Makes you sick doesnt it. Its quite clear whats going on out there. Nothing at all is being done that would sustainably effect on our fish stocks.:ahhh:

 

Inshore fishermen like 76-year-old Wilson Hayward believe the seeds of disaster were sown after the Second World War, when hundreds of factory trawlers, mainly from Eastern Europe, arrived on the Grand Banks, which stretch out more than 320 kilometres (200 miles) off the island's coast.

"I remember going out on to the cape in the night, and all you could see were dragger (trawler) lights as far as the eye could see, just like a city in the sea. We all knew it was wrong.


John Cabot: What would he have made of it all?
"They were taking the mother fish which had been out there spawning over the years.

"They cleaned it all up; they dragged the ocean floor like the paved road," he told BBC News Online.

I think the above said it all, GREED.

 

I think we are already doomed when it comes to Cod fishing, Brussels will keep on increasing fishing quotas, to appease the French and the Spanish and of course the Belgian fleets. They will also continue to fish British Waters using "ancient" rights to fish, and just like the guy in Canada said, we should "bite the bullet now and hope that the stocks regenerate". Could the "Good" catch reports around the south east, be a case of "Hyper- aggregation" as described in the report?... Mad one.

 

i agree with that but the gov won`t!,, they`re scientists see, and they converse with `other` scientists who think it is all a myth, fish stocks collapse who heard of such a ridiculous thing, and they don`t want to line their pockets with the taxes made on netted fish, as well as the taxes they collect on the EU for letting EU boats rape our waters honest they don`t tight lines

 

Its pitiful when you look at the big picture, as all we can do is stand on the sidelines & watch it all disappear. It grieves me to see all the promotion about "fishing norway" (they are cod, not bluefin tuna or marlin for f#"*$ sake), at the moment they seem to have a healthy stock (but for how long), but i was wondering ,do they practise c & r at all ? All the rantings to the government about recreational angling over the years doesnt seem to have gotten us any closer to any decisive (major) measures being implemented. Even as rare as the cod is becoming, look at how much people are willing to pay (abroad) to go out & fish for them. It just amazes me that the powers that be can still come up with new excuses about how nothing (nowhere near enough) is being done to halt/reverse the decline of all the stock fish (not just the cod). :nono::nonono:

 

We need to get out of Europe impose a 200 mile fishing limit and regulate our own fleets now before it to late.

 

Went on the ICES website who monitor the fishing in the Irish Sea
This link relates to what should of been done in 2003 http://www.ices.dk/aboutus/pressrelease/ACFMautumn2003.pdf
Which didnt happen
Read this link http://www.ices.dk/committe/acom/comwork/report/2007/oct/cod-iris.pdf
scroll right to the bottom between 1994 and 2006 cod officially landed has dropped by 75% in the Irish sea now that is scary
A couple of other fish that might be of interest Smoothhound landings have tripled between 1993 and 2007
Small eyed rays stocks have increased but the landing has also increased by treble and the Britol channels should be closely monitored.
But its not all dooom and gloom landings of Vics favourite fish has not changed and this is what they have to say about them.
Lesser spotted dogfish: the current exploitation rates appear to be sustainable. As there are no apparent detrimental
impacts on the stock from current commercial fisheries, no management actions are required for this species
at this time.
Last but not least ref whiting
Celtic Sea whiting are taken in mixed species (cod, whiting, hake, Nephrops) fisheries. French trawlers account for
about 60% of the total landings, Ireland takes about 30%, and the UK (England and Wales) 7%, while Belgian vessels
take less than 1%.

 

HI guys

Some very interesting reading here and i agree with it all but i think we all need to take a good look at ourselves too instead of just blaming commercial fishing pressures. The easiest thing to do is point the finger at everyone else and blame them but i think we also need to accept a bit of responsibility!

I know this will probably start a fight :boxing: but we are all guilty of taking the odd fish for the pot, including me, but just think how much of an effect that is also having on fish stocks..........

Having reaad through load of posts where there have been good bags of codling caught off dungeness etc, it makes me wonder how much of an impact us anglers are actually having.

i know you are all thinking "putting back the handful of fish i take each year wont make any difference, it's the trawlers fault".......... but look at it this way, there are currently 26,696 WSF members, now assuming we all take on average something like 3, 4 fish each a year. Thats between 75,000 to 100,000 + cod per year, just from forum members!!! if any one knows what the statistics are for the total amount of sea fishermen there are and could do a similar calculation, i think we would all be suprised by the impact we are having.

