monster tope wasted

[Charlton]

Just heard that a tope of 110lb, British Record 82lb, was caught in a net just off St Bees Head, Cumbria and sold at the fish market for £6.

[Oblickta]

Criminals, i\'d pay £6 just to see it if it was alive

Grrrrrrrrr

[davem2005]

Alan thanks for posting this.
You know my personal feelings on this and the general demise of sharks. A lot of people watching this thread may think who cares as long as we got loads of cod , but in all honestly you can not beat the thrill of catching a fish of this calibre.
These fish are available on this coast and it wont be long before they become a regular target for NE anglers. Anyone who has hooked even the smallest tope will appreciate they are worth far more in the sea than 6 quid. This is sad news and the sooner legislation comes in to stop this the better.

The NE has led the way in banning the kiling of tope...a byelaw which is forming a precident for other sfc\'s to follow. Hopefully all the others will follow in time.

Dave

[Davyred]

Alan thanks for posting this.
You know my personal feelings on this and the general demise of sharks. A lot of people watching this thread may think who cares as long as we got loads of cod

Dave

I think you\'ll be surprised at the amount of people who DON\'T think that Dave. For a start, there aren\'t loads of cod.

[Edited on 4/7/2006 by Davyred]

[willywetegg]

Got to agree Davy mate, never had a decent Cod for two seasons now mate.

Jim.

[mickthefish]

a disheartening story none the less

[TC]

Remember the post I made about Ian seeing a gutted (well sliced open) porpoise lying on The Rubble at Shields pier a few wekks ago ?

Is it any wonder that netters and trawlers have such a bad reputation?

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

An absolute disgrace killing such a fantastic creature only to flog it for next to nothing ,Davy also has a good point I don\'t think like that at all,I like nothing better than to see a fish swim away after I\'ve landed it.

[Mogthemackem]

I remember seeing that porpoise and noticing it was sliced open. TBH I was gutted to see it lying there but just purely disgusted when I saw it\'s stomach cut open like that.

[IanBurrett]

I have just come of the phone to the trawler skipper that landed the tope
The fish was weighed at Whitehaven fish market at 110 pounds
He actually recieved £4.50 for the fish but it cost him three pounds to have it delivered to the fish market. So the biggest tope ever seen in European waters died for £1.50
He is sending me a camera photo and the receipt.
It was alive and healthy in the trawl and in his own words, would have put it back if he had known how little it was worth. Ironically it is the first tope he has caught in his trawl

This fish will rewrite the text books as the ceiling on tope was thought to be around 100 pounds. This fish may have been gravid but only in the early stages as they don\'t lay their young till early spring, so this fish could have weighted in excess of 140 pounds in full pup.

I am not putting blame on the trawler owner as his job is to catch fish and sell them, but pressure must be put on the SFC to try and get the byelaw pushed through.

Please write/email to

North Western & North Wales Sea Fisheries Committee,

University of Lancaster,

Lancaster,

Lancashire.

LA1 4YY

Tel: 01524 68745. Fax: 01524 844980

E-mail: nwnwsfc@lancaster.ac.uk

Chief Executive
Dr. Stephen Atkins BSc

Principal Fishery Officer
Mr. Martyn Boyce MA MIMgt

[Charlton]

cheers for the extra info Ian, will pass this info on and will certainly be contacting the powers that be, as you say you can not blame the trawler man as he is working within the rules.