NIFCA News

November 2018

“Seahouses Sunrise”

CEO Mike Hardy writes:- Welcome to the latest edition of NIFCA News. As I’m writing this introduction in late October we are blessed in Northumberland with unseasonably warm weather but also strong winds affecting sea-going activity and fishing. Overall, it’s been a busy year for the local industry and I would like to thank them for cooperating with our Officers when that is required, particularly dur-ing routine inspections of catches and landings and with particular thanks to the owners and skippers of those ves-sels who have assisted with the Au-thority lobster survey work in 2018. At the time of writing there is also con-tinuing great uncertainty regarding the outcome of Brexit and I am sure that everybody including our local fishing industry are continuing with “business as usual” but hopefully there can be a satisfactory outcome to the negotia-tions with the EU and certainty upon what lies ahead for everyone as soon as possible. Regarding the visit by Al Browne and Jon Green to Amble and Warkworth Rotary Club as reported on page 3, we are happy to arrange similar visits to organisations having an interest in the work of our Authority and please do

not hesitate to contact us if you would like us to come along and meet up with you. As always, you can find much more information about NIFCA and our work on the Authority website. With thanks to my colleagues for producing such an interesting variety of articles in this newsletter on a range of important matters, I hope that you enjoy reading this issue and I give best wishes on be-half of everybody associated with NIFCA for the remainder of 2018.

Mike Hardy

Chief Executive

Habitats Sampling Page 2

Rotary Club Page 3

Dales School Page 3

Heritage Open Days Page 3

Berried Hen Byelaw Page 4

A Day as an IFCO Page 5

Annual Report Page 5

Weird & Wonderful Page 6

Ghost Fishing Page 7

Bass Update Page 7

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

NATIONAL IFCA VISION:

“Inshore Fisheries and Conserva-tion Authorities will lead, champi-on and manage a sustainable marine environment and inshore fisheries, by successfully securing the right balance between social, environmental and economic benefits to ensure healthy seas, sustainable fisheries and a viable industry.”

NOVEMBER 2018 | ISSUE 20

News

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NIFCA

8 Ennerdale Rd, Blyth, NE24 4RT

Northumberland IFCA @N_IFCA

01670 797 676

nifca@nifca.gov.uk

www.nifca.gov.uk

Rocky & Muddy Habitat Sampling

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In August 2018, NIFCA began work-

ing on an interesting project with

Newcastle University, Natural Eng-

land, North Eastern IFCA and the

Marine Environmental Consultancy

“Benthic Solutions” on the Marine

Strategy Framework Directive

(MSFD). The project is funded by the

European Maritime and Fisheries

Fund (EMFF) and led by Newcastle

University. The project aims to de-

termine if existing indicators used

for assessing the health of reef and

mud habitats are effective in the

North East coastal marine area and

to potentially identify new regional

indicators for good health.

Officers have been out on NIFCA’s

Patrol vessel St Aidan and RIB Bravo

1 to carry out sampling on soft and

hard ground. Sampling took place in

10 ‘corridors’ along the North East

coast in both Northumberland and

North Eastern IFCA districts. To sam-

ple soft sediment areas, the vessel’s

benthic grab was deployed to scoop

sediment from the bottom. Samples

were taken from this to analyse a

number of factors including species

diversity and particle size. The con-

sultancy Benthic Solutions were also

on board with a Sediment Profile

Imagery (SPI) camera which was

plunged into the sediment to take

pictures to analyse particle sizes.

NIFCA officers have also been out on

Bravo 1 throughout August and Sep-

tember conducting drop down video

surveys over rocky reef ground. This

involved baited camera drops where

a video camera was baited and left

on the seabed for 2 hours, as well as

video tows, where a camera was

lowered to the sea bed and towed

for 100m to record ground type and

associated communities. The work

has been very interesting and enjoy-

able for officers who have developed

a number of survey skills which can

be put to good use in the future.

The study will run for two years, with

NIFCA repeating the surveys in 2019,

and the findings will be analysed by

Newcastle University and shared

with the IFCA.

