Who is doing what maintenance today?

[Shayne]

No maintenance at all today as I was offered Government assistance with my business which set alarm bells ringing so spent the day gathering all the info i could find from whatever source i could think of and low and behold i am being shut down . The Gov has accepted a backhander to the tune of 5 million from the windfarm wallys and so what typically follows are lots of unquestionable scientific data that the fishing grounds used for centuries don't actually exist any more and only a windfarm might allow the fish to recover . Game over .

 

[Paddler Ed]

^That's not good Shayne; I'm probably on the greener end of the spectrum, and one reason for that is there is the potential for the land/water to be shared by agriculture/aquaculture and the solar panel or wind farm... mining on the other hand buggers it up once and for all...

Good news for me today is that the car passed it's annual RWC (NSW MOTish) - basically do the lights work, the brakes stop the vehicle, the handbrake hold it and is the steering wheel connected to the front end... Mine needs a bit of patching on the exhaust as it's bit rusty and holey in places, which is an ongoing work from last year...this year I might finish it completely - but it does make a good noise now...

 

[Shayne]

Don't believe the sales patter about windfarms Ed the proven scientific data is arrived at by "scientists" deliberately not catching anything in the proposed area prior to installation . It is generally accepted by commercial fishermen that fishing withing 6 miles of a windfarm is pointless . My new radiator and UJ isn't coming today first time ever my Roughtrax order didn't make next day delivery , my own fault i dithered all day over whether or not to try a racing rad from a Hilux Surf

 

[Paddler Ed]

Didn't know that... it's like my Feral Pig research here in Australia; what the science people tell you is one thing, what the guys behind the butt of the rifle tell you is another and that normally contradicts the sciencey people - saw this at a seminar I was at last week where there was someone saying that the the pigs don't go bait shy, and another person (professional pest controller) standing there saying he's seen a sow push her sucklers away from the poisoned feed bait, having eaten the "clean" feed without a problem.

My thoughts were just common-sense thunking rather than sciencey mumbo-jumbo; the more time I spend around academics the more I think that some live in their own little world...

 

[Paddler Ed]

Why is the fishing around the windfarm pointless? Just no fish or the wrong size/type? Is it from the pylons resonating, or does no one know why? I'd have thought it would have been like bridge stanchions, and therefore loads around the pylons... but if there is something that will push them away I suspect it will be unobservable to humans.

 

[Shayne]

In my local area scientists done a bit of testing on a different species to what i fish last year and as a result proposed a ban on fishing the "endangered species" which would more or less bankrupt about 200 men , a livid argument ensued and was only settled by a fishermen offering a bet , he said chose an area and if i can't catch half a ton in one hour then we will accept the ban . He did and so the scientists continue to study banning and allowing in a misinformed helter skelter which is costing men their livelihood .

No idea why windfarms deter them i think its likely they do attract swimmers but grounded shellfish (which is my concern) tend to avoid them . Ask a scientist - if you can find one that won't lie through his teeth to save the fish !

 

[stumog]

the concrete they form the pillers with produces way more co2 then it would ever save having your electric made buy coal or gas any way.
just to rub salt in the wounds

 

[MarkW]

Which endangered species? TBH if they're endangered the fishermen would be operating illegally if they catch them anyway

Windfarms don't deter fish at all and there is no ban on fishing within a windfarm once completed within the UK, howvere the is an advisory 50m exclusion around each turbine from the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations once the windfarm is comissioned. During construction there is a legal 500m exclusion zone and an advisory 1000m exclusion for the cable laying activities for Safety reasons.

Btw 17 years as a Environment Professional within the Construction Industry and confirmed petol head

 

[Paddler Ed]

Thanks for the explanation Shayne; I know what you mean about the challenges... have a look at the war on terriers over here; a lot of people couldn't understand why Johnny Depp smuggling his 2 little toilet brushes on legs in was such a big issue... people who might be impacted by it did though...

On the flip side, I can understand the scientists point about the sustainability of fishing (for fish rather than shellfish) as the life stage they are picked up at can alter the survival rate of the species - they often need a critical mass of middle aged members of the population to reproduce, much like humans, and without that the population slows to a level that doesn't reproduce. This is in contrast to my area of interest where I need to work out how to remove 70% of the population every year... and that only just stops the population growing.

I hate the common fisheries policy... it's a really good example of an economic theory called the Tragedy of the Commons... people keep taking a bit more from the common property until the marginal gain to themselves is less than the marginal cost of doing so... which takes a very long time in a commons environment....

