Old fishing boats

[Hugh Paterson]

It would appear that the European Union are about to kick our Fishermen in the crutch again by imposing an outright ban on catching white fish in the North Sea. The common fisheries policy in my opinion is badly flawed, and has been since day one, If anything I think our Government sold our fishing rights down the plug hole many years ago, lots of foreign trawlers, chasing OUR fish
in OUR territorial waters. Ah well its coming home to roost now, more the pity. But to make matters worse, perfectly servicable boats are getting torched or chain saws through them as part of the decommisioning scheme. This in order to stop them surfacing elsewhere in the European Union with a different licence/crew. Its enough
to make you weep, is it just me or has the world gone mad. The political masters/scientists that thought this one out need shot. Anyone else have a view on this? Oh by the way the man in charge of the committee is an Austrian? Ooops.

Shug.

[Donn]

Why are they closing the fishery?

[nedL]

Hugh, there was a similar thing going on over here in the states a few years ago. A "Government Buyout" where you would sell your boat (& the associated licence)to the Gov. , and the terms were that the boat had to be destroyed. Good boats were done away with this way as there were no exceptions, the boat could not go to another non-fishing use, not even to a school or museum, they had to be destroyed. I believe there may be some thought of doing it again, but I've read there may be some allowances toward reuse of the boats.

[Donn]

I just read a few stories on it. It's the same old story...too many fishermen and too few fish. The EU fishing fleet was enlarged and modernized by subsidy, and they are now reducing it's size in order to save and rejuvenate ground fish populations in the North Sea. At the same time, they are buying fishing rights from developing countries, particularly in Africa, and heavily over-fishing them. It seems that they are trying to encourage North Sea fleets to target Sole and other species, instead of Cod, Hake, Haddock, etc..

Destroying the boats is ridiculous. They could be effectively decommissioned of their fishing gear, and used for other purposes.

[Hugh Paterson]

Call me blinkered, but we should take a leaf out of Icelands book, anyone remember the Icelandic gunboats taking on the might of the Royal Navy in the late 70's :( (My old ship had its bow ripped open by Thor), Bolshie skippers but Iceland still has fish. Our trawlermen have just announced plans to blockade some southern ports to vent their frustration. Could this be the return of "Gunboat mentality" :D
Shug.

[Alan D. Hyde]

What a waste!

Matinicus handles local lobster like Iceland handled her fish.

And with equal success, too, last I knew.

Alan

[Seppo]

Hi

just read at the BBC website that Icelanders have problems with their fishery; seems that they made some poor choices earlier and now the catch has fallen badly... something like two thirds of what it was during the fishing wars...

Seppo