Went to Mwnt
on a short walk and was amazed at the amount of debris on such a small beach.
The principle drama was provided by the scattered remains of a set of homemade prawn pots. The main strand-line was the usual tangle of seaweed and green, braided twine and trawl net, indispersed with countless plastic bottles.
We have seemingly invoked a God of Plastic, who has decreed that all our food and drink shall touch his lips.
There were some pretty useful lengths of pot-rope and salveable twine amongst it all.
I set to work.
What does the sheer quantity of discarded fishing material signify?
-That plastic is just too cheap. I can remember buying thin, twisted polyprop net rather than chunky braided stuff on account of the cost.
-That fishing effort has increased. This could be true both in the sheer amount of gear to be lost and mended, and the more extreme conditions and risks it is subjected to.
Also, if you have paid for a license, you maybe feel a need to maximize return by fishing longer.
The key choice a fisherman makes is how long to fish for.
I am dabbling. I would hate to lose my pots but it wouldn’t threaten my income. I will fish until it’s too late & I’ve lost them, or they wander around so often and catch so little, that I bring them in until the Spring.
Many ‘day-boats’ used to just fish the summer. From March, say, to September. The amount of gear and ground they worked did not offer a good enough return in the colder, wilder months.
The share fishermens’ dole was a safer bet. They would gladly pace out the long winters mending and making-do.
If it were still like that,I would have had competition for the pickings on Mwnt beach.
Now though, they fish more lobster pots, and winter prawn potting has become viable. Now there’s no time to make pots, and even if there was, not the number they now work.
Fishing is a more industrial, specialist activity. Time is money.
If its broke, sling it.
Well, it makes things easier for a small fisherman.
We don’t have to buy any rope or buoys.
The next trick would be to work out a way of rendering all that plastic down into a form we could mould our boats from!
.