New ex-French netter steams for Newlyn

 

Not enough water in the gaps is keeping Mr Hosking and the boys from getting in Through the Gaps after their long steam from Lorient...

 

Two and a half hours to go...

The AIS tracks the boat after leaving Lorient.

There's a new netter heading for Newlyn! The Stelissa II is a gill netter from Lorient. She is a being brought home by the same family that own and skipper the Silver Dawn.

Government seeks views on proposed Marine Conservations Zones

The Government is pressing ahead with its plans to create Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) to protect the UK’s rich marine environment, Natural Environment Minister Richard Benyon announced today.

A consultation outlining the proposals for the first set of sites has been launched today, and will give coastal communities and those with an interest in the marine environment, the opportunity to have a say in its future.

The Government is proposing to designate around 10,900 km² of marine habitat in the first phase next year. The 31 proposed sites provide a home to a variety of animals and plants, such as corals, jellyfish and seahorses. The area, roughly three times the size of Cornwall, will mean these are all given greater protection.

Launching the consultation, Richard Benyon said:

“The UK has one of the world’s richest marine environments, and we need to make sure it stays that way. This is why we are creating a network of marine protected areas.

“We have to get this right. Designating the right sites in the right places, so that our seas are sustainable, productive and healthy, and to ensure that the right balance is struck between conservation and industry.

“We have carefully considered the evidence, and these 31 sites are the ones that are suitable to be designated next year.”

The proposed sites will to contribute to a network of marine protected areas and will complement the 8.4% of UK waters and 24% of English inshore waters already within protected areas.

The consultation will seek views on proposals for the designation of MCZs in English inshore and English and Welsh offshore waters.

It presents an opportunity for those with an interest to make their views known, and to submit any new evidence that should be considered and includes proposals on how the proposed sites will be treated.

The consultation also provides clarification on:

• reference areas. These will not be included in the first phase but will be subject to further review; and
• the treatment of MCZs at different stages in the designation process in licensing decisions. To assist developers in the marine area we have clarified how we consider that developments should be treated in or near MCZs so that economic growth is not inhibited unnecessarily.

Designating MCZs to contribute to a network of Marine Protected Areas is a Government commitment under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 to ensure that our marine environment is protected for years to come.

Notes

The consultation will run until 31 March 2013 and can be found here: www.defra.gov.uk/consult/2012/12/13/marine-conservation-zones-1212/.

Four stakeholder-led Regional MCZ Projects were established to recommend the possible sites: Irish Seas Conservation Zones (Irish Seas), Finding Sanctuary (South West waters), Balanced Seas (South East waters) and Net Gain (North Sea) managed by the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (the SNCBs: Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee). These brought together stakeholders with interests in marine industries, marine ecology and conservation, and the regulators.

The final reports from the Regional MCZ Projects can be viewed here: http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/2080291.

The SNCB advice can be viewed here: www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/marine/mpa/mcz/advice.aspx.

Irish prawn trawler arrested on the Smalls and escorted to Newlyn

MARIA MAGDALENA, the Irish prawn trawler from Galway arrested and escorted to Newlyn, Cornwall for alleged fishing offences....

the boats was fishing for prawns (langoustine) on the Smalls ground using 120mm mesh (the legal minimum size is 110)...

she is an ex-French trawler from Guilvenec....

Skipper David O'Neill, leans on the rail of his boat.

The Smalls grounds for langoustine.

View Well known fishing grounds in the Western Approaches in a larger map

How Catch Share Programs Benefit Small Scale Fishermen

It surprises many that local, small scale and artisanal fishing communities thrive under a well-designed system of secure and equitably distributed access privileges. Yet these are the very fishermen for whom catch shares first evolved. ‘Modern’ programs have roots in traditions of coastal communities who found practical ways to reduce conflict and waste while fairly allocating and valuing finite resources. Political economists and anthropologists like the late Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom have documented their spontaneous emergence in diverse fisheries. Each is unique; all share certain patterns. These include clearly defined boundaries, known rules, recognized tenure, self-imposed sanctions, customary laws, internal exchanges.

Fiji’s fishing groups formed goligoi, self-organized and self-enforced tenure system still active today. Japan’s ainu organize native fisheries in ways that date to the feudal era. Spatial, territorial and place-based catch share systems evolved globally for the benefit of small scale fishermen from Chile to the Gulf of Maine to the lakeshores of Eastern Africa to the seashores of India.

