Fishing Information

A I S

Automatic identification system is an system intended to help ships avoid collisions as well as assisting port authorities to better control of sea traffic. All ships over 299 grt to carry an AIS transponder on board,the AIS works off GPS and gives the vessels position speed and coarse at all times. With this information for safety reasons we fitted this system to nicks boats,as they work in the busiest shipping lanes in the world the English channel.This ensures that all shipping can identify nicks boats as fishing boats, when the boats are fishing they are connected to the sea bed by the string of pots they haul and shoot away and have restricted movability. This aid helps with the safety of the crews and the boats of collision. This is a valuable tool in poor visibility and fog Weather.

The Weather

The weather for all fishing boats is an important factor when taking a boat to sea importantly the wind and direction.Wind strengths are measured on the Beaufort scale.There's a few ways to get the wind forecast,Shipping forecast is issued four times a day 2300,0500,1100,1700,which covers the next 24 hours.The waters around the British isles are divided into 31 sea areas. This forecast contains details of gale warnings in force a general synopsis and sea area forecasts containing forecast wind direction and force,weather and visibility. Nick's boats fish in the areas of German Bight, Portland and Plymouth. The Met Office.

We also use a site xc weather which gives the skippers uptodate forecast on an hourly bases for the present and for the next four days,which is useful tool to have when planning to go to sea. To navigate this site click on any arrows and you will see the wind strengths and directions,Nicks boats fish near the wind station of channel light vessel and Alderney also in the north sea.We also use the local coast guards for the latest forecast which is manned 24/7.As in any vessels that go to sea these forecast are very important for any skipper. Most of the bigger fishing vessel will fish in and up to a gale and sometimes more...

Tides and moon phases

Tides are periodic rises and falls of large bodies of water. Tides are caused by the gravitation interaction between the earth and the moon,sun.The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side,since the earth is rotating while this is happening,two tides occur each day. The moon orbits the earth in the same direction the earth rotates on its axis,so it takes slightly more than a day-about 24 hours 50 minutes-for the moon to return to the same in the sky. During this time it passed overhead once underfoot once. So in many places the period of strongest tidal forcing is 12 hours 25 minutes http://www.die.net/moon

The tides around the British Isles are different where you fish some of are strongest tides occur in the English Channel and around the Channel islands. There are spring and neap tides, spring are the strongest and the neap tide are the weakest. Our boats fish North of Alderney with this the boats can only work neap tides, which happen twice a month, which it gives them about 18 to 20 days to fish. This is sustainable way to conserve stocks of crab and lobsters.