THE RAY BOX & SUSTAINABLE FISHING in the Bristol Channel
Sparkling Star arriving in Ilfracombe harbour to unload her catch
So what is it about Bristol Channel Ray? If ray banned
because it is being overfished does it deserve special consideration? I’m not going to pretend to be an expert, but
I do know many in the North Devon fishing industry have worked hard to have Bristol
Channel ray credited as a sustainable fishery.
Ray is traditionally the biggest ‘money fish’ for North Devon trawlermen and makes up around 70% of the whitefish landings from the Bristol Channel. “Ray thrive on banky ground.’ Out in the channel, 70 foot high banks of sand and gravel are constantly on the move due to the amount of tide running and as Paul added “there’s plenty of natural conservation areas, where it is impossible to trawl, because of the rocks and the lie of the sea bed.”
‘The ray box’ was mentioned proudly by all the trawlermen, I spoke to, yet although it’s been in place since 2005, Mark Brindle, our cameraman, found nothing online, except a mention in a Boat Stories blog! This maybe because as Paul told us, “it’s a gentleman’s agreement. The trawlermen held a meeting. They decided to close off an area of about 300 square kilometres north of Lundy, a banky, rough piece of ground, for six months of the year to let the ray rest and breed and do its business. Others call it a no take zone, a conservation area – we call it a ray box.” The North Devon Fishermen’s Association (the NFDA) held meetings with Belgian and Welsh trawlers and got all the fishermen to agree to it voluntarily. Since then the group led by John Butterwith and Tony Rutherford from Bideford fisheries have been campaigning to have the box officially recognised. Paul told us they’d introduced big rock hopper discs with bigger foot ropes which allow the smaller fish to pass underneath and a minimum landing size. Other measures include changing the shape and size of the mesh and research on survivability of smaller fish thrown back. The NDFA is also hoping to be the first association to have all its boats accredited by Seafish’s ‘responsible fishing scheme’ which works a bit like an organic status, checking fishing methods and boat safety. When I asked Paul what the fishermen were trying to do to make the ray fishery sustainable he corrected me ‘it is a sustainable fishery – it’s the recognition that’s the problem.’
This sentiment was echoed by John Butterwith, chief executive of the NFDA when I spoke to him in early April. “I’ve collated the ray landing data, collected from Bideford fisheries, for the last seven years,” he said, “we’ve got the information to show that the ray stocks in the Bristol Channel are holding up consistently. What do we do to open the door – to get the media interested –before it’s too late for the North Devon fishermen?” “At the moment,” John continued, “the price for fish on the quota we’re allowed, after the costs of running the boat are taken off, doesn’t add up to pay the crews a decent wage.” The goal is simple – get Bristol Channel ray recognised as a sustainable fishery and get our ray back on the supermarket shelves. Seafish’s ‘responsible sourcing guide to ray and skates’ updated as recently as September 2013 states there are no “are no national or EU measures to protect juvenile skates” and does not mention this voluntary initiative from the fishermen. But John has been to meeting after meeting working with Seafish, conservation organisations like the Shark Trust and the Marine Conservation Society and supermarkets like Morrisons and back in April, he was cautiously optimistic.
One of the reasons the NDFA is finding doors slow to open is that the many different ray and skate species are all called ‘skate’ by fishmongers and chefs - because the public recognise the traditional recipe ‘skate wings in butter’. Once skinned and on the fishmongers slab it is impossible to tell the different species apart. Some skate species, particularly, the large bodied, slow growing ones such as white and (the unfortunately named) common skate are critically endangered. They can take five to ten years to mature and if too many are caught before they breed, they have no chance of maintaining their population. When I began Boat Stories, as someone who loves fish but wants to be sure that any fish I eat is caught sustainably, rays and skates were definitely off my menu. The publican of the award winning Grove Inn in Kings Nympton, told me “Lundy skate, done simply in butter used to be one of our biggest sellers – but after Hugh’s fish fight we took it off the menu.”
Scott Wharton owner and founder of S&P trawlers put me right, “we don’t get common and white skate in the Bristol channel” he said “so the species they’re most worried about isn’t an issue here.” Dick Talbot a veteran Bideford based fishermen, who first charted many of the ray grounds, told me that the species most commonly caught in the channel are the smaller, faster growing thornback, spotted, cuckoo, small-eyed and the medium sized blonde rays. He remembers a time when ‘each fisherman had their own patch, small pieces of ground you would look after like a farmer and only those brave enough to tackle the channel with its six metre tides and constantly shifting sands fished in the bay.” Over the years he saw the ray fishery, “hit hard by large foreign vessels raking the ground” and pushed for the ray box (which is open in the summer months to allow it to be fished for squid.) Locals from Appledore told me how they used to be able to buy ‘huge ray’ straight from the boats. Yet, according to the Shark Trust populations of spotted and cuckoo ray remain healthy. And the latest figures show that the numbers of some of the skate found in the Bristol Channel such as the thornback ray, do appear to be increasing.
