Fishing Rep. Share Discussion Threads

[pizzagod] 12/6/2005 16:32

GOOD GOD!!! fish?

[ugandan morris] 11/6/2005 21:54

Pizzagod - LOL!!!!!!

I had fish tonight as it goes.

Im a tardy catholic.

[8para] 11/6/2005 21:19

roast beef for sunday dinner

[8para] 11/6/2005 21:18

Fish last night

[8para] 11/6/2005 21:18

I had pizza tonight

[energyi] 30/4/2005 07:33

Anyone else get those mailings from Fisher Investments?

Ken Fisher is a sometimes-Bull, an intelligent one, who has been long select stocks since early 2002.
How's he done?

From a Forbes article: "Stocks for an Iffy Investor"

-Fisher's Picks----- :Sep.6th: Apr28 : Chg.:
SPX- S&P 500 Index.. : 1080. : 1157. :+ 7.1%
FOX- Fox Entertainmt : 26.00 : 36.35 :+39.8%
JJSF J&J Snack Foods : 38.00 : 48.95 :+28.8%
CBRL CBRL/Craker.Brl : 32.00 : 38.53 :+20.4%
SCHL Scholastic Corp : 27.00 : 34.85 :+29.1%
Average of 4 stocks. : ..... : ..... :+29.5%
TEU- CP Ships....... : 12.00 : 14.06 :
SCRA Seacontainers.. : 15.00 : 16.71 :
WOS.L Wolseley...... : 850.P : 1050P :

Not bad at all!

[waldron] 15/10/2004 06:29

Fishery chiefs search for ways to fight parasite threat to salmon

WILLIAM CHISHOLM


LEADING scientists and fishery managers are to discuss ways of safeguarding the Tweed from a deadly parasite that has already wiped out entire stocks of salmon across Europe.

There are fears the mite, gyrodactylus salaris [GS], could spread to the UK from Scandinavia and mainland Europe where it has already caused widespread devastation.

In recent years the Tweed has established a reputation as the most productive salmon rod fishery in the North Atlantic system, with record catches in 2003. It also supports a local 'industry' worth at least £15 million a year to the Borders economy.

But the Tweed Foundation, which has organised a summit meeting in Kelso next month to discuss the problem, has warned salmon fishing in the Tweed would be over if the parasite got into the water.

Each GS measures less than half a millimetre in length, and it uses minute claws to attach itself to the skin of young salmon, which it then eats alive. A single fish can be infected by up to 10,000 GS parasites before it dies.

Such is the level of concern that the River Tweed Commissioners, who manage the prolific fishery, are already encouraging anglers to adopt rigorous biosecurity procedures.

The GS mite has destroyed salmon stocks on more than 20 Norwegian rivers and radically reduced the number of fish on 20 more. It was introduced accidentally to Norway's Atlantic coast by Baltic Sea salmon.

While strains of Baltic salmon are immune to attack from GS, Atlantic salmon are not, and tests have shown that Scottish stocks would be just as easily killed off as Norwegian ones.

The Tweed Foundation warns that the parasite has already spread to both north and south Europe. Desperate methods have been used in Norway, but no successes have been reported.

A Tweed Foundation spokesman said: "The seminar on 2 November will explore our current knowledge, the extent of the threat and what we should be doing to protect ourselves."

[qazwsx123] 12/10/2004 00:27

Feel free to have a laugh at and comment about, the new Scottish Parliament building (with link to photos and e-mail address):

[maywillow] 08/10/2004 06:56

Grimsby fishing industry still nets healthy profit

Charlotte Moore
Friday October 8, 2004
The Guardian

Just when Grimsby was celebrating four years of a booming food processing industry, Unilever's announcement yesterday that it was shutting its Birds Eye factory came as an unexpected blow.
The loss of 600 jobs hurt badly and will take around £30m out of the local economy, said Andrew Moore, of North East Lincolnshire council. "But the real worry is the knock on effect that these job losses could have on other industries like transport and maintenance," he added.

But it is not all gloom and doom. The town's fish processing industry has been booming in recent years and will not be directly affected by the closure of the Birdseye factory.

Peter Stokes, finance director of Flatfish, is one of those optimistic about the chances of taking the grim out of Grimsby despite yesterday's news. "Whenever I go down south, people always say to me: "Didn't there used to be a fishing industry in Grimsby?" They don't realise that there still is a fishing industry here," he says.

Flatfish is one of the many companies in Grimsby that have managed to build a new industry on the back of a declining one. The size of the fishing fleet may have shrunk from over 500 trawlers in the 1950s to only 12 today but Grimsby still processes just under 1m tonnes of fish a year. To put that figure into context, that is almost five times the UK's EU fishing quota.

Since the North Sea's fish stocks are at crisis point, the fish Grimsby is processing comes from further afield. The lion's share is from Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Neither the Faroes nor Iceland are involved in the EU's fish quota system.

In the cod war of 1973, Royal Navy frigates clashed with Icelandic gunboats trying to stop Hull trawlers fishing the icy seas. Iceland had realised the only way to prevent its seas being overfished was to extend its fishing zones to 200 miles from its shoreline and only allow its own trawlers in these waters. The US came down in favour of Iceland and the UK lost.

"If we hadn't lost the cod war, it is highly unlikely that Iceland would have the fish stocks that it does today," says Mr Moore. Iceland obsessively patrols its fishing borders, using a GPS system to track a boat's position to within six feet. If any boat does stray into their waters then helicopters are scrambled.

Fresh haddock in Flatfish's cold store illustrates the difference between the success of Iceland's fishing policy and the North Sea's. Haddock from the North Sea is a third of the size of the Icelandic fish, since overfishing means there are few large fish left in the North Sea.

Firms like Flatfish have reaped the rewards of an increasing emphasis on healthy eating driving up the sales of fish by 7-8% a year, with its sales growing from £4m last year to £6.7m this year. In a rapidly consolidating industry, they have managed to survive as a small family run firm by becoming lemon sole specialists, contracting directly with lemon sole trawlers.

But lemon sole, like almost any other fish, is seasonal. The logistics of managing a 52 week lemon sole supply chain when the main season lasts for only half a year is the biggest challenge of this business, says Stephen Stansfield, managing director.

Heavily armed


Since fish are so seasonal, around 80% of the fish processed in Grimsby is frozen. Flatfish's fish processing factory is state of the art with many processes automated.

A top of the range nitrogen tunnel freezes the fish very quickly so the flesh retains its plumpness and moisture. And even removing the dark skin from fillets is no longer done by hand - a machine does that too.

But when it comes to filleting, machines are no match for a skilled filleter. "Machines don't get the same yield that a good fish filleter can get," says Stephen Monings, technical manager of Flatfish.

Like chefs, filleters insist on having their own knifes. "The side effect of this is that Grimsby must be one of the most heavily armed towns in the UK," says Mr Moore.

It is not just Flatfish that has big ambitions for the future. Grimsby town does too. The decline of the fishing industry means that the town's three huge docks stand almost empty. In the 1950s the 73 acre space of the fish dock could be crossed by leaping from boat to boat. Now there is a half mile shimmering expanse of water.

The Victorian buildings behind the docks are still used as fishing processing plants. The plumbing is beginning to show the strain - the smell is strong enough to make you gag. "We want to move all of these fish processing industries to a 21st century site and regenerate the old Victorian wharves into flats and cafes," says Mr Moore.

[grupo] 03/10/2004 12:43

Picture of North Sea fish decline

By Carolyn Fry
in Vigo, Spain



The model should aid future management of the North Sea
A scientific model of the North Sea's ecosystem suggests the total stock of fish has dropped from 26 million tonnes to 10 million in just over a century.
Some fish, such as the bluefin tuna, have disappeared completely following intensive fishing in the 1960s.

Others, including cod, haddock and mackerel, have declined considerably, while seals appear to be on the rise.

The model's details were revealed at the annual meeting of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.

The researchers hope their work will help in forecasting the future impact of fishing and climate change on species within the North Sea.

[A bluefin tuna] was recently caught off Scarborough, which may indicate we'll see [them] in the North Sea in future

Steven Mackinson, Cefas
"We're trying to find out who eats whom and how much, and how the ecosystem has changed since 1880," explained ecologist Steven Mackinson, at the Ices conference here in Vigo, Spain.

"Fisheries and the Ices are calling for ecosystem-wide management and this is a response to that," he told BBC News Online.

Fine scale

Mackinson and Georgi Daskalov, both senior scientific officers at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) in Lowestoft, UK, began by gathering information on the biomasses of organisms within the ecosystem for the year 1991.

They chose this date primarily because a lot of detailed marine information was gathered that year.


Cod stocks in the North Sea are said to be in crisis
Sources included the International Bottom Trawl Survey, which has gathered data on fish for over 30 years; and the Year of the Stomach, a regular Europe-wide survey of fish stomach contents.

"There have been other models of the North Sea made in the past, but we've not been entirely happy with them," said Mackinson.

"We now have better quality data and skills, so we're trying to build a model which is highly detailed and can be defended scientifically."

The next step was to define variables for the model. Major fish species such as haddock, mackerel and lemon sole are listed individually, while others are grouped into types exhibiting similar behaviour, such as predators living close to the seabed.

As some juveniles have distinctly different eating habits from the adults of their species, they are considered as separate, but linked, groups.

'Dead' component

Non-fish groups include whales, dolphins, seabirds, squid, echinoderms, benthic crustaceans and small worms. "We're trying to capture what happens from the very bottom of the food chain to the very top and look at the dynamics throughout the ecosystem," said Mackinson.

The scientists also added figures for the amount of dead material such as discarded fish and other detritus that routinely sinks to the seabed. Including a "dead" variable is important as it is a vital link in the food chain.

"Lots of organisms, particularly tiny bacteria, eat and take nutrients from detritus and in doing so they make it available to the higher organisms who eat them," said Mackinson.

"There's a recycling of nutrients through the system. Traditionally people have believed that a lot of energy within the ecosystem is dependent on primary production of phytoplankton but we believe recycling has a strong input."

Comparing the 1991 data with information gathered for the year 1800, prior to the age of steam and mechanisation in the fishing industry, showed up clear reductions in the numbers of cod, haddock, saithe, cetaceans and seabirds.

Seal numbers appeared to have risen but this could simply be because there is more data available now.

Model limitations

The scientists aim to use information on North Sea stocks in 2004 to test the model's ability to accurately forecast change under different conditions.

Then they will ask various "what if?" questions to predict how the ecosystem may react to changes in fishing and the climate in the future.

"There used to be two stocks of Atlantic bluefin tuna in the North Sea but during the 1960s, fisheries caught 70,000 fish a year," explained Mackinson.


Cefas scientists will continue to refine the model
"They seem not to be present now but one was recently caught off Scarborough, which may indicate we'll see bluefin tuna in the North Sea in future."

Fellow ecosystem modeller Henrik Sparholt, a fishing assistant at the Ices Secretariat in Copenhagen, believes such work will yield valuable results, provided people are aware of the limitations.

"This kind of modelling is a bit controversial in scientific spheres because a lot of the elements and links between them are not well understood," he said.

"But it is an important step forward in our progress towards understanding the ecosystem. Ultimately, working out how the North Sea functions will be a job for a whole group of scientists over a long period of time."

[ariane] 25/7/2004 07:49

Salmon farms sold to 'bigger fish'




By Ian Fraser



ONE of the few remaining independent salmon-farming businesses in Scotland is to be swallowed up by Scottish Sea Farms, a company co-owned by the Norwegian giants Lerøy Seafood and SalMar.
Kinloch Damph (KLD), which has been in administration since June, is to be sold to Stirling-based Scottish Sea Farms, known as Hydro Seafood until it was bought by Lerøy Seafood and SalMar in 2002.

KLD has a £7 million turnover and specialises in supplying smolts (juvenile salmon that have undergone the physiological changes to cope with a marine environment) to salmon farmers from its Wester Ross base.

But the company paid a high price for offering extended credit terms to Shetland-based salmon farming companies, many of which collapsed into receivership earlier this year.

Like the entire Scottish salmon farming industry, KLD has also seen margins squeezed by the problem of oversupply in the European market for farmed salmon, principally because of alleged "dumping" by Norwegian-based salmon farming firms, whose costs are lower.

Despite the claims, joint administrator David Hunter of Glasgow accountants Campbell Dallas would not comment on the identity of the KLD buyer.

But he said: "We are in talks with a preferred bidder and believe we can sell the business as a going concern." But he said the preferred bidder was not Nutreco subsidiary Marine Harvest Scotland.

He added: "Kinloch Damph is a fundamentally good business and we hope to be able to save 25 [of the original 50] jobs. But it had difficulties with cashflow and debt recovery."

KLD was founded almost 20 years ago by businessman Mark Pattinson, and has its head office at Couldoran, Kishorn.

Campbell Dallas made 10 people redundant days after being appointed and has spruced up the firm for sale by extricating it from leasehold and partnership agreements, including one on Skye.

Hunter added: "The Bank of Scotland had a large debt with KLD and they got to the stage where they could not go on lending any more money."

Chairwoman of Lochcarron community council, Helen Murchison, questioned the attitude of the Edinburgh-based bank.

"The problem is that the banks look at this in terms of figures and balance sheets, while we look at it as a crisis for the local community. The Bank of Scotland should have appreciated that what happened to KLD was no fault of their own. It all stemmed from three fish farms in Shetland going down, owing them money."

An industry observer said: "This deal will tighten the market for smolts and make things marginally better for the remaining suppliers."

These include Lakeland, Landcatch (owned by Lithgows Ltd) and Corrie Mhor. "Most of their output is sold to Shetland."

Hunter, who has worked in corporate recovery in Scotland's dwindling fish farming sector since 1982, hit out at what he sees as the Scottish Executive's failure to do anything to protect the Scottish salmon farming industry. He said: "The industry is in chaos; but it is getting no help from the government."

Costs are higher in Scotland because the size of farms is restricted by the authorities and because the Crown Estate owns the seabed and charges salmon farms rent.

The Executive has made gestures of support, including putting together a "framework" last year and securing £1.5m of European money to help fund a campaign to promote the health benefits of salmon.

But the Executive's actions are seen as too little too late by Scottish salmon farmers, who fear others will go the way of KLD unless prices rise.

The 7800-acre Couldoran Estate, also owned by Mark Pattinson, has also been put up for sale through agents CKD Galbraith at offers over £1.6m.

25 July 2004

[grupo] 24/7/2004 17:39

Fishes and chippies

[ariane] 23/7/2004 06:29

Seafood worth £5bn a year to UK economy

FRANK URQUHART


Key points
• New figures put value of the fishing industry at £5 billion a year
• Pubs, hotels and restaurants sales of seafood account for £1.6bn a year
• Comprehensive survey details value of every sector of the industry

Story in full THE seafood industry in Britain is worth a staggering £5 billion a year to the national economy - £2 billion more than previous estimates, it was revealed yesterday.

The major revision in the value of the seafood market in the UK follows the most comprehensive study of the industry in Britain ever undertaken by the Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish).

The findings place the seafood market in the UK as having an annual consumer value of approximately £4.8 billion, a significant increase on previous estimates.

Sales of fish suppers in Britain's chip shops alone are valued at £500 million, while seafood sales in pubs, hotels and restaurants are estimated to be worth £1.6 billion a year.

Retail sales are estimated to be worth a total of £2.2 billion, with independent fishmongers contributing only £90 million to the sales total.

The report, however, reveals that although the basic supply of seafood in Britain is now worth an estimated £2.1 billion a year, fish landed by the UK fishing fleet account for only 19 per cent of the total.

More than 62 per cent of supplies in the UK come from foreign imports and a further 3.5 per cent from fish landed in the UK by foreign trawlers. But the British industry also exports almost £900 million worth of seafood annually.

Ceara Nevin, the market insight manager at Seafish, explained: "This is the most comprehensive study into the value of the seafood industry that we've ever carried out.

"Our previous studies have valued the seafood industry as producing around £3 billion worth of seafood on an annual basis. The revision to nearly £5 billion comes from a better understanding of the food service sector and the inclusion of farmed and canned seafood into the survey data."

Ms Nevin said the study showed that the seafood processing sector in Britain had an annual output of £3.2 billion, providing supplies to both the export market and the home retail and food service sectors.

She said: "Until we conducted this study, the total value of the food service sector was approximate, but new data means that we can value this sector at £2.6 billion, accounting for 54 per cent of consumer sales.

"Fish-and-chip-shop sales are still an important driver in the seafood market and account for 19 per cent of the food service market.

"The non-profit market, including schools, hospitals and canteens, accounts for a similar proportion.

"The main route for seafood, in terms of value, is through restaurants, cafes, pubs and similar outlets, accounting for 62 per cent of the food service sector.

"However, prices for seafood dishes in this sector vary greatly and the value estimated might not reflect the volume of seafood sold."

She continued: "The retail market accounts for 46 per cent of seafood sold to the UK consumer. Sales through independent fishmongers are in decline and account for only 4 per cent of the seafood sold through the retail market.

"Chilled retail sales through supermarket chains show significant growth and account for 45 per cent of sales in this sector. The remaining 50 per cent of seafood in the retail sector is purchased in the frozen form, but we expect chilled sales to exceed those of frozen in the retail sector in this current year."

The report estimates that the UK aquaculture industry, including salmon, trout and shellfish sectors, accounts for 15 per cent of the basic sales of raw material.

Ms Nevin said: "Some seafood products are exported directly from vessels and markets, for example live crab and langoustine. We estimate that between half and two-thirds of seafood landed in the UK is exported and the majority of seafood we consume is imported."

Seafood, meanwhile, has also announced plans to invest £743,000 at its Fisheries Development Centre, in Hull, to investigate new and sustainable fishing methods which will benefit the Scottish white fish fleet and other British trawlers.

One of the initiatives involves the development of a new prawn-trawl design, aimed at conserving fish stocks.

A spokeswoman for Seafish said: "Rather than letting fish escape once they are in the net, the new trawl features a number of design elements around the trawl entrance to prevent juvenile fish entering the net in the first place."

[grupo guitarlumber] 22/7/2004 09:17

Fish prevents deadly heart rhythms


Fish should be baked or broiled to be protective, say the experts
Eating fish can reduce the risk of abnormal heartbeats that can be deadly, say US researchers.
But it must be baked or broiled, not fried, to be protective, Dr Dariush Mozaffarian and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston found.

People who ate "good" oily fish one to four times a week reduced their risk of an abnormal heartbeat called atrial fibrillation by nearly a third.

The findings are reported in the journal Circulation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an abnormal heart rhythm in which the upper two chambers of the heart beat faster than normal.

Regular intake of tuna or other broiled or baked fish may be a simple and important deterrent to AF among older men and women

Lead researcher Dr Dariush Mozaffarian

This can cause unpleasant palpitations, the sensation that the heart is beating fast, and breathlessness.

The blood is not pumped out of the heart as well as it should be and may pool and clot. If the blood clot leaves the heart it can lodge in an artery in the brain, causing a stroke.

Oily fish is known to be good for the heart. It provides the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are believed to help provide protection from coronary heart disease.

Omega-3

These are found mainly in oily fish such as herring, kippers, mackerel, pilchards, sardines, salmon, fresh tuna, trout and anchovies. They are also found in green leafy vegetables.

Omega-3 fatty acids are thought to reduce the stickiness of the blood, making it less likely to clot, and prevent the heart from beating irregularly.

But, according to Dr Mozaffarian, no one had looked directly at whether fish intake affects AF.

He studied nearly 5,000 people over the age of 65.

He looked at their diet over the course of a year and then followed the people for another 12 years, watching for any who developed AF.

There were 980 cases of AF over the 12 years.

When the researchers looked at those who went on to develop AF and those who did not they found marked differences in fish intake.

Baked or broiled

Those who ate more fish that was broiled or baked were less likely to have AF.

People who ate these types of fish one to four times per week had a 28% lower risk of AF compared with those who ate fish less than once a month.

Eating five or more portions per week reduced the risk of AF by 31%.

People who ate lots of fried fish or fish burgers did not enjoy the same protection, however.

Dr Mozaffarian said the cooking process had either destroyed all of the good omega-3 or the fried fish were lean white fish like cod rather than oily fish.

"The results suggest that regular intake of tuna or other broiled or baked fish may be a simple and important deterrent to AF among older men and women," he said.

Belinda Linden, head of medical information at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This review provides further evidence of how omega-3 fats may work by specifically blocking the currents that lead to erratic heart rhythms.

"Seven out of ten people in the UK still don't eat the recommended amount of fish.

Recommended portions

"By eating a balanced diet which is low in salt and saturated fats, along with fish and plenty of fruit and vegetables, the chances of developing coronary heart disease, the UK's single biggest killer, are significantly reduced," she said.

The Food Standards Agency recently issued advice on how much oily fish it is safe for people to eat.

As well as containing omega-3 fatty acids which help to prevent heart disease, oily fish also contain pollutants that may also pose a health risk to humans.

It says men, boys and women past childbearing age can eat up to four portions of oily fish such as salmon, tuna, trout and sardines a week.

Women of childbearing age should keep to a maximum of two portions a week.

[ariane] 14/7/2004 09:44

'Greatest shoal on Earth' hits town

By Zoe Murphy
BBC News Online



Bronze whaler shark cuts through a "baitball" of sardines
The ocean was boiling with activity. Thousands of panic-stricken fish turned and convulsed below, herded by predating dolphins and sharks. And an aerial assault was underway as gannets plummeted into the writhing mass.
After weeks of anticipation the "greatest shoal on Earth" had arrived.

The "sardine run" is one of the biggest marine events on the planet, taking place during the months of May through to July along the east coast of South Africa.

There are no accurate figures on how many sardines make the passage, but huge shoals 15km long and 4km wide have been known to hug the coastline for more than 1,000km.

The sardines, however, are not always the main attraction.

It is not a migration in the true sense as the sardines do not travel for feeding or breeding proposes

Andrew Aitken, marine scientist
Following them are a host of predators, including around 20,000 common dolphins, thousands of bronze whaler sharks (copper sharks), Cape fur seals and tens of thousands of Cape gannets.

Despite the incredible density of marine life, witnessing the sardine run remains a hit-or-miss business. Along with the marine predators, I was stalking the culmination of the action - the elusive "baitball".

The chase

According to folklore, the sardines will arrive when the last aloe plant has bloomed.

However, operators in the Eastern Cape have a number of alternative methods to shorten the odds on locating the main event.

The hunt begins at first light as the spotter plane scours the former Transkei coastline looking for bird activity or the dark stain of sardines.


Dolphins are responsible for herding the sardines
The pilot then directs our boat's skipper towards the action and the vessel is loaded with dive equipment and enough diesel for several hours at sea.

These usually unproductive waters are alive. The skipper heads north following a steady stream of Cape gannets to the spot where hundreds of common dolphins have been sighted.

Below the waves, the noise is deafening as the dolphins shoot past at an incredible pace, communicating with their distinctive echo-locating clicks.

Within minutes, 20 bronze whaler sharks surround us.

These magnificent creatures have us mesmerised until an inquisitive female swings directly towards one of the divers and veers off at the last moment.

We ascend to the boat, hearts pounding. We were getting close.

Feeding frenzy

Baitballs are formed as a result of dolphins rounding up pockets of sardines using streams of bubbles and trapping them against the ocean's surface.

When threatened, sardines instinctively align their bodies with those of their neighbours in order to prevent themselves from becoming isolated from the group (the best form of defence from predators).

These baitballs are short-lived events, seldom lasting longer than 10 to 20 minutes as marauding predators pick off the sardines, whipped into a feeding frenzy by this brief period of plenty.

As the sardines are driven into shallower water, Cape gannets strike.

To see hundreds of birds dive-bombing is spectacular. They plunge in formation from heights of almost 30m, hitting the water at 90km/h and reaching depths of 10m or more.

A minute or two later, they pop to the surface, sardine in mouth, while the frantic bubbles of the dolphins foam the surface of the ocean, amid a thrash of tails and dorsal fins.

After the activity has diminished, the satiated gannets float on the surface too full to fly. As our boat approached, they were forced to regurgitate part of their fishy meal in order to take off.

Unanswered questions

Marine science has no definitive explanation for the sardine run phenomenon.

Sardines are only known to migrate close to the shore along South Africa's east coast. The configuration of the coastline and the currents that flow down them are believed to be the key to the event.

The sardine is a coldwater species, which aggregates off the southern coast of South Africa.

With the onset of winter, a cool band of water from the south (14-20 degrees) penetrates the warm south-flowing Agulhas current. This band of cool water allows the sardines to extend their range eastwards.


This "leakage" of sardines is believed to be only 2% of the holding stock based off the southern Cape coast.

Marine and shark research scientist Andrew Aitken says there are still many unanswered questions. "We don't really know why they do it," he told me.

"It is not a migration in the true sense as the sardines do not travel for feeding or breeding proposes.





"There is evidence that some of the sardines return south later in the year. It is not clear what factors other than cooler water temperatures may trigger their movement up the coast."

Research is a core value of the Sardine Run Association (SRA) launched this year.

"We need research boats to monitor the sardines and their predators. The SRA hopes to be a resource for all parties from operators and scientists to tourists and local communities," explains co-founder Ian Wilson.

Inevitably, the sardines vanished into deeper water as suddenly as they had appeared, reminding us that this is a truly wild event whose secrets are only just beginning to be understood.

The sardine run is featured in Massive Nature: The Deep, broadcast on BBC One, on Thursday, 15 July, at 2030BST.

[grupo guitarlumber] 06/7/2004 09:05

Deep sea fish stocks 'in crisis'


Norway is embroiled in a diplomatic row with the EU and Iceland
Over-fishing in the north Atlantic is seriously damaging fish stocks, which are being "mined" at over twice the recommended rate, say conservationists.
Fishing vessels currently catch stocks of blue whiting to feed farmed salmon.

The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, which fixed the last quota for blue whiting at 650,000 tonnes, says fishermen caught 2.3m t in 2003.

Stocks of the fish will cease to be sustainable if current practices continue, says conservation body WWF.


Blue whiting, a deep sea relative of cod, tend to be caught in international waters, from north Africa to the Barents Sea.

Urgent need

The majority of fish caught are used as fishmeal, with a small number being caught for human consumption.

A precautionary fishing quota of 650,000 tonnes was set in 1994, but the system broke down in 2000.

Since then a diplomatic dispute between the EU, Norway and Iceland has prevented a new limit being set.

Stocks are being reduced at such a rate that it will soon cease to be commercially viable to try to catch the fish

Kjartan Hoydal
East Atlantic Fisheries Commission
In the absence of a regulatory system, the number of blue whiting caught in a year swelled to over two million in 2003, according to figures from the commission.

