Lobster pots 2, RTI 1

[Talbot]

At least 2 of the fleet got entangled all though I heard one had managed to free herself . I was not surprised, more than 50% of the pots that I saw were actually below the surface of the water - thus impossible to avoid. All you could see initially was a disturbance on the water (pretty difficult today around St Catts) when you looked more closely, you could see the lobster buoy (a float abt 300cm across). not a single pot buoy all round the island had a pole and a flag.

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[rich]

who says they must have a pole n flag.

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[StephenSails]

Well, I thought the IMO said they should, even if they did not it makes common sense, but it seems fishermen don't have any of that and carry on with their selfish and inconsiderate ways....

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[Talbot]

Took the words right out of my mouth!

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[gjeffery]

Anyone know who enforces Healtha nd Safety law on fishermen? Is the HSE responsible?


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[Birdseye]

Not relevant to pot buoys.

They dont have flags because if they did other fishermen would nick the pots / content.
Says something about the industry.

<hr width=100% size=1>this post is a personal opinion, and you should not base your actions on it.

 

[charles_reed]

A right lot of self-righteous old gossips..

you lot are.

Usually unmarked pots are the product of a "part-time" or amateur potter. The gear and contents are far too valuable for a professional to behave in the described manner. An additional problem from these moonlighters' actions is their habit of using unweighted line.

And where has the urban myth grown up about pirating pots - the most likely sinner is one of those yotties.

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[Sybarite]

Must be one hell of a lobster there if it can hold a 10ft buoy under water...!!

John

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[bob_tyler]

"more than 50% of the pots that I saw were actually below the surface of the water"

Can't imagine how they would catch lobsters if they were above the surface!

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[ChrisE]

That's not so daft. In high tide run areas like St. Cats and Portland race, some fisherman set them so that the buoys only surface at slack water to avoid being tangled by craft for just the reasons Charles mentions. When the tide is running they are well below the surface and out of the way of our bottoms. It so happens that the RTI goes around a good fishing area at the low water slack and hence why there was a bit of trouble. We saw quite a few, some subsurface most on the top.

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[Talbot]

Doh, 300mm /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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[WayneS]

I saw two boats on pots, both recently entangled as they we dropping sail when we passed.

Both were fouled on pots that had big orange buoys, and the water was slack enough for all teh other buoys in the area to be floating just fine.

I put both of these down to bad watch keeping. Sorry guys

Wayne


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[tcm]

i must say the so-called pot markers are a total disgrace around st cats, worse than anywhere else imho

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[Stemar]

We saw the buoy of one that nearly caught us, but what we didn't see was the 10m plus of floating line until we were on top of it. Fortunately, we didn't have a prop to get it hooked up on, and it came loose after we'd towed it a few yards.

A boat with a sail drive probably wouldn't have been so lucky. I's not necessarily down to poor watch keeping. We had a crew member on lookout duty, and thought we'd given it plenty of room.

If we hadn't been racing I think I'd have cut the damn thing.

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[Aeolus_IV]

Saw that one too - orange/pink ball about a foot in diameter and about 10 or 15 meters of line floating on the surface, nice and slimy having adopted a camoflage (sp?) covering. Fortunately missed that one - but did foul the prop on some netting at some point as prop was covered in bright orange remanents when we got back to East Cowes, luckily managed to cut this off without getting wet.

Regards, Jeff

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