Review - Dynamite Marine Halibut Boilie Range

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MarkTheSpark

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As I understand it, the pellet range gets its name because the original was a pellet used to feed farmed halibut. It is, unless anyone can inform me otherwise, made from fishmeal and fish oil.

This raises a small but serious ethical question; at a time when the oceans are so over-fished, should coarse anglers be endorsing the processing of fishmeal from endangered wild fish populations; yes, I agree that the amount of pellets used as bait is a drop in the ocean, if you'll forgive the pun, but there is a question of principle.

Maybe we should 'offset' our use by vowing not to buy farmed or sea fish....?

Interesting article about this serious problem HERE
 
Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)

Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)

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I have found it very difficult to find any info about various bait concernsI have.

Personally I use a lot of fishmeal-based products at the moment but no-one seems prepared to answer questions of sustainability. It's a hot potato alright!

Also I agree with Gary and Mark, these are great products...
 
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Paul (Brummie) Williams

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But which one is great.......shelf or frozen? /forum/smilies/devil_smiley.gif
 
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MarkTheSpark

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****y. Did you read the linked article posted above? Makes a few very interesting points
 
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Bryan Baron 2

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Intresting read mark. The problem is what is the answer. people want fish. people want o make money. nobody is just going to stock the sea's for somebody else to come along and reap the rewards. It's one of them catch 22 situations.
 
Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)

Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)

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Hi Mark,

Yes, I did read the piece and very worrying it is too.

Especially as I am a big fan of fishmeal-based products. Yesterday aftenoon I usedthree bags of 4mm Marine Halibutto catch a dozen double figure carp and a handful of bream. A greattrip but how many kg of sea fish did I use in the process?

There has to be a sustainable solution for high-protein baits. Slugs, snails and other invertabrates could be farmed to produce similarly attractive and nourishing baits maybe? You might have guessed I'm no scientist /forum/smilies/confused_smiley.gif

As Bryan says, it is a Catch 22 for an angler, we love fish, we love catching fish and yet the demand for fishmealis threatening fish-stocks. It's a hot potato alright...
 
Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)

Dicky (Angling Trust PAC)

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Paul,

I use the glug in groundbait mixesand with dampened pellets for method work, andI usethe pop-ups for chum mixer substitutes when floater fishing so the shelf/ frozen boilie aspect doesn't really come into my fishing...

perhaps I should have qualified that a bit /forum/smilies/i_dont_know_smiley.gif
 
G

Gary Knowles

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Paul - to be honest I havent noticed a difference. I'm quite happy with glugged shelf lifes these days.
 
W

Wolfman Woody

Guest
In terms of allthe tonnes of pellets used in the fisheries industries, I honestly don't think that angling is going to have that much of an impact.

I have a couple of issues anyway with the report that Mark points to. One quote, " How many pounds of wild fish does it take to get one pound of farmed fish? About five pounds of small fish produce one pound of dry fishmeal or fish oil, which in turn makes up about 40 percent of the feed for marine finfish. The fish, on average, gain one pound for every two pounds of pellets that they eat, until they reach market size and become food for humans. Thus, every two to six pounds of fish caught in the wild yield one pound of fish raised in a cage."

First of all there appears to be something wrong with their math. 5 pounds of fish produce 1 pound of dry meal and 2 lbs of dry pellet produce one pound of fish weight. without taking into account the fact that the fish component is only 40% of the pellet that to me means 10lbs of fish produce one pound of fish yet the quotation says only 2-6 pounds of fish. Am I missing something?

Edit - yes I am, but it's a complicated formula.

Also, if these farm fish were in the wild environment surely they would be eating much of this small fish themselves anyway. That's what goes on, isn't it? For example how many pounds of herring or pilchard does it take to produce one pound of tuna? Should we stop buying John West's tuna?

Well, whatever the answers to the above, consider this, it says it takes 5 lbs of wet fish to produce 1 pound of dry fish meal. Not a bad exchange rate seeing as about 85% of a fish's body is water anyway, just like humans. Dry us out and there would hardly be a stone or so in dry human meal.

Ahhhhh! Soylent Green for supper again.
 
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MarkTheSpark

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Don't ask me to compute it all, Jeff - I didn't turn away from maths and on to writing for no reason!

As I said, I just wanted people to consider this problem. If, like me, you'd fished in the sea for the last 30 years you'd know how much damage has been caused. Get a back issue of Sea Angler from the 1980s then one from this year and see what I mean.

I don't think we'll save the seas by not fishing with fishmeal pellets, but we should be aware of where they came from and the damage being done by industrial trawling - more than half the puffins in the north east have died of starvation in the last ten years because of overfishing sandeel in this way.
 
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Wolfman Woody

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I'm not saying you/they're not right to a point - the point about pointing it out to us.

Just thinking, if we didn't buy farmed salmon, then wild salmon (a much superior tasting fish anyway) would cost as much as wago beef meaning we stop eating salmon completely unless you're name is Richard Branson or Granville Marsdin. Then what do we eat?

Something else in the food chain, mackerel maybe. Hasn't there been a problem with diminishing mackerel stocks for years? Herring, thought they were played out years ago? Whitebait, but hang on, isn't this the stuff they're catching and turning into pellets and feeding to the salmon we used to buy?

In all honesty, I do not know the answer or even part of it except that we have too many mouths to feed and not enough food to satisfy them. GO ON A DIET! Ban Deanos from the chippie. Find some way of reducing the UK population by 6-10 million.

Or, develop Soylent Green - quickly.
 
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Wolfman Woody

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Incidentally, I'm coming to the end of my Halibut boilies that Grasping Granville gave me 3 years ago, was it?

.

Unless he comes up with another free bag for me quick I'll be on the lookout for these in the shops. 18 and 26mm chaps (hint, hint Knowlesy if you know the man at Dynamote). The last ones worked quite well and with the quantities I use, I'll hardly be a threat to the oceans.
 
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Gary Knowles

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Pellets are only about £3 for hundred yer tight bugger....
 
P

Phil Hackett The common Boastful Expert :-)

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It’s interesting to note, reading through the references from Mark’s link, that no tests were done to see how well, or poorly, farmed predatory fish did on animal protein.

The focus of all the tests were on vegetable derivatives.
 
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Wayne Beale

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A while back, there was a bit on 'Country file' outlining the impact of fishmeal production on the environment, not just for fishing but for agricultural use too. It stated that a vast majority of fishmeal products came from Sandeels which are the staple diet of a huge array of other fish species and birds alike. Everythingis suffering because of depleted Sandeel stocks and the angler is contributing, like it or not.
 
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