It's 6am in Newlyn, a new moon joined by Venus and Jupiter all pierce an otherwise inky-black sky over the harbour...
feeling the heat inside the fish market buyers huddle round a full market of beam and netted fish...
like these hake...
from the Govenek of Ladram...
and a few hundred kilos of cuttles...
and ray from the beam trawler Billy Rowney...
that also landed red mullet and weaver fish...
and turbot...
the Twilight III picked up a good shot of megrims for her time at sea...
while the Trevessa IV picked away a trip of monk tails...
and an unusually good haul of winter John Dory, a fish normally associated with clear blue summer skies...
was also enjoyed by the Twilight III...
while mackerel landings were restricted to a single box owing to the weather...
although South West beam trawlers provide most of the turbot consumed in restaurants around the UK...
the bulk of their catches comes from hauls of...
megrim...
and Dover sole...
along with fish like haddock which are something of an unavoidable by catch...
with the market now seeing the results of the Landing Obligation that kicked in on January the 1st - these tubs of perfectly good fish are not being auctioned fr human consumption but will to to landfill or another designated destination...
the final stage of the market refurbishment by Project Link...
is now complete internally with additional handwash basins...
with their knee-operated hot and cold water taps...
the netters came up with the odd plus-four...
and, a la Peterhead market head-on monk......
an brace of black bream...
and very unusually for a netter, a solitary conger eel caught by the Ajax...
the beaver-like tail of the ling...
and the rich golden hues of the freshest tub gurnard...
go to make up the whitefish part of the Ajax's trip...
looking through the only market door...
Colin can't help but put in a few dance steps on the market floor...
while the stacks of harbour boxes have been invaded by a handful of private interlopers...
outside dawn breaks over the harbour...
and St Michael's Mount...
with the promise of blues skies and no rain this will leave young Ben free to work on another replacement fender.
