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| Prawn trawler, Mia Jane W, formely the Nicoals Jeremy built in Concarneu France by Chantier Pirou. |
There's some fine weather in Scottish waters for the prawn boys today!
Friday 1 March 2013
Fine weather for the Scottish prawners!
There's some fine weather in Scottish waters for the prawn boys today!
Good haddock fishing in the North Sea
A skipper Jimmy put it, " A bonny haul of haddocks, no discards there!"
Video shot three days ago aboard the Scottish white fish trawler, Ocean Venture.
The boat landed to Peterhead market this morning where, according to skipper John Buchan, " the price for haddock was about 30 to 40 per cent less than this time last year, bigger sized haddocks are nearly 1/2 what they were then, cod wee bit better today but still not expensive".
This was the landing sheet for a very busy Peterhead fish market this morning:
The boat landed to Peterhead market this morning where, according to skipper John Buchan, " the price for haddock was about 30 to 40 per cent less than this time last year, bigger sized haddocks are nearly 1/2 what they were then, cod wee bit better today but still not expensive".
This was the landing sheet for a very busy Peterhead fish market this morning:
The Truth, a Good Story, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight
1st March 2013
By Bertie Armstrong, chief executive, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation
Fishing is a serious business, not least because it quite literally helps to feed the world. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) tells us in its biennial 2012 report on World Fisheries and Aquaculture that the proportion of the world’s protein supplied by fish products caught and farmed is 16.6%. For our world population of 7.5 billion heading towards 9 billion by the mid-millennium that source of food supply is important and must be sustained. At the moment, this is actually happening with production up from the 2010 report. What is equally important is that our fisheries are managed sustainably. Achieving this aim is a complicated business, requiring scientific fact to guide responsible management decisions. This is what has been happening for the most part for northern European fisheries based in the north-east Atlantic, with the majority of assessed stocks now recovering. Indeed, fishing mortality is at its lowest level since 2000.
The Scottish fleet has contracted by over 60% in the last 10 years in what has proved a very painful restructuring period for the fishing industry. The Scottish fishing industry has also pioneered a whole range of initiatives in recent years to help conserve stocks including technical modifications to fishing gear that have dramatically reduced discards and real-time area closures to protect nursery grounds for fish. This is why we would really like the public to have a realistic view of the fishing industry, which is informed by fact. [Did HFW even mention this in the HFF Series 3? ed]
Unfortunately, this has most resoundingly not been the case with the latest Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight TV series where it would appear that the public are being well and truly hoodwinked.
In the first episode of this current series we were shown metal contraptions being dragged by tractors across sandcastles on a Weston-Super-Mare beach as a crude illustration what trawling supposedly does to the seabed. Had the programme’s attractive sand sculpture been constructed beneath the high water mark the first tide would have done a much more comprehensive demolition job on it – the demonstration was literally farcical. But the starkest illustration of programme quality came from a British Antarctic Survey scientist, who was an unwitting contributor to the Fish Fight when it went to the southern ocean to look at the krill fishery. The fishery is damaging the ecosystem was the implication drawn by the programme. Well, no actually it isn’t. Cue Dr Ruth Brown from the British Antarctic Survey and her widely publicised letter to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall that was written after she saw how her area of expertise and the fishery were portrayed in the programme. In her letter she reports from a definitive scientific study the facts that the fishery takes a krill tonnage less than 0.5% of that taken by natural predators. In other words, it is insignificant and to stop it for conservation purposes – the programme’s implication - would be the equivalent to ordering cessation of paperclip use in the UK to avoid making the national debt any worse. I recommend that you read Dr Brown’s letter to see the full list of evasions and distortions, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s reply for the central explanation that: “It is important to keep the story telling of a TV documentary clear and simple”. I disagree. I think it is much more important for a TV documentary to have an honest narrative.
Of course, the Fish Fight is colourful and has to this point kept Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and by way of a by-catch, the River Cottage empire, in the public eye. He is well sponsored – view the website of the philanthropic body the Oak Foundation and you’ll see that his film company KEO involved in the programme received just shy of half a million dollars in 2011 for such work. And I don’t imagine that Channel 4 is screening it for nothing. But wouldn’t it be much better and more productive for the well-being of our fisheries if such funding went into collaborative research and other projects that actually involve the fishing industry? In summary, the Fish Fight is lightweight, populist advocacy scantily dressed as science. But that doesn’t help sustainable fishing – perversely it does the reverse.
