NN114 Halcyon 6 inch 152mm gill nets for sole, cod & bass, Graham Doswell, Eastbourne Pisces-rfr

When sourcing fish to users from specified boats, and supply on the day of capture, we need to know how variable the catches may be. For methods like gill netting, the state of the tide adds to other variables affecting catches. Spring tides, and fast currents, tend to knock down the nets (set along the tidal current), reducing catching power. Graham and Dave have been providing excellent fish to the Pisces London restaurants pilot. But on the 3rd December 2013, it was close to the spring tide maximum in Normans Bay, (off Eastbourne, East Sussex) leading to a 'pretty rubbish day', with catches less than a third of average -- bad news for Graham and Dave, but invaluable information for Pisces. They were operating large mesh nets—2 fleets of 4 3/4 inch 121 mm and three fleets of 6 inch 152 mm gill nets—with a total length ca 2,600 yards 2,380m. Their catch was predominantly of (valuable) (Dover) soles, cod, (sea) bass (also valuable) along with brown crab, lesser spotted dogfish, plaice, pouting (bib), lemon sole, thornback ray (roker) and individuals of other marketable species. Discards were limited to a handful of small thornback ray, at least some of which were alive. The nets also held variable amounts of seaweed (mainly knotted wrack (Ascophylum nodosum), Irish moss/carragheen (Chondrus crispus) and hornwrack (actually a bryozoan colonial animal colonial Flustra foliacea) but their lack of attachment to stones, and a run of strong winds, meant that this was consistent with debris drifting into the nets rather than damage caused by them. There were no captures of seabirds or cetaceans, all of which was consistent with many other trips photographed, but without video, on board the Halcyon.