Alex Aitken,

Environmental IFCO

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Amble and Warkworth Rotary Club

Mr. Alan Jones (Speaker Coordinator) contacted the NIFCA asking if the Author-

ity would be willing to attend one of their weekly meeting and give a talk on NIFCA.

On Tuesday 11th September 2018, Chief IFCO Al Browne and Deputy Chief IFCO (Environmental) Jon Green arranged to give a short talk on the Authority, includ-ing the structure, our assets (including St Aidan, Bravo 1), roles and duties.

The meeting was held at the Hermitage Arms, Public House, Warkworth. The Officers were given a warm reception by President, Tim Mason and all the mem-bers. After a lovely meal provided by the landlord (Scampi & chips), Chief IFCO Al Browne gave a Power Point presentation on NIFCA’s operational commitments and

duties, followed by Deputy Chief IFCO Jon Green, who gave an overview of the cur-rent surveys being carried out by the NIFCA, also showing all the Marine Pro-tected Area’s situated within the NIFCA district. The presentation lasted approxi-mately 45 minutes and was followed by several questions from the audience. All in all a very interesting night and good for officers to spread word on the good work of the NIFCA.

Al Browne, Chief IFCO

Dales School On 12th September Environmental IFCOs Natalie Wallace and Alex Aitken were invited to the Dales School in Blyth to give a talk during school assembly. Alex and Natalie showed photos and ex-

plained the work NIFCA carries out. The stars of the show (as always) were the lobsters and fish. During an interactive touch session at the end of assembly there was an opportunity for the chil-

dren to see the animals close up. The children were very interested in the ma-rine life and got very hands on!

Natalie Wallace Environmental IFCO

Heritage Open Days Every September events dedicated to English history and culture are organised across the country. This Heritage week-end NIFCA celebrated the heritage of fishing communities both in the north and south of the district hosting stalls at the Dove Marine Lab in Cullercoats and “The Window” on Lindisfarne.

At the Dove, CEO Mike Hardy and Depu-ty Chief (Environmental) Jon Green dis-played photos of historic fishing activity at Cullercoats and North Shields and also highlighted the history of fisheries management in the region through pho-tos of fisheries patrol vessels used by NIFCA and its predecessor Northumber-land Sea Fisheries Committee over the years. Nearly 300 people visited the NIFCA stall and had a wide range of questions on the current work of NIFCA and its predecessor body the Northum-berland Sea Fisheries Committee.

Meanwhile, Natural England organised an event on Lindisfarne to highlight the

history of fishing on the island, showing historical photos of children making lob-ster pots and herring boats. Environ-mental IFCOs Alex Aitken and Natalie Wallace supplied fisheries themed crafts including ‘build your own coble’, ‘rocking crab’ and ‘design a herring’. The day was a great success with interested members of the public discussing histor-ical and present day fishing activity while children made a number of crafts.

Natalie Wallace Environmental IFCO

Extended Berried Hen Byelaw

2019 Permits

DEFRA have confirmed the extension of NIFCA’s Emergency Berried Hen byelaw for the next 6 months from the end of September. The Emergen-cy Bylelaw was introduced on 29th September 2017, following Defra’s announcement of a new Statutory

Instrument they were introducing from 1st October 2017 to ban the fishing for and landing of egg-bearing female lobsters in England from 1st October 2017. To ensure fairness for all users of this fishery throughout the district, including recreational users and those fishing north of the border, NIFCA introduced the Emer-gency berried hen byelaw. The 6-month extension has been granted, pending its replacement in a perma-nent NIFCA byelaw.

Emma Cosimini Admin Officer

Want to Report Suspicious Activity?

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If you are aware of any suspicious activity taking place in the district in relation to any fisheries regulations including the NIFCA byelaws, we will be happy to hear from you. Please feel free to contact us:

• By phone on 01670 797 676 and ask to speak to an Officer

• By email at nifca@nifca.gov.uk

• Speak to an Officer on the coast

• Via our website at www.nifca.gov.uk

• Find us on Facebook at “Northumberland IFCA” or on Twitter @N_IFCA

Do you have your 2018 NIFCA Permit?

