MMO have launched formal consultation on a proposed byelaw prohibiting bottom towed fishing over rock and reef in 13 offshore MPAs

The MMO have launched formal consultation on a proposed byelaw prohibiting bottom towed fishing over rock and reef in 13 offshore MPAs. 

This is part of Stage 2 of our work to manage fishing in England’s offshore MPAs by the end of 2024, and follows a technical assessment of the impact of bottom towed gear fishing on rock and reef MPA features. In parallel to the Stage 2 formal consultation, they are running a ‘call for evidence’ to seek input on the evidence base they will use for Stage 3. Stage 3 will involve the assessment and management of fishing in all remaining offshore MPAs with seabed features. This is a total of 41 MPAs (28 ‘new’ sites, plus remaining fishing/features in the 13 Stage 2 sites).  Both the consultation and call for evidence will run for ten weeks and will close at midnight on 28th March.

 

If they decide to proceed with the Stage 2 byelaw, the next steps will be for MMO to make the byelaw and submit it to the Secretary of State for confirmation, which is required before it can come into force. The next steps for Stage 3 will be to carry out site-level assessments for each MPA, and where management is necessary, draft and consult on byelaws. Stage 4 will involve the assessment and management of fishing in the 5 English offshore MPAs designated for birds and harbour porpoise. They plan to launch a Call for evidence for Stage 4 in the summer.

 

The Stage 2 formal consultation, proposed management and supporting information can be found at https://consult.defra.gov.uk/mmo/stage-2-formal-consultation

The call for evidence and supporting information can be found at https://consult.defra.gov.uk/mmo/stage-3-call-for-evidence

Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs)

Please register for the Fisheries Management and Innovation Group (FMIG) online, bite-size meeting on Tuesday 17 January 2023. 

The session will run from 2pm to 4pm GMT. The registration link is below.

 

Following Brexit, the UK Fisheries Act 2020 placed FMPs as the main tool for FMPs are evidence-based action plans, developed with input from industry and other stakeholders. They set out a range of policies, based on scientific evidence, that detail how fishing is managed, by stock, fishery, or location.

 

This meeting will take a close look at the FMPs being prioritised for delivery in 2023 in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have a different approach). These ‘frontrunner’ FMPs, all involve a partnership between fishers, researchers and regulators, but they are piloting different ways of preparing FMPs. The lessons learnt from these projects will help shape future FMP work. Through a series of presentations, and follow-on discussion, we will find out more about how the alternative approaches are working. Our speakers are:

• Government policy - FMPs/Joint Fisheries Statement/UK Fisheries Act 2020. Annabel Stockwin and Jon Davies, Defra. 

• Crabs, lobsters and whelks in English waters. Rebecca Treacy, Seafish.

• Bass in English waters. Policy Lab. Speaker TBC.

• Channel non-quota demersal stocks (NQS). Isobel Johnston, Marine Management Organisation. 

• King scallop in English and Welsh waters. Speaker TBC.

 

If you have any questions please email Karen Green. Please note your event registration confirmation will come from Eventbrite (please check your spam or junk folders) with the zoom login details for the day.

Monday morning's haul of fish on the market.

Dark as a cow's guts.

It's heavy skies over Newlyn this morning...

out to sea in Mounts Bay and it's 'knissing down...

inside the relative comfort of the fish market there were plenty of bass up for auction...

and a good haul of big black bream...

the only boat of any size to have fish for sale was the netter Stelissa,  amongst her catch were these fine haddock...

and a soli trip of big hake...

these big tub gurnards also found their way into the big mesh net...

with changes afoot to working practices on the market...

fish are now being tipped from the boxes they were auctioned in...

on the back of less than ideal weather, the sardine boat Pelagic Marksman managed a shot of these lovely fish during the night...

while several of the Waterdance fleet have their boxes now in cold storage after landing waiting to be taken for auction on Brixham market, it's a long story...

sistership to the Stelissa, Siver Dawn  has just finished landing and is now taken boxes back on board...

green for go...

red for stop, access barriers in action on the Mary Williams pier...

as the Crustal Sea heads away for another trip...

out across the bay...

there's just enough darkness for the half-moon to show above Newlyn...

as the promenade recovers from yet another soaking.

