As David mentioned on Thursday, discards are complex.
Not catching the small / unwanted dish in the first place is the obvious choice, be it net size or better specific targetting.
In waned fish will always be an issue, but reducing its key.
I have a real issue with boats tha are allowed to fill up their boxes with say, small, haddock. Then ditch it all if they bring up a net of either bigger haddock or say bass that has greater value per pound.
Food chain species protections. It's strange that byecatch gets the emotive reaction it does when it's still in the marine fod chain whilst a million tonnes of sandeels being fed to pigs goes unnoticed...wierd.
Great point
Now that the flurry of interest has died down a bit, I'll add my three:
1. Closer liaison with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The Angling Trust has no real "teeth", so why not borrow the biggest out there. Improved links should improve capture and conviction rates, and the penalties of boat confiscation that the HMRC can impose are a real deterrent. Fining convicted "black fish" individuals doesn't act as a deterrent it seems compared to the profits that can be made, so make sure that the tax on the millions of pounds worth of illegal fish IS paid, and if it bankrupts them, then so be it. Also gives "quick wins", and publicity.
2. Increase the minimum mesh sizes of fixed nets set within 1 mile of shore. The size increase should be significant, and meaningful, with massive penalties for contravention. The "grandfather rights" might be enshrined in law, but the mesh size should be changeable by local by-laws. I believe mesh sizes should be increased to a level where catches are not economically viable, and the practice is stopped once and for all.
3. Make sandeels a quota species, and reduce the quota to zero. Any undersized, spiny, inedible and unwanted fish landed as an unfortunate by-catch from banning discards should be turned into fish meal instead. The food chain needs to be restored desperately, for the benefit of all predatory fish, birds, seals, dolphins etc.
Mike
PS. If I was allowed a fourth , I'd go with increasing focus on inshore beam trawling, and use every means possible to get this damaging practice stopped within 6 miles of the shore by ALL sizes of vessel.Being realistic, this might be the biggest battle of all, with the most to gain.
Note from David Mitchell which also applies to anyone else. Wessex region Angling Trust is changing with our agreement,
If he is interested I would like to suggest that Mike Fox from PBSBAC is approached to be involved and even possibly be the representative to sit on the national Fishery and Conservation committee. I talked to him after the meeting in Poole and he has since started some good threads on the PBSBAC forum. I've also attached Mike's email so you can see how proactive he was after the meeting. If you've got any thoughts on this then please let me know. (sorry to put this on you Mike)
Chris Holloway
Chairman AT Wessex
I'd be in favour of that for sure, id also like him to sit on the IFCA along side the other Rep
PJ
Hi Mike,
Good thread this one,
My top three are as follows -
1 Closed areas to protect breeding fish
2 Restrictions on beam trawling
3 No pair trawling in Uk waters [ or anywhere else for that matter]
Also feel strongly over sandeel fishing for fertilizer and other products when as you point out there is a viable option in dead bycatch already.
Mike
In principle a rep from our club would be good so long as that representation was inline with the clubs own position however, to be fully represenative of our club it would have to go before the committee for agreement. Just so everyone is aware we do already have a conservation rep and someone else who is interested in some kind of representation.
That said there is nothing to say that any angler belonging to pbsbac could not go without club backing as an independant representative of all anglers or some other organisation.
Martin
Just a note to clear up any misunderstanding about what AT are looking for, they are looking to have a Local Committee based within the IFCA area who sole interest is conservation, it would be made up of anglers, fishing trade, ie charter skippers and hopefully IFCA fisheries officers and the like, Anglers would not be representing there Club but hopefully would share a like mind, they would not be elected by the Wessex Region Committee but there Chairman would, they would also be able to elect them selves a rep to sit on the new national committee.