New Safety Rules - Code of Practice for Safety of Small Fishing Vessels

This Notice provides a Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Fishing Vessels of less than 15m Length Overall, replacing MSN 1813. It takes into account MAIB investigation findings.

The main changes from MSN 1813 are:

• Liferafts required on open vessels of 7m Registered Length (L) to less than 15m (LOA) and decked vessels of 7m (L) to less than 10m (L), to come into force on 23 October 2019 for existing vessels only, new vessels must comply immediately;
• Vessels built prior to 16 July 2007 newly entering the fishing industry must have a Certifying Authority Survey prior to registration and MCA Inspections of the vessel are required at change of ownership;
• Emergency drills are now required;
• Radar Reflectors are now to be fitted to all vessels;
• Bilge Alarms required for Open vessels (7m (L) -15m Length Overall (LOA));
• Certificates to be issued for Small Fishing Vessels;
• Substantial modifications, fitting of new gear or changes to the mode of fishing to be approved by MCA prior to work taking place;
• EPIRBs with a built in GPS receiver capable of transmitting the position to a satellite are required all vessels of 10m (L) and over. Vessels less than 10m may have PLBs with a GPS receiver for each crew member or an EPIRB with a built in GPS receiver. EPIRB and PLB requirements to come into force on 23 October 2019 for existing vessels only, new vessels must comply immediately;
• Stability requirements for new or significantly modified vessels of 12m (L) – 15m (LOA)
• Carbon Monoxide Monitors for vessels with enclosed spaces which contains a fired cooking or heating appliance or where engine exhausts penetrate those spaces. The Code strongly recommends fishermen wear Personal Flotation Devices.

THE CODE ALSO PROVIDES GUIDANCE FOR OWNERS AND SKIPPERS OF VESSELS OF LESS THAN 12M ON HOW TO ASSESS THE STABILITY OF THEIR VESSEL.

DOCUMENTARY - The struggle of a traditional fisherman for another Europe

John O'Brien, a fisherman from Inishbofin Island, off the west coast of Ireland, is struggling to continue fishing in the style of his ancestors. While European legislation against overfishing threatens the island's only resource, it is bringing the voice of island fishermen to the highest political level for the first time. Loïc Jourdain filmed during eight years this struggle of David against Goliath, narrated in the documentary Of the laws and the men. Chronicle by the association Les Lucioles du Doc.

It is an exceptional trajectory that John O'Brien, a small Irish fisherman who defends traditional fishing in front of the lobby of big trawlers by calling on the technocrats of his country and of Brussels. The native of Inishbofin, Ireland, succeeded in mobilizing the fishermen of his island and the neighboring islands, who suffer from drastic rules against overfishing for which they are not responsible. We then sail with him to the heart of the Irish and Brussels powers. The fisherman must fine-tune his strategy to convince and rally to his cause. Without ever losing its simplicity, it does brilliantly, meeting other European island fishermen and ecologists.

The proximity with the character allows the viewer of the documentary Des lois et des hommes , which comes out on October 11 in the cinema, to understand what is played between these different scales. Through the eyes of John O'Brien, one discovers the vagaries of the European Commission, so focused by the regulations that it forgets the essential: the reality and the specificities of the field. A remark by John illustrates this feature very well: "First of all, Europe has financed enormous trawlers and now, seeing the extent of the damage, it tries to stop overfishing as it can. "


For a global view is not enough to see the absurdity of the consequences of this regulation at the local level. After the ban on salmon fishing in 2007, islanders are forced to fish intensively for herring, which is becoming scarcer and then crab, which they are forced to export to China. An intensive practice contrary to the habits of their ancestors, in harmony with their environment. "Now I ask my sons to do what we have been taught not to do: to fish a single species, until it disappears. My grandfather must turn to his grave ", desolates the native of Inishbofin. He repeated it repeatedly: the fishermen of his island have always respected the cycles of reproduction of the species, fishing according to the seasons, to preserve this essential resource. The human being is not the enemy of nature and the inhabitants of Inishbofin offer us another way of viewing ecology: no longer to preserve nature in itself, but to protect the balance which allows the life of all beings who share a territory.

