HFW and MPAs - your country needs you and your comments!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is in the process of launching a new campaign to highlight the discards issue.  He has commissioned a short video that explains what he wants the fishermen of the UK to tell him - read on for the full story:

My new series of Fish Fight is coming to Channel 4 in early 2013. I look at Marine Protected Areas in the UK and in other parts of the world, how they have benefited marine life and fish stocks, and what fishermen think of them. 

Now, I want to hear from more fishermen, from every part of the country. 

I want to know what you think about marine protected areas (also called 'marine conservation zones' in England and Wales). If you're a fisherman, do you support Marine Protected Areas? Do you think there are too many around the UK, or not enough? Do you have any questions you'd like the answer to? 

Please record a short video comment or question, and post it below by clicking 'Create a video response'. You'll need to create a Youtube account if you don't have one already. You can film yourself on a mobile phone, webcam, or camera. Please keep it short and snappy. Feel free to film yourself at sea, or with an interesting background, but make sure we can hear you clearly. Please state your name and where you are from at the start of the message. Videos will be moderated so please avoid swearing.  

Your video could make it into the new series of Fish Fight on Channel 4. I'm also going to be inviting a few of you to join me for a Google Hangout to discuss the issues in more detail. We need to be able to get in touch with you. 

Once you've uploaded a video, please send a quick email to 'hello@fishfight.net' with the subject line 'Video Response', including your name, address, phone number, and the title of the video you uploaded. 

You can also send me a comment or question by email if you are unable to upload a video. Thank you 

Please see our Privacy Policy here: http://www.fishfight.net/privacy-policy Category: Film & Animation License: Standard YouTube License

If anyone wants some adive or guidance on using Google+ which is a superb free service from Google - email me (Laurence Hartwell) at info@newlynharbour.co.uk

Yesterday's Blue Charity press conference held in Lorient.

Five members of the French media attended the meeting to publish the Blue Charity report held at the Pêche et Développement's head office in Lorient: - Ouest France - Le Télégramme - Le marin - Radio Bro gwened (Breton language radio) - a press officer of the Green Party EuropeGEcologie Les Verts.

 

First, an interview in French with Yan Giron, then in Breton with Alain Le Sann

Centre, Mrs Danielle Le Sauce, chair woman of the Collectif Pêche et Développement, on her right, Yan Giron and Alain Le Sann, authors of the report.

Harbingers of Doom! who pays for your tune?

There's much to be said for the ease with which information can be found on the web these days - in the world before Tm Berners-Lee (the Dorset chap whom we can thank for bringing the web to the world) tracking down a wide range of articles from far flung sources may have taken months or even years and cost a packet in time and postage. Today, a brief visit to the keyboard and a few short words with Dr Google and hey presto! the fishing and good causes answers they cometh.

In the wake of yesterday's Blue Charity post a simple search brought up the web site FishTruth.net - an American effort that covers similar ground across the pond - where it seems money can by you not love but control and influence over those bodies able to affect the lives of US fisherman!

Fairly Fishy Friday

Top Mousehole fisherman Cap'n Cod is squids in again...

wheras thew end of season Dory tally is pretty slack with theonly beam trawl trip onm the market this morning...

or man from Ocean just can't get enough Dovers it seems...

blood red gills on the cod - just the sign of quality you'd expect to see...

never mind the squid what about the bass?...

the last thing uou might see were you to disturb this big fella at sea!

NFFO Executive at Work in Newlyn

The NFFO Executive Committee met recently in Newlyn to review the Federation’s policies in the run up to the December Council and beyond. 

Cod Plan: The Executive agreed that the Commission’s proposals for an interim cod regime, pending replacement of the discredited EU Cod Management Plan, represented real progress in the direction advocated by the NFFO, RACs and others 

Flaws: The Commission’s proposals still however contain a number of flaws which need to be ironed out, chiefly the proposed prohibition of quota transfers to and from Catch Quota vessels fitted with CCTV cameras; this mistaken policy, based on a misunderstanding of quota management arrangements in the member states, has the capacity to derail the catch quota trials if not removed 

 Fully Documented Fisheries: The Executive agreed that various types of fully documented fisheries offered a way to escape from blunt and excessively restrictive management measures and approved the Federation’s involvement in a number of initiatives to deepen and broaden the types of full documentation available: CCTV, observers, risk-based approached focused on catch sampling etc. 

VMS/E-Logs: It was agreed to write again to the Minister, Richard Benyon, highlighting flaws in the Governments approach to the requirement to fit VMS and e-logbooks. In particular, the Federation is critical of the way that the industry has been again exposed to an exploitative single supplier arrangements , rushed implementation and a failure to take advantage of the derogation available for vessels between 12m and 15m. 

 South East: A meeting of the Federation’s South East Committee in Rye had been postponed because of a bereavement and would be rearranged for the New Year Economic Link: The Executive agreed to respond to the forthcoming consultation on economic link requirements to ensure that they are fair and proportionate 

 TACs and Quotas: The Federation’s extensive work on TACs and quotas for next year was approved, along with plans for the December Council 

 CFP Reform: An update on the Federation’s work on CFP reform was received, including: 

•  Lobbying of the EU Parliament 
• A recent meeting with the relevant Defra officials 
• A presentation at a recent Westminster conference 
• Work within the regional advisory councils 

Domestic Quota Reform: It was agreed that given the impasse that appeared to have been reached on progress towards an equitable resolution of the under-10m quota issue, it was timely to again press for the adoption of the Federation’s balanced multi-faceted approach discussed with the Minister earlier in the year. 

