Shark

[shambobala]

I'm currently planning a boat trip out of Clare in mid september for a group coming over from London (wedding the next day) and got on to a few of the charter skippers over the last few days to see if there were any shark to be had this year.

Apparently not !

However oen skipper told me that the Spaniards were taking all of them, cutting off the fins and throwing them back, and that the spaniards were being allowed in our waters with tacit approval from the govt. in exchange for Irish boats having access to spanish waters for bonito.

10-15 years ago we caught at least 4 / 5 blues a week between Lahinch and Aran and now they are telling me there is none to be had !


Are they still being caught in Cork / Kerry or are the populations all over being hit?

Cheers
Dave

[Eoghan]

Sad to hear that. I fished out of the Shannon about 10 years ago and we had 7 blues and tons of other fish. Can believe they have fished it out.

[x]

There has been a radical decrease in the number of blues about and the finger has been pointed at some of our European partners who are fishing to the south and west, longlining for albacore etc - which has a significant shark by-catch. Whether they fin them, take the whole carcass or just dump them I don't really know.

Another factor is supposed to be the effect of the pelagic trawlers on the food supply for many shark, such as mackerel, herring etc.

Either way, the shark population in general is rapidly going down and this will have catastrophic effects given how slowly sharks in general breed. If you all remember what happened to the spurdog....

Given that it appears to be the same story with shark populations worldwide, there really ought to be a global moratorium on commercial fishing for them and the yanks in particular better learn that if they want to fish them recreationally, they gotta stop killing every one they catch.

SACN is part of a wider campaign to try to have shark afforded some protection. You know where the sites are....join up and help....

Now you know why the department of the marine refuse to publish catch data online since 2000 - it'd tell you something about where the sharks are going....

[corbyeire]

can you get it under freedom of information - just out of interest?

[x]

Probably. Might have to resort to that. However, if they haven't collated the data from all the various ports etc, they can't give it out.....

I'd be doubtful about my chances but as I say, it might be the only way...

[corbyeire]

i think there is a considerable fee on that now €100+ and a good wait can be involved

unless it is brought to port i assume there wouldnt be any measure of a bycatch? :?

[x]

Depends on your definition of by-catch.

For example, prawn trawlers take a bycatch of cod as they fish for prawns. The can keep an amount of it, so while it is effectively bycatch, it still has a sale value...

Shark of various species are often caught in various types of gill net, either static demersal gear of pelagic drift nets. They are often landed and sold...for pennies per pound.....

[shambobala]

seems a bit daft for sharks caught in western european waters to be exported to Asian markets, surely the pacific would be a more commercially viable place to fish for them?

Doubt you'd get anywhere with the stats either, probably not even recorded anywhere.

Sandman, is there any spurious reason given by the Dept of marine for not publishing catch details? (besides the likelihood of EU fines for multiple breaaches of quotas? )

[x]

They have to date refused to answer any questions.....but your suspicions are along the same lines as mine....

The last (and only) year they published catch breakdowns by port and species was 2000

http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Marine/Seafood+ ... ndings.htm

Tot up the amount of shark and ray, dogfish etc landed.....and note how little shark are actually worth.

As regards fishing shark in the Pacific, they have almost wiped out many species of shark and will buy all they can from here. Last year, some nutter in the UK tried to set up a market for tope for export. Fortunately, we got that one in time and raised enough of an outcry to force the guy to abandon the scheme. He had the blast freezers in place and his supply lines sorted by the time enough people protested.....

[corbyeire]

FFS :shock:

good work on the prevention

so from what your saying, most shark catches are a. not reported when fishing for other species b. dont have to be anyway

[x]

Shark are a non-quota species, so they could fish the lot out tomorrow and the powers that be wouldn't say boo.

And in the growing scarcity of other fish, it'll happen here sooner or later unless protection is brought in NOW, before the commercials claim them...

We need to get behind this...

http://www.sacn.org.uk/Conservation-and ... _Help.html

[cortaz]

They have to date refused to answer any questions.....but your suspicions are along the same lines as mine....

The last (and only) year they published catch breakdowns by port and species was 2000

http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Marine/Seafood+ ... ndings.htm

Tot up the amount of shark and ray, dogfish etc landed.....and note how little shark are actually worth.

As regards fishing shark in the Pacific, they have almost wiped out many species of shark and will buy all they can from here. Last year, some nutter in the UK tried to set up a market for tope for export. Fortunately, we got that one in time and raised enough of an outcry to force the guy to abandon the scheme. He had the blast freezers in place and his supply lines sorted by the time enough people protested.....

just looked through the fish landings for helvic?????????????????
were did they get the figures from?????????/
it riddled with questionable landings
19.3 tons of hake = 400 odd boxes :lol: , there wasent that much hake landed in helvic in the last 10 yrs.?
only 5 odd ton of shrimp??????, closer to 50, shrimp is the main fishery in helvic
it,s simply not true
i know i fished there in 2000,
there was only 4/5 trawlers landing there,
flounder landings in helvic? total crap, its lies.
the reported landings from all the other ports must also be questionable

[corbyeire]

well any data there is on non quota species then is pure rubbish - because if it was reported there would be taxes etc. on it - so as you say sandman its all illegal sales then?