Without fishing, the islands are depopulated and, like the salmon, the island culture disappears. Guided by the voice of the Irish fisherman, the viewer discovers from within the community and its traditions where festivals and religious rites are organized around the sea. The very strong choice of O'Brien's omnipresent voice-over calm timbre, rhythmic as the ebb and flow, leads us to think of the importance of a word that is both individual and collective. The word of those who are not accustomed to speak, to resist, to be heard. John O'Brien lets his culture be heard and known in institutions to prove how to preserve it. The aesthetics of the documentary gives unconditional support to his demonstration. From the very present Gaelic language to traditional music,

Laws and men strike for its political significance. As a critique of globalization, Loïc Jourdain wants to show another way: respect for ecology, but also for humanity and its traditions, without falling into a backward drift. If heritage is to be preserved, it is because it is the key to a sustainable future for both humans and fauna, where equilibrium would return.

Laws and men , national release on October 11, 2017

Documentary by 106 minutes
Directed by : Loïc Jourdain
Production : Lugh Films
Co-production : Original idea (France), South Wind Blows LTD (Ireland), France 3 Corse Via Stella, Production France 3 & The Irish Film Board
Distribution : Ubuntu Culture & Docks 66

More information about the film: the website .

Les Lucioles du Doc These monthly columns published by Basta! are carried out by the collective of the Lucioles du Doc, an association working on documentary cinema, through its dissemination and the organization of workshops of realization with a large public, in order to set up spaces for popular education policy. See the website of the association.

Want to train as a fisherman?

Fishermen are at the very heart of the seafood industry, catching the fish and shellfish that we consume every day.

There are a variety of roles needed on a fishing vessel in order to keep operations running smoothly. While many tasks are shared between all members of a vessel, the division of duties can generally be summarised between three main roles: Deckhand, Skipper and Engineer.

Deckhands, are responsible for day-to-day tasks such as equipment preparation, operation and repair, cleaning chores, cooking, and gutting and storing fish.

Mates and Skippers manage and supervise the vessel's crew and are responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the vessel. Many skippers will also share some deckhand duties, particularly on smaller vessels.

Engineers are responsible for maintaining mechanical and electrical equipment on the vessel, which includes propulsion equipment, steering equipment, and board pumping equipment.

It is possible to learn on the job and undertake training in order to progress to mate, skipper and engineer roles, though most new entrant fishermen will start out in trainee deckhand roles.

More information about training for fishermen can be found here.

More information about maritime careers, qualifications and learning pathways can be read at the Maritime Skills Alliance website.

#FishyFriday in Newlyn

Big wheels for big boats...

the Sapphire II along with the Lisa Jacqueline are holding their fish over till Monday's market...

as there was precious little space on the market floor this morning with four beamers landing...

with plenty of buyers...

keen to get a successful bid in on the fish...

like these lemons...

plaice...

and monk fish tails...

the odd tub gurnard...

and some solid trips of cuttles...

some seasonal meaty congers...

and a smattering of top quality reds and squid... 

though with no netters landing owing to the big spring tide...

the only hake on the market was from the beam trawlers...

these boots were made for supervising...

the mighty mackerel...

just like an argument, there's two sides to every flatfish...

Newlyn Fish Festival's celebrated auctioneer Ed Buckland deep in conversation with harbourmaster Rob Parsons...

it's cool to be cold.

How Government and Fisheries Management Policy caused over-fishing in UK waters.

This is a considerably well researched overview of the fishing industry that takes in more than just the plight of the Under12m sector. Andrew Craig has provided a host of statistics and observations that are relevant to the current debate:

