Eating Wildlife

[ardhill]

Originally Posted by drysuit repair dave

There is only presently one statutary no take zone in the UK, around Lundy Island off North Devon.

Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland
Parts of it are no take all year round for scallops, the rest of it at certain times of the year (now). I also thought there was more off the mainland, but don't know where. Hasn't somewhere in Scotland just be made a preservation (no-take) zone?

[MattS]

Originally Posted by Adrian Kelland

I have also cut crabs and lobsters free from line and let them go.

Reminds me I once spent fifteen minutes cutting a crab out a fowled trawl net. It was looking forward to many happy adventures...until it tried to nip my thumb off in a particularly painful way...so I had a nice big crab for my tea. Live and let live!

I do occaisionally take. But is it not regular

Similar here. I do not dive to fish but if one comes along then it is fair game. I will not use tools of any kind, if I can't catch it by hand it get's to live another day. I try to be selective and leave stuff that is within limits but small.

Spot on advice about the toxins thing. Always worth checking the noticeboard on harbour masters door. Quite a few places have restrictions thanks to years of pollution.

...and I have absolutely no time for those people that steal from pots, or the tree huggers that think vandalising pots is justified.

YMMV

[Deep Baloo]

I actually dive for scallops for a living and as a rough guide I lay the scallop flat onto my hand and if the widest part of the shell reaches both sides of my palm then it is about sized, But then again i suppose it depends what size hands you have!

[Deep Baloo]

And as far as over-fishing an area goes, We make sure we only go to a certain area for a limited time and then not again for several months to let the population grow back again, But unfortunately this cannot be said for all the boats up here.

[A. Berk]

Best if I keep shtum on this subject 'cos I'm a berk, however I will qoute someone who knows what he's talking about;

Originally Posted by SoggyFox

I don't take and i don't particulalry like seeing people take, it got bought home to me while diving at Easter, i saw very few of anything while diving over 6 days around the manacles but people form our club where taking whatever they could find, it was grea shame as it some really stunning dives but very little life expcept the scenary.. Then i dived a few weeks later on a wreck out of Littlehampton and was stunned at the amount of life on it, big crabs lots of lobbies eveywhere, i said to the skipper how surpised i was and his answer was " i'm not surprised its hardly ever dived".

Everybody seem to justify taking with the arguement that "i'm only one diver, taking enough for a meal" now mulitply that up over a weekend across the country. Does anyone here put anything back or merely continue to take and take? theres only so much our seas can provide and if everyone takes without thought then what will become of our seas?

Nuff said

[Woz]

Originally Posted by Deep Baloo

I actually dive for scallops for a living and as a rough guide I lay the scallop flat onto my hand and if the widest part of the shell reaches both sides of my palm then it is about sized, But then again i suppose it depends what size hands you have!

I use my hands and arms for a guide too:

Across your palm for scallops.
Distance between outstretched fingertip and thumb tip for crabs.
Length of middle finger for lobsters.
Elbow to wrist for fish.

There is an online measurement guide but as long as you know how long parts of your body are then it's easy to measure something underwater to see if it's legal to take it.

My view is that you catch what you eat unless you are doing it for a living. I might have the occasional scallop or lobster or squattie but they all get eaten. When you dive an area that has recently been scallop dredged it breaks your heart- imagine towing a 5 tonne steel plate behind a tractor through Hyde Park just to get a few edible snails...

[big_si]

Originally Posted by Woz

I use my hands and arms for a guide too:

Across your palm for scallops.
Distance between outstretched fingertip and thumb tip for crabs.
Length of middle finger for lobsters.
Elbow to wrist for fish.

That's a good guide! Thanks Woz!

Originally Posted by Woz

There is an online measurement guide but as long as you know how long parts of your body are then it's easy to measure something underwater to see if it's legal to take it.

So to make sure a conger is long enough I just need to fit a P-Zip?

[ray]

Hi.
Thanks for the seafood post, I guess it comes under its up to you.

Oh and don't forget the other interesting topics for future posts.

BSAC Verses PADI.

Taking stuff of wrecks.

War graves.

The merits of DIR.

I will watch with interest .

[Scuttler]

Originally Posted by SoggyFox

I don't take and i don't particulalry like seeing people take, it got bought home to me while diving at Easter, i saw very few of anything while diving over 6 days around the manacles but people form our club where taking whatever they could find, it was grea shame as it some really stunning dives but very little life expcept the scenary.. Then i dived a few weeks later on a wreck out of Littlehampton and was stunned at the amount of life on it, big crabs lots of lobbies eveywhere, i said to the skipper how surpised i was and his answer was " i'm not surprised its hardly ever dived".

Everybody seem to justify taking with the arguement that "i'm only one diver, taking enough for a meal" now mulitply that up over a weekend across the country. Does anyone here put anything back or merely continue to take and take? theres only so much our seas can provide and if everyone takes without thought then what will become of our seas?

Not sure I agree with you on this one Soggy......

OK.....One diver taking for a meal multiplied up over a weekend.

Lets assume the worst case and all 9000 members of YD descended on Lulworth banks for a bank holiday scallop frenzy. 9000 x 3 x 2 (3 days 2 dives) = 54000. Lets assume each diver is greedy and takes enough for 3 meals (3x6 = 18). So....18 x 54000 = 972000 scallops. WOW....that's a lot.
BUT.....it's not indicative of what actually happens.....I suspect that less than 20% of that figure represents the number taken and I doubt weymouth have enough boats to cover 9000 dives a day. But still....a single trawler probably does that in a week.

Add to that the damage a trawler does. I've been on the banks a few days after a trawler run......it's devastating....there is nothing left....no vegetation, no sealife whatsover........just raked sand and the undersize scallops are sometimes damaged when they are thrown back. You also have the bycatch problem.

The problem isn't solely down to divers....it's also down to overfishing.....and the commercial fisherman are as much to blame as the diver.....at least the diver is going to eat his catch .... the commercial fisherman's catch could go as far as Canada before landing back in France for consumption (yes this has happened).

Do I put back.......yes.....when I've grabbed a berried Lobster it goes back (a commercial fisherman won't) when I've seen crabs mating I leave them where they are. I've gone on many a dive where I could have come up with something but didn't fancy it so left it.

If it's undersized or soft shell I leave it.

I also sometimes find pots that have become separated from their line/bouy (rare but it does sometimes happen) and have released the captives....this could be easy picking but somehow I don't feel right about taking it.

I appreciate we all have a part to play in the management of our fish stocks but I think a point that is often overlooked is the cleanup operation our beaches have had. I'm not arguing that we shouldn't have the cleanup campaign (ie moving the outlets deeper/further offshore) but we have to remember that crabs, many flatfish, crayfish and lobsters feed on (amongst other things) filter feeders such as mussels and scallops and oysters. These have all moved deeper since the outlets were moved further offshore to clean up the beaches which means they are less likely to be in the shallower waters so life is sustained at deeper levels.

You also have to bear in mind that our sea temperatures play a part....recently they've been very warm....when I last dived the Dredger the place was swarming with Spider crabs.....many big enough for two pots!!! Ask Prometheus, Ratcliffe or the rest of his motley crue! I have however seen a relative dearth of brown crabs....but then they tend to be below the 20m mark in these waters. Most of the spider crabs were mating but I have to confess had I had my goodie bag and found one of the dozen I found not mating I'd have nabbed a couple.

I think the final point to make is that the vast majority of English people are scared of seafood or think they don't like it.....the vast majority of the catch around the uk either goes to the restaurant/hotel trade or overseas. In fact I would be surprised if amatuer diving represented more than 3-5% of the total catch in UK waters.

[ray]

Originally Posted by Scuttler

In fact I would be surprised if amatuer diving represented more than 3-5% of the total catch in UK waters.

Try .0003 - .0005 and then I think you would be exaggerating the fishing fleet are landing lobster, crabs, whelks, and other sea food in Bridlington by the tons, per week! never mind the rest of the country.