Fairly Fishy Friday

Top Mousehole fisherman Cap'n Cod is squids in again...

wheras thew end of season Dory tally is pretty slack with theonly beam trawl trip onm the market this morning...

or man from Ocean just can't get enough Dovers it seems...

blood red gills on the cod - just the sign of quality you'd expect to see...

never mind the squid what about the bass?...

the last thing uou might see were you to disturb this big fella at sea!

NFFO Executive at Work in Newlyn

The NFFO Executive Committee met recently in Newlyn to review the Federation’s policies in the run up to the December Council and beyond. 

Cod Plan: The Executive agreed that the Commission’s proposals for an interim cod regime, pending replacement of the discredited EU Cod Management Plan, represented real progress in the direction advocated by the NFFO, RACs and others 

Flaws: The Commission’s proposals still however contain a number of flaws which need to be ironed out, chiefly the proposed prohibition of quota transfers to and from Catch Quota vessels fitted with CCTV cameras; this mistaken policy, based on a misunderstanding of quota management arrangements in the member states, has the capacity to derail the catch quota trials if not removed 

 Fully Documented Fisheries: The Executive agreed that various types of fully documented fisheries offered a way to escape from blunt and excessively restrictive management measures and approved the Federation’s involvement in a number of initiatives to deepen and broaden the types of full documentation available: CCTV, observers, risk-based approached focused on catch sampling etc. 

VMS/E-Logs: It was agreed to write again to the Minister, Richard Benyon, highlighting flaws in the Governments approach to the requirement to fit VMS and e-logbooks. In particular, the Federation is critical of the way that the industry has been again exposed to an exploitative single supplier arrangements , rushed implementation and a failure to take advantage of the derogation available for vessels between 12m and 15m. 

 South East: A meeting of the Federation’s South East Committee in Rye had been postponed because of a bereavement and would be rearranged for the New Year Economic Link: The Executive agreed to respond to the forthcoming consultation on economic link requirements to ensure that they are fair and proportionate 

 TACs and Quotas: The Federation’s extensive work on TACs and quotas for next year was approved, along with plans for the December Council 

 CFP Reform: An update on the Federation’s work on CFP reform was received, including: 

•  Lobbying of the EU Parliament 
• A recent meeting with the relevant Defra officials 
• A presentation at a recent Westminster conference 
• Work within the regional advisory councils 

Domestic Quota Reform: It was agreed that given the impasse that appeared to have been reached on progress towards an equitable resolution of the under-10m quota issue, it was timely to again press for the adoption of the Federation’s balanced multi-faceted approach discussed with the Minister earlier in the year. 

 Industry Reputation: The Federation’ fight-back against distorted, lazy and dishonest media portrayals of the fishing industry was approved by the Executive but concern was expressed that a more concerted effort was required. A programme of media engagement based on sound evidence, balanced coverage and recognition of the industry’s role in providing food security was approved. A collaborative approach with other industry bodings including Seafish was envisaged. 

 Regional Advisory Councils: The Executive: 

•  Considered that the RACs had been one of the most significant developments arising from the last CFP reform and had exceeded expectations in terms of the quality and maturity of advice provided and as a platform for cooperation between stakeholders and fisheries scientists 
• Recognised that in a regionalised CFP, RACs would play an even more prominent and effective role 
• Approved representations on the future of RACS made by the NFFO at a major consultative meeting held in Brussels chaired by the Director General Reviewed a number of areas of 

RAC work including: EU Cod Plan Irish Sea and West of Scotland cod audit and fuly documentation respectively Nephrops Functional Units Celtic Sea long term management plan Pelagic RAC: TAC and harvesting advice/international negotiations Long Distance RAC: international negotiations 

• Marine Protected Areas: The Federation’s work was reviewed and approved on:
• Changing policy on European marine sites to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Habitats Directive
• Dogger Bank Management Measures
• The MPA Fishing Coalition 

Safety and Training: Progress towards the bulk-buying and distribution of low cost personal flotation devices to NFFO members was approved. It was anticipated that these would be available early in the New Year. It was agreed to work with Seafish on the PDF distribution project and in evaluation of the important role played by levy funding for training 


Shellfish The Executive discussed Defra’s extensive response to the Federation’s shellfish policy paper. It was agreed to convene a meeting of the NFFO Shellfish Committee early in the New Year to develop a response on issues such as latent capacity, stock assessments and minimum landing sizes 

Subsea Cables: A memorandum of understanding with the cable industry on co-existence of the two industries was approved and warmly welcomed by the Executive Next Meeting The Executive will next meet on the 24th January, in York.

