{"id":1711,"date":"2021-05-01T16:21:08","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T16:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/?p=1711"},"modified":"2021-04-30T09:19:03","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T09:19:03","slug":"fishing-can-be-problematic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/2021\/05\/01\/fishing-can-be-problematic\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishing can be problematic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
http:\/\/www.goldendays.org.uk\/farming-forestry-fishing-and-food\/fishing-from-salcombe\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One might think fishing would be one of the least controversial industries but, sadly, that has not been the case for some time. We have just lived through the wrangling over Brexit and the end result isn\u2019t very happy for many in the trade, not least because it seems well-nigh impossible to export live shellfish to Europe (except, it seems happily, from Salcombe, at least at the moment).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But fishing\u2019s problems go back so much further than this. For some time it has been said that it takes a ton of fuel to catch and land a ton of fish. Partly that is because historically many of the fishing fields were far away, like Newfoundland, but also because boats are not very fuel efficient particularly in rough weather.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Then there were the issues over how to fish. Scraping the sea bed with steel crates<\/a>, or beam trawling just above it, often leaves damage which can take years, sometimes decades, to heal. Huge nets trap lots of fish, including many which nobody wants and might even be endangered. Quotas are resented: they are allocated according to a formula which is derided, they prevent fishing boats going to sea and earning a living, and they give rise to wasteful by-catch which is thrown back dead and useless. And let\u2019s not mention the quantities of fish which are caught simply to feed cats.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When Riverford<\/a>\u2019s founder, Guy Singh-Watson<\/a> became energised after watching the Netflix documentary <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Seaspiracy<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, he went in search of a sustainable source of fish. It is no surprise that he concluded there isn\u2019t one. Guy argues that if we can\u2019t have marine conservation areas where commercial fishing is prohibited, if we can\u2019t make disturbing the sea bed illegal, and if we can\u2019t redistribute quotas away from huge (foreign) vessels to small, local fishing boats, then we should stop eating fish.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to disagree with this. For some years I chaired the charity which owns the foreshore at Hastings<\/a> that is home\"\" to the largest beach-launched fishing fleet in Europe \u2013 about 25 small boats. This fleet is recognised for the sustainable way in which it fishes and \u2013 this is the important part \u2013 it has very strong fish stocks<\/a> on its doorstep as a result. Moreover, instead of putting all its fish on the train to London, much is now sold locally so the fleet gets retail rather than wholesale prices for its hard work. Maybe smaller boats and local sales is one of the better ways forward for the fishing industry.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One might think fishing would be one of the least controversial industries but, sadly, that has not been the case for some time. We have just lived through the wrangling over Brexit and the end result isn\u2019t very happy for many in the trade, not least because it seems well-nigh impossible to export live shellfish to Europe (except, it seems happily, from Salcombe, at least at the moment). But fishing\u2019s problems go back so much further than this. For some…<\/p>\n

read moreFishing can be problematic<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1711"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1721,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1711\/revisions\/1721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}