Mackeral size? Ovefishing?
Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2013 10:33 am
When we used to cruise around the Firth of Clyde in the 1980/1990s, we could rely upon catching mackeral from our yacht to provide us breakfast, lunch or dinner whenever we wished in the Summer. Our logs from those days record amount and size.
We returned to the area this year, and although mackeral are still easy to catch, the vast majority are TINY - sardine or sprat sized, when compared with the 9 inch to a foot plus fish we used to catch. Nowadays it seems fish that size are VERY few and far between.
I guess this is a proof that the stock of what was once seen as a "too cheap to keep" fish now being commenrcially overfished, as reported in the press - presumably we're catching the lucky fish who have passed through the nets as being too small for the mesh.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... is-problem
We returned to the area this year, and although mackeral are still easy to catch, the vast majority are TINY - sardine or sprat sized, when compared with the 9 inch to a foot plus fish we used to catch. Nowadays it seems fish that size are VERY few and far between.
I guess this is a proof that the stock of what was once seen as a "too cheap to keep" fish now being commenrcially overfished, as reported in the press - presumably we're catching the lucky fish who have passed through the nets as being too small for the mesh.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... is-problem