Super trawlers
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Sway

Original Poster:

33,860 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
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Couldn't find the original topic from a few months ago - I did try!

Few months on - and we're seeing a very unusual number of dead dolphins being washed up. Four in the last couple of weeks, along a small stretch of the Sussex coast.

I'm no longer living in one of the seaside villages experiencing this, a tad more inland - but I'm told by friends the factory ships are still out there.

Coincidence?

Any other reasons people can think of for such an unusual occurrence?

Turn7

25,391 posts

245 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
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Possibly no coincidence, but extremely difficult to prove.....

Once these huge factory ships have hoovered the sea bed bare of all life, then they will stop.

Until then, £$£$£$ talks.....

Ziplobb

1,544 posts

308 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
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5 washed up on the Isle of Wight recently, just so happens one of those boats sailed by a few weeks ago

anonymous-user

78 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
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Brexit?

Liokault

2,837 posts

238 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
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My understanding was that these big ships had embedded biologists on board monitoring by catch.

Sway

Original Poster:

33,860 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
quotequote all
Liokault said:
My understanding was that these big ships had embedded biologists on board monitoring by catch.
If so, it's somewhat annoying if ten dolphins in a couple of weeks were deemed acceptable losses.

Having lived in a fishing village in the area for over a decade, the local fishermen do absolutely everything they can to be "shepherds" of the seas they rely on - and want to pass down as careers through the generations...

Turn7

25,391 posts

245 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
quotequote all
Liokault said:
My understanding was that these big ships had embedded biologists on board monitoring by catch.
Colour me cynical, but Bycatch is all the dead st they wash overboard to avoid fines and stuff isnt it ?

Sway

Original Poster:

33,860 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
quotequote all
Turn7 said:
Liokault said:
My understanding was that these big ships had embedded biologists on board monitoring by catch.
Colour me cynical, but Bycatch is all the dead st they wash overboard to avoid fines and stuff isnt it ?
Yep. A great solution - place quotas/minimum catch sizes/etc. to protect stocks and other species - and kill them anyway but don't land them...

Especially these massive factory ships, who use nets/techniques that are fking brutal in comparison to smaller boats/fleets...

Turn7

25,391 posts

245 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
quotequote all
Sway said:
Turn7 said:
Liokault said:
My understanding was that these big ships had embedded biologists on board monitoring by catch.
Colour me cynical, but Bycatch is all the dead st they wash overboard to avoid fines and stuff isnt it ?
Yep. A great solution - place quotas/minimum catch sizes/etc. to protect stocks and other species - and kill them anyway but don't land them...

Especially these massive factory ships, who use nets/techniques that are fking brutal in comparison to smaller boats/fleets...
Indeed....

Whats ACTUALLY required is a huge cull of Humans.....

rallycross

13,697 posts

261 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
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Sounds awful are these factory trawlers British registered or non U.K. based ?

anonymous-user

78 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
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Turn7 said:
Indeed....

Whats ACTUALLY required is a huge cull of Humans.....
Parrots ahoy, perhaps, but regrettably I doubt that you were joking when you made that remark. Who is going to decide who gets culled? You?

PS: The word you were looking for is "what's". HTH.

Sway

Original Poster:

33,860 posts

218 months

Sunday 12th January 2020
quotequote all
rallycross said:
Sounds awful are these factory trawlers British registered or non U.K. based ?
Non UK, and operating as close to the limits set to protect bass and other stocks as they can legally go...

rscott

17,075 posts

215 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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Sway said:
rallycross said:
Sounds awful are these factory trawlers British registered or non U.K. based ?
Non UK, and operating as close to the limits set to protect bass and other stocks as they can legally go...
Aren't many of them fishing using quotas originally allocated to British fishing fleets, but which had been sold to overseas companies?

wc98

12,401 posts

164 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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rscott said:
Aren't many of them fishing using quotas originally allocated to British fishing fleets, but which had been sold to overseas companies?
not the ones in question as bass were not a quota species until recent times. the large offshore pelagic boats are actually some of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable commercials when used for things like mackerel and herring correctly.

single digit numbers of non target species in hauls of thousands of tonnes and shoal sampling prior to netting.

unfortunately the english channel is not suited to this type of fishing, particularly the western end as it is basically a nursery area and breeding ground for a vast number of species. this makes it impossible to target individual species using mass capture methods without doing an unacceptable amount (imo) of damage to other species.

lack of monitoring by uk authorities is the biggest issue in home waters, although we have orders of magnitude more people involved in this than many other countries with much larger fishing fleets so it is no surprise there are problems.