We are hugely concerned that it provides unwarranted criticism that affects our general reputation in the eyes of the public. And if you have any questions about the industry or would like pointing in the direction of independent scientific evidence, please just ask us – www.sff.co.uk. And for the Southern Ocean, ask the neutral, objective, impeccably qualified people of the British Antarctic Survey.
Link to Dr Ruth Brown’s letter at:
By Bertie Armstrong, chief executive, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation
Fishing is a serious business, not least because it quite literally helps to feed the world. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) tells us in its biennial 2012 report on World Fisheries and Aquaculture that the proportion of the world’s protein supplied by fish products caught and farmed is 16.6%. For our world population of 7.5 billion heading towards 9 billion by the mid-millennium that source of food supply is important and must be sustained. At the moment, this is actually happening with production up from the 2010 report. What is equally important is that our fisheries are managed sustainably. Achieving this aim is a complicated business, requiring scientific fact to guide responsible management decisions. This is what has been happening for the most part for northern European fisheries based in the north-east Atlantic, with the majority of assessed stocks now recovering. Indeed, fishing mortality is at its lowest level since 2000.
The Scottish fleet has contracted by over 60% in the last 10 years in what has proved a very painful restructuring period for the fishing industry. The Scottish fishing industry has also pioneered a whole range of initiatives in recent years to help conserve stocks including technical modifications to fishing gear that have dramatically reduced discards and real-time area closures to protect nursery grounds for fish. This is why we would really like the public to have a realistic view of the fishing industry, which is informed by fact. [Did HFW even mention this in the HFF Series 3? ed]
Unfortunately, this has most resoundingly not been the case with the latest Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight TV series where it would appear that the public are being well and truly hoodwinked.
In the first episode of this current series we were shown metal contraptions being dragged by tractors across sandcastles on a Weston-Super-Mare beach as a crude illustration what trawling supposedly does to the seabed. Had the programme’s attractive sand sculpture been constructed beneath the high water mark the first tide would have done a much more comprehensive demolition job on it – the demonstration was literally farcical. But the starkest illustration of programme quality came from a British Antarctic Survey scientist, who was an unwitting contributor to the Fish Fight when it went to the southern ocean to look at the krill fishery. The fishery is damaging the ecosystem was the implication drawn by the programme. Well, no actually it isn’t. Cue Dr Ruth Brown from the British Antarctic Survey and her widely publicised letter to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall that was written after she saw how her area of expertise and the fishery were portrayed in the programme. In her letter she reports from a definitive scientific study the facts that the fishery takes a krill tonnage less than 0.5% of that taken by natural predators. In other words, it is insignificant and to stop it for conservation purposes – the programme’s implication - would be the equivalent to ordering cessation of paperclip use in the UK to avoid making the national debt any worse. I recommend that you read Dr Brown’s letter to see the full list of evasions and distortions, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s reply for the central explanation that: “It is important to keep the story telling of a TV documentary clear and simple”. I disagree. I think it is much more important for a TV documentary to have an honest narrative.
Of course, the Fish Fight is colourful and has to this point kept Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and by way of a by-catch, the River Cottage empire, in the public eye. He is well sponsored – view the website of the philanthropic body the Oak Foundation and you’ll see that his film company KEO involved in the programme received just shy of half a million dollars in 2011 for such work. And I don’t imagine that Channel 4 is screening it for nothing. But wouldn’t it be much better and more productive for the well-being of our fisheries if such funding went into collaborative research and other projects that actually involve the fishing industry? In summary, the Fish Fight is lightweight, populist advocacy scantily dressed as science. But that doesn’t help sustainable fishing – perversely it does the reverse.
We are hugely concerned that it provides unwarranted criticism that affects our general reputation in the eyes of the public. And if you have any questions about the industry or would like pointing in the direction of independent scientific evidence, please just ask us – www.sff.co.uk. And for the Southern Ocean, ask the neutral, objective, impeccably qualified people of the British Antarctic Survey.
Link to Dr Ruth Brown’s letter at:
A fairly fishy Friday!
Magnifique monk!...
louster of a ling...
humungus hake...
pristine pollack...
c'mon the blues...
out of the water for the first time since being launched last year, the crabber, Emma Louise...
still in port two tugs on passage...
the survey vessel Chartwell lays outside the new beam trawler Sapphire II almost set for her maiden Newlyn voyage - Easter's coming Mike!...
with the demise of all but one of the old wooden MFV sidewinder's its got to be crew - must be close though!!....
skipper Alan Dwan on the Ajax considers the situation...
classic Volvo rally car!
Thursday 28 February 2013
Do you know your fish?
How well do you know your fish?
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| To Morrison's fishmonger - that's what it says on the label - this is not cod - c'mon Morrison's! |
Spotted for sale on the wet fish counter in Peterhead, the UK's top fishing port.
Immediate response from one blog reader:
@ThroughTheGaps absolutely amazing. I don't know if a man can laugh or cry!
Through the Gpas supports John's Fish Fight - John's Fish Fight which has been set up to encourage the consumer to eat more Scottish Haddock. Ocean Venture's haddock are MSC, with full traceability straight from the North Sea.
Despite the public being led to believe that there are no cod left in the North Sea, the boat is currently experiencing very heavy cod fishing...
one of the boats featured in the Trawlermen series on the BBC, this shot shows her fishroom literally full to the deck with cod - after only a few days at sea.
Farewell to my industry - a letter from the heart
26 February, 2013 - Editor’s Note:
The following is a letter from Mike Lindquist, industry veteran and long time friend of Diversified Business Communications, publisher of SeafoodSource and SeaFood Business.
- See more at: http://www.seafoodsource.com/newsarticledetail.aspx?id=19664#sthash.1zSxmTX8.dpuf
The following is a letter from Mike Lindquist, industry veteran and long time friend of Diversified Business Communications, publisher of SeafoodSource and SeaFood Business.
Pure and simple, I am going to miss you; the wildness, the half million dollar deals with a verbal PO, the "Drink Like A Fish" parties, watching our baby industry grow up and friendships that began 35 years ago.
In the summer of 1978, I got "the phone call" from a close college friend working on a salmon processor in Bristol Bay. If I could be at Clark's Point on Bristol Bay within 24 hours, he had a job waiting for me on the salmon processor. I was 19 years old and the great adventure, within the industry that I became deeply committed to, had begun.
I worked for six springs and summers leaving Seattle on salmon and herring processing vessels, primarily the Aleutian Dragon plying the waters between Cold Bay and Norton sound, paying my way through college. The wildness, opportunities and great money steered me to Japanese studies and international marketing at the University of Oregon between seasons. My internship was in Tokyo and I graduated with only the seafood industry in focus.
I landed my dream job at Washington Fish and Oyster (Ocean Beauty Corporate). I had great mentors for the fast paced Alaskan production of fresh and frozen that we moved throughout the USA, Japan and Europe. A few years later I was offered a great opportunity with JJ Camillo in San Diego and had the privilege of working for Maurice Camillo, one of the true gentleman of our industry. He and his close-knit group of business buddies, schooled me on reputation, integrity, and setting your sights high.
It's been an industry that I have embraced; the smell of fish is the smell of money. I've had the opportunity to watch my friends go from salesmen to company owners and leaders and small companies become giant multinationals.
Recently I was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma and a very short life expectancy. The seafood industry has been my world, and as I say goodbye I would like to give you my bucket list:
1. Shun the scum in our industry; starve them out of business and say good riddance. In order for our industry to play even, we need the rotten apples discarded. 2. Make the various NGOs accountable to you rather than accountable to them. Their methods, testing and certification needs to be standardized. 3. Create national marketing for seafood in a team effort across all fisheries to move our industry to a more highly visible protein sector. 4. Embrace our industry, get involved, enjoy all of it as it's one of the few truly ever-changing markets that is sometimes crazy, full of opportunities and on the rise.
I have decided to spend the remaining time with my family; to travel with them, make great meals together, drink good wine and enjoy each day. I am hoping you also can include some this while you perfect the “art of the deal” in your busy world.
Best Fishes,
Michael Lindquist
- See more at: http://www.seafoodsource.com/newsarticledetail.aspx?id=19664#sthash.1zSxmTX8.dpuf
Less than 1%? - get your facts right HFF!
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
With a Coastline of over 12,000 km the UK has a large marine area, rich in marine life and natural resource. The UK Government vision is for ‘clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas’ and to this effect the UK has signed up to international agreements that aim to establish an ‘ecologically coherent’ network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
In the UK, MPAs have primarily been set up to help conserve or recover nationally significant or representative examples of marine biodiversity, including threatened or declining species and habitats of European and national importance.
Currently, 7.8% of UK waters out to the 200 nautical mile fishery limit (or median line, as applicable) have some form of protection under Natura 2000 designation.
The current proposed new sites would raise that figure to just over 22%, with the likelihood that more will come later as the data improves and objectives are clarified.
Our map below shows the areas already protected and are proposed as part of this first tranche proposal.
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