And what about the Lobster pot buoys?

Whilst the generic term of "lobster pots" is used to describe these markers,I'm sure that some of them are long-lines with several containers that are not for lobsters, but squid or other creatures, else the market would be flooded with lobsters round the Solent....and it is not!!
The problem when snagging one of these ,is that it extends for some 50 to 100 yards of tether,and another marker elsewhere; dragging that lot is a no -go situation.

ianat182
 
Cajoling wont work Fisherman. The problem remains that small boat passages are often close to the rocks and features that the potters need to use. And given the choice between catching lobbies in their favourite spots or going without the income for the benefit of what they will see as "rich yotties" they will only go one way.

But officialdom wont respond unless there are some well publicised serious accidents so you have no need to worry. Nothing is going to change any time soon.

I enjoy putting out a couple of pots myself when in an anchorage. Fed ourselves on lobsters and crabs all the way up the Irish sea last year, changing over to scallops when we got to Scotland and the skipper went diving.
 
"It's at least twenty years since we had any support, moral or financial. Support then was a 25% grant and a 50% loan, at commercial rates, with associated tie in period."

I'm afraid the claim that commercial fishermen (and farmers) aren't supported is not entirely true . They as groups are both still legally allowed to use fuel with a much reduced rate of duty. Other users of diesel fuel, where the use of such fuel is also essential to their means of living, do not have this support (e.g. truck drivers, delivery companies, sales reps etc). It's nothing to do with "road fuel" duty either; I use petrol in my boat, but I can't claim the duty on that back, even if I claim to have a petrol heater, like diesel powered pleasure boat users that supposedly have diesel heaters!

And, (even though I know I shouldn't start a sentence with "and" and have a comma after it), living in Cheshire I know many farmers are so poor that their children get the full allowances for further education, yet they and their children drive around in brand new cars. they are not doing anything illegal, just using the whole unjust tax/ allowance system to their (totally legal) advantage.

Graham
 
Maybe some of you lot should try inshore fishing for a living, instead of just assuming that the sea is there just for your pleasure!

Fishing gear costs a lot of money, a lot more than you would think, we don't want to loose it as it means a days lost income and it has to be replaced. So why would a 'bonafidi' fisherman want have unmarked gear around a harbour entrance? Makes no sense to me.

Ask your mate in your yacht club or down the pub who does a bit of fishing to earn some beer money where he places his gear - you might be surprised.

As for setting fishing gear around/over bars, rocks, headland, etc, where do you think your fish come from..............Tescos?

There are some very self opinionated yachties on this thread who need to get a grip on reality, learn to keep a good watch and more importantly learn to to talk to fishermen - they might just just tell where gear is likely to be set so you can avoid it!

P.S.

When I was fishing if we found a yacht (and we always found out who it is!) had cut a line and abandoned it or somebody lifted it, they may have found their boating life a bit hard to say the least.

Get a grip FFS.
 
A long pick up buoy is essential in areas where you have a lot of tide. You have a main buoy and the pick up line anywhere between 3 and 10m away on a light floating line.

I shouldn't need to explain why - you are all sailors so should know why, if you can't work it out then you shouldn't be at sea in the first place!
 
arth_tumbleweed said:
My belief is that it's a national law, but again I really don't know the facts on this!

All I do know is whilst sailing down off Portugal during the summer we encountered several pots, all clearly marked during the day (big sticks with black flags). However well marked like this it's no good at night! I had the misfortune of being on watch at around 0130 loving the sailing in 25kts of breeze to find that when a pot is "well marked by day" it is still useless during the night, no damage done, but made a bit of noise as the end of the boom clipped the stick! We did see a few that had strobes fitted, superb you can see them from a mile away...only thought is if a pot has a strobe and people know this, it's gonna be a bummer if you use a strobe when in a liferaft to attract attention, people will stay away from you!
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The trouble with strobes is that they can be mistaken for a North Cardinal Buoy. I guess it would be an even bigger bummer if you sat in your liferaft with the strobe on and saw everyone giving you a wide berth to the north. Hence Colregs Rule 36.
 
