Brixham breakthrough

SUSTAINABLE fishing sea trials involving Brixham fishermen have produced impressive results which could lead to a breakthrough in attempts to preserve fish stocks, it has been announced today.

Beam trawler nets traditionally have a mesh size of at least 80mm which traps a high degree of unwanted catch which has no market value or is banned from being landed or sold by industry legislation so ten of the port’s fishing boats have been taking part in a pilot project.

A particular skipper  reduced his unwanted catch by a whopping 63% and plans to modify his trawler even further in a bid to cut his unwanted catch by 75 per cent. Commenting, he said

“It’s the way forward. Everyone is on our backs about sustainable fishing and we can’t fight against them because we will never win.

“If we want to keep the fishing industry alive we’ve got to work together. If the small stuff survives you’ve got a sustainable fishery.”

So what was this breakthrough method that had everyone waxing lyrical ? What wonders of science and technology were  implemented ?  What was this “wonderful initiative” ?

They used bigger mesh nets.!

The results were that overall, the fishing fleet drastically reduced amount of young fish caught by 57% and that as the new nets are lighter, they cause less drag from the boat so less horsepower is used, which saves fuel costs.

Although the Scottish catching sector claim to be leaders in conservation there are perhaps a couple of lessons there that could be learnt by certain sectors.

More info here.

Category: SSACN Announcements