These deep and wide examples of ancient practice ensure catch shares can build on a secure foundation of tradition. They provide a better opportunity than top-down regulatory systems for equitable distribution of access to fishery resources. Instead of rewarding those few blessed with capital, catch shares hold opportunity for most stakeholders without. Indeed, smart and participatory catch share design can – and already does – ensure equity for all by protecting and promoting certain small scale constituents as part of the overriding program goal, right from the start.

Legitimate concerns about ‘fair’ allocation tend to be a legacy from the old broken regulatory system, in which equity was lacking, and where small-scale local fishermen had to keep racing for a dwindling slice, of a shrinking supply base, against larger and faster vessels from a distant port. Under open access, Cape Cod’s hook and line fishermen were failing to compete with better equipped trawlers, but a secure and scientifically accountable quota created a sector cooperative: one that leveled the playing field.

Catch shares are more democratic. Collective management allocates privileges of, by, for, and within communities as a way to redress past inequality. Hence under catch share programs, native Maori now hold tenure over half of New Zealand’s fish ; remote Native Americans along the coast of our largest State hold a fifth of all fish under catch shares in Alaska’s Community Development Quota. Even quota trading rules often benefit small scale fishermen. Alaskans designed their catch share exchanges for halibut and sablefish so that smaller-boat fishermen can purchase or lease shares from exiting larger vessels at a fair price – but not vice versa. Other catch shares set aside quota for the community, holding back shares as a social safety net for certain at risk fishermen as a buffer to build local resilience to external climatic and market forces.

Rather than break with the past, catch shares embrace proven traditions, restoring what for centuries has worked to benefit the indigenous experience of local fishermen with an equitable stake in the long term value of their fishery. As with fish, so with the small scale families who fish them: what robust health the rise of big, industrial global forces nearly eradicated, catch shares put firmly back into place.

Article courtesy of EDF.

French trawler off Castletownbeare aground

French trawler off Castletownbeare waits to be refloated tonight at high water.

She didn't make it between the new port and starboard channel nav lights and went aground beside Came point hotel should re-float ok

3x navy vessels standing by 2 assist French vessel aground in Castletownbere, no immediate risk to life and plan to refloat at 1am with tide

Photo courtesy of:

Niall Duffy

@WestCorkPhoto

http://www.westcorkphoto.com Press & PR Photographer based in West Cork.South West Correspondent for Irish Skipper. Mob:086-8937916

Sylvia Earle's TED Prize wish to protect our oceans

Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle shares astonishing images of the ocean -- and shocking stats about its rapid decline -- as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet.

Sylvia Earle has been at the frontier of deep ocean exploration for four decades. She's led more than 50 undersea expeditions, and she's been an equally tireless advocate for our oceans and the creatures who live in them.

The Discard Action Group (DAG)

Putting the coming discard debate in ton context.

Seafish established the Discard Action Group as an 'issue forum' to discuss and help resolve industry-wide problems.

Mike Park, Scottish White Fish Producers Association and a Seafish Board member, chairs this group which is representative of the whole seafood supply chain. The group meets three to four times a year.

The DAG was set up im May 2011 with this set of terms of reference:

• The Group acts as an ‘issue forum’ playing a pivotal role in mediating a common 

approach to discard issues affecting the whole seafood supply chain. It is the 

only cross-industry group solely addressing the issue of discards. 

• The aim of the DAG is to improve understanding of the phenomenon of 

discarding; to explore the means by which discarding can be reduced to the 

minimum level practicable; to develop action plans to accelerate developments in 

specified areas; and to act as a hub to provide factual information that is both 

accessible and understandable.  

• The Discard Action Group (DAG) is autonomous, however its activities are 

reported to the Seafish-facilitated Common Language Group. Seafish provides 

the secretariat for the DAG. All information produced by the group should be 

placed in the public domain. 

• The DAG will typically meet three to four times per year to share information and 

monitor progress of activities. The participants will determine how often the group 

should meet based on current need and will also monitor the continuing role and 

effectiveness of the activities of the group. 

• Participants at DAG meetings should be representative of all relevant interests 

across the UK seafood supply chain: 

-  the catching sector 

-  the whole UK seafood supply chain 

-  non-governmental organisations 

-  legislators 

-  regulators 

-  technologists and scientists 

-  other bodies pursuing this goal 

and, where appropriate, the media. 

• The DAG should help each sector to understand the perspectives of others and 

build consensus on issues relating to discarding. 

• The DAG should define and promote best practice in discard reduction.  

• The DAG should look for novel ways of incentivising the adoption of best 

practice. 

• The DAG should inform its participants and the wider community of new 

developments on an international, as well as national basis, acknowledging the 

fact we can learn from best practice from around the world. 

• The DAG should maintain a webpage, making current information on the topic 

and all the meeting minutes available.