Lobster Pots

[mjcoon]

I do hope everyone enjoys their crab sandwiches and lobster dinners when off on their summer cruise and not give a single thought to how it came to the plate

I wouldn't touch that dangerous stuff, whatever letters there are in the month! ;-)

 

[Yealm]

Fishing with pots and nets has been going on for hundreds of years before recreational sailing was even a thing. Not so many decades ago pots/nets would be marked with cork floats or glass balls. Most sailing vessels then were long keeled. Since there has been a massive surge in leisure pursuits on the water and also design changes to hull shapes and keel forms. Many are literally sailing around with rope catchers below the waterline with thin bulbed keels, spindly balanced rudders and either an unprotected prop on a shaft and p bracket or a drive leg. These modern boats are generally 36ft upwards (there are not so many cruising around on smaller boats these days) which adds to the difficulty of seeing what’s passing under the bow.

Yes they should be better marked these days with at least a brightly coloured buff or float pole and flag, also marking these with owners name and contact number would also help. Professional boats generally mark theirs with registration numbers.

Not all the floats mark pots/nets some divers mark a feature they want to return to.

In SW, about 95% don’t have flags. I’ve never seen any with registration numbers.

What regulation would you advise to sort the problem (which you recognise)?

Do you support my idea of a law change so that any inadequately marked pot could be legally removed by anyone?

 

[SaltyC]

Wow, you’re very quick to label anyone that has a view that doesn’t comply with your own

Unfortunately we too recently had a local NtoM issued by the harbour authority warning of a pot placed in the harbour entrance between the piers, I appreciate some are responsible and earning a legitimate living supplying a need. However placing an obstruction in a narrow harbour entrance with strong cross tidal flow is irresponsible and could endanger life.

 

[NPMR]

The issue, to me, seems to be the positioning of lobster pots in awkward places. Out in open waters is less troublesome.

In Falmouth I have complained to the Harbour Master* about pots in the narrow fairway and in between the moorings where it is not unreasonable to expect great numbers of leisure boaters. Here, the pots present a far greater danger as they will be catching predominantly amateur and less robust family crews.

The argument that old-fashioned long keelers would be less troubled by the pots than modern fin and skeg/saildrives etc is missing the point that this is progress and this is what now has to be catered for. We all have to move with the times and that should include lobster/crab fisher people. The technology exists to mark the pots and it cannot be denied that they present some sort of a hazard and should therefore be treated as such.

(* They offered no reassurance but some time later the offending pots were no longer there)

 

[Scillypete]

In SW, about 95% don’t have flags. I’ve never seen any with registration numbers.

What regulation would you advise to sort the problem (which you recognise)?

Do you support my idea of a law change so that any inadequately marked pot could be legally removed by anyone?

In recent years the use of pink or orange buoys has become the favoured method for marking gear, mainly as they are less cumbersome to work on a cramped deck than a lengthy dan with flag. But they cost and there will always be those that are determined not to part with money on proper gear.

Different fishery areas impose different rules regarding hobby fishing, check yours to see what they say. Some actually police their area to a degree but as with anything it costs money and time and as we all know very little notice is taken by those that won’t listen anyway and they continue to get away with whatever they want to do. It would be worth notifying your local fisheries office every time you see what you conceive to be a hazard and ask them to investigate, if they do nothing you can at least ask why and pursue it further.

Such a law change would be impossible because who is to decide what should be removed and which not, all you would achieve is vigilante yachties going round cutting off anything they see which would be wrong.

 

[Greg2]

Marking pots with the PLN of the fishing vessel is mandatory in the 0-6nm inshore sector but marking with buoys is only recommended. Local Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities sometimes have gear marking requirements for particular fisheries. More info here

 

[Scillypete]

Unfortunately we too recently had a local NtoM issued by the harbour authority warning of a pot placed in the harbour entrance between the piers, I appreciate some are responsible and earning a legitimate living supplying a need. However placing an obstruction in a narrow harbour entrance with strong cross tidal flow is irresponsible and could endanger life.

You mention strong cross tides, it could be that the gear has been dragged or rolled across the seabed rather than having been placed there but that’s just a possibility, either way I would have thought the harbour authority would just remove that one

 

[sailaboutvic]

I’m a bit bemused that anyone would find excuses to defend people who don’t mark their pots poplar or worst tho who place them in a way that would be a danger to others that can result in very costly repair or worst a lost of life.

 

[capnsensible]

I’m a bit bemused that anyone would find excuses to defend people who don’t mark their pots poplar or worst tho who place them in a way that would be a danger to others that can result in very costly repair or worst a lost of life.

