Through the Gaps! - Newlyn Fishing News Cornwall UK fish commercial fishing fish cooking and art

Friday 26 April 2013

Net drum parts and information wanted!

26 April 09:40

Can anyone help? I'm looking for a gear box for a net drum. I don't know much about it. Other than they were American boxes. One was replaced aboard here with a 3 / 1 box rather that 24 / 1 .. Tis dangerous to the point of unworkable !! They're looe type split drums. If anyone can put me on the scent of a box be very much appreciated .. Thanks.

Fish - The Next Fight

Tom Heap meets the activists hoping to bring an end to illegal fishing by tackling the problem head on: by getting in the way of pirate fishermen. The Black Fish is a relatively new NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) who aim to stop the fishing of juvenile Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean and prevent to use of illegal drift nets - by cutting them. Drift nets were banned by the United Nations in 1992 but they are still used illegally around the world.

The Black Fish are soon to launch unmanned reconnaissance aircraft in the Mediterranean to monitor illegal fishing and find out exactly who is doing it and where. Tom also meets campaigners who believe that the only way for fish stocks to recover is for a ten year moratorium to be imposed, allowing species of fish to become plentiful once more.

Presenter: Tom Heap
Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts

Use the QR code to link direct to the BBC Radio 4 web page.

Thursday 25 April 2013

NGOs ‘should shift focus to helping fishermen implement policy’

After playing a significant role in common fisheries policy (CFP) reform, environmental campaign groups should now put their resources into working with fishermen, industry expert Mogens Schou told Undercurrent News.

CFP reform was in large part initiated by NGOs, who still have a role to play according to Schou, the former Danish ministers’ adviser for fisheries and aquaculture, and current chair of the EU Commission’s standing committee on agricultural research for fish.

“One result [of the CFP] is a disruptive change in management, and for that to work you have to move from lobbying in the corridors of the EU to implementing at sea,” he said.

“For reform to work in the common interest and reach full potential, the NGOs should change financial resources from lobbying to helping fishermen implement new policy.”

He pointed to the WWF as an example of an NGO which, in some EU member states, has adopted this constructive approach, before describing the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) as the NGO which has most strongly embarked on this course.

EDF has found that the most successful way of working towards fishery management is by consulting fishermen in a participatory process, Britt Groosman, program director for EDF in the EU, told Undercurrent.

“The way to find that out is to talk to all the stakeholders and see what everyone’s concerns are, to try and find a way to get environmental improvement with the buy-in of all the stakeholders involved,” she said.

“Because the more you impose your will on people the more you’ll end up with control issues. People don’t like being told what to do and they’ll try to get around rules.”

The fishermen are the people who implement the policy on the water, and have the real influence, she said.

EDF is relatively new to operating in the EU, and currently works on the ground in Sweden, Spain and the UK.

It acts as a bridge between the fishermen and Brussels, said Groosman, taking the ideas of the fishermen to the policy makers to find the solutions best for everybody – with a focus on keeping the management flexible and not imposing too many rules which apply across every fishery without consideration of differences.

‘Win-win’

EDF’s work with companies such as McDonald’s and FedEx means it is used to finding the ‘win-win’ situation – the solution which helps the environment and improves the bottom line for those involved.

“Very often it works well, because it’s energy efficient requirements, which just save money,” Groosman pointed out.

“What we do is often one of two things: either a voluntary change, in which case you’re going to have to find that win-win because they’re not going to do it if it negatively influences their bottom line.”

“Or, if it’s a regulation, it becomes ‘look, you have to reach this target, let’s try and find the best, cheapest and most efficient way for you to reach it.’”

CFP reform is going to see quite strict environmental controls, so the task for EDF will be to work with fisheries and governments on the framework within which fishermen have to work, she said.

Every fishery goes into this process with different goals, said Groosman, pointing to the criticism which the Danish individual transferable quota fishery received.

“It was criticised for the job losses that came with its concentration, but that was the goal of that fishery’s change. The government wanted to reduce capacity,” she said.

“Every fishery’s different and every one will have different targets, social and economic. Right now Brussels is setting the environmental targets – it will be up to the fishery managers to determine the social and economic targets, and often there’ll be conflict there. That’s why the stakeholder process is so important, to ensure transparency.”

NGOs ‘should shift focus to helping fishermen implement policy’ | Undercurrent News undercurrentnews.com

Marine Report Tells Cautionary Tale for Scottish Government

SCOTLAND, UK - A parliamentary report highlighting a chronic “lack of clarity” with English marine protection plans sends a strong signal to the Scottish Government about its proposals for a marine protected area network to safeguard Scotland’s marine biodiversity.

The report by the cross-party UK Science and Technology Committee describes the “frustration” and “anxiety” for industry and other stakeholders caused during efforts to create Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) in England. The consultation is being viewed by many Scottish stakeholders as a stark lesson about the potential pitfalls for Scotland’s Marine Protected Area project if not implemented robustly and comprehensively.