The British Fishing Industry looking for a way ahead

Taken from a post from the British Fishing Industry Facebook site:
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This paper has been prepared by members of the fishing industry to highlight the consequences of management conservation policies from the industry’s perspective.
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This article is not intended to criticise current management, but only highlight the effects of management policies which have had an adverse effect on stocks and industry over the last 40 years, in the hope of not repeating history post Brexit and to clarify that contrary to the propaganda, the industry is not responsible for overfishing, but government and management policies are.
All of the proven conservation measures in place today, respected by industry and management alike, have been developed by the industry to protect stocks and introduced by management at the request of the industry.
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All conservation measures introduced by management without the support of the industry to date have been unsuccessful at conserving fish stocks.
Note.
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There are 3 main categories within the fishing industry.
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• Shellfish - these boats are not affected by Total Allowable Catches (TACs) set by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and quotas.
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• Pelagic (midwater species) - quotas were introduced at the request of the industry for these species as a very suitable measure to conserve stocks, as each Pelagic species such as herring, sprats and mackerel rarely mix with each other, so as an example, if fishing for herring, that’s mainly all that is caught, apart from very small bycatches (other species).
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• Whitefish - these are all the species which are on the seabed (demersal species) which are all mixed fisheries, so no matter which species are targeted, many other species are also unavoidably caught and the industry can do very little, if anything, to prevent this when using any form of line or net. So quotas are a very unsuitable means of conserving these species and directly cause widespread discarding of marketable fish as a result.
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The Whitefish category is broken down into 3 more categories known as:
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The Sector: These boats are in membership of a Producer Organisations (PO), which manage each boat’s quota, based on their previous catching track record during a DEFRA reference period 1993 – 1996.
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The non-sector: These boats are over 10 metres in length but are not members of a PO; this quota is managed by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO.)
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The under tens: These are the small inshore boats, whose quota is also managed by the MMO; these boats were not placed into the quota system until 2007.
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To break down the size of each category of the industry into Kilowatt capacity (KW engine power), which is the only recognised means to measure a fleet’s catching capacity and the share of UK quota they should receive.
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Fleet Kilowatt capacity for each sector of the UK fishing industry
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Minus 50% for part-time and shellfish boats in non sector and under tens
........................Quota.........................Quota
..................... entitlement .................received
The Sector..............70% ..........................96%
Non- sector............7.60% ........................1%
Under-tens ...........22.40% .......................3%
(Source: British Fishing Vessel Register Cardiff 2017)
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You will note, the non-sector and under-tens only receive a fraction of their legal quota entitlement.
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Management policies over the last 40 years and the adverse effect they have had on UK stocks and industry.
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Government policy.
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In 1974 Ted Heath negotiated approximately 60% of all UK waters and fish entitlement to other member states when joining the EEC (EU).
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Policy effects on stocks and industry.
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Overnight the UK fleet lost 60% of its waters to other EU fishing fleets.
By not reducing the UK fleet with decommissioning to account for this extra fleet capacity now fishing in UK waters, directly resulted in over capacity and overfishing.
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Each EEC (EU) member state had to submit its previous annual catching figures when joining the EU, in order to share out TAC and quota based on each members states catching track record, but MAFF (DEFRA) only accounted for half of UK landings. Since then, the UK only receives half of its correct Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and quota share each year from the CFP, so the UK fleet was already 50% over capacity for the future quota available, from the date we joined the EU.
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Therefore fishing capacity within our waters increases by 60% and all future UK quota entitlement reduced by 50%.
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Management policy. 
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Closing the UK Pelagic Herring fisheries in 1976.
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Policy effects on stocks and industry.
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90% loss of Herring markets, dramatic increase in effort on all UK whitefish stocks directly causing far more overcapacity.
