Commercial Fishing

[Jen S]

Following on from a few posts about commercial fishing on the "Do you take Lobsters" post, I'm just wondering what peoples general views are. I know this could turn into quite a firey subject, but it would be interesting to know what people think about the state of the seas, seeing as we're all divers who use them.

My view is that we can't go on the way we are doing and something more needs to be done. I do understand it will affect communities by stopping commercial fishing, but if nothing is done, it's going to affect them in the long term anyway as fish stocks will be completely gone & the industry will wipe itself out.

The one thing I'm not sure I agree with is the quota system. Yes it works to some extent, as it has reduced the number of boats, but there is the down side too. If a boat knows it has caught too much fish (or the wrong fish), it simply ditches it over the side. WHAT A WASTE!! So the polititians in the EU parliament see these figures of less fish landed & think "Great, we're landing less fish, so the stocks must be recovering". But what this doesn't show is how many fish have been killed & ditched over the side, so the stocks are still suffering.

Whatever is done, I think fishing communities should be given more support, such as more EU funding.

So, what are people's views?

Jen

[Helen F H]

Originally Posted by Jen S

Following on from a few posts about commercial fishing on the "Do you take Lobsters" post, I'm just wondering what peoples general views are. I know this could turn into quite a firey subject, but it would be interesting to know what people think about the state of the seas, seeing as we're all divers who use them.

My view is that we can't go on the way we are doing and something more needs to be done. I do understand it will affect communities by stopping commercial fishing, but if nothing is done, it's going to affect them in the long term anyway as fish stocks will be completely gone & the industry will wipe itself out.

The one thing I'm not sure I agree with is the quota system. Yes it works to some extent, as it has reduced the number of boats, but there is the down side too. If a boat knows it has caught too much fish (or the wrong fish), it simply ditches it over the side. WHAT A WASTE!! So the polititians in the EU parliament see these figures of less fish landed & think "Great, we're landing less fish, so the stocks must be recovering". But what this doesn't show is how many fish have been killed & ditched over the side, so the stocks are still suffering.

Whatever is done, I think fishing communities should be given more support, such as more EU funding.

So, what are people's views?

Jen

The port i did most of my dive training out of used to have a large fishing fleet - maybe 20 odd boats. They used to have to moor three abreast. Now there are two big trawlers (but not huge - it is not a deepwater harbour), and several smaller ones, with maybe 10 "cobles" the traditional small lobbie/salmon boats for the area.

The town has suffered economic decline, with large unemployment following the loss of the coal industry from which it was a major exporter, and now the loss of the fishing industry too.

So, the sons of the town used to go to sea, to go fishing.

My mate who is a fisherman, who is a diver, has a son, Michael. He is about 12, and wants to be a trawlerman just like dad. But he cant. Because the Rejoice will probably cease to exist in the next 5 years or so.

Now the large offshore floating processing vessels could be traded in for 10 smaller boats.

We simply cannot stop commercial fishing as it will affect small guys as well as the huge businesses.

A gradual decrease in fish being taken is the best way, and as far as i can see, that is happening for the smaller ports.

[Phoenix]

What about the communities in the 3rd world who are totally reliant on fishing? Obviously they couldn't be stopped from fishing but if fishing was banned in the 1st world wouldn't there be a large black market for fish?

A total ban would appear to be unworkable and unenforcable so perhaps more rigorous quotas need to be introduced and enforced. I'm not so sure about compensating the communities though, in the last 30 years a lot of traditional industries have disappeared without the communities being subsidised, it just seems that anyone connected with food, fisheries or agriculture seems to have an obsession with compensation and/or subsidies.

Ian

[resting rifleman]

voted do nothing, nature has been filling the spaces left by extinction events forever, leave the fishermen alone, they've got the excrement end of the stick again. they have been sold out by succesive governments for a long time now. my father and grandfather were fishermen (and lifeboatmen) and so were many of my predecessors.
Great great grandfather big club, who lived in the third cave on the left, would pick up his tools and weapons thousands of years ago, and go off to hunt to feed his family, who the fcuk has the right TO TELL ME I CANT?

[Fiji Dave]

Originally Posted by resting rifleman

voted do nothing, nature has been filling the spaces left by extinction events forever, leave the fishermen alone, they've got the excrement end of the stick again. they have been sold out by succesive governments for a long time now. my father and grandfather were fishermen (and lifeboatmen) and so were many of my predecessors.
Great great grandfather big club, who lived in the third cave on the left, would pick up his tools and weapons thousands of years ago, and go off to hunt to feed his family, who the fcuk has the right TO TELL ME I CANT?

