Friday 20 November 2015

Ajax, gone to the dogs!

Photo posted form the Ajax at sea.

The chart shows AIS traffic density west of Land's End for the last two years - they clearly show the location North West banks west of the Scillys heavily fished by Newlyn netters, French and Irish prawn trawlers. 
With the best will in the world the local boats cannot avoid catching dogfish - sometimes in great quantities - here the netter Ajax is having to dump several tons during the course of the day - these are just some of the day's haul. 


After ten years, a total ban on landing (still illiterate) dogfish continues - the question fishermen keep asking is - where is the data or scientific evidence which says it is better to continue to catch and dump dogfish rather than to land them?

Current catch limits for Under 10m UK


I say illiterate because, as far as we know, dogfish, like all other fish, have so far proved incapable of reading the latest or indeed any of the catch allowance figures published by the MMO on a regular basis.