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In 1975 the industry approached MAFF (DEFRA) concerned about our herring stocks, they needed a quota put in place to protect the stock, as this would have been an effective means of slowing down catches, enough to allow the stock to recover. MAFF chose to disregard industry advice but instead decided to close the fishery entirely after taking scientific advice. 
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This fishery accounted for around half of the entire UK fishing industry’s catch at the time, so all these herring boats (around 1000 at the time) had no choice but to migrate into the white-fish sector to earn a living, as a direct result of the closure. A year later the fishery was re-opened but by then 90% of the herring markets had collapsed due to the closure, leaving almost all of those herring boats having to continue targeting white fish. From this date, our herring stocks around the UK have been extremely healthy, but we still can’t sell them. This one policy alone directly caused more severe over capacity and therefore overfishing by the UK fleet on our white fish stocks. 
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I hope this is a clear example of the effects of fisheries management policy, when only based on theory and science alone, when industry’s advice has been disregarded.
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Management policy.
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In 1983 management introduced a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and quota system on most demersal white fish stocks, to protect them from fleet over-capacity and over-fishing caused by previous government and the fisheries management policy.
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Policy effects on stocks and industry.
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Widespread discarding or landing over quota (black fish), as policy is considered unworkable. By industry, as it cannot avoid catching high levels of over-quota species, due to the UK now only receiving a fraction of its annual quota entitlement from the CFP directly causing overcapacity in the white fish sector. 
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The industry does not go to sea to kill high volumes of marketable fish for no reason, when conservation policies are only based on un-workable academic theories, which make no sense and therefore receives no industry support.
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Relations between industry and management hit an all-time low, as policy considered a direct threat to fish stocks and industry.
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Quotas for non-sector boats reduced by over 700% between 1985/1995, resulting in no longer being able to earn a basic living legally. This was not for conservation reasons but due entirely to the mismanagement of the UK quota.
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Management policy.
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Between 1993-96 the CFP/DEFRA introduced three rounds of decommissioning of over ten-metre fishing vessels, to reduce the over-capacity in the white fish sector that management policy had previously caused, which removed 578 vessels from the UK fleet.
<12m br="" commercial="">
<12m br="" commercial=""> Policy effects on stocks and industry.
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White fish fleet reduced dramatically.
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Quota (valued today at millions of pounds) from decommissioned boats is permitted to be kept by ex-skippers (Slipper Skippers) who no longer owned boats and given to POs.
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During this time, DEFRA was aware the under-tens had to be included in the monthly quota system within twelve years (confirmed by Fisheries Minister Jonathan Shaw 2007) and there had not been sufficient quota (3%) set aside for them.
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DEFRA had every opportunity at this time to set aside a further 26% of all UK quota, for the Under-tens and non-sector boats from the decommissioned boats, which make up 30% of UK catching capacity between them, but chose not to. 
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Many non-sector skippers forced to take decommissioning and scrap perfectly good vessels, due to no longer being allocated enough quota by DEFRA to earn a living, and then having new large under-ten meter boats built (known by management as rule beaters) as the only means to earn a living outside of the quota system at the time, to prevent having to break quotas and operate illegally on a daily basis.
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Discarding of marketable fish is reduced by PO boats only.
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Management policy. 
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Introduction of Fixed Quota Allocations (FQA’s) in 1999 to PO boats only, based on a catching reference period 1994 to 1996.
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Many PO boats were able to build up huge quota track records during this reference period. 
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The majority of UK fishermen were not informed by DEFRA they had to join a PO to safe guard their future, quota entitlements or catching track records. This resulted in most vessels only receiving a very small percentage of their legal quota entitlement, making it extremely difficult for these boats to earn a living, as the majority of their quota share was given to PO’s by management.
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Policy effects on stocks and industry.
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No benefit.
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Management policy.
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DEFRA lost the Factortame case. 
