Hake is the new cod! Let's hope the Daily Mail is right.

With many Cornish fishermen undoubtedly disappointed at the result of the Brexit deal which has left some wondering if they are now worse off than when we were members of the EU abiding by the strictures of the Common Fisheries Policy there may be some good news on the way.  The Daily Mail has carried a story citing hake as an alternative to cod for the traditional fish and chip shop supper!

Despite and in-spite of the huge changes made to sustainable fishing practices in the North Sea, cod became the poster fish for the FishFight campaign started by chef High Fearnely-Whittingstall which eventually led to the well intentioned but disastrous 'nil discard' regulations. The campaign, while it garnered huge public support, made little sense in practical terms. The majority of vessels targeting white fish in the North Sea had already made huge changes to their working practices with gear and other modifications helping to significantly reduce discards. The biggest issue - and still is - is that fish are unaware of the 'nil-discards' regulations and are therefore still caught by trawl and net. Unlike farmers, fishermen using trawl and nets by-and-large don't have the luxury of being able to predict what they harvest - the seabed is not delineated in the way that fields of crops are nor have fish read the latest MMO landing regulations. In the North Sea hake are one of the top 'choke' species that through the law of unintended consequences that has seen the move to ensure 'nil-discards' deemed unworkable in many areas.

Fast forward the last ten years and it seems that the Cornish netter fleet are now ideally placed to help supply the nations with an equally healthy and sustainable alternative to cod for that fish supper.

Cornish hake were certified by the MSC in 2015 with 15 vessels licensed to catch this superb eating fish much loved by top UK chefs like Nathan Outlaw, Paul Aisnworth, Rick Stein, Galton Blackstone, Tom Brown and many others who often use hake in their dishes on TV cooking shows.

Today, young Ryan Davey, skipper of the netter Stelissa (please note Daily Mail - hake are caught by gill nets not trawlers - there's a huge difference Ed) is one of the fleet currently at sea fishing for hake.

Seafood Week - and today it is 'hail the hake' day!

At 6am it's a dark enough start to the mornings in October but that doesn't stop the business of fishing which goes on 24/7 in a port like Newlyn...

Of course hake isn't the only fish...

 the netter Britannia V landed on the market this morning... 

amongst the rest of the fish landed were a dozen or so monk cheeks...

and a pair of decent sized cod.

At the start of every hake trip each of the Newlyn hake netters has to take on board four or five tons of flake ice...

it's the same ice is used to ice the harbour boxes when the fish is presented for auction...

in order to meet the standards required by the MSC to maintain the quality of Cornish Certified hake...

so that the fleet of 15 certified boats, of which the Britannia V is one, can begin the chain of custody that is required in order to let buyers know that the hake caught meets the stringent requirements necessary, from the kind and size of nets employed, the pingers set with the nest to ensure that by-catches of dolphins and porpoises are a thing of the past to how the fish are gutted, iced and boxed at sea... 

once the fish have been sold they are stacked...

and whisked away to the processors for packing in super-insulated polystyrene boxes for distribution to fish merchants and fishmongers the length and breadth of the UK...

like this 6 kilo plus beauty safe in the hands of the Chelsea Fishmonger, young Rex Goldmsith!

Final #FishyFriday of the year!

Thursday evening in Newlyn and it's still blowing hard as storm clouds powered by gale and severe gale force (Force 8 & 9) winds soar over the roof of the fish market now sporting seasonal lighting...

The graph at the foot of the chart provided by VesselTracker AIS also give the speed over the ground made good by a vessel.

after hauling both beam trawls aboard in a Force 9 gale and steaming for nine hours...

the crew of the William Sampson Stevenson are back in the harbour on deck landing at the fish market by 6pm ably assisted by the Wiffer and young Roger...

a distance of just under 40 miles at reduced speed

Rockets keeps the pressure on the landing gear...

as skipper James uses the whipping drum of the man winch to lift the boxes of fish from below...

in the berth ahead, the netter Ajax whose crew spent the last 26 hours on deck without a break hauling a full set of gear in atrocious weather...

Imagine riding through this for 14 hours on your way home from work.

which did not moderate as expected while steaming for over 12 hours on the way in, at one time rolling so heavily the engine room alarms were set off...

now it is just a question of getting the fish off the boat...

and into the market for sorting and grading for the morning market...

the beam trawler Cornishman landed several tons of cuttles...

fish from the WSS waits to be put through the grading machine...

wind the clock on to an hour before day break on Friday morning and the bog fella is preparing the crabber, Three Jays for a day at sea in heavy seas working her pots...

 

inside the market the boxes are stacked up to seven high...

to accommodate the massive 226 box trip of hake from the Ajax...

which left just enough room for the more petite market staff to squeeze through...

though the prices, obviously affected by the extreme nationwide weather, when relayed to skipper Alan on the Ajax came as something of a shock it seems...

with plenty of dogfish on the grounds it is not difficult for boats to meet their 180 stone quota for the month, though this leaves considerable amounts being returned to the sea dead on a daily basis by many boats......

big flats like these turbot...

and brill...

made good money this morning in a strong market leading up to the Christmas break...

plenty of ray from the WSS...

and a handful of bass with all the boats landing...

especially the handliners from St Ives...

and this huge 5.2 kilo specimen caught by the Cornishman...

along with the more usual beam trawl fish of monk tails...

plaice...

     
and morkis (sea dog) or murgies as they are more often pronounced locally...

the Sapphire III scraped up a few unseasonal JDs...

while the James RH managed a good shot of lemons...

Dovers...

and megrims...

the netter Silver Dawn piled in on the pollack...

keeping the market busy...

a perfect day for showing off the range of fish up for auction off to visitors...

meanwhile, Ian moves the buyers past the dogs...

and the fish begin their journeys to the merchants for processing and despatch...

the new RNLI building is taking shape very quickly...

overlooking the pontoon berth for the ever-ready boats.