Mez Creis PZ105 - Cornish crabbing history needed!

Looking for stories associated with the crabber Mez Creis PZ105 in her fishing days - and it would be really appreciated if anyone with any memories of sailing on her or in contact with anyone who sailed on her could get in contact - email here...

which was a beautifully restored live-aboard based in Penzance wet dock...

 until the other week when she sank along with the pirate ship.

Ready for the pot ce soir :-) a la Monty Hall - episode 3

Listen to Monty Hall on Wednesday evening's Fishermen's Apprentice when he travels across to Brittany with his hard won catch of spider crab - revered in Breton restaurants and treated like crustacean royalty, the spider crab epitomises the huge gulf - 100 miles of open water or a "vast chasm" as Monty puts it - between French eating culture and the status that they afford fish like spider crab as compared to home territory where not so many years ago spider crab were dumped back at sea as there was no market for them - even now they make little money when sold here - at the end of the sound bite listen out for the surprise result of the blind tasting when the edible crab goes shell-to-shell with arch enemy spidercrab.

Excerpts from episode 3 of Monty Hall's Fisherman's Apprentice courtesy of BBC2.

In episode 3 of Monty Hall's Fisherman's Apprentice, the edible crab goes head-to-head with the under valued spider crab.... and it just so happens that the Through the Gaps household sat down to enjoy said spider crab for supper........

slip a couple in a good sized pot.......

and after 20 minutes they are ready - this applies to edible or brown crab, lobster and crayfish.......

 dried off the spiders look good enough to eat.......

ready to hand, a selection of shellfish picking tools - keep your eyes open in Lidls - a set of six on the left for a couple of squids.

The Apprentice goes fishing - Monty Halls in Cadgwith - BBC2 last night at 8pm, tonight at midnight in HD!!

Apprentice fisherman Monty Halls on the beach at Cadgwith with top lobster pot man Nigel Legge.

Showing for the next five weeks every Wednesday night at 8pm, marine biologiost Monty Hall finds out just what it takes to actually make a living from the sea in Cornish waters. In episode one, an Introduction to the Skippers from Cadgwith Cove who Monty Halls is about to work alongside, local Skipper Jonathan Tonkin - 'Tonks' - gives his first impressions of Monty. This is first in a series of six episodes; in later shows Monty will have his understanding of ethical fishing vs making a living in the context of modern fishing methods put to the test when he sails in some of the bigger boats from Newlyn.


Monty Halls is a writer, explorer, television presenter and public speaker. A former Royal Marines officer who worked for Nelson Mandela on the peace process in South Africa, he left the services in 1996 to pursue a career in leading expeditions. Having achieved a First Class Honors degree in marine biology, over the next decade he circumnavigated the globe four times on various projects, leading multi-national teams in some of the most demanding environments on earth. Notable expeditions included an anti poaching project in the high montane grasslands of the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi, the discovery of a sunken city off the coast of Tamil Nadu in India, and a (successful) attempt to find and photograph a rare crocodile species in the mountain pools of the Raspaculo Basin in Central America. In 2002 he was awarded the Bish Medal by the Scientific Exploration Society for his services to exploration.