Creating a catch record for under 10m vessels

Below is the Catch Record guide recently introduced by the MMO.  Comments on ease of use and suitability welcome:

Where can I find more information?

Guidance has been published to demonstrate how to record catches using the app, even without a mobile signal:

• GOV.UK guidance
• Catch Recording blog post
• Video: How to register
• Video: Recording your catch

Further advice is available here.

Creating a catch record for under 10m vessels 

This guide has been created to detail how to submit a catch record. Introduction

Under 10m vessels not in a Producer Organisation (PO) are required to record details of all trips where fish is caught.

Options for submission of catch recording data includes the use of a mobile phone app (available for iPhone and Android), web service or by telephone (digital assisted). When landing any quota species, or any species subject to catch limits*, submit catch records no later than on completion of landing and prior to your catch being transported away from the place of landing. This means, you can weigh your fish on landing and use the weights to complete and submit your catch record before your catch is transported for sale or storage.

*This does not apply to catch limits in place under the shellfish entitlement, such as the 5 lobster/25 crabs When landing only non-quota species or species not subject to catch limits, submit catch records within 24 hours of landing.

If you fish in different ICES areas during a single fishing trip, you should create and submit a catch record for each ICES area.

How to register

Owners of all commercially licenced fishing vessels of under 10m in length will receive an invitation via email to register for the catch recording service. 

Contact your local MMO office if you haven’t received an invitation.

MCS 'Good Fish Guide' ratings

Transparency and credibility are important to the Good Fish Guide. After we’ve researched and drafted a set of ratings updates, we put them out to consultation. Ratings consultations are open twice per year, in February and August. We welcome feedback from anyone with technical insight and information that could contribute to the comprehensiveness and quality of our ratings.

After they have closed, we consider and respond to all feedback, which is kept anonymous. We then finalise and publish our new and updated ratings on all the Good Fish Guide platforms.

There are two ratings launches each year, in October and April.

Please contact ratings@mcsuk.org to be added to the Ratings Consultation mailing list to be notified when consultations open.

Winter Ratings Review 

Click here to download.

The Winter 22/23 ratings consultation is live from Monday 6th February - Friday 3rd March. To comment, please download the Good Fish Guide Ratings Review below, and complete the indicated column for ratings of interest.

Please send your completed sheets back to ratings@mcsuk.org along with any supporting information.

We welcome feedback until 5pm Friday 3rd March 2023.

Monthly Provisional UK Sea Fisheries Statistics January 2023

 

Below is a National Statistics publication. This notice provides an overview of the reported weight and value of landings by UK vessels into the UK and abroad, and by foreign vessels into the UK. Data are used to provide analysis and evidence to researchers and the media and to respond to ad-hoc requests from fishers, other fishing organisations and the general public. They are also used to formulate and monitor fishing policy for fisheries administrations. 

This data is provisional and represents the best available data the MMO holds on fishing activity by the UK fleet and into the UK. Data will be revised each month and lags will be reviewed following protocol documented here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fishing-activity-and-landings-data-collection-and-processing. 

Please note, the monthly data in these reports for tables 1 to 7 represent a 'snapshot' at the time of release, therefore the totals may not align with the latest published 'underlying dataset', which is downloaded from our 'live' database and presented alongside the monthly reports. 

The raw data that feeds into this publication is equivalent to the data used to produce our regular national statistics and is processed and collected as outlined above.

 

Fish of the Day - week 15 - the Dragonet

 

Dragonets are not a common sight on the fish market - as yet they are not landed in sufficient quantity. They are one of those fish that goes out of their way to protect themselves by virtue of a number of sharp spines that protect their gill plates. Unwary handling can result in a swollen digit if the skin is broken in response to the venom released - which gave rise to their local name of 'miller's thumb'.

The female dragonet as seen above is far less colourful than the male which are almost tropical with bright yellow and iridescent blue streaks on the dorsal fin. They prefer a sand or gravel seabed up to 25 fathoms in which they lay partially buried while waiting for lunch to pass - any small form of shellfish or worm will do.

What can octopus and squid brains teach us about intelligence?

 

One of the incredible things about octopus's is that not only do they have an advanced intelligence that lets them camouflage themselves, use tools and manipulate their environments and act as really clever hunters in their ecosystems, they do this with a brain that evolved essentially from something like a slug in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago. 

Our brains share virtually nothing in common with theirs. The question for scientists is what can studying a creature with a completely different brain from our own, teach us about the common principles of what makes a brain, what makes intelligence? What does it mean for this creature to have an intelligence that is something like our own? 

To learn more, we spoke this week with Ernie Hwaun and Matt McCoy, two interdisciplinary postdoctoral scholars at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford who study cephalopod intelligence from completely different angles.

Making Waves in 1983 by Blanchmange.

Newlyn was the port but the Mousehole boat, Renovelle is the real star of this music video shot in the early 1980s. Like many 50 footers in the fleet the boat was longlining - mainly for ling, pollack, ray and skate. On deck you can see mainly fibreglass tubs that by then had largely replaced the traditional withy baskets and the latest Spencer Carter line hauler. The eagle-eyed amongst you will no doubt spot the Ocean Pride passing the Renovelle as they pass in the gaps, she is also loaded with baskets of lines. Each basket or tub contained around 120 hooks which were baited by hand, usually with mackere as the line was shot away.

It was February 6th, 1983, when the band Blanchmange released the single Waves,

Waves remains a timeless, sublime classic that has a heart as big as the ocean; a track that radiates warmth and arguably one of the prettiest electro-ballads ever written. 