 Industry Reputation: The Federation’ fight-back against distorted, lazy and dishonest media portrayals of the fishing industry was approved by the Executive but concern was expressed that a more concerted effort was required. A programme of media engagement based on sound evidence, balanced coverage and recognition of the industry’s role in providing food security was approved. A collaborative approach with other industry bodings including Seafish was envisaged. 

 Regional Advisory Councils: The Executive: 

•  Considered that the RACs had been one of the most significant developments arising from the last CFP reform and had exceeded expectations in terms of the quality and maturity of advice provided and as a platform for cooperation between stakeholders and fisheries scientists 
• Recognised that in a regionalised CFP, RACs would play an even more prominent and effective role 
• Approved representations on the future of RACS made by the NFFO at a major consultative meeting held in Brussels chaired by the Director General Reviewed a number of areas of 

RAC work including: EU Cod Plan Irish Sea and West of Scotland cod audit and fuly documentation respectively Nephrops Functional Units Celtic Sea long term management plan Pelagic RAC: TAC and harvesting advice/international negotiations Long Distance RAC: international negotiations 

• Marine Protected Areas: The Federation’s work was reviewed and approved on:
• Changing policy on European marine sites to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Habitats Directive
• Dogger Bank Management Measures
• The MPA Fishing Coalition 

Safety and Training: Progress towards the bulk-buying and distribution of low cost personal flotation devices to NFFO members was approved. It was anticipated that these would be available early in the New Year. It was agreed to work with Seafish on the PDF distribution project and in evaluation of the important role played by levy funding for training 


Shellfish The Executive discussed Defra’s extensive response to the Federation’s shellfish policy paper. It was agreed to convene a meeting of the NFFO Shellfish Committee early in the New Year to develop a response on issues such as latent capacity, stock assessments and minimum landing sizes 

Subsea Cables: A memorandum of understanding with the cable industry on co-existence of the two industries was approved and warmly welcomed by the Executive Next Meeting The Executive will next meet on the 24th January, in York.

Cefas Endeavour blog latest - Heading for Home via......

As promised after yesterdays excitement I have passed the blog duties to Lavinia and Connal.

I am Lavinia, a PhD student from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. My project concerns bio-physical coupling at tidal mixing fronts off SW UK. Briefly, I am investigating how persistent fronts in this region influence the abundance and distribution of marine organisms across various trophic levels starting from the plankton up to top predators.

Although I am not directly associated with CEFAS, I joined the Peltic cruise as part of a collaboration with scientist (amongst others from BAS, CEFAS, NOCS, PML), who have an interest in the linkages between the physical environment and the marine biota. The Peltic cruise is one of the very few aiming to collected data on all aspects of the marine environment, including the oceanography site (see Elisa's contribution the other day), plankton, fish and megavertebrates. I am interested in this unique data set and what it can tell us about the ecosystem functioning in this area. In addition, we will be using data collected during this survey to aid the design and analysis of a glider survey in summer 2013.

So far I have been enjoying the survey a great deal. This is my first scientific cruise and I am still learning new things every day. I have been involved in the data collection of all aspects of the cruise, making my shifts quite diverse. Also, it is exciting to see, how the survey is organized, the different teams work together, and how everything comes together in the end.

Lavinia

Hi, I'm Conall  and I'm from County Galway in Ireland. I am not a blogger, Rob has put me up to this so please bear with me!

 I joined the Cefas Endeavour as an observer at the start of this cruise. My job as an observer mainly consists of watching what goes on and writing a report on the research cruise in which I include the aims, methods and findings of the cruise. Thankfully, this is not as boring as it sounds!

The scientific team has given me every opportunity to get stuck in and involved in nearly every aspect of the cruise. Everyone is kept busy thanks to a shift system. It took a while to get used to working the graveyard shift but now Paul, Joana and I work like a well oiled machine*.

Work consists of taking plankton samples along with water samples at pre-determined stations. This is sometimes interrupted by an hour or two of sorting through whatever fish we catch in the trawl. I have been told that sprat, pilchard and anchovy are all different fish but they all just look the same to me! We haven't had much luck with the fishing side of things but hopefully once the gear gets dialed in we will start to see some full cod ends!

The weather hasn't been great and I think that's the only thing I have to complain about! The entire scientific and ships crew are very friendly and have made life on board the ship very enjoyable. This is in no small part helped by the great food that gets plated up in front of us daily!

All in all the experience has been terrific so far. I'd like to thank the Cefas team for having me onboard and including me in their work. It has given me huge insight into what goes on onboard a research cruise and I am thoroughly enjoying it. We are currently half way through the cruise and I'm looking forward to the days ahead!*Open to interpretation.

Conall

We have now completed all of our planned survey transects and we are now heading back to the Scillies to pick up any plankton and rosette stations that we could not mange last week. See map below.

Once they have been done we will heading East to Mounts Bay and Eddystone and Lyme Bay looking for any good fish marks to fish over.

Rob

The Cefas Endeavour now does a great job keeping fishermen and others right up to date with her research trip - see the rest of the Poseidon Pelagic Survey posts on the blog here. Keep up the good work guys and thank you for taking the time off watch to complete the postings during the voyage!

Blue Charity - first reactions from France!

The French newspaper Ouset France quickly picked up on the breaking story from Pecehe Developpment.

The "tutelage" of fishermen

The report focuses, among others, the intentions of wealthy U.S. foundations that support the "tutelage" of fishermen. They have their relay Europe and weigh according Pech e and Development on the guidelines of the Common Fisheries Policy.

The demonization of fishermen

Their goal, according to Fisheries and Development: "  Weakening the weight of fishermen and their presence at sea to free space for much more lucrative activities, tourism, energy, various extractions. For this , asserts still Fishing and development must demonize fishing. '