Monday morning - biggest market this year.

A tad misleading with the netters Britannia V, Ajax, Lamorna, Little Pearl  and  New Harmony missing off the landing board...

as Monday's market is by far the biggest for the year...

top quality inshore fish from the Lizard...

numero uno megrim soles from the beamers...

along with monk - megs and monk make up the bulk of any beam trawl trip...

along with smatterings of Dover sole - the boats would land many more of these fish but under the present rigid quota system the boats are forced to dump tons of Dovers almost every trip - and it is not a fish easily avoided...

every ray has a unique, QCode like mark...

plaice come with orange and red spots

none of your £40,000 landings of cuttles in Newlyn needed to break port records, all eyes will be on the St Georges when she lands to see if Billy can wrestle the record back from relief skipper, Juicy, no pressure Bill ;-) ...

the frilly brill...

the not so frilly thornback ray's tail...

ahead by a short nose...

what to look for in fresh fish, bright, shiny eyes and blood-red gills...

black bream beauty...

Roger must have been smiling when these guys dropped out of the cod end on to the deck...

along with these cracking red mullet...

the other end of the market with nearly 1,500 boxes of big white fish...

so much fish that some of Ajax's trip was squeezed between the two market ends...

and the rest helped fill the rest...

and a good run of larger sizes was evident...

even the fridge was packed...

 with mainly handline mackerel...

cod is often referred to as 'green', not hard to see why when it is this fresh...

and added bonus for the beam trawlers are big prime flat fish like these turbot...

not a breath over the harbour this morning...

and, apart from the sad and sorry Excellent,  the only boats in port are those between trips...

as one of the shore crew make their way down the quay...

signs of an industry with enough faith to invest in new builds for the future, with the port's largest sardine boat nearing completion in the foreground for Stefan Glinski and Rowse's latest big crabber being fitted out and all lit up...

Newlyn is one of the port's who pioneered recycling old fishing nets - though a new startup company, @FishyFilaments is developing some amazing technology to convert these old nets into the raw materials used by 3D printers - you can do your own bit to help the environment by supporting the venture via their crowdfunding page - a great cause championed by a local business with the support of the fleet...

a step nearer the bus pass for Rose!

BTW this was fishing news from the far west of Cornwall post 6,500!

Ghost fishing - but just how much 'fishing' do these nets do??

There is no doubting the cause of divers in retrieving nets lost on wrecks and rough ground - nor publicising the work that they do - but using the term 'ghost fishing' suggests  that these lost nets - be they trawls, gill nets or pots continue to fish in the same way they do when first deployed.

Most of the gear in the videos is heavily covered in algae that in many cases has completely obliterated the net. Gill nets are made of fine, single strand mono-filament translucent nylon and rely on their near invisibility underwater to catch fish - when covered in algae the fish simply avoid them.  Trawl nets need to move through the water to catch fish - when lost over wrecks they provide a haven for small fish, crustaceans, molluscs and seaweed or algae - they may make a wreck more dangerous if it is dived on of course. Pots rely on fresh bait to attract crab and lobster into them - it would be every shellfishermen's dream to have post that caught crabs and lobster without bait as bait is the biggest single expense on a shellfishermen's end of year accounts!

No Fishermen likes to lose gear on wrecks or rough ground - it costs time, a lot of money and can in some circumstances be extremely dangerous - but it is a hazard of the job. Modern navigation and marine electronics technology has helped reduce the amount of gear lost through skippers being able to place their gear more accurately then ever before - and chart plotting software means they can be sure of recording and repeating fishing operations more safely.

Newlyn and other ports have championed the recycling of nets through the Fishing for Litter campaign...

On a really positive note, locally a new start-up company FishyFilaments is running a crowdfunding campaign to develop the recycling of nylon fishing like the above into 3D printing filaments!


Here are some of the campaigns currently being fought under the unhelpful banner, 'Ghost Fishing':


In May 2016, the dive team of the Dutch Ghost Fishing Foundation helped a German Greenpeace campaign, with the goal of drawing attention to the sizable problem of ghost nets in the North Sea. After almost two weeks of ideal weather conditions—with bizarrely bad visibility underwater—the deck of the Arctic Sunrise boasted five enormous BIG BAGs (the Swedish eco-friendly garbage bag brand) full of nets and fishing lines. A considerable catch, but there is plenty more work waiting at the bottom of the German North Sea.

The full article appeared in X-RAY MAG

The rest of the Greenpeace campaign was spent on alternating dives to two unknown wrecks. One of the wrecks had clearly recognizable shapes, the other was mostly covered in sand, having been torn apart quite badly. But both suffered from a significant amount of “decoration”; they were covered with large trawler nets, but also a lot of trammel nets. We were diving not far from Denmark, a country with a sizable gill netting fleet—a fact that was clearly evidenced underwater.

We put the gill nets—made from thin nylon lines—mostly in old postal bags. The trawler nets were fitted with a number of lift bags and then cut into large pieces. The catch was so heavy the crew were unable to get it aboard. The nets were hoisted to the deck by the Arctic Sunrise’s crane.