The UK report says Defra “shifted the goalposts” during the process regarding the level of scientific evidence required, which undermined public confidence in the MCZs. It also underlined the continued confusion over proposed management measures and Defra’s failure to properly examine the socio-economic benefits of MPAs. Research published in November 2012 found that a network of Scottish MPAs could provide benefits to Scotland to the tune of £10 billion, and potentially more.

Members of Scottish Environment LINK’s marine taskforce are now urging the Scottish Government to learn from the recommendations in the report and ensure that the Scottish process is clearer and less protracted.

A consultation on protected areas in England concluded last month, but Scotland’s 16-week consultation is due to commence this summer.

Calum Duncan, Convenor of Scottish Environment LINK’s marine taskforce said: “It’s unfortunate in many ways, but we Scots can learn a lot from the English MCZ process. It is essential that we follow the science. The Scottish Government’s own advice has proposed 33 new Scottish MPAs to help rescue our seas. Further work will also be needed to complete protection for seabirds, cetaceans, common skate and others species. This is urgent advice - our seas are in a declining and degraded state and we need to kickstart their recovery. We cannot delay protection as has happened in England.

"It is amazing to think that Scottish seas make up 61 per cent of UK waters, and we now need to fulfill our responsibility for protecting this share. Experience from across the globe has shown that MPAs provide economic and social benefits that far outweigh the costs of designation and management. The Scottish MPA network can be a world-leading project which recovers and safeguards our most precious natural resource for the long-term public benefit. The alternative is a public consultative mess that serves nobody’s long-term interests.”

Full story courtesy of the Fish Site news desk.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Kevin Penney - Newlyn punt fisherman

Video: Punt fishing from Newlyn

Dreckly Fish are a small group of Cornish fishermen, working out of the port of Newlyn. Our aim is to provide quality fresh fish direct from the people who caught them!

Line caught fish like mackerel, bass and squid, pot caught lobsters and crabs, which now come with complete traceability....

and how good those blues look tucked up in their brand new boxes!

CCTV is watching those discards

A new CCTV system for trawlers aims to keep any eye on fishermen in a bid to stop "discards" - throwing back fish when a catch exceeds the quota. Channel 4's Tom Clarke reports.

At 58 foot and a few years past her prime, Emulator looks just like many other English fishing trawlers.

Only she has been fitted with experimental CCTV technology in the hope of ending the perverse practice of "discards" - of throwing good fish back over the side dead.

Not every trawler owner would consent to having Big Brother-style cameras fitted to his boat. But Fred Normandale, who part-owns Scarborough-based Emulator, sees it as an opportunity to show what really goes on at sea.

"We're prepared to take cameras to prove to the scientists and the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls of this country that we are not criminals and we want to preserve cod as much as anyone else does."

The dig is aimed at the celebrity chef whose TV campaign helped force European fisheries ministers agree to a ban on discards. Earlier this month, they agreed to ban discards of all fish under the common fisheries policy by 2018.

90 per cent discards

A basic flaw the CFP - set up in the 1980s to protect fish stocks - sees much of the fish European boats catch go straight back over the side.

The average European fishing trawler discards 38 per cent of its catch - for some species of fish 90 per cent are thrown away. But boats like the Emulator, involved in the current trial, have reduced discards to just 0.2 per cent.

The problem of discards results from the way fishing rights are shared out. Each vessel is awarded a strict quota in tonnes for the fish species it wants to catch. If it catches too much of that species, or members of another species, it faces a fine for landing them. Fishermen get round the problem by dumping the fish they can't land back into the sea.

The trial is for boats fishing cod in the North Sea and sole in the English channel.

It requires fishermen to land all the fish they catch. If they have caught undersized fish, they are unable to sell them, and if they meet their quota allocation, they have to stop fishing. In return for those conditions, fishermen are given more fishing quota than equivalent boats.

Black box monitoring

Compliance is tested by four CCTV cameras fitted to the boats. One monitors the catch coming over the side, others watch which fish are kept and which are discarded.

The video, along with GPS data on exactly where the boat is fishing, is then stored on a black box which is sent to the Marine Management Organisation's monitoring centre back in Scarborough.

"It's not so much an intrusion as an incentive," said Grant Course, the trial manager with the MMO. "This encourages fishermen to be responsible for his own resource."

According to the MMO boats in the trial take more effort to avoid catching undersize fish which have no value at market, but under the conditions of the trial they are forced to land.

Reform priority

Banning discards is high on the list of reforms being negotiated today by the EU.

UK Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon said the British government, with the support of Denmark which is chairing the fisheries council, wants to see a ban in place by 2014. "This is a once in a decade opportunity to get this right," said Benyon.

But even if the minister can make discards ban work in British waters, it will not work unless it is adopted Europe-wide. The proposal will face tough opposition from France and some Mediterranean states who benefit most from the CFP in its current form. "What we have to do is get it back to local management instead of thinking that we can manage mesh-sizes from Brussels. That's been the absurdity and at last we're seeing a change in direction.

Published June 2012 Wikipedia Article on EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)