Interviewed in 1983, Neil Arthur commented on the song, "Our new single — and this isn't to say, Oh, yes folks we've got a new single — but 'Waves' was written quite a while back, and the original version was done in quite a serious way. It had slightly different lyrics in it and I used to take it quite seriously. Now I just laugh at it because of the line in it, 'All these waves coming over me, it must be my destiny'.” "It's the most obvious thing; you listen to any Abba record. People are going to hate that line, but I think it's great to put it in. So corny." “

A good song to play in the morning when you can't be bothered getting out of bed,” wrote Sharon Owen in her novel ‘The Ballroom on Magnolia Street. “Waves by Blancmange From the Happy Families album. I love male singers with deep voices and Neil Arthur's was so rich and distinctive. A real anthem for lost youth, this one, with all the synthesizers and drumbeats that were typical of the 1980s. Strangely erotic too.”

The truth of the false on the weight of the maritime district of Guilvinec

 

The key figures of the Guilvinec maritime district.

What does the Guilvinec maritime district really amount to? 

As the post-Brexit fleet exit plan approaches, we have put this port place under the microscope. We disentangle the true from the false. The port of Guilvinec is the first Cornish port. TRUE On the scale of Cornouaille (*), Le Guilvinec remains the stronghold. It represents nearly 41% of the volumes sold at auction in 2022 (out of 32,702 t in all). 13,617 t were landed at Guilvinec last year (- 4% compared to 2021) for a turnover of €61.70 million (- 2%), which places it second French port in value behind Lorient (15,984 t sold at auction for a turnover of €63.60 million). Bigouden port is far ahead of Douarnenez (6,991 t landed for €5.80 M in turnover at auction in 2022), Concarneau (3,715 t for €27.60 M), Saint-Guénolé-Penmarc'h (4,456 t for €17 million), Loctudy (2,766 t for €13.50 million) or Audierne (1,156 t for €11 million). Unlike Guilvinec, some ports like Douarnenez boost their volumes with non-auction sales (8,991 t) but these movements generate less direct added value.

Twenty-six Bigouden trawlers eligible for the scrapping plan The number of ships is constantly decreasing. Fake

For decades, the flotilla in the maritime district of Guilvinec (Le Guilvinec, Lesconil, Loctudy, Saint-Guénolé) has been declining. It even melts. In 1965, there were 740 ships compared to 216 in 2018. But in recent years, this figure has been rising slightly. In 2021, there were 225 boats in the district, nine more than in 2018. This growth is mainly linked to the development of small-scale fishing (141 boats in 2021) such as trolling. Coastal fishing has 30 boats and offshore fishing (more than 96 hours at sea), 54 units. On the other hand, the number of sailors on board continues to decrease. In 1965, there were more than 3,000 against only 677 in 2021!

The post-Brexit fleet exit plan has no precedent. Fake The post-Brexit individual support plan (PAI) currently under negotiation concerns around twenty boats in the Guilvinec district. This is not the first fleet exit plan (commonly known as a "junk plan"). In 1991, the "Mellick plan" (named after the Minister of Fisheries at the time) imposed the reduction of fleets by 2002. Result: in the Guilvinec district, 93 boats left the workforce between 1991 and 1995. than 400 units at departmental level! In 2008, again, the "Barnier plan" was decided after the strikes of November 2007. Nine boats will leave the port of Guilvinec, 21 (out of 31 registered) in the entire maritime district, the most heavily affected in Brittany.

Bigouden shipowners refuse to be stigmatized One job at sea generates three to four jobs on land. TRUE A fisherman at sea is (at least) four jobs on land within the fishing industry: fish trading, processing plants, transport, fittings, mechanics, construction and repair, painting, mass distribution, fishmongers. Not to mention refuelling (equipment, diesel, ice), the agents of the CCIMBO Quimper which manages the fishing ports of Cornouaille or the maritime school of Guilvinec. As far as Pont-l'Abbé, capital of the Bigouden region, by runoff, traders profit from the income from fishing. On the scale of the maritime district, it is estimated that fishing generates 2,280 direct and indirect jobs, more than 5,000 on the scale of Cornwall. The sector still weighs heavily in the local economy.

In Pays bigouden, the fishing industry in anguish Steven Lecornu Posted by Steven Lecornu on February 06, 2023 at 06:30 In the maritime district of Guilvinec, there are 2,280 direct and indirect jobs related to the sea. In the maritime district of Guilvinec, there are 2,280 direct and indirect jobs related to the sea. (Telegram / François Destoc) In the maritime district of Guilvinec, the extent of the post-Brexit fleet exit plan (*) will soon be unveiled. We interviewed the players in the fishing industry, all of whom were very worried. Gaël Guillemin (Gléhen shipyard): “We lack prospects”

“With around 30 fewer boats in our ports, we could lose between 30 and 50% of our activity dedicated to maintenance and repair. Overnight and without any compensation, it's brutal, explains Gaël Guillemin, general manager of the Gléhen shipyard , it's an entire economic ecosystem that will be destabilised. This fleet exit plans badly behaved. At the same time, an investment plan should have been proposed. Today, we lack prospects. The prohibition to build a boat in the following five years is a double penalty. The future of auctions, wholesalers and many related trades is on hold. This is why we are asking for investments in the careening areas, such as the arrival of a new lift in Douarnenez. Indispensable to conquer markets”.

Full story courtesy of Steve Lecournu writing for Le Télégramme. (Use Google to translate)