Mullet in praise of and whats next for them

Looking at the Facebook thread on JimC s page and the thread here has me very worried. I have been fishing for 30 odd years and fish for a lot of species in fresh and salt. Initially a game angler fishing for trout/seatrout/salmon (which I still do) and for last 10 years fishing for bass initially then cod/flatties and over the last 3 /4 years mullet. I have to say this last year over any other fishing mullet has become my favourite. Fishing for them on the fly to me is the greatest sport Ive had on irish water. There are lots of them around and more often than not you are sight fishing casting a fly to a specific fish or a pod of fish moving. Not many species in our water that you can do that to. They fight like no other fish incredible scrappers.
The numbers of fish being what they are I always felt was mostly down to the fact they were perceived as a dirty fish they eat sh*t etc.
Now we have a situation for the first time (to me at least) where commercial fishermen have hit the jackpot with this catch. I think the immediate perception that they would be ground for fishmeal shows the previous thinking on this fish. Now of course its known they will be eaten by humans in France where it is a revered fish and across most of Europe.
The fact is they are very good eating. I eat the odd one hard to tell one from a bass really.
The trawler men who caught this huge tonnage of mullet are talking about how this might mean they will have a xmas and how much employment this accidental catch has created. I understand that too. The worry is now such awareness of their value will surely lead to these fish being targeted and they are so easy to net if targeted.
I worry for their future (as well as any other species) as now i feel they are suddenly "commercial"
I hope I'm wrong but reckon this could be the fish that i will be telling my children/grandchildren about how plentiful they were in "the old days"

It's a bit like watching a car crash alright.......

Patk, you are probably sick of reading my output on this matter.... but anyway...

Interesting post! There has been mullet netting in Cork Harbour for years. In many cases it was the “cover” species for illegal netting of salmon and bass but there has been a fishery for a long time. Mullet have always been “commercial”. For example: Over recent months IFI spent many man hours monitoring the catches of a Cobh based fisherman after he started netting mullet in the upper harbour. He does this each year when the weather gets bad and I suppose the target is easy. At the time I thought this was the worst things could be - the fellow in question was netting across a channel and so there was no escape for any fish heading up that channel. IFI could monitor and check on the basis of bass & salmon but the poor mullet were fair game. Even then I feared for the mullet of that area, that there would be none survive. I am told that the mullet were exported by Ballycotton Seafood.

I think you are right and this is one of the first times we have seen an accidental catch of such proportions (certainly it is the first time I have heard of such a catch).
Of course there is every chance that some commercials will target these aggregating fish in the future – they would not be doing anything illegal. If that is the case then the mullet population will go the same way as many other species only more quickly – I would specifically think of the orange roughy: They were fished out in short time after a bonanza. It turns out that they live up to 150 and don’t breed until they are 20 and they gather together in huge shoals to breed.

I cannot see protection for mullet any time soon. Maybe they might get some indirect protection by things like Habitats Directive or such like. Bear in mind that a Facebook post can draw a more vocal commentator than proper debate. You will see there is also a voice of reason coming out among those posts too.

All that said we must be vocal and we must try and do something to help the situation. I got a good giggle from this one:

“Survivors take delivery of consignment of Facebook Likes”

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Patk, you are probably sick for reading my output on this matter.... but anyway...

Interesting post! There has been mullet netting in Cork Harbour for years. In many cases it was the “cover” species for illegal netting of salmon and Bass but there has been a fishery for a long time. Mullet have always been “commercial”. For example: Over recent months IFI spent many man hours monitoring the catches of a Cobh based fisherman after he started netting mullet in the upper harbour. He does this each year when the weather gets bad and I suppose the target is easy. At the time I thought this was the worst things could be - the fellow in question was netting across a channel and so there was no escape for any fish heading up that channel. IFI could monitor and check on the basis of Bass & salmon but the poor mullet were fair game. Even then I feared for the mullet of that area, that there would be none survive. I am told that the mullet were exported by Ballycotton Seafood.

I think you are right and this is one of the first times we have seen an accidental catch of such proportions (certainly it is the first time I have heard of such a catch).
Of course there is every chance that some commercials will target these aggregating fish in the future – they would not be doing anything illegal. If that is the case then the mullet population will go the same way as many other species only more quickly – I would specifically think of the orange roughy: They were fished out in short time after a bonanza. It turns out that they live up to 150 and don’t breed until they are 20 and they gather together in huge shoals to breed.

