HFW Fish Fight

[Florence Fennel]

Good ........until it is I'm not buying it .........

Me too. I must confess, I took little interest in this before Hugh brought it up.

[rana]

I've been looking around Google for tuna fishing info and found out that by the end of 2012 Tesco's own brand of Tuna will be 100% pole/ line caught, and its down to Greenpeace and Hugh campaigns.

Greenpeace UK

I don't quite understand why it will take Tesco as long as 2 years to change their source for tuna. It seems an inappropriate response to me. They can change their 'miss-leading' labels immediately.

The company might take notice if concerned customers took all their business elsewhere, thereby impacting profits and shareholders.

[womble]

Wasn't impressed that the MAFF top man didn't know one fish from another though! You would have thought that in his position he would have known his fish, the latin names of each and whether they were demersal or pelagic at least, in fact the ins and out of every species he's involved in legislating for/against.

Well it's about time you realised that the people at the top know absolutely nothing about the subjects they legislate about.

As an anecdotal, when I was about 12, my Mum asked me what I wanted to do, "be a farmer I said, then maybe reach the top as minister for farming", she laughed, "the minister for farming isn't a farmer and knows nothing about it" she replied.
I couldn't believe it then and I still find it hard to believe now.

[Two_Sheds]

The fishermen should only be allowed ... to land anything they catch (I feel). This would prevent over-fishing but also mean that fish are not killed without purpose.

That's all very well if the consumer will eat the fish that's landed: it needs people to change their "I only eat cod or tuna" mentality

[womble]

Quotas DON'T WORK for any conservation purpose, the program demonstrated exactly why, therefor the system needs changed.

'Line-caught' fish (I think including tuna) can be long-lined, using miles of line, paid out from the back of a fast-moving ship, with baited hooks at predetermined intervals. It is better than the purse-seine netting, but there is still a significan risk of other species taking the bait, in some cases near the surface before they sink to the proper depth for the target fish, and some of those that may take the bait are not actually fish, and will drown (albatrosses as an example, species killed this way depend on the bait used, albatrosses like squid).

You need "pole and line caught", to make sure it is caught the best way.

[womble]

That's all very well if the consumer will eat the fish that's landed: it needs people to change their "I only eat cod or tuna" mentality

I believe people would, especially as it would be invariably cheaper than the scarcer stuff, (although watching the program, it seems cod isn't that scarcely caught, just we're throwing most of it back).

[northepaul]

I missed the salmon one last night (working) and cant access 4OD - could anyone give me a basic summary?

[dave_norm_smith]

Hi

It basically involved the debate over the largest producers of farmed Salmon using 3 kg of oily fish (sprat, sardines etc) to make 1kg of salmon. This stuff is invariable caught at the othe side of the world and shipped here to be ground up for fish food. Oh and Hugh talking to a lot of pencil necks in Brussels who said it couldn't be done what he was asking. I wanted to send ' Chopper' and his noisy neighbour resolution service round to ' have a chat' with them. (See noisy neighbour post!)

Its worth watching if you can get it if only for the the Tesco guy's flounder impression when Hugh pulled out the Greenpeace footage!

Dave

[WrexTheDragon]

He got my vote.

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

[Hilary B]

Hi

It basically involved the debate over the largest producers of farmed Salmon using 3 kg of oily fish (sprat, sardines etc) to make 1kg of salmon. This stuff is invariable caught at the othe side of the world and shipped here to be ground up for fish food. Oh and Hugh talking to a lot of pencil necks in Brussels who said it couldn't be done what he was asking. I wanted to send ' Chopper' and his noisy neighbour resolution service round to ' have a chat' with them. (See noisy neighbour post!)

Its worth watching if you can get it if only for the the Tesco guy's flounder impression when Hugh pulled out the Greenpeace footage!

Dave

I like the last comment!
I would like some of those Brussels (s)prats to explain why 'you can't entirely stop discard' is a reason not to TRY!

[Two_Sheds]

It basically involved the debate over the largest producers of farmed Salmon using 3 kg of oily fish (sprat, sardines etc) to make 1kg of salmon.

So, similar to the argument that it takes 16 kilos of grain to produce a kilo of beef? (grain that could feed humans instead of cows)

[Caro]

I missed the salmon one last night (working) and cant access 4OD - could anyone give me a basic summary?

As Dave said, although Hugh also highlighted an organic salmon farm which used up the heads and tails of fish destined for the UK market for feed. That seemed absolutely fine, and less frowned upon. Fewer miles travelled, and as we don't eat the heads and tails (unlike some!) it's very green.

Also, the organic farm absolutely minimised any treatment of lice, and had less population density in its cages, so lice was less of a problem to start.

[Mikey]

This is a very emotive subject, I watched a programme some time ago which was in iceland I think. There they have a limited number of days in which they are permitted to fish in certain areas. This seemed to improve fish stocks.

Another programme I watched last night Human Planet mentioned that in 50 years we will probably have no fish left in the seas.

I've also watched a programme showing the lines of fishing over the globe and there was very little of our oceans that are not fished so I wouldn't be surprised if we ran out of fish in 50 years. They also mentioned on this programme for our fish stocks to improve we need to leave approximately 30% of our oceans as no fish zones to allow stock levels to return.

After all this what do I think, why is it that now I'm getting a little older I'm appreciating eating fish more just as fishing seems an unsustainable future. I'm always missing the boat, excuse the pun!!

I'm going to give a slightly different opinion on discard, while I believe quotas are ridiculous, fish discarded back into the sea at least feed other fish, this is not a total waste, just the circle of life.

[Two_Sheds]

fish discarded back into the sea at least feed other fish

The discarded fish on the programme seemed to be mostly snapped up by gulls, hundreds of them

[Hilary B]

This is a very emotive subject, I watched a programme some time ago which was in iceland I think. There they have a limited number of days in which they are permitted to fish in certain areas. This seemed to improve fish stocks.



I'm going to give a slightly different opinion on discard, while I believe quotas are ridiculous, fish discarded back into the sea at least feed other fish, this is not a total waste, just the circle of life.

The limits on WHEN people can fish, rather than on what they can legally catch do make sone sense (quite a lot in fact, especially if we could get rid of the really enormous factory ships).
The fish being thrown back dead include a lot of large cod. Not a lot of use as fish food, and no longer available as breeding stock! The purpose to the quota idea is to discourage catching of non-target fish, but it just doesn't work, because the ones you want, and the ones you are not allowed to catch, swim together. Once a big fish is in that net, he/she is unlikely to survive, even if they could sort them immediately they were aboard, and every femal cod caught and discarded could have laid thousands of eggs in the next season or so. The eggs and hatchlings are what other fish eat, so killing the near-breeders actually reduces the availability of food for the other fish in the medium to long term.