DEFA consultation Document.

[homarus]

consultationoninshoremarinezonat.pdf

 

 

It seems the devil will make work for idle hands to do!

Some of the stuff in this consultation make sense but from where I'm reading it looks like it's going to get even harder for young men to get into an already difficult to enter industry it also looks like the recreational sea angler are going to be hit with more regulations and control .

The word "control " being key!

[GD4ELI]

it's going to get even harder for young men to get into an already difficult to enter industry

 

Then do something else? Some stocks are slowly recovering around the British Isles, but first the state of the Manx seabed needs to be left alone for a long time. The report from Bangor university should be read in parallel with this consultation.

 

Consultation my arse. Close it down for five years, then take another look.

 

Oops election coming.

 

Fecking fish.

[homarus]

I do agree with you about the dredging side of things and would be happy with a one mile limit.

But static gear has no impact on the seabed and that is the area of my interest.

Back in the day there were a vocal minority of local static fishermen who felt that they were the industry and who had the ear of DEFA and were constantly trying to carve up the potting fishery between themselves and force out the small boats .And it looks from reading this document that these people still have the ear of DEFA.

The law says that everybody is equal, so it follows that everybody must be allowed equal access to a natural resource, you cannot have "preferred pet fishermen" as it were ,but these f*ckers are stupid enough to go down that route and that worries me on behalf of any youngster who wants to get into the industry in future .

 

Also you have the implied plan to "control" the recreational fisherman ??/WTF is that all about ? They already have some of the most draconian laws in the Uk regarding Bass fishing what else is left , a Mackeral bag limit , when you have them moving up through the Irish sea through the summer to be slaughtered in their hundreds of tonnes off the Shetlands et al! Or maybe 1 pollock a day?

 

My opinion is that they should invest in re-seeding inshore with juvenile lobster , turbot and other high value fish in conjunction with enforcing the regulations they already have ,a bit more efficiently .

[homarus]

 

it's going to get even harder for young men to get into an already difficult to enter industry

 

Then do something else? Some stocks are slowly recovering around the British Isles, but first the state of the Manx seabed needs to be left alone for a long time. The report from Bangor university should be read in parallel with this consultation.

 

Consultation my arse. Close it down for five years, then take another look.

 

Oops election coming.

 

Fecking fish.

 

You cant eat Microchips GD !!!

[the stinking enigma]

oh well. spuds and spuds it is then

[GD4ELI]

I do agree with you about the dredging side of things and would be happy with a one mile limit.

But static gear has no impact on the seabed and that is the area of my interest.

Back in the day there were a vocal minority of local static fishermen who felt that they were the industry and who had the ear of DEFA and were constantly trying to carve up the potting fishery between themselves and force out the small boats .And it looks from reading this document that these people still have the ear of DEFA.

The law says that everybody is equal, so it follows that everybody must be allowed equal access to a natural resource, you cannot have "preferred pet fishermen" as it were ,but these f*ckers are stupid enough to go down that route and that worries me on behalf of any youngster who wants to get into the industry in future .

 

Also you have the implied plan to "control" the recreational fisherman ??/WTF is that all about ? They already have some of the most draconian laws in the Uk regarding Bass fishing what else is left , a Mackeral bag limit , when you have them moving up through the Irish sea through the summer to be slaughtered in their hundreds of tonnes off the Shetlands et al! Or maybe 1 pollock a day?

 

My opinion is that they should invest in re-seeding inshore with juvenile lobster , turbot and other high value fish in conjunction with enforcing the regulations they already have ,a bit more efficiently .

 

FWIW the bass fisheries around me in Cornwall have recovered nicely. The day fishing industry isn't in ultra good financial health but they are making a living, demand is high. I don't know whether one mile is enough for dredging - I thought the recommendation was for more that that?

 

As long as the likes of Gawne override professional advice there is little hope.

 

I have followed your past episodes and do symphasise. I used to fish a lot from the shore in the NW of the Island, 45 years ago it was amazing.

[GD4ELI]

oh well. spuds and spuds it is then

 

Potatoes four times a week could cause high blood pressure, says study

 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/17/potato-blight-eating-spuds-four-times-a-week-could-be-harmful

[Lisenchuk]

 

oh well. spuds and spuds it is then

 

Potatoes four times a week could cause high blood pressure, says study

 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/17/potato-blight-eating-spuds-four-times-a-week-could-be-harmful

 

Listening to Gawne just once a month has a far more detrimental effect though.

[homarus]

 

I do agree with you about the dredging side of things and would be happy with a one mile limit.

But static gear has no impact on the seabed and that is the area of my interest.

Back in the day there were a vocal minority of local static fishermen who felt that they were the industry and who had the ear of DEFA and were constantly trying to carve up the potting fishery between themselves and force out the small boats .And it looks from reading this document that these people still have the ear of DEFA.

The law says that everybody is equal, so it follows that everybody must be allowed equal access to a natural resource, you cannot have "preferred pet fishermen" as it were ,but these f*ckers are stupid enough to go down that route and that worries me on behalf of any youngster who wants to get into the industry in future .

