Chinese Fishing Vesselss.

[John Arton]

As many have said, bottom trawling is the main cause of the disappearing fish stocks. In the North Sea our friends over the water fondness for sand eels meant that the bottom of the food chain disappeared with the result that fish stocks started to fall dramatically when bigger and more efficient trawlers were introduced. A number of our fellow EU members (Belgium etc.) had subsidies to enable their fishermen to build new bigger and more efficient fishing boats (look around Ijmuiden and Flushing and see the state of there fishing boats, all spanking brand new). EU fishing laws are a farce and do hardly anything to preserve fish stocks.
With the advent of North Sea oil exploration and production fish stocks were starting to recover as all this structures provided havens for the fish and also a source of food. In the early 70's I was on a shuttle tanker running up to the Montrose Alpha platform and whilst we were loading there you only had to put a line over the side and within minutes you would have a large cod or haddock on the end of it. There were so much fish around that we all used to pay off with some and the fish freezer chamber on board was stuffed full to such an extent that the chief steward was making a fortune by feeding us on fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner, pocketing part of his budget for ship stores that was designed for purchasing fish via the usual route from the ships chandler.
Now I like fish but three times a day and fish cakes for tabnabs at coffee time was just a bit too much. Only did one trip and then got shifted to bulkers.
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

Thanks for that John
I go to Fleetwood every week or so, have a house there, , and at the Nautical College on and off since 1975 and it was very sad to see the decline in fishing imposed by our european masters.
The unemployment rate is tremendous, the whole town was built around fishing. I used to see the Fisheries Inspector come down to the Quayside every day, taking photos of the fishing vessels, to see who was missing, then he would be there again when they returned taking more photos. He was a Mr Jobsworth, reporting anyone who had gone fishing, We cannot allow this , he said, brussels says, No Fishing , and that is what it means and I will enforce it.
I am amazed that he was never thrown into the harbour. Eventually the vesseles were all scrapped and now there is just a museum trawler, Jacinta, left in the freeport as a tourist attraction. She was the most successful trawer ever, taking a miilion pounds a year, she fished off Iceland, Greenland and many other places around the Atlantic.
For years after brussels banned them from fishing, spanish and belgian trawlers were arriving with fish from the Irish sea whilst our boats just lay idle.
None come in now.
The port has closed, the bouys in the channel approaches have been removed, dredging has stopped. more than 50% of pubs closed. many shops lying empty. Very sad to have seen the decline from a very prosperous town to a derelect abandoned no hope of a place.
If you are a EU suporter in Fleetwood You would be Lynched and hanged from the nearest lamp post.
What an Evil Organisation.
Cheers
Brian.