But records separating the different species didn’t begin until 2009. And the onus is on the fishermen and processors to correctly identify the species. I noted a ray identification chart on the wall in the fish room at Bideford Fisheries and the workers I spoke to seemed to know their fish. Boat Stories also spoke to several people working in and promoting marine conservation to discover their thinking on the Bristol Channel ray fishery. Most people knew very little about it, and some were instinctively against trawling for ray. Those who did know the local story applauded the efforts of the local fishermen and several suggested that the small fishing fleet operating out of North Devon wasn’t an issue. Gus Carslake from Seafish confirmed that “their problem is one of identification and public perception - informing the public that some ray, caught in some areas, are perfectly OK to eat.” Quotas are one tool used in an attempt to protect fish populations against overfishing. But total quotas are fixed on a national or European basis, and it can be difficult to adjust them to smaller local areas and small mixed fisheries.
Fish as Gus Carslake cautioned are wild species with good years and bad years and it takes time for the records to filter through. Keeping track of fish stocks is ‘an unexact science’ – and so to protect our fish stocks the precautionary principle – that it is better to be over cautious, rather than risk losing populations or species prevails. The conservationist in me totally accepts and understands this principal. But now I’ve worked with local fishermen – they are no longer just statistics (year on year more boats are leaving fishing) but real people with real lives. Scott Wharton gave me a mantra which many people echoed ‘local fishing grounds managed by local fishermen” as Paul says on film “if you want a future in this business, you’ve got to look after it.” Earlier this month the EC released a statement outlining a change in direction for the Common Fisheries Policy, encouraging more local decision making ‘‘Today, we want those who know the local challenges and needs best to have a say on fisheries management.’
Conservationists and fishermen are not natural bedfellows and tend not to trust each other. But in North Devon they have shown they can work together. Building on from Lundy as the UK’s first no take zone and the first marine protected area, fishing representatives coordinated by North Devon Biosphere worked together to agree and suggest potential Marine Protected Areas for this area and received recognition from national government for doing so. Against this backdrop of cooperation the ray ban was ‘another whammy from left field’ ‘the straw which finally broke the camel’s back’ according to Dan the Fishman. To answer John Butterwith’s question ‘what does it take to open doors before it is too late’ maybe the answer is a sudden ban which sends shockwaves through the industry, makes the public aware of how precarious things are for our fishermen and results in action.
Meanwhile the fishermen I spoke to mostly just want to fish and like everyone take well earned days off to spend with their families. In conservation circles I often hear that the fishing lobby has a strong voice. I can vouch for the fact that the working fishermen I spoke to, like Paul, are rarely heard. He’s simply spending longer and longer hours out at sea – and out of signal, trying to make a living.
Ray is traditionally the biggest ‘money fish’ for North Devon trawlermen and makes up around 70% of the whitefish landings from the Bristol Channel. “Ray thrive on banky ground.’ Out in the channel, 70 foot high banks of sand and gravel are constantly on the move due to the amount of tide running and as Paul added “there’s plenty of natural conservation areas, where it is impossible to trawl, because of the rocks and the lie of the sea bed.”
‘The ray box’ was mentioned proudly by all the trawlermen, I spoke to, yet although it’s been in place since 2005, Mark Brindle, our cameraman, found nothing online, except a mention in a Boat Stories blog! This maybe because as Paul told us, “it’s a gentleman’s agreement. The trawlermen held a meeting. They decided to close off an area of about 300 square kilometres north of Lundy, a banky, rough piece of ground, for six months of the year to let the ray rest and breed and do its business. Others call it a no take zone, a conservation area – we call it a ray box.” The North Devon Fishermen’s Association (the NFDA) held meetings with Belgian and Welsh trawlers and got all the fishermen to agree to it voluntarily. Since then the group led by John Butterwith and Tony Rutherford from Bideford fisheries have been campaigning to have the box officially recognised. Paul told us they’d introduced big rock hopper discs with bigger foot ropes which allow the smaller fish to pass underneath and a minimum landing size. Other measures include changing the shape and size of the mesh and research on survivability of smaller fish thrown back. The NDFA is also hoping to be the first association to have all its boats accredited by Seafish’s ‘responsible fishing scheme’ which works a bit like an organic status, checking fishing methods and boat safety. When I asked Paul what the fishermen were trying to do to make the ray fishery sustainable he corrected me ‘it is a sustainable fishery – it’s the recognition that’s the problem.’
This sentiment was echoed by John Butterwith, chief executive of the NFDA when I spoke to him in early April. “I’ve collated the ray landing data, collected from Bideford fisheries, for the last seven years,” he said, “we’ve got the information to show that the ray stocks in the Bristol Channel are holding up consistently. What do we do to open the door – to get the media interested –before it’s too late for the North Devon fishermen?” “At the moment,” John continued, “the price for fish on the quota we’re allowed, after the costs of running the boat are taken off, doesn’t add up to pay the crews a decent wage.” The goal is simple – get Bristol Channel ray recognised as a sustainable fishery and get our ray back on the supermarket shelves. Seafish’s ‘responsible sourcing guide to ray and skates’ updated as recently as September 2013 states there are no “are no national or EU measures to protect juvenile skates” and does not mention this voluntary initiative from the fishermen. But John has been to meeting after meeting working with Seafish, conservation organisations like the Shark Trust and the Marine Conservation Society and supermarkets like Morrisons and back in April, he was cautiously optimistic.
