Sean Gibbs, skipper of trawler Barentzee, started using bigger nets 18 months ago and says he will not go back to using the smaller 130ml mesh nets again. He find bigger mesh nets more sustainable. He fishes for dover sole, plaice, lemon sole, monkfish, turbot and brill — all found on the seabed.
It is told that he is one of 10 Brixham boats who have agreed to take part in a series of sea trials run by scientists from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), the scientific research organisation dedicated to conserving and enhancing the aquatic environment. Cefas says it is widely accepted that as much as 50 per cent of a catch is juvenile fish which has to be thrown back overboard because they are too small to sell or EU legislation won’t allow them to be caught.
According to Sean bigger mesh nets reduced the stuff you can’t keep anyway. All that was escaping through the bigger mesh and it is a simple solution and it also reduces our fuel bills and CO2 emissions — our carbon footprint. A Cefas spokesman said: “If the results are good and widely adopted among the beam trawlers of Devon and, hopefully, much further afield, this could prove a significant breakthrough in attempts to preserve fish stocks.
