Pots or long lines

[Boz]

These floats with a flag, accompanied by a further float 30 or 40 meters away, excuse my naivety but what is actually underneath them? There seems to be an increased number of them particularly around the Medusa channel and in the Wallet? Are they a serious danger?

 

[Leighb]

They are a danger if you haven't seen them, the ones with flags are not too bad as in most conditions they are visible, it is the ones which are just a plastic bottle or grubby buoy often held half under by the tide and invisible in any sort of a sea, and as for at night!!!

AFAIK most are attached to a line of lobster pots, and there are no lines connecting the flags, but there have been mentions of drift nets in some areas, Blackwater I think?

 

[MoodySabre]

I'm pretty sure they are individual pots. Nets I have seen have a flag and then a small buoy or two and then you can look along and see further buoys and a flag the other end. Never seen them in the Medusa channel but I have narrowly avoided nets right across the main channel in the Blackwater.

 

[Lucky Duck]

There was a 'problem' with drift nets being positioned in the vicinity of the Wallet Spitway buoy near or on the direct route for boats coming from the Orwell and other points North but I didn't notice this happening last year.

 

[FullCircle]

Always a little glut of them around the Naze.....

 

[Rivers & creeks]

I thought it was safe to go straight over the gaps between the buoys when they're drift nets? I have many times but then we're long keeled. I seem to remember that the nets are deep.

 

[Bru]

I thought it was safe to go straight over the gaps between the buoys when they're drift nets? I have many times but then we're long keeled. I seem to remember that the nets are deep.

Aren't they supposed to be suspended at least 2m below the water? Not that I'd necessarily want to put my faith in that

 

[ex-Gladys]

Aren't they supposed to be suspended at least 2m below the water? Not that I'd necessarily want to put my faith in that

The main places are between Clacton and Walton piers, and across Pennyhole Bay and in both places the depths are pretty low (coming from Mersea I generally see 3-4m in those paces)...

 

[Boz]

Aren't they supposed to be suspended at least 2m below the water? Not that I'd necessarily want to put my faith in that

There are probably some rules, but where would they be promulgated? They would be practically unenforceable? Are the Harbour authorities the governing bodies? Presumably the fishermen are licensed and it would be a condition of the licence?

 

[johnalison]

WE encountered drift nets after passing Bawdsey in May. My radio had been left on the Harwich channel, so I don't know if they tried to call us. There was a line of orange buoys in the water and one is just visible in the photo. The fishing boat was the one in attendance.

 

[AliM]

There were a couple of AIS signals labeled "drift nets" off Clacton a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what they looked like on the water because having seen the AIS we kept well clear. There were a couple of fishing boats in the same area, but I don't know whether they were connected with the nets.

Anyway, marking drift nets with an AIS beacon seemed a good step.

 

[johnalison]

There were a couple of AIS signals labeled "drift nets" off Clacton a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what they looked like on the water because having seen the AIS we kept well clear. There were a couple of fishing boats in the same area, but I don't know whether they were connected with the nets.

Anyway, marking drift nets with an AIS beacon seemed a good step.

I haven't seen those but I would be surprised if the equipment was other than on the mother ship. This might be OK if the vessel were at the outer limit but less safe if inside, as in my photo.

 

[pvb]

WE encountered drift nets after passing Bawdsey in May. My radio had been left on the Harwich channel, so I don't know if they tried to call us. There was a line of orange buoys in the water and one is just visible in the photo. The fishing boat was the one in attendance.

Good to see that they were flying the flag of the patron saint of burger vans.

 

[rgarside]

I haven't seen drift nets so far this year. The ones I have seen previously had a dan buoy at one end, an insignificant buoy at the other, and between them a head rope with small floats holding it at the water surface - not things to sail over at all! Some times they had a fishing boat in attendance, sometimes not. Found them in the Blackwater across the channel just upstream of Bradwell, around Bench Head, and in the Wallet off Clacton. Good news if AIS markers are now being used.

The other buoys I have seen in the Walton / Medusa area seemed to be pot markers, and not joined together at the surface [other than some with a closely spaced pick-up buoy]. Some of the markers are easily spotted, some not - especially in a strong ebb!

 

[pvb]

These so-called "fishermen" who distribute this rubbish around busy boating areas ought to be shot - or worse!