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In March 2000, ninety Anglo-Spanish fishing companies accepted an offer of settlement from the Secretary of State for DEFRA and received £55 million in compensation from the UK government and a third of all future UK fishing quota entitlement.
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Policy effects on stocks and industry
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This case was regarding Dutch and Spanish fishermen, who had bought UK registered fishing
vessels and managed to build up vast quota track records during the FQA reference period, due to a loophole left in the DEFRA FQA quota policy.
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As a result, a third of all UK quota had to be given to the Dutch and Spanish fishermen, valued today at tens of millions of pounds every year. All quotas for UK boats drop by a further 33%.
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Management policy.
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In 2007 registered buyers and sellers (RBS) introduced by CFP/DEFRA, in order to make fishermen discard all over-quota marketable fish the industry catches unavoidably every year.
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Policy effects on stocks and industry
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All vessels have to stay at sea far longer than necessary, trying to catch the few individual species they are permitted to land, discarding of over-quota species increases to tens of thousands of tons each year. 
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Under-tens are added to the monthly quota system, but only receive 3% of UK quota, which is 19.4% below legal entitlement (according to fishing vessel register kw capacity) and The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) scientific report, (The Environmentally Responsible Fisheries Project), this creates widespread hardship to the inshore fleet and increases the discarding of marketable fish in the UK by over 50%.
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Six respected boat building company’s forced to stop trading as a direct result.
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The discarding of skate by under-tens is presently between 1000 and 1500 tons per year in the Thames estuary alone, as historic landings for this species are 5-8 tons per month, per boat, but quotas set at just 250 Kg per boat per month. Under-tens are informed by DEFRA/MMO to lease quota from slipper skippers, or from boats that have never fished that area if they want enough quota to earn a living, but this is not financially viable.
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Management policy
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In 2007 Introduction of a decommissioning scheme for the under-tens to reduce the fleet over-capacity, caused by previous management policy.
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Policy effects on stocks and industry.
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Just 65 boats out of 182 applicants were accepted by DEFRA for decommissioning. This sector needed at least 200 boats removed by decommissioning, to ensure enough quota was gained for the remaining vessels to earn a living within this sector. 
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So the under-tens still needed many more vessels removed from it to address this over-capacity issue, or receive the correct share of UK quota to suit this sectors capacity.
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Management policy.
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In 2016 CFP/DEFRA introduce the Landing Obligation (discard ban)
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Policy effects on stocks and industry.
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Up to half of all marketable fish caught by the whitefish fleet has to be sent to landfill and removed from each boats quota, if any boat reaches their quota for any one single species caught, it is not permitted to go to sea again that year.
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Although the whitefish industry has been working hard attempting to develop new net designs to reduce discards this could never be stopped, not by a long way. This policy is considered by all UK fishermen without exception as a pointless unworkable nightmare, which has been based entirely on theory, yet again.
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Management policies Summary:
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1. 1974 The UK lost 60% of its fishing waters and 50% of all UK quota entitlement when joining the EEC.
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2. 1975 90% loss of all Herring markets causing more overcapacity in white fish sector by displaced boats.
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3. 1983 Introduce quotas on most white fish stocks, which directly cause all discarding of over quota marketable fish caught.
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4. 1993/96 Decommissioning over ten fleet, gave all quota to slipper skippers when desperately needed by non-sector and under- tens.
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5. 1999 FQA system introduced which directly discriminates against the inshore fleet, recognised by many NGOs as the most conservation minded and highest employing sector of the UK industry.
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6. 2000 Factortame case, loss of another 1/3 of all UK quota and cost to the Tax payer of £55m 
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7. 2007 Introduce Registered Buyers and Sellers, to force industry to discard thousands of tons of unavoidably caught over quota marketable fish every year.
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8. 2007 Introduce a decommissioning scheme for the under tens, only 65 boats out of 182 applicants accepted by DEFRA. 
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9. 2016 Introduce the Landing obligation (discard ban) to make the industry pay to send most over quota marketable fish unavoidably caught to landfill.


<12m br="" commercial="">Comments:
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It is clear, that since 1975 management have been continually firefighting in a blinkered manner, implementing more policies only in an attempt to correct the effects of the previous disastrous policies, which have directly caused all over-capacity and over-fishing within the UK fleet.
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Management is well known for not looking forward for any possible negative knock on effect of policies before implementing them, but try instead to use a quick fix approach to the problems previously policies have caused. Whereas the industry looks at conservation problems in a long term manner, as it naturally wishes to secure the industry’s future for years to come.
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There can be no doubt, the quota system is unworkable when applied to demersal species and no matter how much tinkering is done by management in an attempt to make this floored system work, it could never be an effective, workable conservation measure that could benefit stocks or gain industry support, unless the quotas being set are at reasonable levels, so if fishermen do everything in their power to avoid a species, they don’t go over quota.
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In summary:
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Since 1974 the UK has lost 83% of its entire TAC/quota entitlement, not due to stocks reducing or any conservation reasons, due entirely to the UK mismanagement of our quota and also, the displaced boats from the closed herring fishery which were also forced to target the remaining white fish quota, with no other fishery available to target.
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Admittedly the fleet has been reduced with decommissioning by around 50%, but this is still a third larger than the TAC and quota now available. On top of this we have quota reductions for conservation reasons as a result of over-capacity and over-fishing directly caused by pre -1976 management policy. 
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The phrase squeezing a pint into a half pint pot comes to mind.
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The conservation of our demersal species could be very effective, workable, simple and far more cost effective for the tax payer, if the Days At Sea conservation method was used in conjunction with technical measures, as proposed by the Fishing For Leave (FFL) campaign. This would allow boats to have a set number of fishing days a year depending on vessel size and nets used, but land all marketable fish caught while still protecting stocks, as far less overall fish would be caught by the fleet. Although there are concerns within the industry, if management have the knowledge base needed to implement such a system, in an effective workable manner.
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The term Over Fishing is not as the term implies, as this is NOT when a fishermen catches more than they should, in most cases it is when they land some of the over-quota dead fish they have to discard daily anyway. We should also remember quotas are not set at such low levels for conservation reasons, but only due to the UK not having sufficient quota to go around the size of fleet the UK has. So no matter how healthy our stocks become, there will never be enough quota available to stop widespread discarding unless the fleet is reduced further to suit the quota available or the quota percentage rise to a reasonable level to suit the existing stocks on the grounds, as the only means to stop discarding marketable fish.
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Instead of management addressing the one very obvious problem which could directly help correct the UK quota shortage in a positive way, it continues to operate in the same short term firefighting manner.
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As an example:
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Two herring makes a very pleasant, filling meal which costs no more than £1, our seas are full of large shoals as they have hardly been fished for over 40 years.
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The Sea Fish Industry Authority was set up to promote the fishing industry, so may we ask, why have DEFRA not requested Seafish start promoting this fish for the home market, as the industry has been requesting for decades, to develop new recipes or Swedish pickling techniques to remove all bones, so become suitable for boil in the bag and many other cooking methods to address the cooking smell and bone issue some members of the public have with this fish.
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It may require 1 or 2 boats being partly subsidised for the first year, to ensure supply across the country until the market share becomes established and increases, during an advertising campaign with TV chiefs involved. 
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European Fisheries Fund (EFF) money is available to fund the entire project.
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How beneficial would it be, if cooking techniques could be developed well enough to suit schools, so our children could have very healthy, tasty low budget meals, like most other European schools do.
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Herring fisheries using drift nets are very clean low bycatch fisheries, they can be used all around our coast line by inshore fishermen and every boat that could move into that fishery, is one less targeting and using up whitefish quota, so the long term knock on effect will benefit all other non-sector and under-ten boats in the UK, by directly reducing capacity within that sector. Such a project may take several years to reach its full market potential, but could quite easily support hundreds of boats if successful.
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We only need to look at the South West Sardine fishery which has dramatically increased its market share in recent years, due to nothing more than re-branding pilchards as Sardines; this sustainable fishery now supports dozens of boats landing thousands of tons a year. Even though Sardines have the same cooking smell and bone problems as herring do.
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Finally.
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The UK fishing industry wants effective, workable conservation measures to secure its future, but this could never be achieved using the current draconian methods.
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History has proven, Fisheries Management and Science do not have the knowledge base to manage this industry and nor could they be expected to, with the very limited training they receive on this highly complex and unique subject, which very few people outside of the industry could be expected to understand.
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Commercial fishing is more a vocation than a job, it has always required complete and total dedication for tens if not hundreds of thousands of hours at sea if a fishermen is to succeed, management need to start using this massive knowledge base more and be prepared to take and accept sensible advise on conservation issues from the industry, not continue using academic and scientific advice when only based on theory and assumptions, as normally the case. If industry advise an intended new policy won’t work, it must go back to the drawing board, not be forced into Law anyway as we so often witness. Then and only then, will we achieve true conservation for our fish stocks and industry.
<12m br="" commercial="">
I would suggest, when an entire industry without exception disagrees with management policies, the model being used cannot be fit for purpose.
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Date: 1.10.17
Subject: Overfishing, Conservation.
Report prepared for: Education purposes.
Author: Andrew Craig
Authors experience on subject:
• 20 years (approximately 45,000 hours
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sea time) skippering <12m br="" commercial="">fishing vessels.
• A founding member of NUTFA.
• Catamaran designer.
<12m br="" commercial="">
<12m br="" commercial="">Thoughts and feedback welcome!

