Compare & Contrast: ‘No Fish’ business collapses with this shocking report of Bass dumping. Jerry Percy made it crystal clear that the ‘no fish’ scenario is putting UK fishers out of business at the Coastal Futures conference – see his speaker note below.

Then look at this link to bass dumping in the channel

Is this supposed to be a managed fishery? Even more galling to anglers and sports boats that only have restricted bass catches.

More questions than answers, the future for our inshore fisheries.

Jerry Percy

E mail: jeremypercy@gmail.com   Twitter: @TheJerryPercy

‘Whilst many elements of the larger scale fleet in the UK are thriving, the same cannot be said for the Under ten metre fleet. This sector makes up 79% of the fleet by number yet has access to only circa 2% of the national quota pool. This is despite the facts that we provide over 50% of catching related employment and provide many social and economic benefits to coastal communities.

Whilst five years ago, the majority of calls to our office related to the lack of quota, in more recent times, those increasingly desperate calls have been about the lack of fish on inshore grounds. My presentation highlights some of the reasons why this is the case, suggests that yet again, our sector in particular and indeed the catching sector in general is at a crossroads.

As a nation, we are either going to throw off the shackles of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy and reap the much vaunted promises of EU Exit [such as they are] mainly through the practical application of the Fisheries Act 2020  and the potentially revolutionary Sections within it – or the government will pay only lip service to the requirements of the Act, citing the excuse that we tied our own hands via the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, as the Secretary of State says, “we didn’t get everything we wanted’ and the demise of our inshore fleet will continue apace [700 fishing jobs were lost between 2019 and 2020]’

Bass dumping by Dutch Fly-shooters

JNEWS ‘Nr. 10 in new fishing line as foreign trawlers dump tons of sea bass in the Channel

January 23, 2022 by Jnews

Foreign trawlers dump fish in the Channel as the government refuses to take measures to curb this practice.Footage obtained by The Telegraph shows a Dutch fly shooter dumping thousands of fish last month by cutting up a net. There are strict restrictions on bass due to depleted numbers, but fliers accidentally catch them while fishing for other species, and must then return them to sea in accordance with British government rules.

Flycatcher fishes by pulling weighted ropes along the seabed with a long thin net in between, designed to catch whole shoals of fish. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.

Dr. Ian Hendy, a fisheries expert at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Marine Sciences, estimated that the video showed 10 tons of sea bass, equivalent to between 5,500 and 11,000 individual fish. Despite being released, many would die from being caught in the net or due to damage to their swim bladder caused by being brought quickly to the surface, he said. 

‘Big fishermen don’t care … as long as they make big money’

He said: “The impact on the loss of genetic variability with spawning individuals is enormous with such a large catch in one fell swoop. This is by no means a reflection on coastal, artisanal fishermen. Great fishermen strike and do not care about atrocities as long as they serve the big money.

They are constantly committing these atrocities without reprimand. It happens much more often than people are aware of. It wipes out entire fisheries – it is like napping the sea.”

The trawl also releases carbon dioxide by scraping along the seabed, leading to calls to ban it.

The catch seen in the video is thought to be unusually large, but experts said “bycatch”, where fish are accidentally caught by trawlers, was common and often resulted in dumping.

This practice has attracted controversy and criticism from smaller fishermen, who say it harms fish stocks and prevents them from earning a living by fishing more sustainably. Click here to access

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