 

Also you have the implied plan to "control" the recreational fisherman ??/WTF is that all about ? They already have some of the most draconian laws in the Uk regarding Bass fishing what else is left , a Mackeral bag limit , when you have them moving up through the Irish sea through the summer to be slaughtered in their hundreds of tonnes off the Shetlands et al! Or maybe 1 pollock a day?

 

My opinion is that they should invest in re-seeding inshore with juvenile lobster , turbot and other high value fish in conjunction with enforcing the regulations they already have ,a bit more efficiently .

 

FWIW the bass fisheries around me in Cornwall have recovered nicely. The day fishing industry isn't in ultra good financial health but they are making a living, demand is high. I don't know whether one mile is enough for dredging - I thought the recommendation was for more that that?

 

As long as the likes of Gawne override professional advice there is little hope.

 

I have followed your past episodes and do symphasise. I used to fish a lot from the shore in the NW of the Island, 45 years ago it was amazing.

 

1 mile may well be enough to put a few more small boats out of business I would have thought? Reason being that scalloping is a winter fishery in the main and quite a few boats like to use the lee of the land for shelter in periods of bad weather,obviously introducing a 1 mile limit will force boats further out to sea to make a living so I would think that there very well may be a dangerous element to introducing it.

What it will do is give these muppets a whole new series of toys to play with , probably ensuring employing a few more Marine Biologists in the process .

As for my 'Episodes" although they have nothing to do with this subject what they did do was give me a really good window into the cuddly,fluffy taxpayer funded mentality of these bussed in Uni grad "experts" and as far as I can ascertain they are not working in the best interests of the Manx fishery but to their own research agenda . And believe you me from what I've seen there is plenty for them to research as quite a few of them appear to know next to f8ck all about the Manx fishing industry!

[GreyWolf]

Homarus you seem to be well informed on this subject and I have to say your posts are bang on.

The department indeed does keep employing empire building marine biologists who understand or care little about

Our Manx fishing industry, the local fleet has been in gradual decline for last decade, for no other reason than a continued failed fishery policy from D.E.F.A. ( thou everybody else around the UK rushes here to fish for the annual scallop/Queenie bonanza.)

The department also continues to worship at the shrine that is Bangor Uni which is very costly to us the taxpayer. This could be done a lot more in house as weve got enough on the payroll already, when will this government ever learn we need income generators like a sustainable local fishery not more pen pushing marine biologists trying to justify there existence.

[GD4ELI]

Homarus you seem to be well informed on this subject and I have to say your posts are bang on.

The department indeed does keep employing empire building marine biologists who understand or care little about

Our Manx fishing industry, the local fleet has been in gradual decline for last decade, for no other reason than a continued failed fishery policy from D.E.F.A. ( thou everybody else around the UK rushes here to fish for the annual scallop/Queenie bonanza.)

The department also continues to worship at the shrine that is Bangor Uni which is very costly to us the taxpayer. This could be done a lot more in house as weve got enough on the payroll already, when will this government ever learn we need income generators like a sustainable local fishery not more pen pushing marine biologists trying to justify there existence.

 

So your approach is 'Carry On Fishing' then moan when the stocks are depleted?

 

So, how much did the report from Bangor cost?

 

Fishing around the island isn't a patch on what it was 40-odd years ago, obviously it's all Gawne's fault - whoever is responsible it wasn't the fishermen.

[alibaba]

I've got some ideas about the manx fishing industry.

 

Maybe I'll share them with you some time.

[homarus]

Homarus you seem to be well informed on this subject and I have to say your posts are bang on.

The department indeed does keep employing empire building marine biologists who understand or care little about

Our Manx fishing industry, the local fleet has been in gradual decline for last decade, for no other reason than a continued failed fishery policy from D.E.F.A. ( thou everybody else around the UK rushes here to fish for the annual scallop/Queenie bonanza.)

The department also continues to worship at the shrine that is Bangor Uni which is very costly to us the taxpayer. This could be done a lot more in house as weve got enough on the payroll already, when will this government ever learn we need income generators like a sustainable local fishery not more pen pushing marine biologists trying to justify there existence.

Greywolf , you obviously like myself have a keen interest in our fisheries.

 

It just seems crazy to me that we have a wealth of knowledgeable experienced local fishermen who have spent lifetimes working in the Manx fisheries yet we need to employ UK and sometimes even Turkish based individuals to tell us about our local fishery and it's needs .

We owned(Still own I think?) a facility with a long proven track record which would have been perfect for growing high value species for release into inshore waters , but what did the government do? They closed it down to "save costs" and outsourced research work to Bangor University students along with employing more and more costly Marine biologists specialising in Sea-weed ,Lamprey European eels and other such high value species

To me it just seems like a pointless carousel of back slapping and bureaucracy, the first step should be to get rid of non essential staff , Marine Biologists etc ! And use the salary savings to concentrate on the fish farming side of things .

