The BBC Radio Cleveland's Rob Barlow joined other anglers on chieftain charters for a 36 hour trip with the offshore fishing specialist Mr Metcalf. The BBC reporter appeared to have a bad experience suffering from sea sickness for most of the trip and then catching little if any fish.
Rob Barlow says
All though I did see fish being caught, we had to be 70 miles out in order to find them and from what George revealed to me it's getting worse year by year.
In an attempt to explain the poor fishing Barlow reports that skipper metcalfe says :
"The main problem with the cod crisis in the Northeast and further a field is the super-trawlers' towing massive small-mesh nets.
"Although the main intention of these trawlers is to catch sand eels, everything else in the path of the nets is taken. This targets the same species that the fish, seabirds, and marine mammals rely on for survival."This takes all the food away for the cod - how can they survive if there is nothing in the sea for them to eat?"
I think it is quite sad that the offshore grounds at Whitby are still suffering from a lack of cod, this must be even harder for the boats working the waters to take given the recent resurgence of cod fishing on the inshore grounds within 10 miles of the coast at Whitby, especially as in very recent times most of the Whitby charter fleet have been reporting fantastic fishing within site of land.
You can read Rob Barlow's full report of his Whitby offshore boat fishing experience at the link below:BBC On Whiby Chieftain Charters
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