One of the reasons the NDFA is finding doors slow to open is that the many different ray and skate species are all called ‘skate’ by fishmongers and chefs - because the public recognise the traditional recipe ‘skate wings in butter’. Once skinned and on the fishmongers slab it is impossible to tell the different species apart. Some skate species, particularly, the large bodied, slow growing ones such as white and (the unfortunately named) common skate are critically endangered. They can take five to ten years to mature and if too many are caught before they breed, they have no chance of maintaining their population. When I began Boat Stories, as someone who loves fish but wants to be sure that any fish I eat is caught sustainably, rays and skates were definitely off my menu. The publican of the award winning Grove Inn in Kings Nympton, told me “Lundy skate, done simply in butter used to be one of our biggest sellers – but after Hugh’s fish fight we took it off the menu.”
Scott Wharton owner and founder of S&P trawlers put me right, “we don’t get common and white skate in the Bristol channel” he said “so the species they’re most worried about isn’t an issue here.” Dick Talbot a veteran Bideford based fishermen, who first charted many of the ray grounds, told me that the species most commonly caught in the channel are the smaller, faster growing thornback, spotted, cuckoo, small-eyed and the medium sized blonde rays. He remembers a time when ‘each fisherman had their own patch, small pieces of ground you would look after like a farmer and only those brave enough to tackle the channel with its six metre tides and constantly shifting sands fished in the bay.” Over the years he saw the ray fishery, “hit hard by large foreign vessels raking the ground” and pushed for the ray box (which is open in the summer months to allow it to be fished for squid.) Locals from Appledore told me how they used to be able to buy ‘huge ray’ straight from the boats. Yet, according to the Shark Trust populations of spotted and cuckoo ray remain healthy. And the latest figures show that the numbers of some of the skate found in the Bristol Channel such as the thornback ray, do appear to be increasing.
But records separating the different species didn’t begin until 2009. And the onus is on the fishermen and processors to correctly identify the species. I noted a ray identification chart on the wall in the fish room at Bideford Fisheries and the workers I spoke to seemed to know their fish. Boat Stories also spoke to several people working in and promoting marine conservation to discover their thinking on the Bristol Channel ray fishery. Most people knew very little about it, and some were instinctively against trawling for ray. Those who did know the local story applauded the efforts of the local fishermen and several suggested that the small fishing fleet operating out of North Devon wasn’t an issue. Gus Carslake from Seafish confirmed that “their problem is one of identification and public perception - informing the public that some ray, caught in some areas, are perfectly OK to eat.” Quotas are one tool used in an attempt to protect fish populations against overfishing. But total quotas are fixed on a national or European basis, and it can be difficult to adjust them to smaller local areas and small mixed fisheries.
Fish as Gus Carslake cautioned are wild species with good years and bad years and it takes time for the records to filter through. Keeping track of fish stocks is ‘an unexact science’ – and so to protect our fish stocks the precautionary principle – that it is better to be over cautious, rather than risk losing populations or species prevails. The conservationist in me totally accepts and understands this principal. But now I’ve worked with local fishermen – they are no longer just statistics (year on year more boats are leaving fishing) but real people with real lives. Scott Wharton gave me a mantra which many people echoed ‘local fishing grounds managed by local fishermen” as Paul says on film “if you want a future in this business, you’ve got to look after it.” Earlier this month the EC released a statement outlining a change in direction for the Common Fisheries Policy, encouraging more local decision making ‘‘Today, we want those who know the local challenges and needs best to have a say on fisheries management.’
Conservationists and fishermen are not natural bedfellows and tend not to trust each other. But in North Devon they have shown they can work together. Building on from Lundy as the UK’s first no take zone and the first marine protected area, fishing representatives coordinated by North Devon Biosphere worked together to agree and suggest potential Marine Protected Areas for this area and received recognition from national government for doing so. Against this backdrop of cooperation the ray ban was ‘another whammy from left field’ ‘the straw which finally broke the camel’s back’ according to Dan the Fishman. To answer John Butterwith’s question ‘what does it take to open doors before it is too late’ maybe the answer is a sudden ban which sends shockwaves through the industry, makes the public aware of how precarious things are for our fishermen and results in action.
Meanwhile the fishermen I spoke to mostly just want to fish and like everyone take well earned days off to spend with their families. In conservation circles I often hear that the fishing lobby has a strong voice. I can vouch for the fact that the working fishermen I spoke to, like Paul, are rarely heard. He’s simply spending longer and longer hours out at sea – and out of signal, trying to make a living.
skate & ray identification chart at Bideford fisheries
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Sparking Star landing ray, under ice to Bideford fisheries (via lorry) in Ilfracombe
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