Fisheries Protection Vessel Callenge's

[davem2005]

I would be intrested to hear from anyone who has been challenged/stopped or inspected by either of the two local NSFC enforcement vessels. One is the St Oswald (the big un ) and they have a rib for beach launching. I have never been stopped by them and have actually only seen the St Oswald on one occasion whilst out fishing.

It cruised past...slowed for a binocular inspection and went on its way .Ohhh the benifits of having an honest face

Any encounters with this vessel and reports would be appreciated.

I will post on its report of operations in the last three months on the conservation forum as its nice to see how it is being utilised to protect our fishing.

Cheers
Dave

[Falcone]

hi dave,i used to work on a Boat out of seaham from 1998 through to 2002,we were stopped by the fisheries boat,once while we were Potting,in which they launched the rib from over 1 mile out ,to us who were just off seaham south pier,they boarded us and had a look about checked the sizes of crabs and lobsters aboard the boat then left after around 15 minutes.

Other time was working aboard the same boat,this time drift netting for salmon and sea trout,we were stopped ,boarded and asked{well told} to haul the net up so they could measure the mesh size and the length.

We regularly saw the Salmon fisheries boat,which if i can remember rightly is called the North East guardian,but i could be mistaken.

[ronw]

never been stopped by the st oswald know of one guy in small boat, angling boarded last year measured fish he had on board , however I do pot and have had a visit by the water baliff last year.

[davem2005]

Thanks for the replies,
I am trying to get my head around the workings of the SFC's and their enforcement of regulations in our region...along with reading the Marine bill white paper and the transcript of the government debatete for tomorrow's meeting.

I personally woud have no objection to being pulled by the fisheries protection vessel as after all they are working in our intrests.

The NE Gaurdian is the fisheries protection vessel for the NESFC and I can only assume you were se of south shields pier at the time as this is where the two regions meet. The Ne Gaurdian is based at whitby and covers the region from "somewhere in lincolnshire" to due east of south shields pier. This not a dedicated Salmon and sea trout vessel as I have assumed in the past but is part of the NESFC committee enforcement of all rules and bylaws within their durestriction.

As I understand the rules the EA have responsibility for enforcing the salmon and seatrout bylaws up to one mile out at sea not the SFC's. So far I do not know if they have an "at sea" enforcement arm .

I will look into it later in the week.

Cheers
Dave

[jamiebrennan]

This isnt exactly the same but it was still the one and only time ive seen a fisheries officer, i was digging bait at Whitburn on one of the biggest tides of the year(last year) and there were half a dozen lads crabbing and lobstering, the guy inspected theyre bags and if there were undersized he made them put them back and issued a ticket or an official warning about future conduct. He just told me i was too far down the beach to be building sandcastles! It was however a weekday in working hours....

[insanojackson]

I got stoped and had a bag og bass measured once from a protection officer at cambois! they were all well over size though

[Falcone]

Well we had regular checks made when we were landing,a guy called david mcCindlish who is one of the head guys with the fisheries now.would come down the docks at least once a week and would come aboard and measure nets fish etc...pleasant with it also,not like some of the arrogant ones you get on the fisheries vessels.

[taxi-graham]

hi, i was out on monday on my 21ft boat....shadowed for about a mile by thid protection boat before he shotof to inspect a commercial boat at anchor