Welcome to Through the Gaps, the UK fishing industry's most comprehensive information and image resource. Newlyn is England's largest fish market and where over 50 species are regularly landed from handline, trawl, net, ring net and pot vessels including #MSC Certified #Hake, #Cornish Sardine, handlined bass, pollack and mackerel. Art work, graphics and digital fishing industry images available from stock or on commission.
After @CoastalK91's few choice words over the correct identification of the term bass in this part of the world it appears that the message has not filtered through to Brussels just yet. However, we can safely assume that to all intents and purposes the term sea bass in the story below does indeed refer to the fish caught in numbers around the UK coast and better known as bass to those for whom the fish provides an income - like these fishermen here.
RECREATIONAL anglers will be limited to killing a maximum of three sea bass per day, after the EU's Council of Ministers decided to adopt measures to help the species recover. Sea bass is a very valuable fish, on which many fishermen, especially small fishing enterprises, depend. With over 1.3m recreational anglers in France and another 800,000 in the UK, many thousands of jobs also depend on recreational fishing. However, recent scientific analyses have reinforced previous concerns about the state of the stock, leading to calls to urgently reduce fishing by 80%. It appears that the species is experiencing a rapid decline, which risks leading to a collapse if no action is taken. Recreational anglers currently account for 25% of sea bass mortality and the new daily limit on recreational catches complements the emergency measures which the Commission adopted earlier this year, and which introduced a closed season for pelagic fisheries during the sea bass spawning season. The Commission has previously taken similar emergency measures to protect vulnerable stocks, most recently with anchovy in the Bay of Biscay.
THE President of Europêche, Javier Garat, claims that yesterday's Pew Foundation report on overfishing in northwest Europe is "hugely misleading".
In a statement released today Garat explains: "The Pew Foundation has recently unveiled its report Turning the tide: Ending overfishing in North-western Europe, which claims that the changes to end overfishing adopted at the last reform of the Common Fisheries Policy are being threatened by high quota allocations and short termism.
"As the president of Europêche, the body representing 80,000 European fishermen and 45,000 vessels, I have to challenge this assertion and make clear that Pew's report is hugely misleading.
"Firstly, the number of stocks within safe biological limits has almost doubled in the last decade, a fact which Pew fails to acknowledge. In the North East Atlantic many fisheries are already on the way to being put on a sustainable footing and great progress has been made by the industry itself to ensure stocks are healthy and abundant.
"The definition of overfishing has evolved so much over the years. Where once it meant stocks below a safe minimum, it now means stocks not yet at maximum in terms of sustainable yield. What would once be considered healthy is now considered overfished. Yet, even by this new definition, a decline in the number of 'overfished' stocks could be seen well before Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) targets were in put in place during the CFP Reform. In the North East Atlantic, an area that has seen a substantial reduction in its exploitation rate and an improvement in stock status, there are now 36 stocks being fished at MSY, compared to 27 last year and just two in 2003.
"It should also be pointed out, as is fleetingly referred to in the report, that under the CFP Reform, scientific TAC advice is set within the policy framework to deliver MSY by 2015 and 2020 at the latest. This is to give the sector time to adapt to the inevitable hefty cuts in quota, which will be slowly increasing year on year, and ensure our fishing industry can remain economically viable
"Secondly, environmentalists cannot lay claim to changing the tide of overfishing and depleting stocks. The tide turned 15 years ago, with fishing mortality across all the main stocks in the North East Atlantic being halved since 2000. The reason the Pew organisation may not be aware of this is because it is many years before it expressed any interest in our fisheries and a full 13 years before the CFP reform.
"We can identify around 20 individual measures that underpin this turnaround, probably the most significant being the fleet reduction in various member states. Major advances in fishing gear and techniques have also played a part. All stocks are responding to these changes – some dramatically, others more slowly – but the fact is Pew has failed to acknowledge this natural variation.
"Europêche and the wider fishing industry welcome input from all factions to address and overcome challenges in achieving sustainable fisheries. However, by being selective with the facts to constantly portray fishing in the most negative light, real progress is not being made.
"Misleading reports such as these only serve to push the sector into further disrepute at a time when our fishermen are making huge progress towards achieving sustainable fisheries." Full story here:
Here's part of an excellent fishalogue from Mike Warner's 'Passion for Seafood'telling of a trip aboard one of Scotland's great fishing ambassadors, Jimmy Buchan and the prawn trawler Amity II.
"Heading North, alongside the Aberdeenshire coastline, the weather casts a predictably “Dreich” and “Dour” picture. Swollen, cumbersome, leaden clouds balloon grotesquely and seamlessly downwards into a stark slate-grey sheet, occasionally picked out in white, as crests rise and fall in the seemingly, boundless expanse that is the Northern North Sea.
Thirty miles further on from my rail terminus lies my destination; Peterhead, the thriving, piscatorial hub of the Scottish East Coast. A still-vibrant industrial port founded on the trappings of the 19th century whale-oil industry, its lifeblood for over 100 years. When the whaling subsided and ceased to attract the investment, following progressive industrialisation, the Port became home to a vast Herring fleet, numbering at its peak some 500+ vessels, which in turn, after a sharp decline in Herring numbers, turned its attention to the pursuit of white fish, the result of which, led to its badging as Europe’s largest white fish port in the late 1980’s
The object of my visit: To trace the sea-to-plate journey of Nephrops norvegicus, – the Langoustine, the Norway Lobster, and to those enjoying the breaded tails thereof, Scampi.To the fishermen of Peterhead they are just “Prawns”.Amity Langoustines (Jimmy Buchan)The man I’ve come to meet is Jimmy Buchan; an iconic, exuberant, larger than life character and Peterhead fisherman and resident. Some of you will recall, no doubt, his exploits, as filmed by a BBC film crew for the series “Trawlermen” My trip as suggested, has been planned around the story of his “Amity” branded Langoustines, (reflected in his vessel’s name – Amity II) but from the outset, I’m made aware, that this subject is merely an incidental thread to the enthralling, but deadly serious story that’s about to unfold in front of me.Amity II (Jimmy Buchan)I get a text: “Have you ridden into town yet?” and at this point I confess the Aberdeen evening rush hour is hampering my onwards efforts to reach him. A call follows: “My vessel sails at 6.30 for her next prawn trip. Can you get to the Harbour by then? If so we’ll get you aboard for a quick tour before she puts to sea” It’s all the incentive I need and with a knowing nod from my taxi driver, we speed on ahead and swing onto the Port’s Albert Quay with minutes to spare.
Jimmy’s there to greet me and without further ado, I’m ushered on board taking immediate care not to disappear down a hatch or companionway. Once aboard, it’s straight up to the wheel house and here, I’m introduced to Jimmy’s young skipper, Philip Reid who at 28 has been entrusted to the care of Jimmy’s beloved Amity II, having gained his Skipper’s ticket at the tender age of 23. I get a whistle-stop tour of the boat from top to bottom, wheel house to engine room, galley to fish room, sorting table and ice maker.
Well respected American fisheries writer Ray Hilborn takes time out to give his view in a short video on what makes a sustainable fishery. His book, 'Overfishing in a nutshell' is given a robust, objective review here by fellow lecturer and researcher, Boris Worm.
Ray Hilborn is a Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington specializing in natural resource management and conservation. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in environmental science, conservation and quantitative population dynamics. He authored several books including “Overfishing: what everyone needs to know” (with Ulrike Hilborn) in 2012, “Quantitative fisheries stock assessment” with Carl Walters in 1992, and “The Ecological Detective: confronting models with data” with Marc Mangel, in 1997 and has published over 200 peer reviewed articles.
