Black Thursday

Green and black, good hauls of cuttles are back in evidence again this week - a welcome boost to the big beamer grossings at this time of year - not so good for the guys down the fishrooms trying to get them clean after each trip!......

with over 50 boxes from the St Georges just about to be auctioned......

Edwin from Samways Fish will be keen to get his hands on some black this morning......

when you forget your box-hook you just have to get down and push.......

this is about as big as these squid get - a full box length - not including the tentacles.....

there's a whole stack of boxes ready to have the cuttlefish ink washed away...

gilnetter CarolH makes a split tide landing.

Under wraps

About to let go the ends, skipper Traz aboard the Dignity makes last minute checks around the huge working deck on his catamaran....
the Nellie has landed back in Newlyn - just waiting for the boxes to go back aboard.....
with her still looking like a movie set, shotblasting aboard the Plymouth Explorer continues .....
as ever, electrolysis eats away at the edges wherever two metals with different properties are joined - mild steel and aluminium always make for uneasy bedfellows - so the lower sides of the Filadelphia's wheelhouse are being repaired.

At the market

End of an era - Newlyn is about to lose one of its most significant vessels with the news that the Sowenna has been sold away to Ireland. When she arrived in Newlyn under the command of the relatively youthful, Ian 'Mitch' Mitchell she heralded a major change in the port - the first new vessel built to order of any size for well over twenty years, the first purpose built netter and the first boat to work on the continental shelf and in other innovative ways. Along with the Ar Bageergan and the Brittania V she chased the tuna using drift nets which attracted the unwelcome attention of Greenpeace activists - local fishermens' first taste of conflict with the burguoning 'Green' movement. A gallery of images from the time is available here.......
under dull grizzly skies the Ullapool registerd inshore vessel heads for the grounds....
with steady sardine fishing, FalFish staff are being kept busy loading transport with the night's work.....

in a week that saw one boat leave the port and the latest recruit become active and join the fleet, the Emma Louise lands to the fishmarket.

Another neap begins

more bait gpoes aboard the Dom Bosco.....

as the Ajax leaves her berth and heads round to the iceworks.

Gone soft

The Geordie boys have been down South for too long - not so long a go they would have been wearing just a T-shirt in this weather when mending on the quay.......
more than enough blue for a sailors trousers.....

the fresh Northerly breeze keeps the boats away from the quayside.

Up go the lights

Ready for the off, The Cornishman about to let go the ends....
a quick scrub down aboard the Shiralee aftre landing to the market fridge.....
why would these guys be caged and ferried around?.......
all part of the team that annually volunteer to put Newlyn's now famous harbour lights together....
ably assisted by a master forklift truck driver.......
sometimes its easier by road.......
the Cathryn gets a bottom scrub while the propeller is away to put back the bits that Edwin unintentionally knocked off when shooting this week.....
brown crab bait in waiting......
the first pelagic trawler to fish from the port for many years - the 320hp Manx Ranger will be under the command of local skipper Roger Nowell (jnr)....

The 46ft Aleyna turns turtle off the Devon coast

Two fishermen escape from the flooded wheelhouse of their upturned vessel off the Devon coast in the early hours. Luckily for them the crew of the Girl Debra witnessed the Aleyna capsize, immediately slipping their gear to rescue the crew who were forced to tread water alongside the upturned hull.