Super Trawler

[Tony Taylor]

Super Trawler the 450 foot Maritime is fishing for Mackerel off of the Isle of Wight.
The Trawler can process 25 tons of fish a day and is the secondly largest Trawler in the World.
The ship has been banned from fishing in Australian waters.
The shipowners Parievliet & van see Plas, declined to comment, their website States that they comply with EU quotas.
The ship can stay at sea continuously for 8 weeks, a lot of fish can be caught in that period, most of the fish is exported to Africa.
Vic

in 1972 I was en route to Gulf in VLCC, one night off the W. African coast, while on 12-4 second mate calls me to the bridge, you have to see this, he said.
When I got up there all you could see were the lights of hundreds of fishing boats, and on the radar there were even more.
He pointed out a factory ship with a cargo vessel alongside and another standing off.
He told me the factory ship was processing and freezing the catch then loading onto a continuous string of cargo ships taking the catch back to Russia.
I was totally astounded at the scale of the operation; so I wonder how long it would take them the clean out all the fish stocks.

[Captain Kong]

I saw that in the 70s off the west African Coast hundreds of Russian trawlers and factory ships.
Tight squeeze getting past them. I believ all the fish is converted to Cattle feed and fertilizer, a terrible waste/.

[vic mcclymont]

There was TV programme a few years ago about the fishing industry, UK trawlers were going for scrap due EU rules. Spaniards we're building bigger and better trawlers for fishing in the waters around the UK. Spanish boats were subsidised by the EU.
Vic

[Jim R Christie]

Fleetwood, once one of UKs Biggest Fishing ports was completely destroyed by europe/.

outside the ex port are loads of french,belgian and spanixh trawlers taking our fish.
the Fish Wholesaler has a Big Container coming in every week from cherbourg france with fish from Morecambe Bay.

In all fairness the likes of Fleetwood, Hull or Grimsby are the last people who have the right to complain about foreign boats taking fish when we remember that all three towns built an industry which was mostly based on stealing cod from the Icelanders.

[Ivan Cloherty]

In all fairness the likes of Fleetwood, Hull or Grimsby are the last people who have the right to complain about foreign boats taking fish when we remember that all three towns built an industry which was mostly based on stealing cod from the Icelanders.

I have noticed that most of your posts have an anti-British flavour, or is that just an anti-English flavour. To put the record straight when I was on trawlers in the 50's we did not steal the Icelanders fish, we always trawled outside their 12 mile limit. The best fishing grounds were normally 25 to 50 miles off the Iceland coast and also in the Arctic Ocean and Norwegian Sea north of the Arctic Circle and also around Bear Island.

I do notice that you neglected to mention that Hull and Grimsby took all the fish from Icelandic trawlers when the EU decimated our fleet

Do get your facts straight, there's a good chap.

[Jim R Christie]

I have noticed that most of your posts have an anti-British flavour, or is that just an anti-English flavour. To put the record straight when I was on trawlers in the 50's we did not steal the Icelanders fish, we always trawled outside their 12 mile limit. The best fishing grounds were normally 25 to 50 miles off the Iceland coast and also in the Arctic Ocean and Norwegian Sea north of the Arctic Circle and also around Bear Island.

If that was actually the case, then there would have been no reason for the first dispute (1952-1956) to have occurred when Iceland wanted to extend their limits from 3 to 4 nautical miles, would there? By the same token, if what you say is correct there would also have been no reason for the second dispute - aka the first "Cod War" - as this only saw the Icelanders extend their limits from 4 to 12 miles. Both were of course vehemently opposed by the UK.
As regards the flavour of my posts, I'm simply anti-bigotry, anti-jingoism and anti-misinformation.

[Bill Cameron]

In all fairness the likes of Fleetwood, Hull or Grimsby are the last people who have the right to complain about foreign boats taking fish when we remember that all three towns built an industry which was mostly based on stealing cod from the Icelanders.

I notice that you omitted to include your home town in that list of cod thieves, there were as many Aberdeen trawler as there was of the rest, and I know because I was working on the RFA Wave Ruler in early 1960 we refuled a RN vessel every day

[Jim R Christie]

I notice that you omitted to include your home town in that list of cod thieves, there were as many Aberdeen trawler as there was of the rest, and I know because I was working on the RFA Wave Ruler in early 1960 we refuled a RN vessel every day

That's because it's not my home town, merely my current location. Aberdeen had a trawler fleet but nothing on the scale of the three towns South.
I visit Grimsby a couple of times a year as I've been a Grimsby Town fan for most of my adult life.

[Ivan Cloherty]

[QUOTE=Jim R Christie;336943]Icelanders extend their limits from 4 to 12 miles. Both were of course vehemently opposed by the UK.
QUOTE]

The Cod War became hostile when Iceland wanted to extend the 12 mile limit to 200 miles, which was opposed by many countries

[Jim R Christie]

[QUOTE=Ivan Cloherty;336946]

Icelanders extend their limits from 4 to 12 miles. Both were of course vehemently opposed by the UK.
QUOTE]

The Cod War became hostile when Iceland wanted to extend the 12 mile limit to 200 miles, which was opposed by many countries

That was as late as 1975 (aka the Third Cod war) and Iceland were of course only claiming their right of exclusive use of what we now call their EEA, as is now standard practice by maritime nations and suitably enshrined in UNCLOS.
The first and second "Cod Wars" were suitably hostile when you consider some of the incidents that occurred within, with some British trawlers flagrantly breaching the agreements made between the UK and Icelandic governments and the corresponding responses from Icelandic patrol vessels and RN ships sent to "protect" the trawlers, the famous C.S. Forester incident being a case in point.
We have no business claiming victim status in any of this, we were the bully trying to throw our weight around and as is often the case in such matters were forced into a humiliating climbdown after all four disputes.
Hence how I consider it somewhat ironic when people here and elsewhere bleat about "foreign boats in our waters" when we were one of the worst offenders not so long ago, and even today many still seem to think the Icelandic waters were somehow "stolen" from us.