Trawling! Legal and illegal

Are there any laws/byelaws about how close in Trawlers can come into the shore?

The reason for asking is after hearing a rumour of the west coast being trawled close in by one boat, allegedly from Kerry to North Mayo. The rumour goes on that hundreds of rays and other fish have been taken.

Any ideas or does this happen all the time anyway?

Colin

it happens all the time. the mind boggles as to what these guys are actually thinking as they literally rape the sea! i have photos taken a couple of weeks back in caggigaholt in clare of fish boxes full of rotting thornies, don't ask me what they were doing with them, they don't make a great bait for pots so i'm presuming they were a by catch from the lads catching monkfish. and this wasn't a one off, other lads have told me thet they have seen dozens of boxes of thornies being taken away from the pier in caggiaholt. it happens all over the country. on the 18th oh june i watch guys strectch a drift net across kilkee bay in clare. from the pier to a rock mark known as edmunds point, effectively netting every fish that swam into the bay, and remember the 18th of may is in the bass close season. we're not allowed take a single fish in this period, and those fools are netting an entire bay.
don't ask me what we are meant to do about it, i've contacted the shannon fisheries about it, and they were absolutely useless. it's impossible to get any info in this country about what exactly is illegal and legal with regards commercial netting. i really have just given up on this entire country, which is a pretty sad statement for any 20 year old to make.

Patrick

I had to delete some segments from the last post. Lets watch the language, this is a non restricted open site. i.e. kids are more than welcome.

Cheers :wink:

sorry man, kinda got carried away, shouldn't have put some of that up. didn't mean to offend anyone.

Patrick

the quota for thornback may have been used and that is why the fish could not be sold. I've seen both sides as I worked on a trawler many years ago. But I do think mesh sizes need to be sorted so immature fish can escape and also stupid b****y eu regs that mean dead fish are dumped at sea.
I see commercial salmon fisherman spending all day at sea for 3 or 4 fish and lots of heads where the 'POOR'? seals have eaten them before they can be lifted out of the nets.
Cull some seals-there's far too many out there!!

But I do think mesh sizes need to be sorted so immature fish can escape

There was a programme on telly last week late at night about illegal activity in the fishing industry in France (Well the bit I saw was about France), really worrying, I thought things were bad here. For starters they don't seem too bothered about quotas, no fish zones or size limits.

One of the most horrifying things is that a practice known a "lacing" is wide spread, this involves taking a length of rope and inter twining it around the net (the type shaped like a bag) so that it doesn't open fully and effectively making the mesh size smaller ensuring that small fish can't escape. However if investigators are about to board a vessel the rope can easily be pulled out and everything looks nice and legal, except for a hold full of baby fish which the investigators didn't seem overly concerned about, they seemed more concerned with finding illegal fishing equipment, they didn't find any (because they were using an innocent looking rope which had been pulled out at this stage).

One of the presenters visited a fish market where he pointed out numerous immature fish being sold openly such as baby hake and baby monkfish (his descriptions), he picked up a John Dory which wouldn't have been big enough to feed a super model. He also visited a port where a lot of trawlers still had the lace around the nets in full view, obviously not worried about any consequences because like here laws are made and then not enforced.

If we're to avoid ending up with a totally baron sea the following (I think) needs to be done:

Existing laws need to be enforced, this isn't happening, some need to be reviewed, the current quota system doesn't work as commeted on above.
Strict size limits need to be in place for all species.
Anyone caught breaking the rules i.e undersize fish or fishing in no fish zones should have their liscence and/or vessel taken off them for good and should never be allowed to fish commercially again. I'm sure the technology exists which can track any trawlers location, trawlers shouldn't even be allowed to enter no fish zones without good reason. Maybe some of this is in place but it just isn't being enforced.

In addition to this I reckon inshore trawling should be banned, it's too easy to sweep up an entire bay, this practice destroys a lot of tourism potential in addition to fish stocks.

Adrian is spot on there with his observations and comments.
For those who are not aware, a classic example of overfishing and the subsequent results is that of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. This was the N. Atlantic's premier cod fishery. Catches dropped off in the mid-eighties and the Canadian government, seemingly prematurely, placed a blanket ban on the fishing of these grounds. Limited fishing was subsequently allowed some 10 years later. It was then found that there were no cod left! Yes, the cod stocks never recovered.
Unfortunately, decision making politicians are swayed by the commercial fishers and they tend to ignore scientific evidence. They satisfy the short term commercial expedient and ignore the longer term environmental consequences.
Look along the west coast at the decaying remains of once thriving fishing communities. A couple of generations back, fish were plentiful in our seas. Men made a livelihood from sea fishing without the high-tec gear that is now being used to decimate our waters.
Adrian's proposals would be a major step in the right direction.

Peter

Are there any laws/byelaws about how close in Trawlers can come into the shore?

The reason for asking is after hearing a rumour of the west coast being trawled close in by one boat, allegedly from Kerry to North Mayo. The rumour goes on that hundreds of rays and other fish have been taken.

Any ideas or does this happen all the time anyway?

Colin

hi colin
most comm. fishermen have akill em while u can attatude
all rod fishers shoud band together one voice
blockade/protests lots more anglers there than trawers
protest around fisheries boards as the problum/solutions
is in there hands unfortunately.
anglers shoud me in control
WE ARE BIGGER THAN THEM

I worked on trawlers for many years up until 6 years ago and have lived in a commercial fishing community all my life. As far as I am aware their are some local bylaws protecting certain coastal areas from being trawled but there is no blanket prohibition on trawling close to shore.
I lay only a small segment of the blame on the commercial fishermen, the real blame is with the Irish and EU politicans, who are consistantly unable to come up with policies that will protect our fish stocks for future generations. The government will not provide the resources to enforce the legislation that is already there, while cowboy fishermen and poachers know they have a free hand and Spanish and other foregin vessels are continuing to do serious damage to Irish fish stocks off the north, south and west coasts.
In Norwegan territorial waters, the government enforces a zero tolerance policy for fisheries violations and they are reaping the rewards with fish stocks on the increase, but of course they are not bound by EU fisheries policy, which I fear will always be a shambles.