"Banning commercial fishing for 10 years"

[skatenchips]

Hi all,this is a petition to encourage the government to ban commercial fishing for 10 years to
think seriously about the long term effects of "Over fishing"
in our coastal waters to save the destruction of fish stocks.
We as anglers have a right to voice our collective opinions
on what we see as the blatant disregard for immature fish
stocks by over zealous netting of popular angling venues.
But i must stress this petition is aimed at the longer term
well being of our fish stocks,and not a selfish "pop" at
a few greedy trawlermen making quick cash without thought
for others....!!!!!!!!!

petitions.pm.gov.uk/Seafishstocks/

Cheers Gaz

[dean macey]

we dont need a total ban.we need a 2 mile exclusion zone around coast and islands to allow breeding fish and fry chance to mature.estuarys should be left alone as it is easy pickings and not enough escapes the nets.flatfish come into shore to spawn and should be left alone to get on with it.often the netsmen will trawl a bed during spawning this is madness.if this was introduced the trawlers would also benifit as the fish would move out to sea for everyone to share.seems like commansense and easy to police as you are only patroling a space of 2 miles from the shore,not the entire ocean.maybe some redundant rotting naval vessels could be recommisioned to do this task.all fish i am sure breed at the shore give them a break and we all be ok.
any trawler or local cowboy on the make should have their vessel taken and never returned,zero tollerance.they would soon get the idea,i also think the local cowboy with local knowledge is doing most damage as they know to the day when the fish arrive and target them relentlesly.imagine if baby birds or baby mammals were being hunted their would be a major revolt.
LEAVE THEM ALONE.

[mican60]

I have read recently that it would be a good idea for commercials to be banned from fishing within six miles of the coast and that we should compensate them for no doing so, in return we would get bigger and better fish in the future.
There is a problem with this thinking and as far as I can see it is designed once again to give the commercials thier own way and rip off everyone else.
Many fish go out into deeper water to breed and so will then be outside the six mile limit, This means that they will still be getting caught before breeding/spawning etc, or before they are old/big enough to do so, the commercials will continue to take all there is and throw tons of dead fish back into the sea, and our inshore waters will continue to suffer as they do now.
Exclusion zones are a cop out to keep the commercials happy, and they certainly do nothing to help the situation with the marine species that have almost been fished out to the point of no return.
The only sensible thing to do now is to give our waters a complete rest from commercial pressure for a given amount of years that will ensure a return to healthy and sustainable stocks for the future, And new legislation to ensure that the fisheries are managed in a more responsible way after that time.
The commercials have no intention of being sensible, they are intent on taking everything they can in the attitude of "who gives a monkey`s wer`e making our money now." so most everything of any use has been mercilessly ripped out of our seas, so what do the commercials do? They start to kill tons of flounder for pot bait, or as has been seen just lately, rip into the wrasse to provide sushi for japanese restraunts, c`mon you coms, there`s still loads of nice weavers about surely you can find a market for them too.
Yeh! I`l sign a petition to stop the slaughter for a few years.

[skatenchips]

I ,like you Dean expect zero tolerance to the "Cowboys as you put it",but to police the inshore areas now would be hard enough
so that is why "in my opinion" 2 miles is a a small measure
only focusing on "our wants".The bigger picture encommpasses
foreign vessels as well as our own raping our stocks when deep water fish appear seasonally off our shores. so as a nation we
benefit from this action not just "me" standing on the shore
wondering when the next bite is coming.
Its indeed a tough call to demand drastic measures,but should the cold rich waters off our Island become barron like the
mediteranean or shall we make a stand "now" and reap the benefit in the future.

By the way.i aint no politician...!!
just a worried fisherman...

Gaz

[meoc4life]

they should limit the amount they can catch if they over catch they must throw back the best specimins they pocess so they stand better chance of survival or be fined and should only be aloud to fish in 10 miles off land

[dean macey]

im sure after watching many documentaries and so on the breeding groungs for most fish is along the shore.we have caught many young cod this year and with a exclusion zone they would get bigger.it needs controling not stoping.locals are the worst they take the lot and are not policed,is it worth mentioning the word licence it has to come.
you cannot ban netting for 10 years and then allow angling to continue,
their should be more policing of our waters,instead of being intruders in other peoples countries lets start policing our own properly.

[mican60]

There is a difference between angling and netting, In angling we can decide which is takable and if not we can put it back alive, and with more anglers being conservation minded these days more fish go back than are taken for the table.
A net, on the other hand, is totally indescriminative it tends to fill with anything in its path and mesh size doesn`t make a difference when all that is caught in it is squashed into a tangled mash of fish, weed, crabs and anything else that gets caught, So after its all dumped onto the deck and sorted most of anything that goes over the side is dead, that always tends to be undersize fish that will never get the chance to spawn nishore or out at sea.
I agree with others who say that its time for drastic action, you can`t have your cake and eat it and if we want to save our sport and marine enviroment we have to give it the chance to recover, That will never happen as long as we have nets dragged over the seabed killing everything in thier path, including the habitat that many fish need to survive even if thier numbers do grow.