Thornbacks at tynemouth

[Charlton]

come on chaps, we are all in the same sport and trying to make it better for our kids future, there is nothing wrong with seeing gutted, chopped up fish on the beach, mind some don't like the mess, it is the size of the fish that is of concern to me, take all the little ones, who is going to grow up and lay eggs for the next geneartion of any species.

[Rocker]

I think we all agreed and ended up on the same page in the end!
No laws broken.
None of us like seeing juvinile fish killed for food.
Something needs to change.

But does our opinion have any weight?

[super-MAGuire]

come on chaps, we are all in the same sport and trying to make it better for our kids future, there is nothing wrong with seeing gutted, chopped up fish on the beach, mind some don't like the mess, it is the size of the fish that is of concern to me, take all the little ones, who is going to grow up and lay eggs for the next geneartion of any species.

Sorry alan, but the morphology of rays and flat fish of all species means they are a massive bycatch species. No way in the north east are thorn backs a commercially tageted species. They are small, but the net they where caught in could have mesh large enough to let 5lb cod through.

The main egg layers are the larger specimens, so when we catch a double figured cod... should we put it back because it can lay upto 100 time more eggs than a 3 lb fish?

All i think is its been blown massibly out, and not the lads on the trawlers, its the politics behing the quota system. If fisherman still have days left to fish and fill their quota they will target that fish, and so will have more by catch even if other quotas are full, i.e. a boat has filled its quota for whiting, but its targeting cod (which they have some spare quota). They will keep trawling to fill that quota of cod, and the net cant distinguish between whiting, cod and so thornbacksl. So discards will be mounting up every trawl, atleast these fish have made them a bit money for the efforts, rather than dumped. My opinion is that every boat should land what they catch, and be restricted by the days at sea. That means they have to plan seasons to fish for the more valuable species.

[Charlton]

Not arguing about the ins and outs of how, why, and where they where caught, I know all about by catch etc.

The main egg layers are the larger specimens, so when we catch a double figured cod... should we put it back because it can lay upto 100 time more eggs than a 3 lb fish?

simple answer yes, the whole recreational pollock fishery on the west coast of Scotland has improved dramatically by doing this, mainly due to Ian Burrett.

[kopite2k06]

Not arguing about the ins and outs of how, why, and where they where caught, I know all about by catch etc.

The main egg layers are the larger specimens, so when we catch a double figured cod... should we put it back because it can lay upto 100 time more eggs than a 3 lb fish?

simple answer yes, the whole recreational pollock fishery on the west coast of Scotland has improved dramatically by doing this, mainly due to Ian Burrett.

agree wiv ya there alan totally. the doubler is likely to be riddled with worm anyways would sooner take a nice 3-4 lber to the table. would get plenty pics of the double tho ha ha

[Red5]

Problem with trawling IS the bycatch!....its environmentally destructive and if it happened on land to catch food as opposed to under the sea (out of sight out of mind) it would have been banned a long time ago.

Need to go back to traditional methods of fishing, which have been proved would create more jobs! and as a consequence our fisheries would be dramatically healthier!

its our onshore fisheries that suffer as a consequence if the methods used by the trawlers!
don't know if anyone recently read about the French bass trawlers off the south coast who have taken to eating the dolphins they decimated as bycatch....always reminds me of the term collateral damage....uncomfortable to know it happens but we turn a blind eye coz its not our relatives being killed!

[billynobaits]

Problem with trawling IS the bycatch!....its environmentally destructive and if it happened on land to catch food as opposed to under the sea (out of sight out of mind) it would have been banned a long time ago.

Need to go back to traditional methods of fishing, which have been proved would create more jobs! and as a consequence our fisheries would be dramatically healthier!

its our onshore fisheries that suffer as a consequence if the methods used by the trawlers!
don't know if anyone recently read about the French bass trawlers off the south coast who have taken to eating the dolphins they decimated as bycatch....always reminds me of the term collateral damage....uncomfortable to know it happens but we turn a blind eye coz its not our relatives being killed!

Well said