Cefas Endeavour blog latest - Heading for Home via......

As promised after yesterdays excitement I have passed the blog duties to Lavinia and Connal.

I am Lavinia, a PhD student from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. My project concerns bio-physical coupling at tidal mixing fronts off SW UK. Briefly, I am investigating how persistent fronts in this region influence the abundance and distribution of marine organisms across various trophic levels starting from the plankton up to top predators.

Although I am not directly associated with CEFAS, I joined the Peltic cruise as part of a collaboration with scientist (amongst others from BAS, CEFAS, NOCS, PML), who have an interest in the linkages between the physical environment and the marine biota. The Peltic cruise is one of the very few aiming to collected data on all aspects of the marine environment, including the oceanography site (see Elisa's contribution the other day), plankton, fish and megavertebrates. I am interested in this unique data set and what it can tell us about the ecosystem functioning in this area. In addition, we will be using data collected during this survey to aid the design and analysis of a glider survey in summer 2013.

So far I have been enjoying the survey a great deal. This is my first scientific cruise and I am still learning new things every day. I have been involved in the data collection of all aspects of the cruise, making my shifts quite diverse. Also, it is exciting to see, how the survey is organized, the different teams work together, and how everything comes together in the end.

Lavinia

Hi, I'm Conall  and I'm from County Galway in Ireland. I am not a blogger, Rob has put me up to this so please bear with me!

 I joined the Cefas Endeavour as an observer at the start of this cruise. My job as an observer mainly consists of watching what goes on and writing a report on the research cruise in which I include the aims, methods and findings of the cruise. Thankfully, this is not as boring as it sounds!

The scientific team has given me every opportunity to get stuck in and involved in nearly every aspect of the cruise. Everyone is kept busy thanks to a shift system. It took a while to get used to working the graveyard shift but now Paul, Joana and I work like a well oiled machine*.

Work consists of taking plankton samples along with water samples at pre-determined stations. This is sometimes interrupted by an hour or two of sorting through whatever fish we catch in the trawl. I have been told that sprat, pilchard and anchovy are all different fish but they all just look the same to me! We haven't had much luck with the fishing side of things but hopefully once the gear gets dialed in we will start to see some full cod ends!

The weather hasn't been great and I think that's the only thing I have to complain about! The entire scientific and ships crew are very friendly and have made life on board the ship very enjoyable. This is in no small part helped by the great food that gets plated up in front of us daily!

All in all the experience has been terrific so far. I'd like to thank the Cefas team for having me onboard and including me in their work. It has given me huge insight into what goes on onboard a research cruise and I am thoroughly enjoying it. We are currently half way through the cruise and I'm looking forward to the days ahead!*Open to interpretation.

Conall

We have now completed all of our planned survey transects and we are now heading back to the Scillies to pick up any plankton and rosette stations that we could not mange last week. See map below.

Once they have been done we will heading East to Mounts Bay and Eddystone and Lyme Bay looking for any good fish marks to fish over.

Rob

The Cefas Endeavour now does a great job keeping fishermen and others right up to date with her research trip - see the rest of the Poseidon Pelagic Survey posts on the blog here. Keep up the good work guys and thank you for taking the time off watch to complete the postings during the voyage!

Blue Charity - first reactions from France!

The French newspaper Ouset France quickly picked up on the breaking story from Pecehe Developpment.

The "tutelage" of fishermen

The report focuses, among others, the intentions of wealthy U.S. foundations that support the "tutelage" of fishermen. They have their relay Europe and weigh according Pech e and Development on the guidelines of the Common Fisheries Policy.

The demonization of fishermen

Their goal, according to Fisheries and Development: "  Weakening the weight of fishermen and their presence at sea to free space for much more lucrative activities, tourism, energy, various extractions. For this , asserts still Fishing and development must demonize fishing. '

'BLUE CHARITY' BUSINESS - Who finances conservation lobbying on European fisheries? - more transparency needed.