Ariadne said:
There are some very self opinionated yachties on this thread who need to get a grip on reality, learn to keep a good watch and more importantly learn to to talk to fishermen - they might just just tell where gear is likely to be set so you can avoid it!
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Please explain to me how I might see half submerged old fuel cans (no stick or flag) at night. Or for that matter how I am going to talk to all the fishermen and learn the location of every pot on a trip from Penzance to Padstow, a passage I make a couple of times a year.

Get a brain FFS (to use your sort of language).
 
Last year, on my way from the Solent to Littlehampton, I came across a number of sets of gear off Bognor. The gear comprised a buoyed line (small buoys every metre), with marks at the end, comprising 1cm cubes of white plastic with a short black plole and flag. There were also about 5 intermediate small floats (no flags) along the length of the gear.

These took a bit of avoiding, with a number of emergency tacks needed to prevent running into them.

I reported these the following Monday to the Sea Fisheries, who were not interested. They assure me that they would only be markers for ground gear. When I suggested that they might be holding drift nets or similar, I was asked if I had actually seen any nets.

Unfortunately I had tides to catch, so was unable stop and investigate. If I had time on my hands I would have considered lifting the gear as a hazard to navigation and handing it all in to the local Receiver of Wrecks.

John
 
Ariadne said:
Maybe some of you lot should try inshore fishing for a living, instead of just assuming that the sea is there just for your pleasure!
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Why would we? I used to like fish only when cooked and lately knowing about the environmental impact we are causing I am more and more avoiding fish. I haven't even had a lobster for years. Moreover since at school we were paying attention, we have our cosy creative jobs and like them. Thanks.

Fishing gear costs a lot of money, a lot more than you would think, we don't want to loose it as it means a days lost income and it has to be replaced. So why would a 'bonafidi' fisherman want have unmarked gear around a harbour entrance? Makes no sense to me.
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Perhaps is not you, but I can assure you that at the narrow Selsey Bill passage there are always several poorly marked buoys. Even between the Red and Green passage markers buoys.

On the route from Gosport to Selsey Bill there are also several black 5L. motor oil type cans with plenty of line.

Going outside my marina it is often a minefield right by the approach channel still delimited by Red and Green buoys. I know my marina and I can pay attention, but what about when I visit other places? Or what about visitors arriving from far away in the dark. Or even myself coming back from far in the dark? Although I know the place the glare from the coastal lights makes spotting the best marked buoy impossible.

So if you do not do that, perhaps you should talk to your fellow fishermen, because by pissing off everyone, eventually they will damage you as well.

If sensible fisheremen helped to improve the situation it would be advantageus for everyone.

Thank you.
 
Ariadne said:
Maybe some of you lot should try inshore fishing for a living, instead of just assuming that the sea is there just for your pleasure!

Ask your mate in your yacht club or down the pub who does a bit of fishing to earn some beer money where he places his gear - you might be surprised.


Get a grip FFS.
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One problem is that some of the inshore fishermen are out-and-out cowboys, who don't fish for a living. I know of cases where they claim the dole, and fish, when they feel like it, for a little extra beer money. They still think that it is their patch. A friend used to have a couple of pots which he laid away from the usual grounds. He was always puzzled why he never got a lobster (crabs, yes) over several years of visiting the family homestead. He suspected the 'locals' were lifting his pots, so he replaced the marker buoy with a semi-filled coke bottle and marked the spot on the GPS. Lo and behold, lobsters!

He says these are some of the same guys that net poach salmon and bass (commercial bass fishing is illegal in Ireland). It's a small rural/coastal community and everyone knows what's what and who's who and he says if he ever said anything he's come down to find his boat holed.

I get a little tired of the mantra, "it's their livelihood!". The sea doesn't belong to them. A previous comparison with farmers is a case in point. I once watched a fishing industry spokesperson say on the subject of quota's, "the fisherman has the right to make his living from the sea, as the farmer from the land"

Except the farmer can only get out of the land what he puts into it; tilling and fertilising the fields and managing his stock. What does the fisherman put into the sea to manage and increase resources? Unmarked pot buoys and bycatch discards.
 
