Red sails in the Bay - a film for Mounts Bay Lugger fans.

In this extract from the Three S films, Red Sails in the Bay, Norman Laity who built the replica lugger, Dolly Pentreath talks about life in the days when lug sails were the norm around the coast of Cornwall - and tells us that three-masted luggers were banned because they gave smugglers an unfair advantage over the revenue cutters!

This film documents the revival of interest in Cornish luggers with their iconic canvas sails. Members of Mounts Bay Luggers Association recount their experience in the rebuild of the Happy Return. Barnabus, Ripple, and Dolly Pentreath also feature. The staggering voyage of The Mystery in 1854 is described. Finally we experience first-hand the difficulties involved in sailing aboard a lugger at the Mousehole Sea Salt and Sail event.


It can be purchased by clicking the here or by Free phone 0800 0430264

Yellowfin tuna update.

Following the recent landing of tuna on Newlyn fish markety, here's some info from marine biologist Doug Herdson with further insight on out tuna friends, Big Eye, Yellow and Bluefin. Perhaps these pics will help ID any of these beautiful fish caught and landed at Newlyn in the future:

Hi folks

I regularly receive reports of Yellowfin Tuna Thunnus albacares being caught, landed or stranded.  However, they usually turn out to be Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus, the confusion arising from the finlets along the back from the dorsal fins to the base of the tail, which are yellow in the three larger species of tuna which can occur in British and Irish waters.  These are dull yellow in Bigeye Tuna Thunnus obesus, yellow in bluefins and bright yellow in yellowfins.  Adult tunas can be identified with a bit of experience – yellowfins have long sickle-shaped second dorsal and anal fins; bigeyes have a moderately long pectoral fin and larger eye; bluefins have a short pectoral fin.  However, in younger tuna these features are not so distinctive and identification can be very difficult.  A gill raker count will separate bluefin (34-43) from the other two (YF 26-34; or BE 23-31).

On Wednesday 23^rd November 2011 Mr Nigel Jones found and photographed a 6’ (1.8 m) tuna at Dunraven Bay, near Porthcawl, South Wales.  The photographs showed it to be a yellowfin, that had been washed up dead.  Unfortunately, it was at the foot of a high cliff and it was not possible to collect the fish; also when Mr Jones returned today to take some measurement and further examine the animal, it could not be found.  Presumably it had been taken out to sea again by the present exceptional tides.

This is the second yellowfin that I am aware of to have been recorded in Wales, and the third in British and Irish waters.  The first of the previous specimens was found stranded on the mudflats of the Dwyryd Estuary, Wales, on 15 October 1972 (Wheeler, 1985) and the second, a juvenile, was caught c. 110 km off Land’s End, Cornwall on 7 August 2006 (which I initially misidentified as a bigeye).  Only three bigeyes have been identified - Newlyn 1985, Christchurch 2004 and Burry Port (Llanelli) 2006.  Bluefin, whilst being uncommon is a much more frequently encountered fish with a number being reported this year along the south coast from Portland to west of the Isles of Scilly.

[All photos are © Nigel Jones]

Doug Herdson
Marine Fish Information Services
Plymouth

Breton trawlers - fishing in poor weather.

Despite the gale force winds there are still a handful of Breton trawlers working away south west of Newlyn........

and at 16m the  La Servane must be finding the day particularly uncomfortable - especially as looking at her track she has been towing 'beam on' for much of the time - smaller trawlers do so to reduce the stop-start effect that towing into or with a big ground sea has on the trawl - allowing the fish being herded to escape the bridles.

Pete Eddy video - Newlyn Harbour circa 1994.

The first of two films shot by Pete Eddy who ran Kernow Marine Electronics for many years in Newlyn.

Damaged - Belgian beam trawler hit by huge wave.

The Belgian beam trawler Z18 Soetkin makes her way to Milford Haven in south Wales after being hit by a huge wave while fishing in the Bristol Channel. The vessel's EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Beacon) was triggered into transmitting by the wave.

Swanland search by RNLI lifeboat from Porthdinllaen.

Porthdinlllaen lifeboat searches for the missing crewmen from the coaster Swanland that sank in the Irish Sea south west of Holyhead in the early hours of Sunday morning. The boat was hit by 'a huge wave'; two men were airlifted from the scene along with another who was later pronounced dead. Five more crew are still unaccounted for from the sunken boat.

VesselTracker AIS recording the last track of the Swanland - though the trace seems to stop short of her final position according to reports.

Last year she was brough into Falmouth  by the MCA's ETV Anglian Princess after breaking down a few miles off the Lizard, the Newlyn lifeboat Ivan Ellen attended at the time.

Video courtesy of Wales Online.

Cefas Endeavour on prawn ground!

With daily updates coming from the working decks of the research vessel Cefas Endeavour, individual scientists are being given a chance to explain their work in more detail.

Image courtesy of Cefas Endeavour.

Yesterday's post included some seabed photographs taken by the boats ROV - the shot of the poor cod includes numerous holes in the muddy sea floor - undoubtedly those made by langoustine (nephrops norvegicus) after they have turned in for the night - boats fishing for prawns generally only work daylight hours as langoustine react to the loss of daylight and hide way in their burrows as the light disappears from the sky. There is an excellent source of info on these and all other marine creatures to be found here at Marlin.ac.uk.