After ten days of diving, the deck of the Greenpeace campaign vessel boasted five BIG BAGs filled to the brim with netting. Greenpeace oceans campaign leader, Thilo Maak, who dived on nearly every dive, was shocked, himself. He knew he was using this clean-up campaign to draw attention to a sizable problem, but to see the actual size of the problem up close like this was a real eye-opener, either way. And, realistically speaking, we were not even done yet. One of the wrecks still had a large piece of netting on it. We did not even have enough time left on this particular trip to cut it loose one bit at a time. And to think of the dozens of other wrecks out there on the Sylter outer reef yet to be cleaned? “We’ll go again next year,” said Maak. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

This video highlights some of the divers' work in recent years.

Old Blues standard - Rolling and Tumbling the netter's way.

Ajax PZ26 filmed from the wheelhouse of the Karen of Ladram as she makes her way to the next tier of nets...

and later in the day the Padstow registered Berlewen passes down - a reminder to videographers to shoot with your phone in landscape (bottom) not portrait (top) mode!

Timely showing - First episode of The Catch goes out on the night of the Fish Festival at 8pm on Channel 4.

Here's a timely new TV documentary in the light of the changes to the way the Mission operates out of Newlyn - come and meet Phil Mitchell, skipper of the gill netter Govenek of Ladram as she plies the Western Approaches in her quest for hake, turbot and monk - in the kind of conditions that make most people thankful they are watching from the comfort of their sofa!

"In this new series Channel 4 have taken the fixed-rig camera to one of the most extreme destinations yet. Deep-sea fishing is the one of the most dangerous jobs in Britain, by some margin, and The Catch gives us unprecedented insight into the reality of life at sea.

The Govenek of Ladram in 'Through the Gaps' of Newlyn harbour.

Every day off the coast of England dozens of deep sea fishing crews are battling rough seas in order to hunt out the most valuable fish. But life at sea is often about so much more than fish. Miles out at sea the six-man crews only have each other to rely on, eating, sleeping and working together a matter of metres apart at all times – the work is tough, tensions are high and sleep is limited, how will these men learn to co-exist? Living in an environment like this is intense, and the fixed-rig shows fishermen like you’ve never seen them before – the on-board pranks, arguments at the dinner table, seasickness and the knowledge that a single haul can turn around the fate of a boat.
Though there's plenty of risk, the rewards can be high. After years of bad news stories and EU quota battles, the word is there is still money to be made at sea. Peak season for high-value fish is October to April – coinciding with the worst weather of the year. To succeed they have to pit themselves against dangerous weather conditions such as gale-force winds, 40-foot swells, and endless, driving rain.

Whilst the crew are out at sea, their partners and children are at home holding the fort. Constantly checking the weather and praying for a safe return some are parenting single-handedly, coping with the threat of bankruptcy, organising weddings and giving birth – life continues on land while the men are away at sea.

With a shortage of young men who have grown up in traditional fishing communities wanting to follow in their fathers' footsteps – recruiters are having to find new fishermen from further and further afield. This combined with rumours of big pay cheques has resulted in a new generation of landlubbers looking for work at sea, luring lads with no background in fishing to England’s busiest ports. The series follows these rookies as they join the tight-knit crews on board and see if they can hack it.

Episode 1 - Meet the realPhil Mitchell - skipper of the Govenek of Ladram

In the first episode of the series we meet Phil, the skipper of a large Gill netter called the ‘Govenek of Ladram’. Phil runs a tight ship, wanting his crew to work hard, eat together as a team and even makes sure that they dress up for meals without any fish guts on their clothes. Phil’s crew, Stan, Stevie, Sean, Bricktop and Simon, have been with him for years and are a well-oiled machine. But fishing can be a young man’s game and his crew isn’t getting any younger, Phil needs to bring in new blood and train them up before his most experienced deckhands move to an easier boat, or retire altogether.

Louis is a lost 21-year-old on the dole who has struggled in the past to feel part of a group and make friends. He lives at home with his mum and has never been to sea before. He has signed up for a deckie training course in the hope that he will be able to find a career, and a crew that will accept him as one of their own. But Louis has a rough ride ahead of him, to fit in he doesn’t just have to show that he can graft on deck but that he understands the rules of boat etiquette.

The Govenek fishes mainly for hake,

But life on board isn’t only difficult for the rookies, all the pressure and big decisions fall into the hands of skipper Phil. On a fishing boat there are no set wages, the crew earn a percentage of the profits – so if the haul is bad, the fish prices drop or a storm sets in they are the ones with the big decisions to make. Phil decides to steam 197 miles through a gale force 10 storm in the hunt for a good catch. But will his gamble of £7000 of diesel fuel steaming through 40 foot swells pay off and ensure that his crew comes away with a paycheck after a week at sea?

Behind the scenes: Just some of the camera cabling used to film aboard the Govenek...

and the kit going ashore after the last trip filming was completed.

See the story behind the new series on Channel 4 here:

And the full video trailer here:

Work in progress, day two.

The sky and early morning clouds get sketched in before giving the sea some shape and depth...

by roughing out each of the heavy seas  as they pass under her including the crest of the swell that the boat is just dropping down from.

New work in progress - sketching out and underpainting

Charcoal sketch on 30" x 20" primed canvas...

with maybe too much detail gone in on the boat, hard to spot are the two crew holding on to the rail just foreside of the hauler hatch...

trying to capture one of our netting fleet enjoying a not-so-comfortable day at the office away west of the Scillys.

#FishyFriday

Big boxes for big fish...

somehow this mermaid's purse (the egg of a shark) made it ashore...

a box of blues...

two golden opportunities...

Sparkling Line landing in Newlyn...

it's a mystery...

the Anthony Stevenson in better times...