Each cod lays upto 9 million eggs so assume the cod we catch are females, thats up to a possible 900000000000 eggs! with a survival rate of 1 of those eggs per million reaching sexual maturity thats 900000 little codling we (WSF members) are taking out of the system each year! Extrapolate that over the total number of sea fisherman and it's going to be a frightening number! and thats just for 1 year!

I agree we something needs to be done but we all moaning that there are no cod left yet as soon we catch a codling of legal size it's stuffed in a carrier bag and taken home for tea!:doh: we then have the nerve to moan some more about the diminishing cod stocks! just because we "can" take it home because it's in size, doesnt mean we should!

Why dont we all stop complaining and do our bit and put 'em ALL back? You dont hear of many lakes being emptied because course fishing is (supposed to be!) all catch and release. And i know most of these fish are easily cultivated and bred in huge numbers but surely we all need to sit up, open our eyes to the full scale of the problem and all climb aboad the "catch and release" bus before it'd too late?:bangin:

 

I agree we something needs to be done but we all moaning that there are no cod left yet as soon we catch a codling of legal size it's stuffed in a carrier bag and taken home for tea!:doh: we then have the nerve to moan some more about the diminishing cod stocks! just because we "can" take it home because it's in size, doesnt mean we should!

I couldnt agree with you more Ben, especially that part. Makes me sick how you see some fishing report like 1 of the recent boat trips I looked at where theres a table full of dead cod and these same people will be moaning about the lack of cod in another thread. Total hypocrites. Somebody could say these fish couldnt be returned due to dead on capture, swimbladder bla blah, but these cod were targetted and irrelevant what nick they was in as they was being bagged whatever condition they was in.

 

HI guys

Some very interesting reading here and i agree with it all but i think we all need to take a good look at ourselves too instead of just blaming commercial fishing pressures. The easiest thing to do is point the finger at everyone else and blame them but i think we also need to accept a bit of responsibility!

I know this will probably start a fight :boxing: but we are all guilty of taking the odd fish for the pot, including me, but just think how much of an effect that is also having on fish stocks..........

Having reaad through load of posts where there have been good bags of codling caught off dungeness etc, it makes me wonder how much of an impact us anglers are actually having.

i know you are all thinking "putting back the handful of fish i take each year wont make any difference, it's the trawlers fault".......... but look at it this way, there are currently 26,696 WSF members, now assuming we all take on average something like 3, 4 fish each a year. Thats between 75,000 to 100,000 + cod per year, just from forum members!!! if any one knows what the statistics are for the total amount of sea fishermen there are and could do a similar calculation, i think we would all be suprised by the impact we are having.

Each cod lays upto 9 million eggs so assume the cod we catch are females, thats up to a possible 900000000000 eggs! with a survival rate of 1 of those eggs per million reaching sexual maturity thats 900000 little codling we (WSF members) are taking out of the system each year! Extrapolate that over the total number of sea fisherman and it's going to be a frightening number! and thats just for 1 year!

I agree we something needs to be done but we all moaning that there are no cod left yet as soon we catch a codling of legal size it's stuffed in a carrier bag and taken home for tea!:doh: we then have the nerve to moan some more about the diminishing cod stocks! just because we "can" take it home because it's in size, doesnt mean we should!

Why dont we all stop complaining and do our bit and put 'em ALL back? You dont hear of many lakes being emptied because course fishing is (supposed to be!) all catch and release. And i know most of these fish are easily cultivated and bred in huge numbers but surely we all need to sit up, open our eyes to the full scale of the problem and all climb aboad the "catch and release" bus before it'd too late?:bangin:

That's all well and good, but why should we by our actions create more fish for them to trawl? The anglers would not benefit only the scum trawlers and netters.

 

I've got no problem taking home a few fish (if I could catch any).
I really think anglers make hardly any difference to fish stocks. Of course we should release undersize fish, and if I were lucky enough to catch loads of fish I would'nt be greedy and take them all home.
Those trawlers catch fish on a massive scale.
They are the reason we are in this mess.
People should perhaps think before buying their cod and chips down the chippy. Its like all food. Most people don't care where it comes from as long as it fills their bellys.

 

That's all well and good, but why should we by our actions create more fish for them to trawl? The anglers would not benefit only the scum trawlers and netters.