 

[Paddler Ed]

the concrete they form the pillers with produces way more co2 then it would ever save having your electric made buy coal or gas any way.
just to rub salt in the wounds

And don't forget the aluminium in the pylon and blades... it's a bit like our 20 year old 4x4's probably have a lower lifecycle carbon footrprint than a Prius does...

 

[Mojo]

As a marine ecologist and a proponent for 'Rigs to Reefs', any artificial structure through the water column has the capacity to act as a fish magnet or an FAD (Fish Aggregating Device).
This also applies to offshore windturbines though I am unsure on their periodic subsea maintenance schedule of antifouling/or zinc anodes. The key to a rich FAD community is a suitable food chain, from the algae/filter feeders through to juvenile fish and predators. Some of the most incredible dives I have ever done are on working oil rigs.
Some of the issues surrounding fishing around windturbines are safety and overfishing, since fisherfolk know these aggregations and can fish them out double as fast. Given time though benthic/pelagic fisheries in wind turbine footprints will inevitably recover. However the single windturbine pillar hardly compares to the massive habitat complexity of an oil rig (fish like to hide).
One muted idea has also been to make windturbine farms massive giant fish pens, linking pylons with nets. Though the impact of fish feed and waste on the seafloor would need to be investigated. Having said all that..I am pro Nuclear...

 

[Shayne]

Jeez i should have started an alternative thread . Sustainability is a fishermans job , if we pick it clean we can't come back next year hence we don't . We are talking a small territorial sea here which was doing fine without interference until some numpty noticed over a 50 year span our fish stocks are growing rather than depleting and so awarded the Government a conservation medal and started shipping them out to American and the like to host talks on sustainability . Now they employ more tree hugging fornicate with fish office staff to promote this nonsense than there are men at sea actually fishing . Of course they will win stocks are already too thick on the ground so pretty soon disease will take hold putting us all out of a job .

 

[Sag]

Then the government will moan over more people on jobseekers as they aren't enough jobs,they just have to pick and poke into everything to keep them looking busy to make their job needed in my eyes.like health and safety need I go on.keep up the good work Shayne fight the buggers,shame they isn't more with balls.

 

[MarkW]

Sustainability is a fishermans job , if we pick it clean we can't come back next year hence we don't

Its a shame a lot of fishermen can't understand that Shayne, generations of overfishing, poaching by foreign vessels and poorly implemented quotas have caused the current situation. If the only way to preserve fish stocks and maintain the equilibrium of ecosystems is to limit commercial fishing, then unfortunately thats they way it needs to work for everyone on the planets benefit.

At present the interactions between ecosystems is so complex mankind simply cannot work out what will happen if we lose one species from the planet, it could be that it's not an issue, but conversely it could be catestrophic to the planet. For a quick insight into the wide spread interactions of wildlife, plantlife and goegraphy I recommend taking 10 minutes to watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

But then what do I know, I'm just a tree hugging fornicate with fish office staff member

I bet the neighsaying, nimbys don't realise that it was fishing that started the whole set of Environmental Legislation in the UK we currently have, to preserve fish stocks for the rich landowners!

Guess we're well and truely off topic now!

 

[wobbly]

Bees, when they go, we go.....

 

[Towpack]

Changed the broken rear wheel stud today. It sheared off so easily last week even with the torque wrench set correctly that I'm convinced they've been weakened by years of over tightening, certainly by me and probably previous operatives. Think I'm going to order up a set from Amayama and change the rest.

 

[silvercruiser]

MOT today. Straight through Again!!

 

[Mojo]

Decided on changing all oils last week and whilst at it the drain plugs as well. As you can see the front diff plug just didn't want to budge and also it was partially rounded already...so hammered and chiseled it out.


Fortunately I had ordered the new 10mm mag/hex plugs with Fe/Al gaskets from Toyota Portugal. So got a complete set of 9 for a whopping Euro 34 (incl 10% discount). I had to convince the dude in the shop that these were the right ones, as when he entered the 80 reg into the computer the schematics came up and part numbers for the old brass ones. So helps to have the part numbers for the new 10mm hex. Only took 2 days to order.

 

[Shayne]

Halfway through changing my first ever UJ and finding it counter intuative , i have removed the circlips and tapped one side through to push out the bearing cap which is a smidgen away from being released but i still can't move it and another tap will put the opposite side bearing cap inside the joint , do i give it another smack with the hammer or what ?

To update i took it down the garage who tried everything i had already tried , with far greater ease i might add because they just put it in a press , and they failed just as i have . Cutting it out with a grinder seems the only option .

 

[clivehorridge]

I used to grip them in the vice after getting enough showing to grip.

I don't remember drifting them all the way out, but it was a long time ago.