Bosun Higgs said:
Please explain to me how I might see half submerged old fuel cans (no stick or flag) at night. Or for that matter how I am going to talk to all the fishermen and learn the location of every pot on a trip from Penzance to Padstow, a passage I make a couple of times a year.

Get a brain FFS (to use your sort of language).
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How do you see pot buoys that do have sticks and flags at night? Unless you permanently have someone on the bow with a searchlight you can't. Personally having a long keel with the rudder hung off the back pot buoys don't worry me. I know you'll never see one in the dark so I don't keep a particularly good lookout for them during the day either, but this is in the knowledge that it would be almost impossible to hook one when sailing, specially since we got a folding prop. I can easily see how they could be a problem for fin and especially bulb keels though.

However, you'll never change fishermen. I'd never dream of either lifting or sabotaging their gear, it's just not worth any possible and likely retaliation. I get the feeling that if you make an enemy of one fisherman in an area then you may as well make enemies of all of them.

Best just take a deep breath, accept pot marks as one of life's little quirks, and enjoy yourself.
 
Neil said:
Except the farmer can only get out of the land what he puts into it; tilling and fertilising the fields and managing his stock. What does the fisherman put into the sea to manage and increase resources? Unmarked pot buoys and bycatch discards.
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Excellent! Well said!
 
Woodlouse said:
However, you'll never change fishermen. I'd never dream of either lifting or sabotaging their gear, it's just not worth any possible and likely retaliation.
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I was wondering what we could do to avoid retaliation. And it is not difficult to believe that they would retaliate without fear to be punished, even after a simple complaint! I cannot believe that we have to put up with this mob behaviour!
 
Ariadne said:
and more importantly learn to to talk to fishermen - they might just just tell where gear is likely to be set so you can avoid it!
Click to expand...

A very good point. Perhaps we should all make a real effort to talk to fishermen. It is surprising how just small things can make a big difference when passed on.

Anyway, fishermen must have some redeeming factors.

Jesus did tend to recruit more of them than any other group of workers. Or was there another reason...............
 
RestlessL said:
Last year, on my way from the Solent to Littlehampton, I came across a number of sets of gear off Bognor. The gear comprised a buoyed line (small buoys every metre), with marks at the end, comprising 1cm cubes of white plastic with a short black plole and flag. There were also about 5 intermediate small floats (no flags) along the length of the gear.

These took a bit of avoiding, with a number of emergency tacks needed to prevent running into them.

I reported these the following Monday to the Sea Fisheries, who were not interested. They assure me that they would only be markers for ground gear. When I suggested that they might be holding drift nets or similar, I was asked if I had actually seen any nets.

Unfortunately I had tides to catch, so was unable stop and investigate. If I had time on my hands I would have considered lifting the gear as a hazard to navigation and handing it all in to the local Receiver of Wrecks.

John
Click to expand...

You'll find that these mark individual pots that are worked by small, usually singlehanded open boats from Bognor Beach. Why would the SFDC be interested as they've done nothing wrong under the byelaws/laws that they enforce?

PW
 
The ones near harbours are mostly irritating but not always dangerous - its the ones where snagging one could easily cause loss of life or boat or both. places like the middle of bardsey sound only just off the main passage through the sound, ramsey sound just where there is a change of leading marks. Apart from loss of steering or engine & little wind, Imagine being anchored by the stern in these places in any sort of rough seas!
 
PilotWolf said:
You'll find that these mark individual pots that are worked by small, usually singlehanded open boats from Bognor Beach. Why would the SFDC be interested as they've done nothing wrong under the byelaws/laws that they enforce?

PW
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As I said, I was too busy avoiding them to investigate what they were marking. However I am at a loss to understand why why individual pots, or even groups of them, require 100m of buoyed line on the surface.
 
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