Atlantic cod - seeing is believing!

Atlantic cod, New England’s most iconic fish, has been reported at historic lows for years, but fishermen hope a new video monitoring technique will prove there are more of the fish than federal surveyors believe.

Ronnie Borjeson, who has been fishing for more than 40 years, says the federal surveys don’t match up with what fishermen are seeing. “I don’t care if you’re a gillnetter, a hook and line guy, a trawl guy,” he said, “there’s codfish everywhere up there. Everywhere. You can’t get away from them.”

Borjeson helped test a video rig designed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth that allows them to record fish underwater and count them on the video later. With this rig, scientists can sample a larger area in the same amount of time and hopefully improve federal estimates of how many cod are left.

For years, Atlantic cod has been reportedly overfished—but a new video monitoring technique may prove otherwise.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, cod are overfished, and in 2014, the spawning population reached its lowest numbers ever recorded. The once-booming cod fishery has been subject to increasingly strict regulations since the 1990s, forcing commercial fishermen to target less-profitable species while they wait for the cod population to recover.

Kevin Stokesbury, the researcher spearheading the project, hoped to create a more effective and transparent monitoring system by collaborating with local fishermen. “They know their gear and they know the distributions. So for me, I’ve certainly never discounted what they say,” he said. “You have to back that up scientifically, and I think that this is a means to do that.”

Federal scientists estimate the cod population by towing nets through randomly selected areas of the fishing grounds and hauling the fish on board to be counted. The results of these trawls are combined with information from fisheries observers and catch estimates to create a picture of the overall health of the fishery.

But cod are not evenly distributed across the ocean floor. The fish gather in tight groups to spawn, leaving large areas of habitat essentially devoid of cod and increasing the likelihood that a random sample will come up empty. The federally managed area in the Gulf of Maine alone is more than 30,000 square miles. With limited time and resources to accomplish their work, federal surveyors must rely on a small number of these surveys to accurately estimate the whole population.

And, according to Borjeson, “The general consensus [among fishermen] is they’re incapable of catching fish.”

Yet as Jon Hare, the Science and Research Director for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center pointed out, fishermen “are targeting and looking for higher abundances of cod. That could also make their perspective on the abundance of cod different than what’s coming out of the [survey].”

Stokesbury thinks his video system can, at the very least, help scientists get a better idea of how many fish are in the spawning groups and help the fishery managers and fishermen see eye to eye.

The video rig has gone through several iterations to deliver clear images in the harsh, salty environment. The current version has two cameras and a set of LED lights facing backwards inside a fishing net. When fish are swept into the net, they pass the cameras and are funneled harmlessly out the open back end.

Hare agreed that the system holds promise, but cautioned that the work is not yet done. “You still need to extract [the information] from the video. You’re potentially looking at thousands of hours of video data,” he said.

Stokesbury and his team are working on this problem now. Currently the software takes two to three weeks to identify and count the fish for every week at sea. This is a vast improvement over the original method–graduate students counting by hand–but Stokesbury expects to reduce the processing time further as their software improves.

If that happens, Hare believes the system could be very useful. “As humans, we put a lot of faith in visual data,” he said, “Having the real-time visual information is a good approach to having people come to a common understanding.”

Borjeson hopes fisheries managers will incorporate video monitoring as soon as possible. “The system works,” he said. “People love it. They embrace it. It’s absolutely indisputably the way to do a stock assessment.”

Full story courtesy of NovaNet.

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Crédit Mutuel Arkea: a fund of 10 million euros for fishing in France!

Over in France there comes another example of how the French fishing industry enjoys far greater sectoral support than in the UK by the financial institutions - here we see certain French banks prepared to fund regeneration of the entire marine sector, focussing largely on their ageing fleet. The UK has never enjoyed anything like that degree of support from our financial institutions - probably because the French banking system is at heart a more socialist affair - they enjpy regional and sectoral banks like Credit Agricole and Credit Maritime created specifically to fund their given economic activity. instead, we have had to rely on centrally funded bodies like the White Fish Authority which eventually became today's Seafish or EU funding - that only applied in the areas (like Cornwall once it had been devolved from the much richer per capita Devon) that enjoyed being classified as in need of regeneration through funds like Objective 1 or 5b through to Convergence and today's EMF and FLAG funding - all of which comes from the EU of course. Yes, a good percentage of that funding originated in the UK - the worry post Brexit will be - will the government see fit to support the industry with the same level of funding into the future?