Good point Steve, why dont we all just kill EVERYTHING we catch then eventually there will be nothing left, not a single fish for the trawlers or US to catch! that'll REALLY show em!! in-fact, lets start a campaign to get the entire planets oceans either netted or better still POISONED, that would speed the whole process up and really teach those "scum trawlers" a lesson. They wouldn't go doing it again now would they! HA! :headhurt:

Sorry mate but thats just the blinkered sort of attitude that we could do without.

 

I've got no problem taking home a few fish (if I could catch any).
I really think anglers make hardly any difference to fish stocks. Of course we should release undersize fish, and if I were lucky enough to catch loads of fish I would'nt be greedy and take them all home.
Those trawlers catch fish on a massive scale.
They are the reason we are in this mess.
People should perhaps think before buying their cod and chips down the chippy. Its like all food. Most people don't care where it comes from as long as it fills their bellys.

Ive got no problem mate but i'm not droning on about the lack of fish! laike you say If you were "lucky to catch loads", thats the point, wed ont catch loads because we all take a few fish and the more we take the less there are left for us to catch. Its only a matter of time before stocks collapse completely and there is nothing left!

You (and everyone else) keep taking your hanful of fish but dont moan about the fact that the fishing is cr@p.

Whislt there is a demand for cod there will be someone willing to supply, simple economics but we cant point the finger completely at the trawlers. they are just doing their job at the end of the day. we are ALL to blame. if you take 20 fish a year, which is a relatively small amount then thats fine but if EVERYONE did the same, thats a lot of fish being taken and even less left to reproduce for the future. and for every fish you catch and take home, thats one less that gets sold in the shops and one more that goes to waste needlessly!

It's about time we all stopped moaning and blaming everyone else and get together to do something about it.

 

I couldnt agree with you more Ben, especially that part. Makes me sick how you see some fishing report like 1 of the recent boat trips I looked at where theres a table full of dead cod and these same people will be moaning about the lack of cod in another thread. Total hypocrites. Somebody could say these fish couldnt be returned due to dead on capture, swimbladder bla blah, but these cod were targetted and irrelevant what nick they was in as they was being bagged whatever condition they was in.

Glad i'm not the only one who can see the bigger picture mate! :clap3:

 

Im with blanker on this 1, i am as guilty as the next for keeping a fish or 2, but why do people really NEED to keep everything thay catch, we have all seen the pictures, 20+ cod on a boat, 20+ bass on a boat, flounder etc etc etc, i always remember when i landed a 25lb cod, people were sick when i returned it, why on earth would any1 want to keep such a fish, trawlers do far more damage than us fishermen but we dont help the cause !

 

totally agree with akita and ben here, i like to keep a cod of say 3-4lb because thats perfect eating size, yes the trawlers do f*** the fishing up but it also makes me sick when you see pictures in sea angler with people from kent, dungeness(spelling) etc with 20 odd cod layig dead on the beach, what is the need in that aye

 

HI guys

Some very interesting reading here and i agree with it all but i think we all need to take a good look at ourselves too instead of just blaming commercial fishing pressures. The easiest thing to do is point the finger at everyone else and blame them but i think we also need to accept a bit of responsibility!

I know this will probably start a fight :boxing: but we are all guilty of taking the odd fish for the pot, including me, but just think how much of an effect that is also having on fish stocks..........

Having reaad through load of posts where there have been good bags of codling caught off dungeness etc, it makes me wonder how much of an impact us anglers are actually having.

i know you are all thinking "putting back the handful of fish i take each year wont make any difference, it's the trawlers fault".......... but look at it this way, there are currently 26,696 WSF members, now assuming we all take on average something like 3, 4 fish each a year. Thats between 75,000 to 100,000 + cod per year, just from forum members!!! if any one knows what the statistics are for the total amount of sea fishermen there are and could do a similar calculation, i think we would all be suprised by the impact we are having.

Each cod lays upto 9 million eggs so assume the cod we catch are females, thats up to a possible 900000000000 eggs! with a survival rate of 1 of those eggs per million reaching sexual maturity thats 900000 little codling we (WSF members) are taking out of the system each year! Extrapolate that over the total number of sea fisherman and it's going to be a frightening number! and thats just for 1 year!

