Anyone who fishes the north east coast won't have failed to notice the shortage of mackerel being caught this year. There are a lot of theories floating around at the moment including : seals are eating them all, no feed for them etc etc. To me the reason for the lack of Mackerel is quite clear. The commercial fishermen caught them all. In recent years illegal and overfishing of the mackerel stocks in the north sea has been reported in some newspapers, magazines and online websites. For those who haven't seen any of these articles these 2 are well worth a look.
Illegal fishing - Altaire
Mackerel over fishing
In recent months a ban has been placed on catching Mackerel from boats from the north east coast of England. There is currently a petition circulating asking for people to add their names in support of getting the ban removed. Links to the petition have been placed on a lot of the angling forums across the internet. I don't know why I was surprised by the response to this petition on the forums but I was. It appears that most recreational anglers (at least those who have commented) are against the petition and think the mackerel ban should stay in place. I personally aren't so sure. I don't like to see the owners of small boats, who in my opinion fish using sustainable methods, penalised for the actions of people like greedy millionaire owners of the Altaire who I can only describe as crooked in every sense of the word. I,m thinking of signing this petition to give my support to owners of small fishing boats. It appears the message from the wider recreational angling community is - "YOU MADE YOUR BED NOW YOU MUST LIE IN IT"
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2 comments:
Given the shortage of Mackerel it does anglers no favours that Filey allow them to be weighed in for their 'any species' matches.
I wasn't there but it sounds like a mass slaughter was done on their 3rd Sept match. There's more skill in catching a 3lb cod that 100lb of mackerel anyway in my book!
Bernie,
You are right about the skill factor. Sounds like cast in and pull one out tactics. There are some things in the filey festivals to be pleased about. They have species comps. I think Whitby angler Brian Harland won something for the heaviest specimen with a pollock he caught. They also have a bass prize which rolls over to the next year if noone gets one. The amount stands at £250.
Just to put the Mackerel thing into perspective. The report mentioned above in the Scotsman newspaper says
"One skipper said that for a seven-minute tow he had 1,000 tonnes of mackerel alongside. The catches have been unbelievable."
If each fish weighed 1 pound then this is said to work out at about 2 million mackerel for 7 minutes fishing. Yes anglers cant take the moral high ground if they are needlessly killing 100 mackerel, but in the great scale of things they are a lot closer to the summit of the high ground than our commercial friends who appear to go unchecked.
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