Steve Eason, who owns a fishing boat, says that the mackerel fishery is fine, the same as all other fish stocks and the public is led to believe that fish stocks are being depleted when they are not (Letters, January 10).
If today he stood on the cliffs, mackerel shoal spotting like I used to do as a boy in the 1960s, he would be wasting his time trying to see a shoal of any significance, if he could see one at all.
I caught mackerel on rod and line at the marina last year.
The mackerel have not disappeared but fishing over the last few decades has severely depleted their numbers and their general size as fish catching technology has improved.
Mr Eason says he comes from a long line of fishermen so I suggest he asks some of the "old fishermen" how many mackerel used to be seen in the 1960's and earlier, compared to today. Most fishermen have always taken as much from the sea as they can. This situation will never change on a voluntary basis. There are numerous examples of fisheries being over fished.
Mr Eason appears to be true to type. He says that in the six years he has been fishing, the fishing is getting better every year. Presumably then, there is a good future in small boat fishing. If he is getting more fish for the same amount of work it follows some conservation measures are working.
However, he also says that fishing will get worse if the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs keeps putting silly quotas on fisherman and that quotas are killing the fishing industry. If we got rid of quotas then trawlers with advanced fish finding plus net control equipment and large netting boats would be able fish day and night, all year around. Local inshore boats would probably be left "scraps" after a few seasons.
Perhaps the five or six full-time fishing boats currently based at the marina are all that a local sustainable fishery can sensibly support.
Mr Eason's long term future fishing from a small boat and hopefully his children's future in the fishing industry lies with increasing the fish stocks by conservation.
All I want to do is to continue to catch sea fish on rod and line like my dad did and for my son to be able to do the same when he gets older.
- J Holmes, Coombe Rise, Saltdean
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