For many fishing activities which take place in the NIFCA district (from the English/Scottish border in the north to a line drawn through the centre of the river Tyne in the south) a permit is required. But for which fishing activities do you need one? Commercial Fishing:-

Trawling - if you plan to trawl in the 0-3nm (inner area) of the NIFCA dis-trict, you must have a valid trawl permit annually. These permits cost £50 each year. Dredging - to dredge in the NIFCA district, you require an annual dredge permit at the cost of £150. Shellfish (commercial) - commercially fishing for shellfish requires a licence from the MMO and a NIFCA permit at the cost of £180 per annum.

Recreational Fishing:- Shellfish (recreational) - when using pots, you require a permit and pot tags at the cost of £10 per year. Any-one wishing to take shellfish recrea-tionally can do so but only ONE sized lobster per day* without berries, a v-notch or mutilation and only 5 edible or velvet crabs, 20 whelks or 5 prawns in any one day. Recreational Sea Angling and cleeking - no NIFCA permit required, but as with all of the above activities, there must be full compliance with legal requirements including minimum permitted landing sizes, catch limits and the requirement in 2018 to re-turn any bass which are caught im-mediately to the sea.

Please visit the NIFCA website at www.nifca.gov.uk for more information about how to get a permit and check in News on any regulatory changes, and al-ways refer to the NIFCA byelaws when taking part in any fishing activity within the Northumberland IFCA district. If you are fishing South of the Tyne, you will need to refer to the North Eastern IFCA at Town Hall, Quay Road, Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, YO16 4LP, tel: 01482 393515 or visit their website at www.ne-ifca.gov.uk. * 2 a day from 1st January 2019

NIFCA’s 2019 permit application forms are now also available to download from the NIFCA website.

Visit www.nifca.gov.uk/permits/ to get your application and prepare for fishing in the Northumberland IFCA district in 2019.

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A day as an IFCO Its hard to believe that on 31st June, I entered my fourth year of working for NIFCA. Three years have flown by and I am pleased to say that I have settled into a fun team where I really do learn something new (and sometimes even bizarre) about the fisheries of North-umberland every day! Something I had not yet been able to do in my time with NIFCA was to get out on St Aidan for the day to see ex-actly what my colleagues do out there in the district. This summer though was the time to do it, and I’m pleased to say I picked a good (and calm) day. On 29th August, I headed out on the boat (which was skippered by IFCO Gra-ham) with IFCOs Balsdon, Willis and Cooke. We headed North and the sea re-mained calm as we enjoyed a peaceful trip up towards Amble. Cuppa in hand, it was great to learn about the vessel I’ve often Tweeted about, seeing in

action the equipment onboard St Aidan as the Officers ex-plained how it is used during surveys throughout the district. Educational though the trip on St Aidan was, without a doubt, the best bit of the day was getting out on the RIB! With IFCO Balsdon at the controls we pretty much flew along the coast. We checked pots for compliance with byelaws 4 and 5 and the warrant-ed Officers carried out boardings of some of the local vessels. This also gave me the chance to put a face to the names of some of the commercial fish-ers I’ve spoken to over the last 3 years, which was great. Heading back to St Aidan, we passed IFCOs Aitken and Weir with DCIFCO (Operational) Southerton on the Au-thority RIB carrying out some underwa-ter camera survey work for Newcastle University. This was another excellent chance to see the team in action. On

returning to the vessel, I was pleased to be welcomed with a nice cup of tea (thank you Darren!) as we prepared to head back to the Tyne. I had a fantastic day and have come back to the office with a better knowledge of what our Officers do day to day and an apprecia-tion of the work they achieve. Thanks for having me!

Emma Cosimini Admin Officer

Annual Report Our 2017-2018 Annual Report will be available by the end of November to view on the NIFCA website. Please visit www.nifca.gov.uk/downloads and check the

“Annual/Research Plans” section. Read about the achievements of the Authority during 2017-2018 and see how the team has changed during this time.

