October lands the highest catches since the factory was rebuilt after the 1961 Volcano (1963-1965)

Just when everyone thought that July this year produce the highest catch landed by a single powerboat, two fishermen Brian Rogers and Cliff Swain smashed the record once again on Saturday the 28th Oct, landing 4,244lbs, and what's more they did it just outside of the harbour in front of the settlement.

They departed the harbour at 6:02am and returned at 5:40pm, and like all boats that fish at Tristan departed and returned with their fishing gear of 10 traps and 26 hoop nets (as there is only daylight fishing done at Tristan) From the nine boats that fished that day they landed 9.2mt between them.  The fishermen have been achieved excellent catches this year despite the weather not being that good.  Their goal now is to complete the quota before Christmas, if the weather allows them to get out.  All that is needed is approximately another 10 days, but even that is a lot to ask given the design of our harbour.

28% of this year's Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was caught in October, leaving only 28% more to complete Tristan's quota of 180mt.  Last season the highest caught in one month was in March and that was 20% of the TAC.  It is without any doubt the recovery of the Tristan Lobster fishery is a success story, and the fishermen are now seeing the benefits of a gear restriction, mesh size netting, and a minimum size limit on the lobster landed (70mm carapace length)

Sarah Glass

Vessel movements.

The MV Edinburgh arrived at Tristan on the 28th October for another fishing trip, with three bags of mail and passengers she will depart for Cape Town on the 8th January 07.
The Kelso chartered by a survey team arrived on the 28th Oct to assess the situation of the removal of the Oil Rig and departed on Sat the 4th November with mail and passengers.