New British silver eel record catch: A report in the Angling Times this month stated that the British record catch for silver eel has been broken. They reported that an 11lb 3oz eel had been caught, breaking the previous record of 11lb 2oz which had stood since 1970. Although officially classed as a freshwater record, silver eels are also found in saltwater and can be caught be sea anglers across much of the UK. Click here to read more on this story.
British angler catches 102lb cod – Daniel Pipe, a 39-year-old British angler, caught a 102lb 7oz cod while fishing in Norwegian waters this month. Pipe, who is from south Wales and works as a heavy plant machinery driver, made the catch off the coast of Northern Norway and said it took around twenty minutes to reel in. The cod was just 1lb 3oz away from setting a new weight-based all-tackle record with the International Game Fish Association, although at 160cm (5ft 2ins) long it did set a new length based record. Pipe told the Daily Mail that he would be having “a few pints of cider” to celebrate the catch. Read more on this story here.
Concerns over seafood fraud: An article in this month’s Daily Mail explored the issue of seafood fraud. This happens when cheaper fish and seafood species are labelled and sold as much more expensive. Due to the convoluted supply lines of seafood, and the fact that in countries such as Britain and the USA, a large proportion of seafood is imported, there are many opportunities for fraud to be carried out. A further issue is that once seafood is cooked and prepared it is very difficult to tell exactly what species it is, with complex and expensive DNA analysis needing to be carried out to definitively ascertain the species in question. Max Valentine, campaign director of Oceana, the world’s largest ocean conservation organisation, told the Daily Mail: “Seafood fraud is perhaps one of the most fraudulent items that consumers are coming into contact with regularly. Between 2010 and 2012 Oceana analysed 1,200 seafood samples from 674 across America and found that 33 per cent were mislabelled. The situation does not seem to have improved with Oceana reporting that between 25 and 75 per cent of fish on sale in the USA may be mislabelled, with a similar proportion of fish being mislabelled in the UK and Canada. Oceana said that some of the most common forms of mislabelling included passing off cheap crab species imported from Asia as Canadian blue crab, substituting expensive tuna for cheaper species and stating that farmed salmon was wild-caught. Click here to read more on this story.
Anglers collaborate with researchers to ‘improve fishing’: The BBC reported this month that anglers would be working with university researchers to gather data which will be used to provide a “unique insight” into fishing in the Solent. The project, which is known as Competitive Angling as a Scientific Tool (CAST), will use anglers involved in the annual Sea Angling Classic competition in June to gain information about catches. This data will then be used to increase the understanding of different species and the areas they live in. The BBC reported that AI software would also be used as part of the study. Read more by clicking here.
Fishing vessels spend years at sea with little regulation: Another Oceana report has found that very large commercial fishing vessels can spend years at sea with little to no oversight of their activities. Oceana’s analysis found that over 3,000 vessels spent more than six continuous months at sea, and some stayed at sea for more than two years. One vessel spent 1,100 days at sea – almost three years. Oceana uncovered the data by analysing the Automatic Identification System (AIS) of fishing vessels which were suspected of staying at sea for extended periods of time. Oceana Campaign Director Dr Max Valentine told Yahoo News: “Extensive time at sea keeps vessels away from scrutiny and increases the risk of illicit conduct on the high seas … Without port visits, these vessels can avoid oversight for sometimes years at a time. We cannot have accountability at sea without transparency at sea.” Read more on this story by clicking here.
Claims that sourcing of scampi causes “extensive environmental damage”: The marine charity Open Seas has challenged the claim that scampi is “responsibly sourced” and asked the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate. Open Seas claim that the heavy metal nets which are used to catch langoustines (also known as Dublin Bay prawns) which are prepared and sold as scampi cause immense damage to the seabed, making the claims of being sourced responsibly highly misleading. Open Sea’s Nick Underdown, the organisation’s head of campaigns, told the BBC: “Consumers should not be misled by products being marketed in this way … The way scampi is produced has all the hallmarks of an irresponsible fishery.” and went on to say that as well as damaging the seabed, small creatures such as immature fish were also caught as bycatch when scampi fishing. Read more on this story by clicking here.