Experts say current practices will cause the stock to become unsustainable as there will soon be too few fish left for fisherman to catch.

Kjartan Hoydal, secretary of the East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, told BBC News Online: "A quota needs to be agreed so that the current system comes to an end.

"Stocks are being reduced at such a rate that it will soon cease to be commercially viable to try to catch the fish."

Slow growth

And WWF - formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund - is calling for the sale of blue whiting as fishmeal to stop.

Louise Heaps, of WWF, said: "At the moment stocks are being 'mined' in a way that is tantamount to a free-for-all and it is having a significant impact.

"We feel very strongly that blue whiting should not be used as fish food at all until it is properly managed."

The countries involved in the diplomatic row will meet in Brussels in July in a bid to establish a quota. Current practices have also been condemned by Greenpeace.

A spokesman for the conservation group said: "Destructive and unsustainable fishing represents the greatest threat to our ocean ecosystems.

"Deep sea ecosystems are particularly vulnerable because they are often made up of slow-growing species which cannot withstand commercial fishing pressure."

[maywillow] 04/7/2004 21:05

'Eat healthy' to keep you happy


Eating more fish could beat depression
People need to eat more foods high in nutrients for their own mental wellbeing, say experts.
The UK faces a mental health crisis of "monumental proportions" if their advice is not heeded, they say.

Doctors at the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids congress in Brighton heard evidence on omega-3s' brain benefits.

Research suggests foods rich in omega-3, like fish and eggs, can prevent depression and promote learning.

A study of 14,500 pregnant women by Dr Joseph Hibbeln from the US National Institutes of Health found those who ate fish throughout their pregnancy were less likely to suffer from depression.

People who eat a lot of fish are generally healthier, mentally and physically, than non-fish eaters

Dr Ray Rice from the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids

Their children were also less likely to develop behavioural problems and learning difficulties.

Other researchers found children with low levels of omega-3 at the age of seven were more prone to depression as adults than those with higher levels of omega-3.

But people have lower levels omega-3 now than in previous years.

Professor Michael Crawford, from the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at the University of North London and president of the congress, said there had been a complete shift in the balance of essential fatty acids in people's diets in the last 50 years.

People are eating less of the good omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish such as mackerel and salmon, that the brain needs to be healthy, he said.

Professor Tom Sanders from the Nutrition Foods and Health Research Centre at King's College said people wrongly believe all fats are bad for them.

Good fat

"There is a real problem in the perception of the word fat. There are good and bad fats."

Professor Crawford said: "We are facing a mental health crisis of monumental proportions that far outstretches, in my opinion, the problem of obesity. This is a major issue."

According to the Food Standards Agency, on average, people in the UK eat a third of a portion (about 47g) of oily fish a week. Seven out of ten don't eat any at all.

It says people should eat at least two portions of fish a week, and that one should be oily.

Some oily fish contain chemicals, such as dioxins, which accumulate over time in the body and could have adverse health effects if consumed over long periods at high levels, particularly in pregnant women.

Many people bear witness to the fact that changes in diet can have a huge impact on their mental health

Ms Sophie Corlett, policy director for Mind

The FSA gives advice on maximum consumption levels at which the health benefits outweigh the possible risks.

Dr Ray Rice from the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids said: "People who eat a lot of fish are generally healthier, mentally and physically, than non-fish eaters.

"Seafood is not only rich in minerals and vitamins, it is the most important food source of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that have a wide range of recognised health benefits," he said.

Ms Sophie Corlett from the mental health charity Mind said: "It stands to reason that what we eat affects out mental balance, and many people bear witness to the fact that changes in diet can have a huge impact on their mental health.

"We would encourage people to adopt a healthy, balanced diet incorporating ingredients such as fish oils known to boost mental well-being, as a positive alternative to over-reliance on medication."