Seal Cull

[Lou]

Originally Posted by chrisch

The anthropomorphic crap about whether seals are "cute" or not doesn't matter. They don't have "rights" to fish or anything, they have no more "rights" than the fish.

I agree, but Ahmed's ridiculous comment "It's me or the seal" was the target of my sarcasm. I was rather imagining a bandanna-ed seal, stalking Ahmed through the sand-dunes, before ambushing him, mid-guided dive and taking him to the depths...

You know we agree on both the need for sensible marine conservation and the actual chance of that happening!

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by Lou

... I was rather imagining a bandanna-ed seal, stalking Ahmed through the sand-dunes, before ambushing him, mid-guided dive and taking him to the depths...

LOL. Revenge of the sea mammals....

That reminds me of when I... no too painfull a memory....

Chris

[Allan Carr]

Originally Posted by Fiona

I don't know if I am correct but the fisherman interviewed and advocating a seal cull was David Shiel, could he be a family member to Billy Shiel who does seal and diving trips.

If so there must be family friction and if Billy Shiel doesn't care then I certainly won't be using the Glad Tidings boats.

The Shiel family is fairly large and they have been fishing and running grockle trips to view the seals for many years. I remember them doing it when I was a kid and that was a long time ago! However, until Billy Shiel starting taking out divers, they were all VERY anti-diver (along with most of the rest of the fishing community) and I have had several close things with the Glad Tidings boats over the years.

For several years, it was a against local bye-laws to launch a boat for the purpose of diving in the Seahouses area. When Stan Hall started taking out divers, he had more than one incident of 'unusual' failures e.g. missing nut off his propshaft.

I rescued a small fishing boat which had broken down in fairly heavy seas some years ago. We abandoned our trip out to the Farnes to struggle for almost two hours to tow this boat back to North Sunderland harbour only to be given a mouthful of filthy invective about what scum of the earth divers were when we got there.

There is no doubt that catches have gone down massively since I used to go up there as a kid. North Sunderland Harbour used to be solid boats from one side to the other and it is natural that the remaining fishermen will want to do what they can to 'protect' the remaining stock so that they can catch it. Why the fishing industry and the politicians cannot learn from experience in other countries that defined no-fishing areas are the most effective way of maintaining a viable fish population (and far easier to police) is beyond me. This crazy quota system is expensive to police and totally ineffective.

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by Allan Carr

... Why the fishing industry and the politicians cannot learn from experience in other countries that defined no-fishing areas are the most effective way of maintaining a viable fish population (and far easier to police) is beyond me. ....

IMHO the former are too stupid and the latter too disinterested.

Chris

[Paul Beal]

Originally Posted by chrisch

IMHO the former are too stupid and the latter too disinterested.

Chris

Possibly a bit harsh.

A question was asked to a class I was in as a first year biology student doing an Ecology module:

If I was to offer you £1 today or £5 in a year's time, which would you take. 90% of the class said the £1 now for a variety of reasons:

1) Need it more now - even though it is less
2) Someone else might have got it by then
3) Don't trust you

This can be applied to any fishing or hunting situation. People would rather grab it while they can than spread their catch out over the next few years and potentially make more money but over a longer period.

Paul

[chrisch]

Originally Posted by Paul Beal

Possibly a bit harsh.

A question was asked to a class I was in as a first year biology student doing an Ecology module:

If I was to offer you £1 today or £5 in a year's time, which would you take. 90% of the class said the £1 now for a variety of reasons:

1) Need it more now - even though it is less
2) Someone else might have got it by then
3) Don't trust you

This can be applied to any fishing or hunting situation. People would rather grab it while they can than spread their catch out over the next few years and potentially make more money but over a longer period.

Paul

Fair point. I agree that's how folks are.

If I were to offer a big SUV now but your kids will die in their 50s as the world's ecosystem and with it the economy collapes.....

Chris