Mackerel

[snoopy54]

Did anyone hear on the news today that Mackerel have been declared unsustainable and could we start eating Herring instead.I seem to recollect this being mentioned a while back and a few Boat Skippers poo pooing it - looks as if its scientific fact now........... I wonder if Herring stays on the hook as well as Macky?

[loopy78]

Saw something on the news, summat about the Whitby fisheries falling out with scandinavian commercial boats?

[kingfish]

mackerel has to be one of the most prolific fish around the uk -
if we are advised not to eat them, i just wonder how low these particular stocks will last - if we can believe what they tell us.
for me personally i think we have a long way to go before we will struggle to cath them here.

[bleth]

yeah i saw this
its the stocks around iceland they are concerned about and they suggest we eat sardines, not herring .
anyway in my limited experience theres no shortage in the channel
scaremongering ??
dave

[iknowagoodplaice]

Sea anglers collectively always seem to deny the observations of the fisheries people. I would have thought the state of mackerel populations was fairly clear; the last few years they have been quite patchy. I believe it has something to do with arguments between the Faroese, Iceland, Norway and the EU over quotas - they can't agree so together they scoop up more than the seas can sustain.

The idea is we should stop buying them. Catching a few yourself won't make much of a dent, if you find any.

[maniyak]

I unfortunately have to agree with the above. I too have found it much harder to find mackerel just for bait over the last few years and it seems to be getting progressively worse?
I remember being able to practically walk from one fort to another on them at any state of tide or time of day - lucky these days to scratch enough for an evenings fishing in a timely fashion which has also another secondary bad effect as I end up taking frozen with me (just in case I can't find them) and if fresh IS available the frozen generally go to "waste" as ground bait and such.
Some say it is due to the shift in the gulf stream?
A massive picture to look at if this is the case or simple over fishing is to blame.
Could be as simple (or as complicated) that the plankton isn't here = the whitebait aren't in numbers either and the mackerel are following the whitebait etc, etc.
The mind boggles.

[Sunny]

I recall jack (castefromthepast) telling me a few years back that the mackerel were going to take a serious hit as Iceland's banks collapsed. They were to be bailed out by the UK and EU and in order to pay us back their fishing fleet were going to turn on the migratory mackerel to sell to the Russians (for fertiliser).

Iceland is on the migratory route for the makerel which we all take fish from....it is one big group, that splits into smaller communities during the summer (so I understand). So when Iceland scoups them up by the millions of tons then it is your mackerel that they are taking.

So fewer mackerel in the Solent each year is simply because they ended up in a Russian factory ship. You won't get the Russians to git a damn about your fishery and nor do Iceland; they are simply Rubles swimming around waiting to be netted.

[snoopy54]

Mmm,not a happy scenario - thanks for the explanation Nick - Macky being used as fertiliser is nothing much short of obscene

[dolehunter]

you are spot on nick.that's why I dont shop at Iceland stores.
jack