Sway

Original Poster:

33,860 posts

218 months

Monday 13th January 2020
quotequote all
WC98 - absolutely agree.

I'm far from being a fisherman - I've been exactly five times, and caught precisely nothing, ever (every time those around me were pulling fish out the water seemingly every five minutes!). Just not my skill, nor bag.

I do have a lot of fisherman (commercial and recreational) friends though.

Where the juddering fk is the logic in preventing catch and keep on bass for recreational fishers off a beach, whilst allowing this to go on only a few miles away?

What was the point in a local Holiday Park, along with the environment agency, spending millions on a 'pleasure harbour' as part of some major changes to sea defences - with the specific aim and approach to also provide a superb nursery for juvenile fish?

That of course on top of the higher order parts of the food chain - in this case dolphins - being indiscriminately killed whilst stocks are destroyed...

As much as I loathe their methods, where the fk are the "sea shepherd" types, or isn't the South Coast in winter nice enough weather for them?

After all this - people are surprised fishing communities around the country voted strongly for Brexit?

CFP - may the fleas of a thousand camels infest the genitalia of those creating the system that allows such obviously fking ridiculous situations to occur.

anonymous-user

78 months

Monday 13th January 2020
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Breadvan72 said:
Turn7 said:
Indeed....

Whats ACTUALLY required is a huge cull of Humans.....
Parrots ahoy, perhaps, but regrettably I doubt that you were joking when you made that remark. Who is going to decide who gets culled? You?

PS: The word you were looking for is "what's". HTH.
To quote Dick the Butcher:

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers".

But seriously, there is a case for discouraging, at least, population growth. Rather than what we currently do, encourage it.

Edited to add: Human population that is.

anonymous-user

78 months

Thursday 16th January 2020
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Look at some Hans Rosling stuff (lots on youtube). Malthus was wrong. Malthus is still wrong.


The TED talk "Population, Box by Box", is maybe the best intro to Rosling.

anonymous-user

78 months

Thursday 16th January 2020
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Breadvan72 said:
Look at some Hans Rosling stuff (lots on youtube). Malthus was wrong. Malthus is still wrong.


The TED talk "Population, Box by Box", is maybe the best intro to Rosling.
Malthus said if a population grows exponentially it will out strip it's ability to feed its self resulting in catastrophy, didn't he? Makes sense. Rosling says we'll top out at 11bn, presumably, well before that. I don't see why the two ideas can't both be right. In any event the jury is still out on whether the earth can sustain Roslings (and others he just presents it well) 11bn.

Sway

Original Poster:

33,860 posts

218 months

Thursday 16th January 2020
quotequote all
fblm said:
Breadvan72 said:
Look at some Hans Rosling stuff (lots on youtube). Malthus was wrong. Malthus is still wrong.


The TED talk "Population, Box by Box", is maybe the best intro to Rosling.
Malthus said if a population grows exponentially it will out strip it's ability to feed its self resulting in catastrophy, didn't he? Makes sense. Rosling says we'll top out at 11bn, presumably, well before that. I don't see why the two ideas can't both be right. In any event the jury is still out on whether the earth can sustain Roslings (and others he just presents it well) 11bn.
Ultimately, humanity cannot survive long term solely living on Earth - irrespective of it's "internal" resources to sustain population.

There are guaranteed external factors which will over rule any of that...

So, part of the debate must include the ability to both provide additional resources from outside our little sphere of rock, as well as enabling a sustainable population off this little rock too.

anonymous-user

78 months

Thursday 16th January 2020
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Exploring the Solar System is essential. Mars could - possibly- be terraformed over maybe a century or so. But can any of that be done by even the most wealthy nation or corporation? I doubt it. World Government will probably never arrive (it would be very hard to make such government democratic), and we seem a long way off the sort of Global co-operation that would be needed to terraform and colonise Mars or any other viable location.

Tidal (thread) drift?