Lots of pot markers I saw in the west Indies seemed to be owned by cocacola and shelloil

 

[sailaboutvic]

Lots of pot markers I saw in the west Indies seemed to be owned by cocacola and shelloil

i Never knew cococola fished

 

[Bajansailor]

Lots of pot markers I saw in the west Indies seemed to be owned by cocacola and shelloil

Yes, anything goes for pot markers in this region!
If it can float it is acceptable for use.
Pot fishermen here are not too keen on having anything too obvious marking their pots, as then that is an invitation for others to come and pull their pot, so very often the pot marker is very small, but they know the location with GPS, so can still find it fairly easily.

 

[capnsensible]

I'm kinda resigned to the fact that these pot markers are everywhere in coastal waters. Annoying, well yeah, I suppose. Something to get angry over? Bit pointless really, won't change Jack. Generally avoidable with a good daylight lookout. Makes night entry into some ports rather sporting, but its not like they are a surprise.

I guess I've just got used to them......

 

[Stingo]

Anyone got any good lobster recipes? Asking for a friend

 

[sailaboutvic]

Anyone got any good lobster recipes? Asking for a friend

Just stick them in the pot as I understand it

 

[dunedin]

Unfortunately we too recently had a local NtoM issued by the harbour authority warning of a pot placed in the harbour entrance between the piers, I appreciate some are responsible and earning a legitimate living supplying a need. However placing an obstruction in a narrow harbour entrance with strong cross tidal flow is irresponsible and could endanger life.

We refer to pot buoys as “mines”. And yes some narrow channels are heavily mined by (the subset of) very antisocial fishermen - whether professional or amateurs.

Approximately 5 years ago I noticed that one Scottish sea loch heavily used by both yachts and a ferry port was badly infested by mines just where people would want to transit. I then did a round trip home via Calmac ferry.
The ferrry skipper was clearly not impressed by the siting of the pot buoys, and went straight over as many as possible both outbound and inbound.

 

[Bajansailor]

Then we get a situation called 'ghost fishing' (or ghost lobstering perhaps) when a buoy is cut off, but the pot stays on the bottom, continuously attracting new critters to climb in, and then they die, and become bait for more lobsters and crabs, and the cycle continues.
There could easily be a situation where most of the lobsters are in the ghost pots on the bottom (if there are a lot of them), rather than climbing in to the ones that are marked.

 

[Aja]

Fishing with pots and nets has been going on for hundreds of years before recreational sailing was even a thing. Not so many decades ago pots/nets would be marked with cork floats or glass balls. Most sailing vessels then were long keeled. Since there has been a massive surge in leisure pursuits on the water and also design changes to hull shapes and keel forms. Many are literally sailing around with rope catchers below the waterline with thin bulbed keels, spindly balanced rudders and either an unprotected prop on a shaft and p bracket or a drive leg. These modern boats are generally 36ft upwards (there are not so many cruising around on smaller boats these days) which adds to the difficulty of seeing what’s passing under the bow.

Yes they should be better marked these days with at least a brightly coloured buff or float pole and flag, also marking these with owners name and contact number would also help. Professional boats generally mark theirs with registration numbers.

Not all the floats mark pots/nets some divers mark a feature they want to return to.

I'm with you on this one. You can find pot markers like a rash on Scotland's West coast and not always where you would expect them to be.

Normally if you see one marker you normally look for it's 'twin' and I've seen pots in depths of more than 125 metres between Canna and Skye. On the west coast we don't seem to suffer the plastic bottle holiday makers attempt at catching a lobster.

When dark even in congested areas it might be that you have to reduce speed and keep a better lookout.

 

[jwilson]

Try sailing at night off the Phillipines: their speciality is moored semi-floating "fish attractors" which can be in surprisingly deep water and up to 50 miles offshore. Anything from an old large steel freezer upwards moored usually on old steel cables. Some are complete palm trees, which at least are less damaging to hit than a large almost submerged steel object. Never seen one lit.

 

[SaltyC]

You mention strong cross tides, it could be that the gear has been dragged or rolled across the seabed rather than having been placed there but that’s just a possibility, either way I would have thought the harbour authority would just remove that one

Couldn't be dragged through the pier supports so had to be placed there.
The harbour authority issued tge NtoM immediately aware but unable to remove as their workboat in marina behind a flap gate where others going to other dock still entering / leaving. Was removed within 24 hrs. Tge point is tge irresponsibility of placing in tge first place.

 

[dunedin]

I'm with you on this one. You can find pot markers like a rash on Scotland's West coast and not always where you would expect them to be.

Normally if you see one marker you normally look for it's 'twin' and I've seen pots in depths of more than 125 metres between Canna and Skye. On the west coast we don't seem to suffer the plastic bottle holiday makers attempt at catching a lobster.

When dark even in congested areas it might be that you have to reduce speed and keep a better lookout.

Although it doesn’t seem to be enforced, Scotland does benefit from the new law on better marking of pot buoys introduced in 2020 (partly following a Cruising Association campaign, which had success here but failed to get action in the rest of UK)

However, some places there are still dangerously badly marked buoys with floating lines - for example the west side of the Sound of Harris, not a safe place to get entangled in a Westerly swell