 

Critical report of current fisheries management measures implemented for the North Sea mixed demersal fisheries

 

Report written by J. Rasmus Nielsen, Clara Ulrich, Troels J. Hegland, Birgit de Voss, Thomas T. Thøgersen, Francois Bastardie, Leyre Goti, Ole R. Eigaard and Lotte Kindt-Larsen 

This report is a deliverable of the project Socio-economic effects of management measures of the future CFP (SOCIOEC). The project is co-funded by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme

Future of Our Inshore Fisheries: What are Fisheries Management Plans?

 This video produced for Future of Our Inshore Fisheries explains what Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) are, why and how they are being developed.

For more information about Fisheries Management Plans visit: www.seafish.org/FisheriesManagementPlans

Future of Our Inshore Fisheries (FOIF) is an industry-led project with the long-term aim of transforming how inshore fisheries are managed. 

For more information about FOIF visit: www.seafish.org/future-of-our-inshore-fisheries

Fish of the Day - week 9 - the cunning conger eel!

 

Conger eels come in many sizes, from the occasional beast over over 6ft long and weighing in at 10st (70kg) or more "Monstrum horrendum, informe, et ingens," ...

to the very small often referred to as snakes, smaller still are called 'whips'...

and those that live in the darker recesses inshore are often almost black rather than grey in colour. 

Bill 'Rasper' Tonking waits for the next hooked fish to appear while Porthlevener, 'Kipper' guts fish in the side deck on the Bonny Mary.

Before netting became the preferred method of fishing for many of the boats between 15 and 20m longlining was the mainstay of the fleet during the summer months in Newlyn. Boats like the Bonny Mary  worked around 24 baskets of longlines with 180-200 hooks a basket targeting big white fish like ling, pollack, coley and cod. Conger eels often appeared on the hooks when the lines were shot over patches of hard ground. Occasionally, the longliners would make a night trip during the winter months just to target conger eel. One night after fishing on the Epsom Shoal ground south of Mounts Bay the Bonny Mary landed 660st (4200kg) of conger, they filled all the deck pounds of the boat.

The bulk of the conger eels landed back in the 70s and 80s went straight to Spain. Well known fish soup dishes like Bouillabaisse include conger as its firm fish does not disintegrate when cooked. Conger also make superb fish cakes for the same reason that the flesh combines well with mashed potato.

Mature congers, when gutted, reveal what is referred to as 'chittlings'.

It doesn't end there. years ago, fishermen in Newlyn and Mousehole split, dried and sewed together with needle and thread 9-10 congers in the form of a 'sheet'. Known as 'cloths', spread on sticks they were suspended from wooden poles in all weathers until they were quite dry, usually a month to six weeks. The name probably being derived from the French as that was where the original market for this fish product was - after drying the eels were ground to a dust and it was exported for use in soups and stews. Fish prepared in this way were called, conger-douce, conger dowst or in English, dust - an industry described by Martin Wright of Mousehole now lost, but with the practice of air-drying fish (which you can sample locally at 45 Queen St in Penzance) maybe this process will find a place in modern cuisine!

Either way, certain areas of the sea must be teeming with huge conger these days as they have not been targeted for over 40 years - there is a market out there for them surely?!

Political tensions rise over Teesside crab deaths

 

Hundreds of dead shellfish on the beach at Saltburn IMAGE SOURCE,JOE REDFERN

 

When thousands of crabs began washing up dead off Teesside and North Yorkshire's beaches in October 2021, it was a tragedy for the local fishing industry, and the environment.

But it also set off a row that shows little sign of dying off.