I agree we something needs to be done but we all moaning that there are no cod left yet as soon we catch a codling of legal size it's stuffed in a carrier bag and taken home for tea!:doh: we then have the nerve to moan some more about the diminishing cod stocks! just because we "can" take it home because it's in size, doesnt mean we should!

Why dont we all stop complaining and do our bit and put 'em ALL back? You dont hear of many lakes being emptied because course fishing is (supposed to be!) all catch and release. And i know most of these fish are easily cultivated and bred in huge numbers but surely we all need to sit up, open our eyes to the full scale of the problem and all climb aboad the "catch and release" bus before it'd too late?:bangin:

Couple of good points there ben .....but

your assumed figures of 75,000 -100,000 cod a year could be taken by forum members if we all kept four cod a year.....that amount could easily be taken by only a handful of commercial boats per year....and there are more than a handful of boats around the uk filling up for sure....thats without the amount of cod that goes back dead or dying from the commercial fleets (we've all seen it hapening on trawlermen)

I dont think its a case of "just because we can take it home because it's in size we should" fish usually get taken home by anglers to get eaten (maybe for friends and family) not because they 'can' cos its insize!

And why not take some insize fish home for the table. I pay on average £15 per session on bait, £10 on petrol and usually fishing once a week thats over £1500 per year without the money i spend on gear and other fishing related stuff every year...few fish for the table if and when i catch them insize i feel is my right...if they not gonna get eaten they go back!! simple as!!

I honestly believe that the effect anglers have on fish stocks is tiny compared to the commercial fleets and doesnt make that much of a difference...fair enough fish get taken by anglers but i think that alone would do little to damage the stocks.

anyway can't blame next years crap fishing in south wales on anglers because hardly anyone has seen a codling for months never mind one big enough to keep lol

 

Ive got no problem mate but i'm not droning on about the lack of fish! laike you say If you were "lucky to catch loads", thats the point, wed ont catch loads because we all take a few fish and the more we take the less there are left for us to catch. Its only a matter of time before stocks collapse completely and there is nothing left!

You (and everyone else) keep taking your hanful of fish but dont moan about the fact that the fishing is cr@p.

Whislt there is a demand for cod there will be someone willing to supply, simple economics but we cant point the finger completely at the trawlers. they are just doing their job at the end of the day. we are ALL to blame. if you take 20 fish a year, which is a relatively small amount then thats fine but if EVERYONE did the same, thats a lot of fish being taken and even less left to reproduce for the future. and for every fish you catch and take home, thats one less that gets sold in the shops and one more that goes to waste needlessly!

It's about time we all stopped moaning and blaming everyone else and get together to do something about it.

sorry mate but i had to put my 10 pence worth in if the fishermen contribute to the such low stocks of cod and its not just the trawlers where are all the whiting to the anglers dont take them every time they r in size just my opinion

 

Couple of good points there ben .....but

your assumed figures of 75,000 -100,000 cod a year could be taken by forum members if we all kept four cod a year.....that amount could easily be taken by only a handful of commercial boats per year....and there are more than a handful of boats around the uk filling up for sure....thats without the amount of cod that goes back dead or dying from the commercial fleets (we've all seen it hapening on trawlermen)

I dont think its a case of "just because we can take it home because it's in size we should" fish usually get taken home by anglers to get eaten (maybe for friends and family) not because they 'can' cos its insize!

And why not take some insize fish home for the table. I pay on average £15 per session on bait, £10 on petrol and usually fishing once a week thats over £1500 per year without the money i spend on gear and other fishing related stuff every year...few fish for the table if and when i catch them insize i feel is my right...if they not gonna get eaten they go back!!

I honestly believe that the effect anglers have on fish stocks is tiny compared to the commercial fleets and doesnt make that much of a difference...fair enough fish get taken by anglers but i think that alone would do little to damage the stocks.

anyway can't blame next years crap fishing in south wales on anglers because hardly anyone has seen a codling for months never mind one big enough to keep lol

I'm not disputing the fact that trawlers take the vast majority of the fish and are mainly responsible for the lack of fish but we need to do what we can to maintain stocks. According to an article i've just found from the guardian, there are approximately 1 million people who fish the sea. now if we all take just 2 cod a year (not to mention anything else) then that will have a massive impact but feel free to dispute that if you think 2 million extra cod being taken out of the sea WONT make any difference to stock levels........

