Cornish Tuna on the way to a shop near you!

ALBACORE TUNA-THE GUILT FREE ALTERNATIVE SOON AVAILABLE FROM CORNISH TUNA .COM LTD.

While many of the worlds tuna fisheries continue to inflict unacceptable ecological damage to dolphins and catch rates decline through over exploitation British consumers now have a guilt free locally sourced alternative on their own doorsteps.

Albacore tuna with their delicious pale meaty flesh are also known as the “chicken of the sea” but increasingly they are acquiring a third title, “sustainable”.

The Cornish Tuna boat Ben Loyal's operators have been influenced and inspired by the Basque’s who have fished albacore in a low impact manner in the Bay of Biscay for centuries catching albacore by trolling surface lures.

This method is highly skilled, produces relatively low volumes of superb premium quality 3/5 year old albacore rich in omega 3 oils ideal for the top end restaurant and supermarket trade.

Once aboard the boat Cornish tuna are immediately chilled in iced seawater before being individually bagged, tagged to ensure traceability and boxed in ice in well chilled fish holds to maintain peak condition.

The season kicks off in June west of Cape Finisterre a long steam from Newlyn, as the season progresses the albacore migrate into Biscay and follow the edge of the European continental shelf northwards finishing around October time to the west of Ireland.

It follows that the landings of Cornish tuna are highly seasonal in the same manner as our potatoes asparagus strawberries and other culinary delights that see dedicated foodies flocking west to sample them in our local eateries.

WE GUARANTEE THAT IT WILL BE WELL WORTH SEARCHING OUT THE RESTAURANTS WHERE THEY ARE SOMETIMES AVAILABLE.

Cornish Tuna news - Quentin finds big albacore fish far South

Big line caught Albacore tuna coming aboard the Ben Loyal.

Here's the actual Inmarsat C mobile message transmitted to the CFPO office in Newlyn with news from Quentin, skipper of the Cornish Tuna boat, Ben Loyal fishing her first trip on albacore tuna for the year. Unfortunately for us, it looks like she will be landing to a Breton port for this trip so the BBQ tuna steaks will just have to wait!!

"Original Message—–
From: 423592296@inmc.eik.com [mailto:423592296@inmc.eik.com]
Sent: 05 July 2011 12:28
To: julia@cfpo.org.uk
Subject: Message from Inmarsat-C Mobile


TO:julia@cfpo.org.uk
morn julia,had 150 big fish not many meds and small fish yesterday, got 60 today i had ly in,so started late am knackered we are getting there.all is well rgds
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6265 (20110704) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus"

More updates and news can be had from the Cornish Tuna web site and Kevin Bennett's blog at Consol's Oils.

Pelagic port - Bonito tuna, mackerel and Cornish sardines.

Gourmet dining.........

the fair's in town for Golowan Festival........

low water at Wherry Town boating pool........

apparently so, look out Tuesday evening.........

spider time..........

in a case of mass insomnia, the boys from IFCA were up well early this morning measuring brown crab from the Intuition........

as the boat landed to a waiting vivier lorry.......

a bongo at a time........

this can only be done when the vivier aboard the boat has been pumped dry.......

down the quay there's an unusual set of beam trawl gear not seen in these parts before.......

aboard the Troon registered Solea..........

very light gear hanging from a hydrofoil type beam........

first time the market has seen any quantity of Bonito tuna........

created some interest from the buyers.......

and an intrigued Ollie ponders the species in question.......

early season Sardina Pilchardus.........

and a good weekend's work for the mackerel fleet.......

with the might megrim currently topping the list of flat fish being championed by many for ethical fishing reasons given the healthy state of the stock........

the Gallic prawn boats will be pulling aboard good lifts of prawns at the moment judging by the number of boxes the beams are catching!

Tuna fishing update - Gloria Maris

It seems the video clips of the Petite Marie Claude fishing for tuna have provoked plenty of interest in the Breton ports of Douarnenez and beyond.
In particluar, the fourth video has a sequence where the skipper and crew appear to have some sort of altercation with other boats, at one point a firecracker is seen being thrown in the water by the skipper. I have added a narration kindly provided by Jacques Blanken, a Douarnenez fishing historian who has tried to make sense of the incident recorded in the film.

Voici un essai d'analyse...

Le premier bateau filmé (film n°4), le rouge et blanc est à l'évidence un basque (l'avant est frégaté et la passerelle au milieu, typique du pays basque Français ou Espagnol), les deux suivants sont soit Audiernais, soit Douarnenistes et apparemment, l'un d'eux (le bleu) se met devant la Petite Marie-Claude, ce qui énerve l'équipage et au delà, a au moins deux effets
1° Risquer d'embrouiller les lignes lorsque la Petite Marie-Claude relèvera son poisson mais surtout
2° Lui "piquer" son poisson... ou au moins le faire partir...
Je pense que celui-là est peut-être bien un Audiernais... Ensuite on en voit un autre (blanc) vu de côté, navigant de conserve, ce doit être un Douarneniste. Mais ce n'est que pure hypothèse. Au passage, il est intéressant de voir qu'en pêche, pour ne pas trop rouler, tous les bateaux envoyaient deux ou trois voiles!



Suivent quelques images des lignes (mais on ne voit pas les perches) et deux bateaux très loin au large et effectivement après, il semble qu'il y ait une excitation à bord. Manifestement on n'est pas content et on voit d'ailleurs sur l'image suivante, pendant que le patron parle à l'équipage une zone d'évitage ce qui semble confirmer que le bateau va ailleurs... ou est obligé de manoeuvrer ! Puis la scène se termine par l'envoi par dessus bord de ce qui semble effectivement être un pétard...et on voit de nouveau le bateau bleu qui pêche très près, sur babord arrière et va donc passer là ou a été envoyé le pétard... 


