French trawlers hammering the shoaling bass today

[The Austrian]

Only about 10 French trawlers hammering the shoaling bass today and probably tonight as well! I don't know how many have their AIS turned off but it is interesting to watch when they come into our waters the AIS signal suddenly becomes lost and when there are out of the "danger zone" it comes on again!
Nearly all of the trawlers practice this questionable technique at night, if you look at marine traffic frequently, especially at weekends, you will see what I'm on about. Not good!
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

[Beetlejuice]

Yet another 'bass' thread if it was another species would anyone look!?

[JimC]

I'm not sure where you are on about! There are always trawlers from other countries fishing in Irish waters.
How do you know they are fishing for "shoaling bass"?

[The Austrian]

Jim, I've heard this from Dave B. this evening. As him being the editor of a well known boat angling magazine I believe he can be trusted not to spread rumors or untrue facts.

[Pat]

....are you sure he doesn't mean off the Devon & Cornwall coast, as the French do hammer them there, and if you check AIS you'll see plenty of them there!

[Doberman]

I've heard there's also few Russian submarines hunting for Irish Bass

[jd]

Where exactly is this happening? If its off the Waterford/Cork coast in the Celtic Sea I would have thought it is more likely they are after cod.

[JimC]

I think off the Devon and Cornwall coast would be spot on. From what I'm told this tends to be pair trawling hence the gathering of many boats on AIS.

Lets not feed the myth that foreign trawlers are "cleaning up" catching "our" bass off the south coast. I have not seen a shred of evidence to persuade me that such a fishery exists.

[beachbuddy]

Never mind the foreign boats taking offshore bass around the south coast,its the bloody irish boats doing the illegal inshore bassing that need to be watched.Heres a bit of advice to the usual suspects who have no interest in bass topics,DON'T BLOODY WELL READ THEM .
Jim if my memory serves me right there was a lot of concrete evidence[as pointed out in a room in a midleton premises a few years back ] of certain herring boats bringing lots of bass ashore to cobh a few years back.Also word on the street is a certain well known boat down this way has had a complementary tracking device fitted by the sfpa in the last few weeks,i wonder why?

[jw]

For marketing reasons,
France introduced a national
regulation in 1996 to limit sea
bass landings by pelagic
trawlers fishing for sea bass in
the English Channel between
December and April, to 2
t/week/boat. Since 1998, this
measure has been extended
to all trawlers and currently
limits each boat to landing 5
tonnes per week between 1
January and 30 April (also
adopted by the UK in 2000).

http://www.seafish.org/media/Publicatio ... 201102.pdf

[jw]

I think off the Devon and Cornwall coast would be spot on. From what I'm told this tends to be pair trawling hence the gathering of many boats on AIS.

Lets not feed the myth that foreign trawlers are "cleaning up" catching "our" Bass off the south coast. I have not seen a shred of evidence to persuade me that such a fishery exists.

The main known spawning areas for sea bass are in the central Bay
of Biscay (January – March), in the English Channel and Celtic Sea
(February – May) and in the southern North Sea (April – June).
Spawning in other areas, such as the Irish Sea, could be inferred
from the abundance of juvenile fish in surrounding estuaries. After
spawning, at the end of April/early May, the spent fish move north
and east to summer feeding grounds.

[JimH]

Perpetuating the perceived and inaccurate myth of offshore fishing by 'foreigners' enhances the 'sympathy' paid and hence assists the momentum of pressure applied by the FIF to re-open the fishery.

[jw]

you can't seriously be saying this fishery is a myth?

[jd]

you can't seriously be saying this fishery is a myth?

An offshore bass fishery? JohnQ posted on this before.

http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... 36#p315936

[chilly123]

the scum netting every estuary in the southeast/south coast are more to blame..

[jw]

there is so much contradictory info out there.
does a cornwall bass really spawn in the deep water in mid winter,
yet a wexford one must be protected from 15 may to 15 june
as it spawns inshore in shallow water in summer?

cant really be the same species if that's true

[JimH]

The 15th May to 15th of June as an 'optimum spawning' time is probably flawed somewhat - but its done! I've seen fish ready to spawn here before during and after those dates depending on a number of environmental issues (temperature, forage, light levels etc) -

The risk is that so much detailed information is interpreted the wrong way or misread - personally I find a lot of it daunting and beyond me.

Take a look at Ed.Fahys reports here among others you may already be familiar with the work - http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/3734715

[JimC]

you can't seriously be saying this fishery is a myth?

Which fishery? The offshore fishery that the commercials says exist but does not really? The fishery that they claim exists off the 50 odd degree line that once opened would leave our inshore waters bare. GIVE ME A BREAK PEOPLE!

Herring fishery....bass... Sorry Mike, concrete evidence? I'm not sure there.

As regards trawling for bass....from my limited knowledge....any fish caught in a trawl ( other than pair trawling) are incidental. I am open to correction.

[jw]

jim,

im confused more now, you are talking to someboday called mike about herrings

so you guys are saying the seafish
Figure 2: Map of sea bass stock areas (colour keyed to table)
is inaccurate?

[beachbuddy]

Jw,
thats myself that Jim is talking too Hi Jim ,Mike here,just regarding my comment in a previous post it was made by someone[on the night ] that we both know very well and trust ,im only repeating what he said.Its completely separate to the original post and should'nt have mentioned it at all in a bass post.
My main concern at the moment with winter coming is whether or not the inshore bass stocks are going to be hammered in the next few months as they always are[by the same people] or is this year going to be differant My own opinion is that it will be the same all story.
Decent topic by the way very informative on all fronts.