I cannot see protection for mullet any time soon. Maybe they might get some indirect protection by things like Habitats Directive or such like. Bear in mind that a Facebook post can draw a more vocal commentator than proper debate. You will see there is also a voice of reason coming out among those posts too.

All that said we must be vocal and we must try and do something to help the situation. I got a good giggle from this one:

“Survivors take delivery of consignment of Facebook Likes”

Too true Jim,
The photo sums up armchair activism and the online phenomenen of being SEEN to give a s##t equating to actually giving a s##t.

It seems that too many online debates inevitably turn sour and insulting, ultimately descending into virtual faction fights. Its hard to have an honest, open and respectful debate in the midst of the keyboard warfare ! I've been following your facebook post and as you said, there is some valid and logical points being made all round.
Do you reckon any of the CMRC tagged Bass fell foul of the mullet tow ? I must email Tom for an update in any case.

It seems that too many online debates inevitably turn sour and insulting, ultimately descending into virtual faction fights. Its hard to have an honest, open and respectful debate in the midst of the keyboard warfare ! I've been following your facebook post and as you said, there is some valid and logical points being made all round.
Do you reckon any of the CMRC tagged Bass fell foul of the mullet tow ? I must email Tom for an update in any case.

Yep! There's little point in getting involved in internet debating, it a blood sport It can be entertaining though and it does give a view of things from an internet perspective, which I think is more extreme in any case.
There is no way of knowing if the CMRC bass were caught. John Walsh did say there were only a couple of bass among the mullet (Well, he actually wrote: "Couple bass we picked out of them We had for out tea tonight they made a nice change from herring!" - so maybe he only picked out a couple of many?? )
It will be interesting when the data from receivers are downloaded. There is meant to be a new receiver fitted on the data buoy outside the harbour so this might/might not pick up some movement as bass leave. I'm not actually sure if this receiver is in place yet. I don't think I'm telling tales out of school to say that in recent weeks tagged bass have moved from the upper harbour towards open water but the data is not all collected yet.

[sailnfish]

It seems that too many online debates inevitably turn sour and insulting, ultimately descending into virtual faction fights. Its hard to have an honest, open and respectful debate in the midst of the keyboard warfare ! I've been following your facebook post and as you said, there is some valid and logical points being made all round.
Do you reckon any of the CMRC tagged Bass fell foul of the mullet tow ? I must email Tom for an update in any case.

Yep! There's little point in getting involved in internet debating, it a blood sport It can be entertaining though and it does give a view of things from an internet perspective, which I think is more extreme in any case.
There is no way of knowing if the CMRC Bass were caught. John Walsh did say there were only a couple of Bass among the mullet (Well, he actually wrote: "Couple Bass we picked out of them We had for out tea tonight they made a nice change from herring!" - so maybe he only picked out a couple of many?? )
It will be interesting when the data from receivers are downloaded. There is meant to be a new receiver fitted on the data buoy outside the harbour so this might/might not pick up some movement as Bass leave. I'm not actually sure if this receiver is in place yet. I don't think I'm telling tales out of school to say that in recent weeks tagged Bass have moved from the upper harbour towards open water but the data is not all collected yet.

its definitely a bloodsport
Hopefully they'll turn up on the receivers next year.
If nothing more, the fact that the fish have survived since June/July proves the success rate of catch and release provided the fish are handled, recovered and returned properly. I'm looking forward to seeing the compiled data and conclusions myself.

Last edited by sailnfish on Thu Nov 28, 2013 9:44 am, edited 2 times in total.

youll have to excuse my ignorance on this one, but as i understood it the mullet were/are regularly netted up around galway
thrown in the back of a refrigerated van and on the ferry to france - common place on the west coast

the van comes back full of booze

well worth the lads while - obviuosly not at the industrial scale that prompted this debate!!!

Jim/Corbyeire I think the worry for me is that yes there would have been some netting of mullet year round whether as cover for other activity or for the trip to France. This is relatively small numbers.The thing is for the warmer months they are near shore and spread out some bit and visible. It seems to me the new development here is the accidental scoop of this catch shows how easy it is to net a huge amount of them easily at this time of the year as they gather in a tight shoal. This could become an annual target for trawlers Im sure its being considered now as a handy money earner. A couple of years of that and these fish wouldn't last long