The state of fish at Dungie!?!?

[HOOKED]

Hi,

Have read a lot of recent reports of fish at dungeness being caught with sores/boils and other abnormalities all over them. Surely this can't be coincidence as down the coast the fish are fine. What do you think is causing it and if you caught such a fish, would you eat it?? Just wondering what you all think??

[fishypaul]

there have always been jokes and stories floating around about the fish at dungie,
i have fished the place on and off for 30 years and have heard them all,as soon as you mention where you are fishing you always get the same retorts from those who don't fish "i bet the fish you catch down there glow in the dark" is one of the more common ones,
i have caught more sickly looking fish in the more polluted north kent beaches than at dungie,
i admit the only bright green dab i have ever caught was at dungie,but one in 30 years aint bad
don't worry mate,its still one of the best venues around

[wakey16]

whilst studying biology we were i read articles which suggested a process called bioaccumulation. this involves chemicals being past up the food chain from mammal to mammal, the top of the food chain accumulates these chemicals (often known as carcinogens, which are cancer causing chemicals). examples include foxes which have been found to have very high levels of pesticide from farmers fields merely because they are top of their food chain and all of the minute creatures before them in the food chain had small amounts of chemicals which build up in the foxes cells to a dangerous level. the government found these chemicals were finding there way into humans so redesigned the chemicals that can be used in the late 1980's making it law to use chemicals that biodegraded before reaching us.
other examples of this include pollution in the sea being found it tuna.
if you link theory to the evidence it makes sense, lets just say i would not eat any fish from dungie. there may be no immediate effect but over years the accumulation of whatever is causing these abnormalies in the fish in this region will build up in human tissue.

[HOOKED]

Not too keen on fish to honest (I'm not taking the p1ss!!) but if I ever do catch a lovely cod I'm certainly not going to throw it back!! Was just wondering why we get these reports (some must be true) and nothing conclusive to explain them, surely it's not natural? Was just thinking it would be a shame to catch a fish of a lifetime, which is possible here, and then find it looking like it's got the plague. The dabs will be going back glow in the dark or not!! I'm not starting rumours or saying never fish there because I will, just interested by it all!

[coastguard]

I have fished Dungie off and on for about 40 years and I have never noticed anything unusual about the fish from that area. However about fifteen years ago a mate and myself fished a three night session at Selsey west beach and between us had fourteen cod all over 5lb. Half of the fish had large open sores on the flanks and of the ones that were taken for the pot, when filletted we found that the flesh was sopping wet like a sponge. These fish were obviously very sick, I contacted the editor of Panorama (I was working for him at the time) as this would make a good subject for him. And although he could find anecdotal evidence that all was not well, no commercial fishermen were prepared to come clean. I then contacted John Holden who had heard similar tales of this problem and that commercial fishermen were skinning cod at sea to hide the evidence. No other species caught during those nights were affected but the cod were the oldest fish and highest in the food chain.