To be fair to DEFA they already have a good track record in King Scallop and Salmon husbandry , so I would have thought it would be a logical next step to progress to the husbandry other valuable inshore species .

 

As regards Lobster the easiest way to grow and protect the local fishery would have to be to pay the market rate to fishermen for Berried Females for 2 reasons .

1. There is nobody better than your own mother to look after a childs needs if you get my drift and she does not need civil servants or Marine biologists to tell her how to do it.

2. More importantly,and I'll get slaughtered for stating this , but there is a massive problem with the scrubbing of large egg bearing female Lobsters and there has been for many years (This is known by DEFA) especially later on in the year when the weather worsens and there are less Lobster on the grounds ,the problem is catching people doing it.

Using the savings from non-essential staff redundancies DEFA can re-direct some of the funds to the fishermen to bring the Berried Lobsters ashore to designated DEFA officers to be clearly marked and then returned to the sea,where they will continue to bear eggs for years,as with the tagging the fisherman will know he cannot land the lobster for sale.

This method is a common sense solution for everybody as policing is next to impossible to enforce on current fisheries regulations .

 

Plaice were also traditionally abundant on the inshore grounds before being wiped out by over fishing offshore and particularly gill-netting inshore where many juveniles were killed indiscriminately by netting .

I have to say the Gill net ban on the nursery grounds is a good thing and now it has been implemented we do not need extra closed areas as there is now no barrier to re-seeding for this species ?

 

Turbot (Which I do not know a lot about!) are or were already being husbanded at Derbyhaven so surely it would be the simplest thing to buy from the Hatchery for release into the wild?

 

Love to hear any informed comments !!

[GreyWolf]

Homarus your comments about berried lobsters are correct In my opinion,I know of one lobster/crab fisherman who rarely ever seen a notched lobster and started to notch all he caught in a unique way that identified them as his notches as he couldn't understand certain vessels catch rates. when he was discarding 50% plus of his catch at certain times of the year, then he was hearing some fishermen moaning about all these notched lobsters being caught, that says it all, the Derbyhaven turbot hatchery has been closed for a few years and is a waste of a good fish hatchery facility, getting back to berried hens the Northern Irish use to or may still do allow berried hens be landed notched and returned to the sea with a small payment to the fishermen.

GD4ELI , Google Bangor university and you'll find information regarding some IOM payments for surveys and am doubtful if those figures include the staff seconded here and now working for defa.(it's certainly not pocket money)

Regarding fish stocks they have never been as many scallops and queenies on the local fishing grounds going back 35years plus, that's why you'll see 30/40 boats berthed at Peel/PortSt Mary on any fine winters night including Cornish boats ( maybe they can bring you some kippers back) that doesn't show the full picture as many are anchored offshore allegedly. The Queenie fishery is now quoted and there are only so many licences issued, the hysteria about overfishing 2years ago was down to the marine biologists sample stations showing poor results thou there were plenty of queenies everywhere else,some fishermen who helped with science programme gave them info about fishing grounds they never knew existed knee deep in Queenies and they promptly closed those areas, to which some fisherman have stated never to assist them again and yes there are to many vessels engaged in the scallop fishery this does need to be addressed far to many nomadic vessels( cull at least 25/35 of those licences and you could have 6/7 more manxies instead bringing another million into local economy each year with little or no effect to overall existing effort) the prawn fishery is good thou not many local boats have quota and the entire Irish Sea herring fishery is in the hands of two Irish super trawlers who can scoop many hundreds of tons in one night.

Any angler will tell you there are vast packs of spurdogs since they banned commercial fishing for them which can decimate shoals of other fish also i agree there needs to more closed areas, habitat protection,nursery grounds, artificial reefs, as scallop dredging unmanaged does do untold damage to seabed so it's a fine balance between both catching sector and conservation I have first hand knowledge having been involved in both science and fishing commercially. Two posts on here in a week after being on here for over 7 years am exhausted I hope you found this post informative Homarus as I doubt anybody else is really bothered except my old mate Will Halsall.

[homarus]

I'm sure many people are interested Greywolf ,but do not have in depth knowledge of the fishing industry and what a hard game it can be to make a living in and that would partially explain although I'm not condoning the practice of "Scrubbing" Berried female Lobsters !

 

You also rightly point out that there are so many licences issued to off Island scalloping boats ,so for me the question would have to be how to monitor effectively what is caught in Manx Waters ,because at the moment I don't think there is any 100% reliable way of monitoring exactly what is caught as some off Island boats working inside our waters store up their catch in the hold and head back to the UK without landing on Island .

 

Do you think it would be workable to legislate that all boats fishing in Manx Waters should have to land their catch locally for logging purposes, and then charge a percentage of catch value that could go back into a conservation fund ? It seems fair to me that as the Manx taxpayer/Gov is spending a lot of money on re-seeding Manx waters etc!

 

I would offer that non local boats who are making big money from Manx Waters should either pay something or offer up a proportion of their catch towards the replentishment of the stock !