the fish fight with HFW

[tom00_uk]

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Fish Fight - Half of all fish caught in the North Sea is thrown back overboard dead

[zan]

Originally Posted by Lancashire Lad

In connection with my above reply, I've just done a bit of browsing to find out more.

This page: - FAO Fisheries & AquacultureNamibia, Profiles home Confirms Namibia's fishery policy.

Well worth reading, but refer to section 10.31 in particular: -

They do operate minimum mesh sizes.
They do operate closed seasons.
They do operate "Total Allowable Catch" to each licensee for any given species.
Every vessel has an onboard observer monitoring what is being caught.
All landings are completely monitored at the two commercial fishing ports.
They have implemented real-time "Satellite Vessel Monitoring" to deter illegal activities.
They operate air and sea patrols for further monitoring of any vessels in their waters.

etc. etc. etc.

All of this seems very logical to me, and I can't see why something very similar could not easily be implemented both in Britain and in the EU.

Regards,
Mike.

Incidentally, these are pretty straightforward measures and they are already being applied in the UK. Closed areas etc. are used in real-time for species like north sea cod, and there are some areas like the cod box and the plaice box that were designated no-go areas at least at certain times of year.

The problem with area closures is that many species are highly mobile, and there's no point in closing one area / season permanently unless there's a particular reason (i.e. a predictable and identified spawning ground). That's not the case for many UK species - if it was we'd have been using them already.

I don't think the situation is perfect, and bycatch is a big issue (been working on bycatch research myself for the last 2 years) which definitely needs to be addressed soon.