Virgin Media to sue trawler for £680,000: News emerged this month that media giant Virgin Media is suing the owners of an Irish trawler for damage they say it caused to underwater fibre optic cables. The company is the main operator of the undersea cables around the UK, which are essential for maintaining internet infrastructure. Virgin Media claims that the trawler, the Lida Suzanna, damaged the cable when fishing in January 2015 and claims that the location of the cable was available on charts and industry-recognised marine atlases, meaning it should have been avoided. Virgin Media say they had to charter a ship and use a remotely operated vehicle to repair the cable, leading to days of slower internet speeds for their customers. The trawler’s owners deny all wrongdoing and say there is no proof that the Lida Suzanna was to blame. A spokesperson for Virgin was quoted by Yahoo News as saying “As a business with millions of customers who rely on fast and reliable connectivity, we hope that through taking this action, third parties will be better aware of the cost that can be involved and disruption it can cause when our cables are damaged.” Read more on this story by clicking here.
World’s oceans face ‘triple threat’: An article in the Guardian this month said that seas and oceans faced a “triple threat” of acidification, oxygen depletion and heating. Drawing on findings published in the academic journal AGU Advances, the Guardian reported that around one-fifth of the world’s seas and oceans were particularly vulnerable to these threats, which are caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. When these events do happen, researchers found that they lasted three times longer and were six times more intense than they were in the 1960s. The researchers found that the areas around the tropics and the North Pacific were the most likely to be affected by the three threats. Read more on this story here.
Sweden to ban bottom trawling in territorial waters: Sweden announced that trawling of the seabed would be banned in the nation’s territorial waters and marine protected areas. Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson made the announcement, and Swedish Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari posted on X (formerly Twitter) saying: “For decades, the Liberals have been fighting to stop the large trawlers destroying our seas and our fish stocks […] From now on, sturgeon, herring and even cod can play along our coasts without being hindered by industrial trawlers.” The European Commission has called on all EU nations to ban seabed trawling within protected zones by 2030. Currently, Oceana (the world’s largest marine conservation organisation) states that trawling still takes place in 90 per cent of such zones. Click here to read more on this story.
More seafood produced in farms than caught from the wild: The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has announced that the amount of seafood produced by farming has outproduced the amount caught in the wild for the first time in history. The amount of seafood – including fish, shrimps, prawns and shellfish – produced in farms was 94.4 million tons in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available, but the amount of wild-caught fish and seafood was 91 million tons in the same year. Furthermore, the trend for farmed seafood was increasing, up 3.3 tons from 2021, while the amount of wild-caught seafood caught had reduced by 0.6 tons compared to the year before. Read more on this story by clicking here.
New textured tiles could aid eel migration: A new method of textured tiles could help endangered silver eels migrate upstream. All silver eels are born in the Sargasso Sea and then swim to Europe where they eventually migrate up rivers to spawn. However, numbers of silver eels have reduced by more than 90 per cent in the last four decades, with barriers to migration – such as dams, sluices and weirs – being a major contributing factor. But a new system of studded tiles which can be used to slow fast-flowing rivers and allow eels to climb over obstructions could aid eel migration and stop the species’ decline. The tiles, which have been designed by researchers at Cardiff University, are said to be cheap and easy to install on rivers, and it is hoped that they can be used to halt the decline in silver eel numbers in the UK and Europe. Read more on this story here.
Fishing rods mistaken for rifles: An article on the BBC News website this month said that police were called after fishing rods were mistaken for rifles by a member of the public. Wiltshire police were called to Bermerton Heath, Salisbury after reports that a man was seen with a rifle. However, after a “thorough search” they said that the man in question had been carrying fishing rods and was allowed to go on his way. Read the BBC News article on this story by clicking here.
Shark species seen around British coastline: An angler encountered a 10ft long basking shark while fishing at Holyhead Breakwater. 59-year-old Jimmy Price managed to photograph the shark and later told the Daily Mail: “I’d not seen a basking shark before but I’ve caught other sharks so I knew what it was. I was pretty shocked – I didn’t expect to see a shark cruising around the harbour at that time of the day! Jimmy, of Abergele, North Wales, is a veteran sea angler and was at the site for a fishing competition that day. I dropped my rod and started chasing it down the breakwater with my mobile phone.” Basking sharks can grow to around 30ft in length, but are harmless to humans as they are filter-feeders. Click here to read more and see pictures of the basking shark. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13546127/moment-shark-spotted-swimming-British-harbour-angler.html In another sighting, the Daily Mail reported that a 6ft shark was spotted off the coast of Bournemouth in Dorset this month. Despite describing the shark as an “oceanic predator” which was “skulking in the murky water,” the paper admitted that it was a tope which was “not a man-eater.” Read more and see pictures here.