It ignited once again at Prime Ministers' Questions: Rishi Sunak had to defend the government's approach as local Labour MP Alex Cunningham, told it to "get serious" about what caused the deaths.

The row has also played out on the opinion pages of The Times this week. The newspaper accused the government of an inadequate response, while the Teesside Conservative MP and former Levelling Up Secretary Simon Clarke responded by saying "crude" political opposition was behind accusations of a cover-up.

At stake is not just the health of sea life, but also the future of a key part of the government's levelling up agenda - the creation of a freeport offering tax breaks to lure businesses to Teesside.

An investigation by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the most likely cause of the 2021 die-off was a naturally-occurring algal bloom. Devastating for fishing, but seemingly unpreventable.

It was a conclusion that many in the fishing industry did not believe. Instead, they suspected it was industrial toxins released during the dredging of the River Tees.

Fishermen have staged protests against the pollution They commissioned their own report from researchers at four northern universities. In September 2022, those academics concluded that the crabs were more likely to have been poisoned by pyridine - an industrial chemical that is present in the river's mud.

This is where the freeport and the thousands of jobs the Conservatives are promising there becomes an issue.

If poisons from the Tees were responsible, they can only have been stirred up by what's called maintenance dredging. This is work that has been carried out for decades to keep the river navigable for ships.

Nothing to do ostensibly with the freeport plan, as no dredging for that had taken place before the deaths of the crabs.

Crab deaths not caused by sewage or cables - 

Crab deaths inquiry prompts call to pause dredging 

But a call by the fishing industry and Labour MPs for the suspension of dredging was still likely to have an impact as there were plans to remove an extra amount of silt for a crucial development in the freeport. What is known as capital dredging was needed to allow the construction of a new quay for a factory that will soon build giant wind turbine piles.

Preventing that could threaten the first economic fruits of the freeport. Government scientists, ministers, and the Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, then have held the line, insisting that the algal bloom was still the likely cause, and that the presence of pyridine was unsurprising as it naturally occurs in crustaceans.

The dredging began last autumn, with Mr Houchen keen to point out there has been no repeat yet of the 2021 die-off.

That did not settle the matter for the fishing industry, or many local Labour politicians. It all got personal when protesters last month turned up outside the freeport site wearing Ben Houchen masks, and calling again for dredging to halt.

In response Mr Houchen and Teesside's Tories have accused their opponents - and particularly Labour - of trying to wreck the freeport plan. In The Times, Simon Clarke referred to them as an "anti-growth coalition" who can't face the fact that it is Conservatives "restoring pride, identity and purpose" to the area.

It is hardly surprising that politics should play a part. Teesside will be a crucial battleground at the next election. The Conservatives have largely been beating Labour there since 2017, something Sir Keir Starmer needs to reverse. Tees freeport

Mr Houchen has said the freeport would add more than £3bn to the economy once fully developed. Labour though believe the Tories are big on rhetoric and short on results in their promise to transform the area. Denting the popularity of Ben Houchen is an aim, even if they are convinced their cause is a noble one.

A new chapter in this dispute though is about to begin. In October, the House of Commons environment committee spent a day reviewing the evidence. Although its members did not call for dredging to be halted, they did urge the government to re-examine the competing theories.

In response, the Environment Secretary Therese Coffey formed an independent panel of scientists which is now looking at whether the deaths are down to nature or industrial poison.

That report could come as soon as next week, but will it draw a line?

There has already been concern about transparency. Ms Coffey has not revealed who is sitting on the panel, or what its frame of reference was, even though she has been urged to do so by the Conservative environment committee chairman Sir Robert Goodwill.

There is every chance yet that its conclusions may not satisfy Labour MPs or the fishing industry that there is no attempt to cover up a scandal. Conservatives will continue to accuse opponents of playing politics.

It seems likely the legacy of those dead crabs will still be haunting the area when the next General Election comes.