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A
Spanish fisherman appeared in court on December 11th, charged with
landing 140 tonnes of two threatened species of shark. That’s equivalent
to more than 14 times the annual UK quota. The legal limit of deep sea
sharks allowed to be landed by any ve ssel
is 0·1 tonnes (100kg) and the UK annual quota is 10,000kg or 10 tonnes.
Shark meat is popular in Spain, where the prepared cuts sell for 2˝ to 5
euros per kilogram. He is also charged with failing to keep a record in
the vessels log book from October 25th to December 14th. His employer,
Sealskill Ltd. of Penryn and the owner of the vessel, which is
registered in Falmouth, are also faced with the same five charges.
Governments have had the chance to safeguard our marine environment many
times in the past, but unless you are a diver, fisherman or biologist,
what goes on under the ocean waves does not hold a lot of sway with the
average voter, it does not merit the same immediate attention as rates
of income tax, the quality of education or the state of the NHS, and so
instead of saving essential marine research programmes they build
“Millennium Domes”. The marine environment is just not high enough on
the political agenda. The European Commission constantly ignore advice
from the best scientists in Europe, that the
 only
way to save North and Irish Sea cod is to ban fishing until there has
been substantial recovery. If our cod stocks go the way of those off
Newfoundland and disappear altogether (as happened there in the early
1990s, with the loss of 40,000 jobs) the authorities will no doubt be
spurred into action, but by then it is likely to be too late. After 15
years closure the Newfoundland cod fishery has barely recovered at all.
With
the “computer-game” like wizardly of fishing technology today, there is
nowhere for the fish to hide, and many species also tend to aggregate as
their numbers are fished down and this makes them easier to catch,
masking the depletion of stocks, and keeping our supermarket shelves
full.
I
received 7 reported sightings of Bottlenose Dolphins during January.
This was probably all the same pod, for I had 3 reports along the north
coast from St Agnes to St Ives on the 11th 12th and 13th, one report off
the Minack on the 19th, but they had moved back to the north coast by
the 22nd, and were seen off Porth Kidney Sands between Carbis Bay and
Lelant with 2 juveniles in a pod of at least 6, and on the same day they
were seen off Gwithian. By the end of the month they were up off
Treyarnon Bay, and I have a had more reports of them farther up the
coast early this month. One other report of unidentified dolphins was
probably the same pod, for they were in the right area on day they were
seen. Only 3 reported sightings of Common Dolphins, and as usual, of
much larger pods. A pod of 30 to 40 was seen South of The Eddystone on
Jan 1st and three fishing boats reported two huge pods south east of St
Anthony Head and off the Manacle on the 22nd, estimating about 500 in
each pod. There were 8 reports of Harbour Porpoises, mostly of one to 3
animals, but a large pod was seen in the bay off Port Gavern for a
couple of hours on the 14th. The other 7 reports were around West
Penwith. Grey seals were reported 7 times, all of single animals, one of
which was in the Isles of Scilly. Three whales were seen from a fishing
boat several miles south west of Eddystone Lighthouse on January 17th.
They were very large and thought to be Fin Wales. The first Basking
Shark reports have also been received, probably 2 reports of the same
shark, off the Lizard on the 22nd, and around the headland off the
lifeboat slip on the 25th.
It
has been a bad start to the year for Common Dolphins again, 35 carcasses
have been found washed up on Cornish shores during January, as well as 2
more seen floating at sea. 7 other unidentified dolphin carcasses have
also been found. 5 Harbour Porpoise and 8 Grey Seal carcasses were also
found. About 85% of these were found on the south coast.
Conservation Officer
Raymond Dennis
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