Yellowfin tuna update.

Following the recent landing of tuna on Newlyn fish markety, here's some info from marine biologist Doug Herdson with further insight on out tuna friends, Big Eye, Yellow and Bluefin. Perhaps these pics will help ID any of these beautiful fish caught and landed at Newlyn in the future:

Hi folks

I regularly receive reports of Yellowfin Tuna Thunnus albacares being caught, landed or stranded.  However, they usually turn out to be Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus, the confusion arising from the finlets along the back from the dorsal fins to the base of the tail, which are yellow in the three larger species of tuna which can occur in British and Irish waters.  These are dull yellow in Bigeye Tuna Thunnus obesus, yellow in bluefins and bright yellow in yellowfins.  Adult tunas can be identified with a bit of experience – yellowfins have long sickle-shaped second dorsal and anal fins; bigeyes have a moderately long pectoral fin and larger eye; bluefins have a short pectoral fin.  However, in younger tuna these features are not so distinctive and identification can be very difficult.  A gill raker count will separate bluefin (34-43) from the other two (YF 26-34; or BE 23-31).

On Wednesday 23^rd November 2011 Mr Nigel Jones found and photographed a 6’ (1.8 m) tuna at Dunraven Bay, near Porthcawl, South Wales.  The photographs showed it to be a yellowfin, that had been washed up dead.  Unfortunately, it was at the foot of a high cliff and it was not possible to collect the fish; also when Mr Jones returned today to take some measurement and further examine the animal, it could not be found.  Presumably it had been taken out to sea again by the present exceptional tides.

This is the second yellowfin that I am aware of to have been recorded in Wales, and the third in British and Irish waters.  The first of the previous specimens was found stranded on the mudflats of the Dwyryd Estuary, Wales, on 15 October 1972 (Wheeler, 1985) and the second, a juvenile, was caught c. 110 km off Land’s End, Cornwall on 7 August 2006 (which I initially misidentified as a bigeye).  Only three bigeyes have been identified - Newlyn 1985, Christchurch 2004 and Burry Port (Llanelli) 2006.  Bluefin, whilst being uncommon is a much more frequently encountered fish with a number being reported this year along the south coast from Portland to west of the Isles of Scilly.

[All photos are © Nigel Jones]

Doug Herdson
Marine Fish Information Services
Plymouth

Breton trawlers - fishing in poor weather.

Despite the gale force winds there are still a handful of Breton trawlers working away south west of Newlyn........

and at 16m the  La Servane must be finding the day particularly uncomfortable - especially as looking at her track she has been towing 'beam on' for much of the time - smaller trawlers do so to reduce the stop-start effect that towing into or with a big ground sea has on the trawl - allowing the fish being herded to escape the bridles.

Pete Eddy video - Newlyn Harbour circa 1994.

The first of two films shot by Pete Eddy who ran Kernow Marine Electronics for many years in Newlyn.

Damaged - Belgian beam trawler hit by huge wave.

The Belgian beam trawler Z18 Soetkin makes her way to Milford Haven in south Wales after being hit by a huge wave while fishing in the Bristol Channel. The vessel's EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Beacon) was triggered into transmitting by the wave.

Swanland search by RNLI lifeboat from Porthdinllaen.

Porthdinlllaen lifeboat searches for the missing crewmen from the coaster Swanland that sank in the Irish Sea south west of Holyhead in the early hours of Sunday morning. The boat was hit by 'a huge wave'; two men were airlifted from the scene along with another who was later pronounced dead. Five more crew are still unaccounted for from the sunken boat.

VesselTracker AIS recording the last track of the Swanland - though the trace seems to stop short of her final position according to reports.

Last year she was brough into Falmouth  by the MCA's ETV Anglian Princess after breaking down a few miles off the Lizard, the Newlyn lifeboat Ivan Ellen attended at the time.

Video courtesy of Wales Online.

Cefas Endeavour on prawn ground!

With daily updates coming from the working decks of the research vessel Cefas Endeavour, individual scientists are being given a chance to explain their work in more detail.

Image courtesy of Cefas Endeavour.

Yesterday's post included some seabed photographs taken by the boats ROV - the shot of the poor cod includes numerous holes in the muddy sea floor - undoubtedly those made by langoustine (nephrops norvegicus) after they have turned in for the night - boats fishing for prawns generally only work daylight hours as langoustine react to the loss of daylight and hide way in their burrows as the light disappears from the sky. There is an excellent source of info on these and all other marine creatures to be found here at Marlin.ac.uk.

This research work over the MCZs will be of great interest to all those boats that fish in or near such areas. Until the Cefas web team get the comments activated on the blog, if there are any questions that fishermen might want asked of the team aboard the Endeavour, email them in and TtG will pass the over.

Seeing red.

 Good monk fishing should keep the markets happy this morning.......

 with the St Georges having a smattering of lemons........

 and a few boxes of huge line caught squid from the Ela-J........ 

 as landing of black gold grow in quantity.........

 red seemed to be the 'in' colour with red gurnards, red mullet......

 and a handful of redfish thrown in for good measure.........

 Mr Thomas keeps his measure of a box of small JDs........

high water at the back of the mission where Coombe River meets the sea.