It might be well over a month since the shortest day but as yet there are no signs of morning light in the sky at 6am in Newlyn...
however, inside the fish market is bright enough...
with red mullet...
turbot...
witches...
and even the odd cuttlefish giving the buyers something to bid on...
but first thing, all eyes are on Ian the auctioneer as he sets about selling hake...
from the Karen of Ladram...
Govenek of Ladram...
and the Stelissa...
there's hake as far as the eye can see in the market's largest auction hall...
next door there are lemons...
megrims...
and monk from the beam trawlers that landed over the weekend...
while the mackerel fridge is stuffed full of fish and fish buyers trying to find the next lot being sold...
in stacks five or more high...
the third auction hall is full of white fish and even a box of roes...
to go with ling...
black bream...
a smattering of bass...
and a bigger landing of pollack...
like this pair from the Stelissa
as Tristan, skipper of the New Dawn sistership to the Stelissa carries out a pollack price check against the price his fish made in Guilvenec this morning - his price making up for the fact that the trip was made etxra-hard going as a succession of gales ran through the grounds he was working - suffering a nor'westerly then sou'easterly gale in the space of 12 hours to give the guys on deck a very uncomfortable day's hauling over the wrecks...
luckily there's always few tub gurnards to brighten up the day...
stacked mackerel ready to go forth....
some sharks remain in UK waters throughout the year, not just in summer...
outside, porters load the forklift pallets...
and begin to whisk fish away from the market...
as Mario, skipper of the Harriet Eve waits to land his weekends haul of crabs and lobsters...
two of the biggest sterns in Newlyn.