Here is the article in full as translated by Google:

The Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and the Crédit maritime Bretagne-Normandie will make operational at the end of the year a fund of €10 to €12M dedicated to the activities of the sea in Brittany, and particularly to fishing. Objective, to allow the armaments to renew an aging fleet without draining their cash. The fund will be quasi-funded.

Can the future of fishing in France depend in part on banks? An old boat is a degraded profitability, but modernizing a fleet is expensive if you do not have a capital. However, with an average age of 27 years, two thirds of the 4,000 fishing boats in France are to be renewed.

(Editor: UK-The England/Wales fleet has an average age of 32 years, Northern Ireland 38, Scotland 26, Anglo-Dutch 22 years and Anglo-Spanish 33 years - Across the other main categories of vessels in the UK >12m fleet, the average ages are: twin rig whitefish trawlers (16 years); pair seiners (25); twin rig prawn trawlers (25); vivier crabbers (25); seine netters (28); beamers (32); mussel dredgers (35); netters (35); longliners (37); beam scallopers (38); single rig whitefish trawlers (38); potters (39) and single rig prawn trawlers (41).)

To answer this question, Arkéa Capital, a subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Crédit maritime Bretagne-Normandie, announced the creation of a fund of 10 to 12 million euros dedicated to the activities of the sea in Brittany , and mainly fishing.

Present at the Fisheries and Seafood Meetings held in Quimper on 21 and 22 September, and in a tone that was almost alarmist, the two banks wanted to provide a new solution to fishing companies that do not have the capital: they will propose from November-December a tool whose goal is to facilitate the equity capital.

The objective is to prevent the skeleton of the fishing industry from being put in jeopardy. Brittany currently has 1,300 boats (there were 3,000 boats in the years 1990-1995), and if its fleet is not modernized, it risks losing again. However, it is a crucial region for this sector, accounting for 50% of the French fishery, 1/3 of shellfish farming and 90% of seaweed farming.

Convertible bonds 

For investors who can not fully finance their project, the new fund is designed as a leverage complement to the traditional loan that requires a minimum of 30% of the value of the vessel. Some purchases range between 2.5 and 3.5 million euros.

Marc Brière, Chairman of the Board of Arkea Capital, creator of the fund to which Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Crédit Maritime subscribe, explains the problem in these terms:

"The capital deficit does not allow the skippers to renew their boats. However, older equipment is hampering fishing performance and the ability of enterprises to finance their modernization. It's a vicious circle. This fund will complement traditional borrowing and will be quasi-equity, in particular in the form of convertible bonds."

He adds : "The accompanied project sponsor will have to repay this participation after eight years, for example by renegotiating the amount in the form of a conventional loan over ten to fifteen years. During these eight years, fishermen will pay regular annual interest and then a reimbursement premium with the money earned from their new fleet."

For banks, the return will be in the range of 7% to 8%.  

15 to 20 projects ranging from 300,000 to 800,000 euros 

Open to the whole Breton seas sector, the future fund will be fed according to the number of files and will allow fishing companies not to drain their cash. The two banks, which together finance 95% of Breton fishing companies , plan to support between 15 and 30 projects with a value ranging from 300,000 euros to 700,000 or even 800,000 euros.

" The first arbitrations will be taken at the end of the year, adds Marc Briere. Crédit Mutuel Arkéa naturally accompanies this very active activity on the territory. It is the responsibility of the banking groups to make up for the shortfalls. If the Breton and French fishing disappears, all the downstream activity (fish trading, agro-processing, transport, etc.) will also suffer. The objective of this fund is to align the horizon of the financial resources of the projects over the lifetime of the investments."

The Region is worried about the consequences of the Brexit on the fishing industry

The initiative receives a rather positive but still cautious reception from the leaders of armaments, as long as the practical modalities are not notified. Similarly, the Region of Brittany, which is concerned about the consequences of Brexit on the fisheries sector and the risk of weakening the French sector on a European scale, plans to accompany this financial effort, as pointed out by Pierre Karleskind , Vice-President of the Brittany Region in charge of the sea.

" This fund is a private initiative of the banks, but it is open to all options including the option of accepting public underwriters under the same conditions (" pari passu "clause) as private subscribers, " notes Mars Brière, who there is nothing to prevent this pattern from being replicated in other regions.

Full story courtesy of La Tribune, France.