Bill Pinney’s Jolene is a fast catamaran, one of the most powerful boats in the under 10 metre UK fleet. It is based on the Butley estuary, by Orford, and fishes over the shallow banks and channels off the Suffolk coast and towards the outer Thames estuary. Part of the catch goes to their restaurant, the Butley Orford Oysterage, and part is sold.

Click on pictures to go to photo documentary

In February the Jolene fishes for roker (thornback ray) and cod, using long-lines baited with Falkland squid. The lines are laid at various locations over and by sandbanks, at pre-chosen sites using local knowledge. The lines lie on the seabed, with just over 2m between hooks. The lines were laid between 9.30 and 10.15 and hauled between 11.30 and 13.30, so the soak times were very short.

Only three species were caught - thornback, cod and 3 bass. The retained thornback were between 50-90 cm, undersize fish being deftly flicked off the hook as the fish came out of the water and – having no swim bladder – can be expected to survive. The cod were between 50-75 cm, with no discards.

The haul was four boxes of cod, graded in two sizes, and eight of thornback, also graded between two sizes.

In 2007 Jolene took part in research on the Thames thornback fishery, when its ‘catch profile’ was documented. Long-lining by the Jolene catches fish between 40-90 cm compared to trawling, which catch thornbacks upwards of 10 cm.  A description of, and links to, this and all other research mentioned on this page can be found in the Chapter and Verse section of our Initial Opinion.

ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, responsible for producing international stock assessments) recently revised the status of thornback in the southern North Sea from ‘uncertain’ to ‘stable, possibly increasing’. ICES has also recommended a cessation of all fisheries targeting cod, in order to bring the stock up to minimum historic levels. We have examined the issues in some depth in our Opinion. The core of the current problem, we believe, is the catching and—often—discarding of small immature cod. The bulk of these losses are from various trawl fisheries, of which ICES single out small mesh trawling for langoustine (aka prawn, Nephrops). However, even long-lining where immature cod are abundant will catch immature cod, as we found in Yorkshire. This underlines the importance of assessing fisheries on a boat-by-boat basis.

Beyond fish, the best known adverse of long-lines is the killing of albatrosses in the south Atlantic. The seabirds grab the bait as it is cast, and are drowned, although this can easily be prevented. Jolene’s lines are shot in daylight, and take a few tens of metres to sink below the surface. On at least one occasion (see photo-documentary) kittiwakes nibbled and flew up with bait. From our observations, it seemed that the gape of these small gulls is too small to engulf the hook, but this may be an issue that requires further assessment. Other than that cautionary note, impact on wildlife and habitats  is likely to be minimal. Fuel consumption, due to the speed of the boat and distance covered, would have been somewhere between smaller less powerful boats and trawling.

We conclude, in our Initial Opinion, that–notwithstanding what we regard as very real concerns associated with both cod and thornback–the Jolene long-line fishery should be supported, because it demonstrates part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. That solution is–first–banning fishing methods in locations where this kills vast numbers of immature fish and–second–with the benefit of the now far greater number of survivors, build up the size and age profile of mature fish, which in turn will allow greater predictability of  the fisheries and larger catches. Because of the scientist’s concerns, and the variation in catches even among long-liners, this commendation is specific to the Jolene

Initial Opinion >