More film from Newlyn in 1994.

Another short film from Pete Eddy (ex-Kernow Electronics) showing Newlyn in the early 1990s. At the time many boats were being broken up as a huge round of decommissioned boats were taken off the fishing register.

Potential Spanish block to discards reform.

Just one of the biggest fishing fleet in the world  - a flagged Spanish fishing vessel - photo courtesy of Nathan Marshall.

The incoming Spanish government is coming under intense diplomatic pressure to fall in line with EU proposals to ban wasteful fishing practices, after a leaked document showed that the previous administration was planning to derail the plans.

The government must choose between supporting its new allies in the EU, on which Spain's economic future depends, or bowing to its powerful fishing industry.

As Europe's biggest fishing industry, Spain could hold the key to the success or failure of the reforms, which would prevent fishermen discarding edible fish at sea.

See the full story here courtesy of the Guardian.

St Ives fishermen invoke unique fishing by-law.

After accidentally trapping arpound 100 sea birds in their net, St Ives fishermen have been banned from using similar gear in St Ives Bay from now until the 26th of January! See the full story from the BBC here.

Flying Dutchmen go West.

Three of the biggest Dutch freezer trawlers are seen here on the VesselTracker AIS heading west, south side of the Isles of Scilly.........

freezer trawlers like these were a regular sight in the days before the mackerel box was imposed in the Western Approaches........

as can be seen here as the Scillonian III passes a couple of Dutch freezers anchored in Mount's Bay while they process (freeze) their night's catch........

at the time the Dirk, at anchor, was the largest fishing vessel in the world.

Bluefin tuna - world record price on a Tokyo fish market..

Late last year a tuna, thought at first to be a yellowfin was landed on Newlyn fish market - a marine expert later identified the fish as being a member of the more valuable bluefin species - the single fish sold for around £4.60 a kilo - much less than the premium price normally associated with this kind of fish as can be seen from this fish sold in Japan fetching a record price of £2,738 per kilo!

Fishing on despite the weather.

 Weather data taken from the Sevenstones Lightship over the last 24 hours shows the wind blowing consistently and increasing in speed with gusts reported over 60 mph this morning....... 

as the wind strength increases so does the height of the waves........

tracks from the French fleet of fishing boats show that many are still engaged in fishing on both the north and south coasts of Cornwall.........

although the Vierges de L'Ocean is seen here making her way to Mount's Bay and dodging for a few hours off Newlyn (unable to enter as there would not be enough depth of water at the entrance to the harbour) before entering at around 8 am this morning.

A trawler's dream, precision towing.

Using VesselTracker's AIS it is easy to see just how accurate a ship can be steered using modern electronics, GPS, an autopilot, bow thrust and propellor control! This the the oil survey veesel Polarcus Nadia working off the African coast. Like so many deck crew and officers on survey and research vessels, an ex-fisherman from Newlyn has been working on this particular ship, one of eight custom built mulit-function 3D seismic survey vessels built for the Dubai based Polarcus Company.

Animated virtual tour of a typical Polarcus survey vessel.

Contrast the precision of those tracks with these of the Lub Senior working her seine net in the English Channel today.


Pete Eddy, who used to run Kernow Electronics from Newlyn recalls the early days of digital chart plotting on fishing boats using a Shipmate plotter:

"looking at the tows from the survey ship reminded me you used to get an output from the shipmate plotter that went into the autopilot. Some netters used it to go to a waypoint for the gear. Taking out tide, wind and other variables, saved a load on fuel. We did an experiment with Mick Faulner, Golden Bells I think, and could have been Boy Gary. The Boy Gary set a course on the pilot, Golden Bells set a waypoint into the plotter, by the time they got to the Lizard, Boy Gary was a mile adrift!