Cushendunn Co Antrim 29th 08 2030 A Report from the Future

cracking photo davy!!! :D

Done the survey :D :D ....comon lads get your fingers out it only takes 5 mins :?

rab o1, i think that the artificials probably a suggestion that if the rag and lug beds keep getting the hammering that they are getting now around this area that the bait will be very thin on the ground by then.....

In case anyone thinks Andy's scenario is completely off the wall:

http://www.mcall.com/business/local/all ... slocal-hed

http://wusatv9.com/health/health_articl ... ryid=38669

http://www.floridaenvironment.com/programs/fe00612.htm

What he's describing is already happening. Maybe not on your patch, maybe not on mine, maybe not right now. But if you want to look at the sea today and extrapolate a possible future if things continue as they are, it's as good a description as any. It's not meant to be alarmist, an exaggeration or anything except an attempt to provoke some thought by anyone who hasn't happened to think along these lines yet.

You all remember last year's 'red tide' and what fun that was. We could soon have that one in spades, all year round. Global warming and increasing pollution loads in the sea are all that is required. Imagine a sea that was giving off a toxic mist from all the algae that would affect you mile or so inland. Forget fishing, boating, trips to the seaside.

A few people might be surprised that there really is a market and a commercial fishery for jellyfish. More profitable than chasing the remaining fish and shellfish. How do we suppose that came about?

Ask yourself to project a bit further into our future. Since we have pretty much wiped out the jellyfish's natural predators and are creating ideal conditions for their population to explode with all the nitrate/phosphate/sulphate pollution, mostly from intensive agriculture, if we fish out the jellyfish, what'll benefit from that? Algae. Some of which are downright nasty to man, fish and beast alike.

So do we want to sit idly by while other people destroy the seas?

Some of us don't, but then again, we don't want to have to spend our time working on conservation issues, angling politics and the like. We would much rather be fishing, and would love to be catching. But somebody has to do it...

maybe people killing all those fish is why we dont have days like that anymore

that is an amazing article about the jellyfish - but it makes so much sense - in an economically driven world

there is only exponential growth - no such thing as a finite resource

the same thing is going to happen on land with intensive agriculture - you need acre upon acre of crop to generate the feed to grow the cattle - for so little net protein in return at the end of the process

as more and more land becomes - exhausted, polluted and populations continue to expand - getting protein from crops is the only way to go

large scale meat production is completely unsustainable

YET what is bombarded on the bogglebox in the corner - cheap beef in fastfood outlets

ALL of this is going to get a hell of a lot worse before its better...

sorry for going off topic - again!

ALL of this is going to get a hell of a lot worse before its better...

The sooner anglers put the boot in, big time, the sooner we might see an improvement. I'm damned if I'm going to sit around until I'm angling for jellyfish in a gas mask.

i hope every one on this site realizes how important it is to answer a few questions on the SACN survey, we can all rant and rave on web sites about declining fish stocks , but how many of us actualy do any thing to help. its about time we put the boot in to make sombody do somthing.

Well written piece of work Andy Is that Corey Heim(Lost Boys) wearing the camoflague jacket in the pic. On a trip out on Cushendun in early May myself and 2 others had 33 plaice on the boat (all returned bar 4). ranging from 30cm- 45cm,. 3 weeks later another mate took his boat out and took the same drifts, he managed 6 plaice the biggest 25 cm. Apparently there was rumours of another boat taking 40 fish of it all kept.

Well written piece of work Andy Is that Corey Heim(Lost Boys) wearing the camoflague jacket in the pic. On a trip out on Cushendun in early May myself and 2 others had 33 plaice on the boat (all returned bar 4). ranging from 30cm- 45cm,. 3 weeks later another mate took his boat out and took the same drifts, he managed 6 plaice the biggest 25 cm. Apparently there was rumours of another boat taking 40 fish of it all kept.

A few for the table I have no problem with

40 plaice is a disgracefull, when are people going to learn, the stocks arent there anymore. The days of bumper catches are gone, Commercial overfishing has seen to that.

Andy Elliott