also needed to keep shouting!! To be fair Joe Duffy, as a non-angler, does not understand the irish bass fishery. John Quinlan was excellent.

I do not believe that commercial bass fishing will be allowed again if anglers keep the pressure up.

However, the last time that this issue was brought up, I and several other anglers ,wrote to Simon Coveney. Did we get a reply, just out of courtesy.... "NO!!!!". I simply cannot understand that any minister could ignore us. It also means that he will listen to the commercial men if they shout louder. This man has only one interest .... to get himself re-elected. If he treats anglers with such contempt......need I say more!

He jeered the tourist industry with his jibes of 'we will keep the Bass for manuel and pedro to catch them with their rods'.He totally ignored the facts about the millions of euros to the economy from Bass and indeed angling tourism.

Not only did he do our visiting anglers a disservice but as you say bass anglers as a whole. I'm sure any person whom has engaged with bass angling in any way in this country listening to his words will feel dismayed.

Divisive and clever almost designed to create animosity and separation

- well done too to Pat Daly - calm, collected and accurate in the face of ignorance.

If you want to make an argument about bass fishing, here is a sample of the lines you can use...



55 boxes of bass will not save the Irish fishing industry
55 boxes of bass will not save a single boat

So what will it do?

Opening the fishery will allow poachers (who operate now as it is) to have a legal way of "washing" their black fish and put them up for sale legitimately on the Irish market. It will put money in the hands of criminals and people who pay no tax.

Opening the fishery will allow boats target bass, nudge nudge wink wink as a by-catch, and the landed catch will escalate far beyond 55 boxes, and the illegal landed catch will (based on experience with others species) be double or treble that...

Opening the fishery will damage Ireland's reputation abroad as a conservation minded country.

Opening the fishery will destroy 30 years of slow and gradual recovery, facilitated by the ban.

Opening the fishery will destroy small tourism operators who rely on bass anglers in the winter and shoulder seasons - the key period for bass angling in Ireland and a point that no-one made. Anyone apart from bass anglers and surfers fancy a wet weekend in Tramore in January?

Opening the fishery will destroy the possibility of the fishery becoming as valuable to Ireland, in relative terms, as the striped bass fishery is to small rural communities from Florida to Cape Cod. Estimate in 2009 was 1.3 billion USD.

Opening the fishing is not a panacea. It will not help commercial fishermen.

End of!

I too listened with disgust to the Joe Duffy show on the day it was aired. It was at some stages sickening but more importantly it again highlights the absolute need for an ongoing campaign for the protection of bass. Mr Duffys complete ingorance of the subject was blatently apparent, and while it is his job to play devils advocate it seems the level of research conducted prior to the show was poorly informed. Very well done to the contributers who supported our argument. Dr Ed Faheys indept knowledge and experience is most impressive and critical to any argument supporting the ongoing protection of bass. Excellent work. Just heading off to the fishmonger for a few kilo watts of haddock.