This research work over the MCZs will be of great interest to all those boats that fish in or near such areas. Until the Cefas web team get the comments activated on the blog, if there are any questions that fishermen might want asked of the team aboard the Endeavour, email them in and TtG will pass the over.

Seeing red.

 Good monk fishing should keep the markets happy this morning.......

 with the St Georges having a smattering of lemons........

 and a few boxes of huge line caught squid from the Ela-J........ 

 as landing of black gold grow in quantity.........

 red seemed to be the 'in' colour with red gurnards, red mullet......

 and a handful of redfish thrown in for good measure.........

 Mr Thomas keeps his measure of a box of small JDs........

high water at the back of the mission where Coombe River meets the sea.

Donal Turtle - Gone fishing Gone.

 The funeral for retired skipper and owner Donald Turtle will be held this Friday at St Peter's Church in Newlyn...........

 published in 2005, Donald's seagoing memoirs recounted a life at sea beginning in South Shields as a trainee merchant seamen during WW2 and the Atlantic convoys 

until the time he handed over the last of the family boats, the netter and liner Ben Loyal to his son John Turtle. Donald was a firm believer in conservation and fished with longlines for many years, even after most other boats in the fleet had long since ceased. Other boats in the family over the years were the Bonny Mary and the Mayflower - sadly, the Through the Gaps archive is missing photos of these.

Men at work.

 Just as well the tiny marine creatures responsible for this sort of damage, capable of munching their way through greenheart timber.......

 don't make their way ashore and start on any wooden content they find........

 the bow of the crabber is looking tidy these days........

 good to see oldest man of the port still willing to turn his hand to a spot of mending when called upon.........

 nothing a few blows with a hammer won't put right on the ice works conveyor........

 or the application of heat........

 the last thing pots see before they leave the crabber Intuition........

one not to be missed for any fans of Newlyn School artist, Walter Langley at the Centre, Newlyn next week on Wednesday 30th November.

Lady Maureen in dock.

Brixham beamer heads for Newlyn, offloads her gear at high water on the old Stone Quay and then heads over to penzance and into the Dry Dock.

Friday's market.

Frantic and even one or two international phone bidders expected on this huge star ray this morning.......

when it comes to nasal passages skate are a short, or long nose ahead........

good reds signify well looked after fish from the Trevessa IV........

like this landing of mullet and bass from the Plymouth inshore boat, Spurn Light.......

black is back, the cuttles have set in off the Start by the looks of these tubs.......

a winter break for a Cornish Sardine net.........

clean decks aboard the Cornishman.........

unlike the fish market which is running in black, those cuttles would turn the whole town sepia if left unwashed........

looks like a spectacular sunrise in the offing........

and time for a visit to the Newlyn Orion Gallery for their new show.......

up comes the sun from the East.

Hake - keep it simple.

Pan fried hake on ratatouile.

Olly oil - a big dollop or three....
add garlic sliced to taste along with an aubergine diced into 1" cubes to hot olly oil - heat till coloured......
add a good teaspoon or more (to taste and colour) of paprika and a dash of tabasco.....
add a dash of water at any time if the pan dries.......
add two crudely chopped peppers and two chopped toms......
add a dash of water if the pan dries......
the fish will take 10 minutes at the most to fry off, skin side down first till the skin is crispy, turn over for the last few minutes or pop under a grill, or in a hot oven......
garnish the rats with basil.......
simple and quick.

Fishing focus - the beam trawler.

Brixham beam trawler Lady Maureen can be seen making her way to Newlyn after leaving the fishing gorounds south east of Start Point in Devon.  Life aboard a beam trawler is typified by this account of a trip aboard the smallish beamer, Semper Allegro skippered on this occaision by the late Roger Nowell.

Cefas Endeavour Irish Sea Groundfish survey latest.

Towing between the Isle of Man and the mainland of Whitehaven, the Cefas Endeavour is on the fourth leg of her Irish Sea Groundfish survey work. Keep up with the latest from the scientific team working aboard the boat by following their new blog here:

Inky black morning.

Top quality squid much in evidence with the inshore boats at the moment......

as the buyers make their way past a night's work from the Imogen III........

there's more monk tails and cheeks from the Tracy Claire........

with the morning slightly warmer than last night when the temperature dipped to 3º the harbour is free of wind........

the new moon is still visible, despite the imminent arrival of the sun.

Asthore Cornish Sardine fishing at night.

Out for the evening and then heading back to Plymouth after a successful shot on the sardines for the latest member of the Cornish ring net fleet, the Asthore heads back to port.

Hake - a 400% markup seems harsh.

Extracted from the Ajax's Twitter account today.

You can see why the skipper and owner of the Ajax might feel a little aggrieved at the moment- seeing his fish average £1.25 per kilo on the market on Monday, and 100 yards down the road find the same fish will cost him four times as much. 


But that's not the full story it seems:


Good old Newlyn Fish to the rescue from their Twitter page:  "@joolyjooly @AjaxAH32 not here, we are selling hake FILLET delivered anywhere in mainland uk £5.40 per kg - cheaper at the store!"


To put that in context, as a rule, fillets represent approx 50% of the body weight as sold on the market - so at least double the price to make a comparison of the cost to the merchant who fillets.

Shiralee at sea.

Two days worth of fishing captured by AIS. The inshore trawler Shiralee's track can be seen starting from the end of Sunday's tow west of the Longships, bound in to Newlyn then back out again on Monday for a day spent towing the ground nor'west of the Wolf before heading for home once again.