So does that mean we should be happy to let Norway and Japan hunt as many whales as they want to? Or let people hunt tigers or rhinos to extinction? Ultimately the money that people make doing this goes to feed their familiy, so can we say they can't do it? Well, yes I think we should.

Extinction events take a long, long, long time to recover from, man has already caused the extinction of thousands of species and once they're gone, that's it, they're gone. Yes, nature will eventually fill the holes with something else, but we need to be thinking about the world that we'll be leaving to our children and their children, if we want to them to be able to fish in the seas then we need to make sure there are still viable populations of fish.

But yes, I do agree, our fishing fleet has been royally screwed.

[Jen S]

Originally Posted by fijidave

But yes, I do agree, our fishing fleet has been royally screwed.

I'll second that! Doesn't seem fair certain countries who dwell on the Iberian Peninsula (no names mentioned!) seem to be able to do what they like (& get subsidies on top!) & our guys get screwed, then yes, that is wrong.

[Helen F H]

Many many years ago, i was on a kayaking trip in scotland. The campsite was great, and we got on well with the owner - a mad welsh man. He was struggling to turn a caravan around and so 6 of us piled in to help. After that we could do no wrong, despite the fact we had a copy of the Jolly Rogers Cookbook with us.
Anyway. Two busses roll in full of Spaniards. This was at the height of the problems with spaniards being caught in UK waters. Two rules on this site - no fires, no loud music. Within a couple of hours they had broken both, and pleaded "no comprende" when asked to shut up and put the fires out. They even flew a spanish flag from a tree. Until, some wee scallywags shinned up the said tree and burned it. Ho ho ho. Oops.

[resting rifleman]

Originally Posted by fijidave

So does that mean we should be happy to let Norway and Japan hunt as many whales as they want to? Or let people hunt tigers or rhinos to extinction? Ultimately the money that people make doing this goes to feed their familiy, so can we say they can't do it? Well, yes I think we should.

Extinction events take a long, long, long time to recover from, man has already caused the extinction of thousands of species and once they're gone, that's it, they're gone. Yes, nature will eventually fill the holes with something else, but we need to be thinking about the world that we'll be leaving to our children and their children, if we want to them to be able to fish in the seas then we need to make sure there are still viable populations of fish.

But yes, I do agree, our fishing fleet has been royally screwed.

Dave, if a norwegian or a japanese WANT to eat whale meat what gives anyone the right to say they cant? nobody tells the eban natives they cant eat cockroaches, nor the kalahari bushmen that they cant eat mealy bugs or termite larvae.
jungle rules apply here, adapt or die. eat or be eaten!
if society chooses to cast off the last of the hunters, (as the fishermen undoubtedly are) then our species loses big time.

[Fiji Dave]

Originally Posted by resting rifleman

Dave, if a norwegian or a japanese WANT to eat whale meat what gives anyone the right to say they cant? nobody tells the eban natives they cant eat cockroaches, nor the kalahari bushmen that they cant eat mealy bugs or termite larvae.
jungle rules apply here, adapt or die. eat or be eaten!
if society chooses to cast off the last of the hunters, (as the fishermen undoubtedly are) then our species loses big time.

No, you are right, we don't prevent them from eating such things, but then if they do eat these creatures they are taking them from a population which has much quicker reproduction/gestation periods, so that the individuals removed from the population are replaced at a much faster rate. Sperm Whales reproduce once every 4-6 years and hve a gestation period of up to 18 months - it takes a lot longer to rebuild populations like that.

If we don't do something (and I'm not advocating a complete ban on fishing, that's not going to work and I don't think it would be right to try) then a lot more species will lose big time and our children will lose out too. I know I've seen things underwater that, it is possible my children(when I have some) will probably never be fortunate enough to see, all because someone somehwere considered them a delicacy and killed them all.

You used the term 'adapt', that can be applied to hunters aswell as the hunted.

Dave

[And]

Originally Posted by resting rifleman

if society chooses to cast off the last of the hunters, (as the fishermen undoubtedly are) then our species loses big time.

Tell me you are kidding! Dangling a big net off the back of a boat loaded with fishfinders and computer navigation is 'hunting' LMAO

Ban it completely or find a way to do it in a sustainable way, and that doesn't count quotas

I am from a fishing town too. People find new jobs, economies grow and shrink, but the environment is always getting the shitty end of the stick, no exception.

Andy