False science

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5375688.ece

Some "scientists" reckon that sea anglers pose a threat to North Sea fish stocks.

Now I did some calculations, based on the commercial discards alone.

To match the amount DISCARDE by trawlers, annually, just in Scotland, sea anglers would have to catch some 160lbs of fish, each,per annum! To match the catch of trawlers, anglers would have to catch over 600lbs of fish per annum.

Somebody, somewhere, has got their sums sadly wrong!

Interesting choice of archive photos ......I imagine all the fishermen are now as dead as the fish.

Where do they dream these thing up?.

I do not know!

Actually I got my sums wrong. When I went to the DEFRA website, I found the commercial catch stats for 2007, also the discard stats. Combining these together, one arrives at a figure of 860lbs per angler per year!

NOW!!!!!!!!! If one follows the reasoning of the "scientists", then anglers would need to decrease their putative annual catch by around 50%................ or reduce overall catches to 430lbs per year!

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As an occasional angler these days, with most of my catch returned to the Oggin, this last year's take home catch has been around 3lbs for the cat!.......... and I know that, compared with angling compatriots, I am more successful than most!

Comparing notes with others, I'd estimate that the TOTAL ANNUAL anglers' take-home catch, in the UK, to be between 4000 and 10,000 tons...........less than 10%the 100,000 tons of annually discarded fish, thrown away by Scottish Trawlers alone!

now they want all sea anglers to fill in forms on all their catches.

well thats not gonna work is it. Its a well known fact that sea anglers cant write./forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

Their idea of a pen is a type of reel!/forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif