Happy fishing St Piran's Day to one and all!

Cuttlefish landed by the Newlyn beam trawler Sapphire II...

make this a proper black & white Cornish St Piran's Day!

Inshore fishing for Cornish sardines.

Set against a backdrop of waves crashing against the rocks off St Michael's Mount and surrounded by hundreds of screaming gulls, Serene Dawn...

is joined by the Golden Harvest looking for fish marks on which to shot her ring-net...

joined minutes later by the rest of the fleet - now all hands fishing only a few hundred metres from the causeway between Marazion and the Mount...

the Asthore had spent nearly two hours looking for fish marks along the western shore.  The images of the boats taken from screen grabs from the Newlyn webcam.

RIP George Payne, King of the fisherman's smock.

Sadly, last week George Payne who made, literally, a hugely unique contribution to Cornish fishing folklore has moved on to that great wheelhouse in the sky. 

George was responsible for keeping the most traditional and iconic of fishermen's garments - the cotton smock...

alive and well (here - left- modelled by his good self) by introducing variations on traditional styles and introducing innovative designs using modern materials (reinforced PVC and nylon) for the sleeves or fronts which keep heavy sweaters underneath dry when handling gear, net and trawls...

until very recently George would often have been found here in what could be Cornwall's smallest retail shop adjacent the Sloop Inn St Ives...

many would agree, especially a huge number of Cornish fishermen...

like young Billy Bunn who says nothing beats a smock for protection from the wind when working on an open deck all day tailing prawns in cold dry weather...

smocks were cut so as to allow plenty of room to wear heavy sweaters underneath...

or, on warmer days, 'Hoss with just a shirt...

smocks were standard wear for both Terry Cougan and Sam Hicks on the Ben My Chree...

and Brian on the Ocean Harvester...

and if you look closely there's plenty of guys wearing smocks in this fish market scene from 1981...

the good news is that the cotton smock and many other traditional cotton and canvas garments and accessories are available...

from the Smock Shop in Gulval near Penzance where they are made  or over in the St Ives shop...

or through their online shop...

of course, the little blue smock logo is also reminiscent of the Guy Cotton 

fisherman logo whose  company George supplies with cotton smocks to supplement their range of oilskin tops...

which the company developed years ago and are worn by fishermen the world over...

even when they are crewing in the Défi des Ports de Pêche - the fisherman's smock in its modern form is still the most durable and serviceable garment to protect yourself with at sea or in extreme weather.

For everyone else these superbly traditional cotton smocks make the perfect 100% Cornish made gift for...

children...

gardeners...

artists

and sailors they won't be beaten for their comfort, durability, colour range, longevity and made entirely by hand in Cornwall - if John le Carré can do his family Christmas shopping at the Smock Shop you know it makes sense to do the same!

Wild Harbour Fish are recruiting!

Hayle based Wild Harbour Fish Company family business was established in 2011 by Saul and Abi Astrinsky.  Saul had been a commercial hand line fisherman for over 25 years and wanted to showcase his sustainably caught Cornish fish.

In 2011 he and Abi decided to work more closely with a small group of fishermen and develop strict quality and freshness protocols in order to maintain the exceptional standard of the fish they caught. Soon after, they then went to work on marketing these fantastic fish and by supplying to a handful of local restaurants. Move forward a few years and they are now selling to some of the best restaurants and hotels both locally and nationwide, including many with Michelin stars to their name.

Line caught are just some of the superb fish caught and supplied for Wild Harbour Fish.

In their desire to ensure the local fleet earned a fair price across the season for their fish Wild Harbour bucked the trend and offered their fishermen a ‘set price’ right across the season.

With the demands of the business ashore growing Saul finally sold his boat in March 2014 after a (tearful!) goodbye to concentrate on making Wild Harbour perform even better. Now, in 2017, for the many fishermen who land their fish direct, Wild Harbour is committed to paying them a fair price for their a top-quality product. So not only do they have access to the best quality fish but their fishermen are receiving a consistently better price throughout the year. Many of our fishermen are also members of the Southwest Handline Fishermen’s Association and the Responsible Fishing Scheme.

2017 has been an amazing year so far for us and with plans to create new product ranges which will allow chefs to customise and tailor products to their individual needs, we think 2018 is going to be even better!


So, from today, Wild Harbour Fish are now looking to expand the business further and are looking to fill two new Hayle-based positions:


Production Manager

We are looking for a production manager to join our busy team and help run our production facility.

If you’re passionate about fish and have industry experience and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment, this job could be for you!
Excellent rates of pay and a full-time position to start immediately.
Please call Saul on 07779 316756 for more information or an informal chat.


Financial Manager


We also require a part time financial manager to work in-house, five mornings a week (although timings can be flexible) to provide book keeping and accounts related assistance to our growing company. Experience with Xero accounting package essential.

Download the details here:

Left school and want to fish for a living? Sign up for your free fishing course now!

Our next 3 week Introduction to Commercial Fishing course will take place from 25 September to 13 October 2017. I would be very grateful if you can do anything in your power to bring this to the attention of the commercial fishing skippers and crews using your port. There will be an opportunity to meet the instructors and find out about the course at a taster session on Wednesday 13 September 2017.

This free course is aimed at new entrants to the fishing industry who are at least 16 years old. The course consists of two weeks shore-based training (covering safety, gear and catch handling, net mending, rope work, navigation and boat handling) followed by one week of mandatory basic safety courses for fishermen (Sea Survival, Fire Fighting, First Aid, Health and Safety) as well as the Seafish Basic Fishing Vessel Stability course.

This introductory level course will suit both young people looking for a career at sea in the fishing industry as well as those looking for a change of career. The course aims to equip candidates with the basic skills and knowledge to commence work at sea in a safe and useful manner. It will be provided free of charge in Cornwall for a limited number of candidates via Seafood Cornwall Training Ltd.

If you can help get to fishermen then please get in touch with us at the office on 01736 364324 or call my mobile.



Clare Leverton
Acting Manager
07964 373708

Seafood Cornwall Training
Admiralty Boathouse
23 The Strand
Newlyn Cornwall
TR18 5HL
01736 364324
www.seafoodcornwalltraining.co.uk

Your chance to experience a truly superb dining extravaganza!

Last few places left for this once in a lifetime event!

These are just some of the red mullet on Newlyn fish market this morning that will be served up later at tonight's, Five at Senara charity meal at Penwith College - there are still a handful of tickets left to enjoy a five course meal that would be the equivalent of dining out on a fish starter from chef @GuyOwen from the Idle Rocks in St Mawes followed by a fish starter from Porthleven chef @JudeKereama at Kota  then sipping some superb wines and taking time to enjoy a classic Lobster Thermidor from Rick Steins' head Padstow chef, @Stephane Delourme followed by a Lamb & Cockle roast from @cheftombrown at Nathan Outlaw's Capital in London followed by a stunning Coffe and Chocolate Opera dessert from Stein's Seafood Restaurant, Stuart Pate - just one dish would be the equivalent cost of the entire meal! - so to enjoy some of the finest cuisine the west can offer grab a last minute table for two or four and phone 01736 335114 or email in your booking! - a meal to savour and remember!..and a big thanks to FalFish and the Real Cornish Crab Company for supplying some of the finest local fish for the night!

Live! - Porthleven Art Lightshow - from 6:30pm on Sunday

Weather permitting you can watch the Porthleven Art Auction Lightshow live here.  On the evening anniversary of the storm, all the pieces of art that have been created for the auction will be projected onto the Porthleven clock tower for everyone to see.

Cornish fishermen doing their bit for #WorldOceansDay

  

When it comes to looking after the Atlantic Ocean, Newlyn fishermen, many of whom fish singlehanded a few miles from the shore using handlines and poles fish for ...

top quality fish like these line caught bass...

line caught pollack...

or on bigger boats, line caught tuna...

and MSC Certified hake using extra large meshes...

Just part of the two one-ton bags of rubbish from the Crystal Sea's last trip!

many, like skipper David Stevens and his crew take the time and trouble to put ashore bags of rubbish at the end of every trip - all doing their bit for #WorldOceansDay!

Landing Cornish Sardines - work in progress

Something to celebrate - better get the set of Cornish Sardine paintings completed as the new season's first fish have been landed this morning!

Newlyn auction action

It's all ears on the auctioneer as WS&S' Ian Oliver raises the price of prime fish on Friday's fish market.

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.

Proper Job wins CAMRA best in Britain award!

It's a Proper Job - brewing beer using vats well over 100 years old.

St Austell Ales' Proper Job has won this year's top bottled beer prize at the Great British Beer Festival at Earl's Court, London - another Cornish First!  Don't miss the superb tour of the St Austell Ales' Museum and Brewery if you get the chance - always worth combining that with a visit to the nearby Eden Project.

St Austell Ales Brewery and Museum tour.

Enjoy a visual tour of the brewery courtesy of guide for the day, Tracy.


Living in Cornwall you may well have driven by the sign a hundred times - but one day you'll make the right decision and pay the St Austell Ales brewery a visit - worth every penny. A revealing look at social history, a business that has changed and continues to change with the times - a living Tribute to the best in Cornish and British engineering, design and development over the last 150 years - and you get to test drive the results in the bar at the end!

Cornish is......



Cornish is.......in response to Scottish Is......broadcast on Radio 1.

Spring Food Fest! - Mitch Tonks, Nathan outlaw and Arty Williams.

Here's a chance to shake off those winter scales and step into Spring with two great dining experiences up for grabs. Top of the table has to be the pairing of fellow piscine champion from across the border Mitch Tonks with Mr 2 Stars himself, Nathan Oultaw on his home ground in his eponymous St Enodoc restaurant which will play host to a six course fish feast full of the finest fish the region has to offer - your chance to see the chefs in action, pick their brains and then enjoy the food in the very best of company and surroundings.

If the £125 pp for the above deters you then head for the Falmouth fish fanatic chef Arty Williams and get top tutelage at the Cove Restaurant, Maenporth Beach for his fish masterclass. At £15 a head this is more of an education than a mega dining experience - learn from one of the best in the West.