Are you interested to learn more about the work of NIFCA?

Come along to our next Quarterly Meeting on Monday 22nd January 2018 at the NIFCA office,

8 Ennerdale Road, Blyth, Northumberland, NE24 4RT at 1pm. All of our upcoming meetings are

listed on our website at: www.nifca.gov.uk/about/meeting-dates. All welcome!

The weird and wonderful creatures which can be caught in pots in Northumberland... We are all lucky to have on our doorsteps the opportunity to experience the bounty of fantastic fish which the North Sea has to offer when we head out and about in Northumberland. Lobster, crab and mackerel are some of delights you might have experienced in the district… but what do you really know about them? These are some weird and wonderful things to learn about the creatures which call the North Sea home:

European Lobster

The most commercially important spe-cies in the Northumberland pot fishery is the European lobster. With eight legs and 2 large claws a lobster’s prey defi-nitely has something to be scared of. Lobsters carry their eggs on the under-side of their tail and the eggs change colour from black to orange/brown as they develop. If you look closely at eggs which are almost ready to hatch you will see thousands of tiny eyes staring back at you. And not to be forgotten… it can regenerate its own limbs!

Weeverfish

Lurking in the shallows in summer months is one of the most dangerous fish in UK waters, the weeverfish (Lesser Weever Echiichthys vipera), this species has spines on its back which secrete venom into unsuspecting prey.

Wolffish

Wolffish can support their entire body weight using their large teeth and strong jaws. The wolffish also produces a natural antifreeze which allows them to survive in cold waters.

Common Starfish

Common starfish are a common by-catch of pot fishing, like lobsters and crab starfish can also regenerate limbs. A starfish can eject one of its two stom-achs out of its body to engulf and par-tially digest prey.

Atlantic Hagfish

The Atlantic hagfish is perhaps the strangest of them all. They have no jaws, bones and no vertebrae and can tie themselves in knots. A hagfish’s body is covered in glands which pro-duce a thick, sticky slime used to es-cape predators.

Velvet Crab

Velvet crabs are also known as the Dev-il crab or witch crab due to its red eyes and aggressive nature.

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Velvet Crab

Wolf-fish

European Lobster

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01670 797 676 nifca@nifca.gov.uk www.nifca.gov.uk 8 Ennerdale Rd, Blyth, NE24 4RT Northumberland IFCA @N_IFCA

Ghost Fishing in Northumberland As I’m sure you are aware, the lasting effects from the dreaded “beast from the east” are still being felt throughout our district. One of the most concern-ing for us has been the increase in damaged and discarded gear, “ghost fishing”. For those of you who don’t know your Caspers from your Venkmans, ghost fishing is the process of “non-used but still in the ocean” fishing gear, catching marine and bird life and killing them, then these dead creatures acting as bait and enticing

yet more animals into the nets or traps in a vicious circle of needless and avoidable destruction.

Here at NIFCA in the last quarter we removed and assisted in the removal of hundreds of damaged lobster pots from the districts beaches and shore-line as well as several drift nets from popular fishing locations. On the drift-nets especially, the number of animals that can be caught in them is stagger-ing and of a huge variety.

In some cases, the loss of fishing gear is an unavoidable part of our industry. However we strongly believe that all of our stakeholders would feel the benefit from a reduction in ghost fishing, so if your gear is lost at sea please make all efforts to recover it.

Nick Weir, IFCO, (operations)

Amendment to Regulation On Bass 2018 EUROPEAN REGULATIONS ON SEABASS FISHING FOR RECREATIONAL FISHERS HAVE NOW BEEN REVISED: -

Revised ICES advice has indicated a lower fishing

mortality from recreational fisheries and a higher

survival rate from the catch-and-release practice

than previously estimated. Therefore:

From Monday 1st October to Monday 31st December 2018 one “sized” seabass* may be retained per fisher per day.

*Seabass which is retained must be a minimum length of 42cm or above.

Seabass - Minimum Conservation Size 42cm (correct Nov 2018)