Dead sea-birds TVNews report / general environment query

Member Joined: Jul 31, 2006 Posts: 90 Location: out to sea

This should probably be in the Scotland forum, but I feel due to it inherently involving all I shall pop it in here......Has anyone heard about large numbers of sea-birds either being washed ashore dead or not breeding because of the lack of sandeels?? This news I saw just a moment of on Scottish news tv. It has left me feeling devastated, considering that I saw no mackerel at all this year and also feel that I am seeing a serious decline in the qaulity of fishing off Scottish shores. Can anyone shed any light or other similar news about this from other areas. Even just any comment of others experience as to what the last 10 years has been like wether it is a picture of decline or improvement in your area. :?:
?????

thanks all.

badger

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:34 pm

There has been a decline in my neck of woods in terms of numbers caught certainly.Whether this is down to changes in the food source or something more sinister is hard to say,but dwindling numbers of fish caught is definately a problem down here.I don't know,perhaps local diggers can comment and say whether wormbeds are producing less bait and ultimately less food for migratory species like cod.Species not normally associated with Cardiff foreshore for example have been caught recently (smoothounds!),where they would generally be seen much further west.Something must have changed in the fished environment for this to happen,what it is remains unknown.

Guest

Does anyone else think that it's been a funny sort of year all round? The weather's been odd to say the least with the on again off again cold snaps, sudden short heatwave and lack of real rain in the winter. Advice I was given regarding the time of year I could expect certain species to arrive is either a) cobblers or b) been influenced by the strange weather. Looking at some of the fishing reports, fish are either not appearing where they should be or they're where they should be but too early or too late. As a new fisherman, I was quite disheartened by my lack of fish until I started getting similar stories of dry holes from other local fishermen who all said the same,"it's never been so bad." Maybe the lack of sand eels is all part of the same conundrum: Where have all the fish gone?

Hopefully, this winter will be a little better.

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:32 pm

As a new angler myself - this sounds pretty disturbing

but at least now I have a valid and scientific eason for going home with an empty bag :lol:

Guest

I don't bother with scientific excuses. I just tell the missus that they were all too small to keep. So small in fact that you couldn't see them on the end of the hook!

Member Joined: Jul 31, 2006 Posts: 90 Location: out to sea

I take a camera so I can bring back a picture of a fish, so much so my mrs thinks I`m using a picture of a lure, to catch a picture of a fish. Back to the topic tho` I really do also throw the larger fish back too. I reckon they are the fish that will be breeding that season so.... not that I get many right enough!!!!

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:23 pm

fishing has not been good this year, its very odd, the weather has been very strange this year, as all the seasons are very late,due to global warming are seas are getting alot warmer,its to warm in places driving all the fish out to deeper water,have you noticed shore anglers are struggling, and boat fisherman are having all the luck,?this is why,the seas are well being over fished as well by boats, they had to have new regulation nets in 2005, with bigger holes to let smaller fish out,as stocks were so low,when they pull in there nets fish that are undersize limits ,are ment to be put back problem is it takes so long for them to land them by the time they are out the net to be put back they are dead, so there is never any new stocks of fish, somthing will have to be done about it, or there wont be fishing in the near future,

Guest

The other big question for our coastal waters is the overfishing by other EU nations. Sucessive governments have allowed other countries access to our waters with little or no control and we are now paying the price. Having allowed europe to decimate our own fishing fleets they now have carte blanche. My Great Grandad was a trawler skipper for Helliers out of Hull. When the big fleets of the old days fished, they used a grid system. The idea was that you fished an area for a period of time. They would then move on and perhaps not return to that same area for several years. In this way, they managed fish stocks by allowing recovery before re-fishing in the same way that a farmer would manage the animal stocks. Careful fishing, period of rest and recovery, careful fishing. In this way, although the fleets were massive compared to todays, they always got good catches without leaving areas of ocean bare.

As for this ridiculous idea of dumping fish that are too small back even if they are dead is just rank waste of a natural resource and the people that thought of it need to be carefully managed into a big field and shot!

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:58 pm

well said i will second that, its a joke,the goverment need to wise up to this problem

Member Joined: Jul 31, 2006 Posts: 90 Location: out to sea

I reckon as anglers we are very well "tuned in" to our environment and notice even the smallest change year on year. This year the wierdest thing was.... I was fishing away merrily from the rocks on Skye when a penguin...no joke a little chap in a waiters outfit jumped out the sea and penguin landed on the rocks beside me. I thought this was not happening as I have never seen a penguin there before....and he/she was on thier own. A solitary lost pingu???? wierd, my mrs took a couple of pics just so we could double check ..maybe they are actually common enough but I have never seen one, until that evening. I must admit he did look a bit like he needed directions. 8O

I wonder if Gordon will be any better in europe regarding EU fisheries policies than Tony was?????? hrmmmmm

Edit DuncBooth sounds like you have the sea running in yer blood!!!! if yer great grandfather was a trawler man!!, my grandad was merchant navy all his days and I reckon I have the same fascination with the sea he did.

Guest

I think you're right badger. A boat is the thing Iwould like to get most and find those offshore species!