We all spend a lot of money to participate in the sport we enjoy but we need to start trying to do something about the problem we face i.e. NO FISH!! Otherwise it wont matter if you've got the best rods, best baits, best of everything because there will be nothing left to catch, no matter how much we spend.

If you justify what you spend on your fishing by taking fish for the table then thats fine and i'm not saying thats wrong but you'll just have to join the the queue of people complaining when all the fish are gone.

 

sorry mate but i had to put my 10 pence worth in if the fishermen contribute to the such low stocks of cod and its not just the trawlers where are all the whiting to the anglers dont take them every time they r in size just my opinion

No need to apologise mate, was just having my say like everyone else.:thumbs: and this is just MY opinion at the end of the day.

i just think we need to start looking at what we do as anglers, stop blaming everyone else because we are just as bad and try to do something to help.

And having said all this now we'll probably find huge shoals of cod come in after this sh1te weather and we wont know what all the fuss was about!

 

Im with blanker on this 1, i am as guilty as the next for keeping a fish or 2, but why do people really NEED to keep everything thay catch, we have all seen the pictures, 20+ cod on a boat, 20+ bass on a boat, flounder etc etc etc, i always remember when i landed a 25lb cod, people were sick when i returned it, why on earth would any1 want to keep such a fish, trawlers do far more damage than us fishermen but we dont help the cause !

Yes - you only need what's for tea!

The Grand Banks tale is a salutory one, and what goes on in the WSF C&P section suggests that nobody has learnt a thing out of that! I can't be bothered with that part of WSF any more, but in angling terms, take only what you know you and your friends/family may eat, or you may use as bait, and try not to waste anything.

The Grand Banks warning was as a car-alarm right around the world. The trouble is - just like car-alarms - no bugger takes the blindest bit of notice!

Cheers - John

 

Yeah, I must agree with what Ben has said on this, we as RSA's do have a responsibility when it comes to catching "Keepers", just because a group of ministers in the fisheries board say its okay to keep a codling which is 14 inches long or a bass of 18 inches doesn't mean we have to do that, I used to have a rule that I would return all codling under 3lb, but the sad thing is, because I rarely catch codling (these days) over that weight, I have revised that rule so that I only take the first 2 codling around the 2lb mark, and I will only keep a single bass over 3lb, but have you noticed what I've done? I've altered my own quota's to suit me, so basically I (and many other anglers) are no better than the trawlermen and netters who fish (and fight for a change in their catch quotas) to make a living rather than for pleasure.

Thanks for bringing this subject up as it has really made me look at the way I approach the sport I love, in an ideal world. I would now opt for a purely "Catch and Release" way of fishing, but I am human and a realist and I know that the first half decent codling of 2009, will be coming home.:whistling Mad one. :bangin:

 

I ONLY POSTED THE LINK TO INFORM AND ENLIGHTEN I HAVE BEEN AS GUILTY AS THE NEXT ANGLER OVER THE YEARS WITH THE KILLING OF COD/CODLING BUT I HAVENT TAKEN A CODLING OR ANY OTHER FISH HOME WITH ME FOR NEARLY FOUR YEARS AND IN THAT TIME I HAVE BEEN FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO LAND TWO DOUBLE FIGURE COD OFF THE BEACH AND HAVE BEEN IMMENSELY PROUD TO SEE THEM HAVE A QUICK PHOTO CALL AND BE RETURNED TO THE SEA.

WHILST WHAT WE CATCH MAY INDEED BE A DROP IN THE OCEAN COMPARED TO THE COMMERCIALS I THINK WE NEED TO PUT OUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER BEFORE COMPLAINING ABOUT OTHERS..........................PEACE AND TO ALL

 

sorry mate but i had to put my 10 pence worth in if the fishermen contribute to the such low stocks of cod and its not just the trawlers where are all the whiting to the anglers dont take them every time they r in size just my opinion

lol you aint seen ohters reports then

 

im not being funny but if the trawlers just cooled off for a year . yoyu would see the difference in population of ever fish that u would would catch around ur area, its just like rivers or lakes put thre fish in from farms.
just in one year if the bristol channel was left alone(EDIT off u trawler EDIT) the population would have a chance to at least inpregunat then bread. there for creating more fish.
in the end of the day. protein is a big part of a humans diet, so. if we over fish the sea then what the EDIT are the steriod nutters gonna eat.

how do we stop this??????????????????????????????

sorry im a bit drunk<

laterz peeps

dan