Serait-ce une vengence pour faire fuir le poisson ? Il faudrait avoir le témoignage d'un des matelots pour savoir exactement ce qu'il se passait...Après on (plie les gaules) en fait, on love les bas de lignes pour rentrer, pêche finie. Car en pêche on est à 4 ou 4,5 noeuds et en route on est à 9/10 noeuds...Toilette... et arriviée à Douarnenez avec les mauritaniens au port et sur le slipway !

Bonne journée
Jacques


Here is a translation of the explanation provided by Jacques:

In the fourth film, the red and white boat is obviously a Basque (the bow is typical of the Basque Country or Spanish), the other two are either Audierne or Douarnenistes and apparently one of them (blue) goes to the Petite Marie-Claude, which upsets the crew and appears to have two effects:


1 the potential to cross the lines when Petite Marie-Claude hauls his fish up but mostly


2 he pinches the fish ... or at least takes them from the Petite Marie-Claude


I think this one is perhaps an Audierne (a gentle sneer)... then we see another (white) from the side, navigating according to the rules of the road, it must be a Douarneniste - but this is pure speculation. Incidentally, it is interesting to see that while fishing, they all have two or three sails set to steady them.


In the next scene are some views of the lines (but you cannot see the poles) and, in the distance, two boats, when it seems that there is an agitation on board. Visibly they're not happy and we see also in the next shot, while the skipper is talking to the crew, a wash in the water which seems to confirm that the boat has turned hard or was forced to manouvre! Then, the scene ends by the skipper throwing what appears to be a banger and again we see the blue boat that is fishing close to the port quarter who will then pass where the firecracker was - is this revenge or an attempt to scare the fish? We should have the testimony of one of the crew to find out exactly what happened.  


The final scenes show them stowing the poles and lines ready to return, fishing over. When fishing, the boat does 4 or 4.5 knots and they are steaming at 9-10 knots, spending the time cleaning down the boat while heading for home. When arriving in Douarnenez you can see several big Mauritanian langoustiers in the port and one on the slipway!


Alain Gourret has also sent over a photo of Newlyn's own ex-tuna boat, the Gloria Maris, now Ben My Chree when she was working from her original port of St Guenole. Her decks appear freshly painted so this could be the first trip for the season when the chances are she would steam as far south as the Azores - there are several 40 gallon drums (fuel?) on the deck and a ladder at the foremast to aid fish spotting - unlike the giant tuna pursers with their helipads today!


Gloria Maris steaming with tuna poles rigged.
©Gildesein

Vessel details from the French equivalent of Olsen's Almanack.
©Gildesein




  

Just doing his job for a beautiful ship.

It appears the a certain Newlyn skipper has become an unlikely hero over in Poland. As events unfolded far out to sea over the weekend, at the business end of the Fryderyck Chopin's towing line aboard the Nova Spero, was skipper Shaun Edwards, known better in Newlyn as 'Wordsy'.

Shaun, along with a handful of other young bloods, learned his craft mackereling and dogging  in his formative days aboard the port's record breaking Boy Gary under the awesome tutelage of cricketing skipper John 'Janner' Thomas. In the early 80s, dogfish following the huge shoals of mackerel provided the Boy Gary and a handful of other small netters with huge trips that led to her grossing just short of £40,000 for a trip smashing the port record. As one of a new breed of young skippers who saw a future in fishing with monofilament nets he then moved on to co-own the Bonny Mary with current St Piran skipper Shane Liddicoat, before the two went their own ways with Shaun becoming skipper and owner of the longliner turned netter Bonny Mary (ex-KimBill) before bringing the trawler/netter Crimond II down from North of the border and finally moving on to the current, Nova Spero.

Not one to keep his emotions or thoughts to himself, Shaun is passionate about catching fish, as can be seen from this picture of him with the finest quality Cornish Tuna, now marketed by supermarket Morrison's as Coruna tuna.

Filmed after a 10 day tuna trip, here's a short video of the Nova Spero landing at Newlyn with Shaun enthusing over the quality of his fish - beware, the soundtrack contains one or two old Cornish fishing terms!

Chasing Cornish tuna nearer home.

Spurred on by a single fish caught in Mount's Bay earlier in the week, lone punt fishermen Chris Morley adapts his traditional bass line and pole rig to fish for tuna.

Newlyn Cornish tuna auction sale debacle

What was supposed to be a celebratory landing for the Nova Spero and skipper/owner Shaun Edwards and crew turned sour this morning. Nearly 600 of the finest, pole-caught Albacore tuna were withdrawn from sale after failing to reach an acceptable price. The withdrawn fish were later sent to Plymouth for auction.
Cornish Tuna founder, Quentin Knights checks the weight of an 11+kg tuna.......
and demonstrates to the camera the much valued 'blue' hue that only pole caught tuna possess.
a handful of sharks keep an eye on the tuna prior to the sale....
as the final final tallies are written for each box....
names to faces - of blog fame, meet Ben......
tuna sporting the new individual tags that only these accredited fish can carry....
Quentin demonstrates the correct way to steak a fish....

Despite the fatigue, let's hope the familiar smile returns to skipper Shaun's face when some more lucrative UK markets are found for this unique fish!

Watch a short video of the boys grading and weighing the catch.