Lorient, the 8th November 2012

Just published and released to an expectant media, the French NGO Peche and Development group based in Lorient are hoping this paper will give both the Media and the public a better informed view as to the state of fisheries management in European waters - those that are subject to the Common Fisheries Policy in all its guises. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this report is the news that millions of pounds is being donated via charitable trusts themselves funded by huge corporations that might just have av ested interest in swaying public opinion away from fishermen all to often cast as the bad boys!

Taken straight from the Peche and Developemnt web site:

The French NGO Collectif Pêche et Développement has the pleasure to present you the report, “BLUE CHARITY BUSINESS”. We consider this document is of a great interest for public opinion, NGOs and for the fish industry.

In the current framework of negotiations of the European Common Fisheries Policy Reform, it is very important that any players which try to influence the debates should be fully transparent.

This report brings into the spotlight the donators of the Environmental NGOs which are currently lobbying in Brussels for public opinion.

The funders are part of a small group of mainly American Charity foundations, who have invested several tens of millions of US$ to support these lobbying activities.

Why ?

Read on in and find out why here in an abstract of the main report:

the charts and tables from the Appendix can be viewed or downloaded her:

 

 

and if all this looks as though it might be a case of unjustified paranoia, read on.......

 

 

published courtesy of Nils Stolpe from the FishNet USA web site.

Caribbean sardine collapse linked to climate change

Overfishing and plankton decline may have contributed to collapse of fisheries, risking dire consequences for Caribbean.

 

 A reduction in ocean upwelling, whereby nutrients are brought from the sea floor to the surface, is causing decreasing plankton levels. Photograph: Getty Images

The collapse of sardine fisheries in the southern Caribbean during the past decade may have been driven by global climate change, according to a study.

Researchers from the US and Venezuela linked ecological measurements in the southern Caribbean with global climate change indicators. These indices were revealed to correlate to changes in regional wind and seawater circulation patterns, which may have dire socioeconomic consequences for Caribbean countries – such as the collapse of valuable sardine fisheries.

The sardine, Sardinella aurita, feeds on plankton but since 2005 plankton levels in the Caribbean have reduced significantly, which, coupled with overfishing, may have contributed to the collapse of these fisheries. They have plummeted by as much as 87%, the study says.

The research team said the decreasing levels of plankton production are the result of a reduction in ocean upwelling, whereby nutrients crucial for plankton production are brought from the sea's floor to the surface. The drop in upwelling has, in turn, been driven by changes in wind patterns and wind strength, themselves driven by global climate change.

The conclusions are based on monthly measurements taken over a period of 14 years in the Cariaco basin, off the northern coast of Venezuela. They were published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science last month.

Researchers measured parameters such as temperature, salinity and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the seawater, said Yrene Astor, a researcher from La Salle Foundation of Natural Sciences and co-author of the study.

"The measurements in Cariaco are performed regularly, at monthly intervals, to see the trend over time for each parameter," Astor told SciDev.Net. "This revealed that water temperature has increased by 1.1C [since 1996] – a very slight increase, slow but steady." The temperature increase contributes to the stratification of the sea, further limiting the upwelling and thus reducing plankton production.

But researchers are still unsure about whether the changes are driven by man-made climate change or natural climate variation, and, according to Astor, the project would need further measurements to determine whether or not the ecological shifts are man-made.

Funding for the Cariaco project has been guaranteed from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Innovation of Venezuela up to 2014, Astor said. Research in the Cariaco Basin is "the basis for understanding the low production of fisheries off the Venezuelan coast", César Lodeiros, a researcher at the Oceanographic Institute of Venezuela, told SciDev.Net.

The Venezuelan sardine catch has dropped from about 200,000 tonnes in 2004 to less than 40,000 tonnes today, Lodeiros said, adding: "The same goes for other areas, because the abundance of plankton, generated by coastal upwelling, is the basis for the high production of fish and marine organisms on the Venezuelan coast, particularly in the east and west." Lodeiros said the Cariaco basin investigation is also important because it reveals long-term trends in climate change impacts.

Article courtsey of the Guardian Newspaper:
Marielba Núñez in Caracas for SciDev, part of the Guardian development network

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 November 2012 14.05 GMT

Cod and haddock fishing in the Irish Sea (Sparkling Line) a report from 2003.

 

This excellent video captures the work on deck as the Sparkiling Line hauls a run of good cod. The video was commissioned as part of a report on the state of cod and haddock stocks in 2003 for the Anglo-North Irish Fish Producers Organisation Limited by Fiski.

 

The report can be read here: