Protecting angling fisheries

[gfkelly1969]

In August there were sign put up around Ferrypoint stating that Bass anglers could keep only 2 Bass. The previous night an angler carried 18 Bass up to over 10lb from a local rock mark.

I can give you more examples of boxes of Bass being landed in certain ports.

have you reported the angler that took the 18 bass and where the boxes of Bass are being landed the number is here http://www.fisheriesireland.ie/Press-re ... rvice.html

[Stan]

The fisheries officers, like us, are aware that there is poaching of bass going on. However, they do not have the manpower to deal with this matter.

[hugo]

The fisheries officers, like us, are aware that there is poaching of Bass going on. However, they do not have the manpower to deal with this matter.

Maybe a partial solution could be volunteer part-time shore bailiffs drawn from the angling community, a bit along the lines of the Garda Reserve?

[beachbuddy]

No problem paying for anything that would help protect "any" remaining fish stocks around our coast,but patrolling the coast 24hrs a day is just impossible,maybe something like the "garda reserves" on a voluntary basis might be an idea.But would people be willing to put themselves and families in danger by confronting the types of people involved in such activities ,maybe ,maybe not.
On a positive note regarding youghal only 2 weeks ago the fishery people nicked a chap for netting 10 bass,so they do get lucky every now and then,but what about the thousands that were wiped "again" off the south coast this past autumn/winter
Unfortunately when it comes to fishery protection in ireland the resources are just not available to help fight our cause from state funding,however "privatising" might be an idea maybe some big fellas in uniform might scare a few wannabe poachers off.

[beachbuddy]

Beat me to it Hugo.

[JULIO RAGWORM]

I’m certainly not a commercial fisherman!!!! I’m just making a sensible argument not in favour of a sea angling licence. I haven’t read too much into the USA blueprint and will take your comments on face value at this point but I would hazard a guess and say that the territorial waters of the USA would be controlled by the USA, governed by the USA for the people of the USA, our territorial waters of the UK and Ireland are controlled by someone in Brussels or Strasbourg for the benefit of landlocked foreign nationals not for the people of our nations, Europe is not a superstate yet despite the best attempts of Angela Merkel and her other European cronies who by the way where not elected by me or anyone on these islands, as long as this continues, as long as the hunger for more fish increases, the greater the pressure being put on our fish stocks and therefore us sea anglers will suffer as we are at the bottom of the pecking order no matter how many licenses we sell. The reason I mentioned Cod, Haddock and Plaice is the fact that here in Northern Ireland they would have been our main catch but not anymore as virtually all our beaches are devoid of these species and if we are lucky to get one then it’s of no size, this is mainly down to offshore trawlers and crazy EU legislation on discards and quotas.
I see now that it is a form of sea bass licence you’re talking about, sea bass have been protected in Irish Law since the 90’s which is probably the best preventative protection measure available at the moment but it doesn’t stop everyone I understand that all too well. I would say that education of the younger kids in schools would be a better alternative to your bass licence fee or any fish licence for that matter, pay a wage to few good guys maybe even off this site and affiliated to the site to go into schools or youth clubs, there are probably even guys on here who would gladly do it, I’m sure there may be more of a consensus on that proposal, that’s something that could be done without the consent of our European paymasters, if the next generation are properly schooled in fish conservation then maybe we have a chance to turn around this through the power of voting for changes through parliament to abolish the CFP as it has been a total failure as current scientific research shows that 75% of fish stocks are overfished , taking back control of what’s rightfully ours and governing our waters for the benefit of all our citizens. This argument could go on forever or unless the mods lock it lol

[Stan]

Julio I am not talking about a bass licence.

I believe that we need a voice for all anglers. I do believe that our offshore stocks are being overfished by trawlers from all over the EU. However, there is little that we can do about this.

We can keep on blaming foreign boats for wiping out our stocks. However, inshore commercial fishing boats have also a hand in this.

In Waterford bass , plaice and ray were abundant until the late 70's. They were almost wiped out by local commercial fishermen. I do not blame these men as they also had to make a living. What we need is a sustainable inshore fishery.

Bass and ray had begun to recover. Unfortunately, there has been widespread fishing of bass again this year. They will be wiped out very quickly.

Those who fished the E coast here had fantastic fishing in Greystones up to the 80's.. The cod and plaice fishing was fantastic. Then the netting right up to the shoreline started and all fish were wiped out within a few years.

I do believe that our inshore species can be protected. We do need proper "fisheries officers" and I do believe that we need a proper voice.

We could of course sit back and wait until there are no fish and then wonder what happened or we could try to get a proper anglers representation to state out opinions. I think that the only way for us to do this is to have a licensing situation.

[Tanglerat]

Be careful what you wish for Stan, the law of unintended consquences has never been repealed:

http://www.eftta.com/english/news_indep ... 2047259470

[Ashley Hayden]

A couple of points:

With family roots in Greystones and having fished the waters since I was a boy, I can categorically state that the fishing was not destroyed by one local fisherman but by general commercial over fishing in the Irish sea allied to mussel dredging and unregulated whelk fishing.

Local fishermen used traps, long lines, and trammel nets to fish these waters in a sustainable way alongside the anglers. When the fish disappeared so did the artisan fishermen.

Irish legislators revoked existing laws in the 1970's to enable trawling up to the shoreline, not the EU (then EEC).

The internet is a great place for gossip and misinformation.

[hugo]

Local fishermen used traps, long lines, and trammel nets to fish these waters in a sustainable way alongside the anglers. When the fish disappeared so did the artisan fishermen.

Irish legislators revoked existing laws in the 1970s to enable trawling up to the shoreline, not the EU (then EEC).

That's how I remember it in the West too. Even the old skippers of the BIM 50 footers thought it was a bad move as it would wipe out inshore breeding grounds, and it did.
Maybe its time to call for reinstatement of the inshore no-trawl zone.

[John D]

Has anyone purchased Ed Fahey's new book 'Overkill'? I did, and I'm hoping it will be a good read. I think we could all do with reading it to educate ourselves on such matters.

Yours hopefully - John D.

[donal murphy]

I have been meaning to get this book for a while now, here is the link to buy it from amazon, and also includes a preview so you can read a few chapters before you buy.... very interesting and very relevant to this thread

http://www.amazon.com/Overkill-euphoric ... 0957521804

[Ashley Hayden]

John D's point is an essential to anyone who is interested in marine conservation and regeneration of Ireland's inshore waters.

Having read "Overkill", I'm shocked. Presently across our media the food industry is in disrepute, we are suffering the consequences of a global recession caused by reckless banking precipitated by deregulation rubber stamped at Government level. Well, Ed's book is an insider critique of what became through the sixties and seventies a Government centralised industry where the supposed development agency BIM became all powerful, more interested post 1972 in divying out EEC/EU funds and subsidies as against building a diverse fishing fleet in balance with the wider resource it saught to exploit.

Having witnessed the decline, Dr Fahy's book fills in the gaps, I hope that Simon Coveney reads it as there is nothing anecdotal about it, the truth, and not an opinion, is well out there now, buy it.

[beachcomber]

This is a topic that should be further developed. Fundamentally I agree with all the points that Stan has proposed. May i pose this question. If a license specifically to fish for and catch bass ( although i fully understand the complexeties of this) was introduced including a tag and logbook similar to salmon, would the funding result in more fisheries officers, would it result in an improvment in Bass stocks. Is the current limit of 2 bass in 24 hrs excessive?