I remember fishing at a place called Hat Head on the NSW north coast years ago and the local pro put out his net to catch a big school of tailor that was following a school of mullet. He caught just about the whole school, but also pulled in a heap of other fish including a lot of the mullet. All the fish he didn't want, including the mullet, he just dumped on the beach right near the town site and the river mouth. What a waste of good fish and it stunk for ages.
I can't give you any official data, but I think that measures have been introduced to try and cut down on such wastage, but I am sure it could be improved a lot.
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I have a mate that operates a prawn trawler out of the Gulf, they have been refining their bycatch excluders for years because bycatch is not only wasteful but it can seriously damage the intended catch through crushing it.

His results speak for themselves, their bycatch is now down to around 10% of what it was, their prawn catch has also reduced by around 20% BUT and here is the point, the prawn catch is almost all export quality as none of it has been crushed by rays, sharks, fish and even coral and rubble the nets also used to catch.

Oddly however I note that the English prawn (actually they appear to be scampi) fleet shown in Trawlermen do not have such excluders

If you ever want to read a book on how much damage they have done to the Atlantic fishery then read COD by Mark Kurlansky - it is a real eye opener  

Mark Kurlansky's the Last Fish Tale is also very good, actually pretty much any of his books apart from 1968 have been great.



Incidentally he was here in Perth and interviewed by Jessica Meeuwig a few months back. I wonder how that went because she really isn't into historical research and he does a lot of research for his books.

I have been watching the Trawlermen series too and have been appalled by both the level of bycatch, the obvious pressure the whole area is under (look at the number and size of the boats in what is basically a small area, and they are focussing on only one part of the English fleet - what about the fleets from neighbouring European countries that also fish the same general area?) and the practice of targetting spawning aggregations of fish.  I admire the fishermen themselves and the history associated with fishing those waters, but you have got to wonder how long the fish/scampi populations can survive (look at the cod story).  And it is not necessarily only the targetted species that are being dangerously depleted - it includes every species that gets hauled up in the nets, and also those whose habitat is continually scoured (destroyed?) by the action of the trawl nets.

I don't want to sound like a dooms-dayer, and I fully appreciate why there are quotas and regulations about keeping bycatch, but you have really got to wonder how long that ecosystem can handle the sort of pressure it is under!  

My son works on a prawn trawler out from Exmouth,on a recent trip up there I took a ride out to see how it all worked as where I'd been in the fishing industry for years I had not been on a trawler.

There was quite a bit of bycatch but nothing to compare to the amount on "TRAWLER"[one of my favourites].Most of it was small crabs,lizard fish,goatfish and small fish that look like bony herring but only 4 inches long at the most.All of the fish were eaten by the dolphins ,tuna and sharks that swim along with the boat as they sort the catch.As a percentage I would say it was in the region of 3-5%.The biggest fish to come through would be no more than 10 inches long[30cm].They keep all the legal size crabs,squid,cuttlefish and other fish of value.

Having done pro salmon fishing[no bycatch at all] netting for mullet,whiting etc the mesh size of the net being used usually excludes undersize fish being caught,there is some bycatch but it isn't more that half a percent at most.

from your post that i'm not the only who see the bycatch as more than 3 or 4 percent on that show. This to me is squandering what's left of a resource they have already hammered to death - look at the trouble they have on some trips just covering fuel. I see this as an issue that will have a big impact not just in the UK fishing grounds - theirs adjoin Frances, whose adjoin Portugals whose adjoin and so on and so on right down to the Horn Of Africa and all at once you are in the Indian Ocean. There has to be an influence that does not stop at borders and we are copping it badly enough from poachers to the north as it is. I hope the issue of bycatch is highlighted the next time they chip a bit more away from our fishing rights.  

Yes 7739ian, bycatch is inevitable, but at times it looked like some boats were discarding more like 90% of a trawl because it was all species they were prohibited from catching (eg. a boat targetting scampi pulling up net loads of fish), so that they could try again for their target species. 

I can see why all the regulations around bycatch are currently required, and it would take a major overhaul and some gutsy politicians to make any substantial changes, but I can't buy the argument that tippng dead fish back over the side in the quantities that they are, doesn't damage the ecosystem.    I hope that someone is able to come up with a more workable solution some day soon!

from all my workings in the conservation/environment industry across australian and overseas one issue stands above all....$$

economy first, environment secondary! Even our mate johnny howard professed this sentiment many times...... David Suzuki hits the nail on the head, economic environmentalism. we need a quantum shift in thinking that centres the environment as an economic resource. the scandinavian countries lead the way in this thinking rational and place a price on the environment. you want it you pay for it.

can't speak for the fishing industry, as I have limited knowledge and experience (desert conservation mostly) about bycatch waste but yeh it happens!! best business practice is to protect your "investment". it doesn't make sense to pillage your own livehood so introduce best practice management for the longterm survival of the industry/resource. simple thinking really but how many people want to change. Look at teh sustainability of european farming practive in Australia.

Kangaroo meat is one of the cleanest meats in the world. Dog food!! Camel/donkey/pig/horse is all clean meat....who eats it? The (iconic) Mulga tree dominates 22% of mainland Australia. One seed is about a quarter size of a peanut but contains approximately 3 times more protein, carbohydrate and nutrients than the peanut. Do you harvest it.....and it is very easy to harvest and process. no got to upset another ecosystem by ripping out the natives to introduce exotics.....just some examples

I have seen much waste in industry. I worked in Newfoundland conducting a Black Bear study. The bears are a sub speices so very unique. No money for funding. We had $300 radio collars to track the bears. a reward of $250 for the collar, with no questions asked at return even if the bear was poached.  Caribo had $10 000 satelite telemetry collars. Mosse were introduced to the Island and were devestating the native vegeation. Poorest province in Canada but illegal to shoot a mosse without a (lottery) permit but no work to put food on the table..........got to feed the family....... man shoots introduced moose....ends up in jail.....get the picture. Likewise it was mostly the europeans who plundered the cod fishery of the grand banks in motherships like the ones on trawlerman......

look at the quantum shift in conservation in African game parks. no longer a natural system as the habitat has been altered. use big game hunting money to further conservation of the species. sure "scientifically" shoot some gaining $$ from otherwise dry bank accounts to protect the speices.

spent thousands of hours conducting fauna surveys to get a trap return of 1 mammel per 500 traps. not the "romantic" perception of environmentalism, just hard mundane work! 90% of conservation funding within 40kms of the ocean.....who's looking after the inland environments?

Government offered a cattle station for $450 000 which is rare as it possess all the ecosystems in the central desert country, with minimal impact. Gov says no cause there is no tourist dollar potential,  but hay we will buy a claped out station next to alice springs for $3.5 million. Why, so they can send tourists to the local waterholes, in the mean time leasing the land back to the cattle industry..........yet it's a unique extensi0n of the simpson desert but hay the cattle industry gives us campaigne money......waste?    

another problem is we have no real baseline scientific data. Science is young and what occured pre european days?........ what has changed since colonisation. look at all the early pioneer/explores diaries and it tells of a different environment. look at fire ecology as an example. do we practice what the aborigines used too?   can't work the environment 9 to 5......

presently helicopters are flying tuna into pens out of Pt Lincon. think of the $$ investment in that considering that tuna stress very easily. got to be money in it our they wouldn't bother. aquaculture is the new business.  

it's a tough world and my views are left and don't wont to step on any toes here in the forum. have studied the text book theroies and spent years in the field getting dirty. we as a speices know very little of ourselves, the world or our role especially as stewards. could write an essay but best way to change the world is from within....change yourself!!

its an easy road you just have to want to make that change.

speaking about books, read the "Monkey Wrench Gang" by Ed Abbey. Theres a little bit of Hayduke in all of us (well plenty in me). 

RECFISHWEST Member

What time is the trawlermen on sbs

born 2 fish forced 2 work

Its on at 8 ,oo tonight