Three Hungry Boys head for Land's End.

Hugh's Three Hungry Boys have begged, borrowed and stolen (from the River Cottage garden) their way to the half-way point of their penniless, energyshare-inspired journey from Park Farm to Land's End on Channel 4.

 Hugh's impressed so far. He's seen some excellent foraging, cunning barters and some pretty respectable meals. But he knows the threesome have some exciting adventures around the corner as the boys pass the mid-point tomorrow at 7pm 

Daisy, their milkfloat, into a swap shop at a Cornish carnival - but all doesn’t quite go to plan. And Tim finds himself in a tricky situation blagging their three-tonne milk float onto a ferry for free. 

In this series the intrepid trio have five weeks to travel across the West Country without any money. To survive they’ll have to hunt for food for themselves and renewable electricity for their converted milkfloat - a three-tonne, 1980s electric milk float - with a top speed of 17 miles an hour. Get it right, and they’ll eat like kings as they trundle through some of the most beautiful places in Britain. Get it wrong and they’ll be starving and going nowhere fast!

Maria Damanaki European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Choose sustainability Fish Summit London, 24 January 2012

Fish Summit

London, 24 January 2012

Dear Mr Blanc, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, let me thank you for what you are doing. This Fish Summit and the other initiatives that you organise are paramount to engage everybody in the role, they have to play in using and promoting sustainable fish.  And therefore to support our initiative for reforming the European Common Fisheries Policy, that I presented last summer.

We share the same goal – promoting sustainability – and the same concerns:

We hear that fish resources are depleted. That fish contains dangerous pollutants. That it is sometimes sold under false labels. And we hear that big amounts of fish are thrown overboard because they were caught by mistake.

The issue of discards that has made more than 770 thousands citizens across Europe sign a petition to end discards. Is a top priority in the reform of our policy. If the failure of the Common Fisheries Policy can be seen somewhere, then it is clearly in the hundreds of thousands tonnes of food we waste every year, by throwing perfectly good fish overboard.

Let's look at some figures. According to the FAO the North East Atlantic has the second highest discard rate in the world with 1,3 million tonnes of fish thrown overboard every year, and we are the major culprits here. In the North Sea they estimate that between 500 000 and 880 000 tonnes of fish are discarded every year. This means we could feed between 200 thousands and 350 thousands of people each year on the food that we throw away. I don't have to explain to you how morally wrong we are, in light of such figures in the current economic climate.

Ladies and gentlemen, We have to stop throwing away fish that is already killed, quota or no quota. I spoke to some of you and I know your commitment in this particular field. Let me tell you that your work is particularly important: you contribute to raise consumers' awareness and you help fishermen, giving value to fish that they would discard. Often we take the easy road and we blame the fishing industry for discards. But I don't think it is fair, because let's face it, fishermen follow rules that we have set, on minimum landing sizes and catch composition. So let us be honest and acknowledge, that discarding is not something the fishing industry has invented out of mere pleasure. It is, and I hate to say it, the brainchild of EU legislation. Yes, of course there is also discarding, because fishermen want to make a profit. But ladies and gentleman, by and large I have come to see that fishermen are not the drivers of discards, but we – the policymakers - are.

I am aware of several projects from the fishing industry to reduce discards. Many of these projects have delivered concrete results, but I am afraid they are just a drop in the ocean, when it comes to tackling this problem at the root.

They indeed show that technology to reduce discards exists. But fishermen are not using it on a wide scale, because they have to invest in new gear and because they loose part of the target species. Any fisherman, who uses more selective gear, puts himself at a competitive disadvantage, relative to others engaged in same fishery: the only way to have a level playing field here is to have a discard ban. Moreover, those voluntary projects will not change consumer's perception that fishing is a wasteful practise. Retailers are now responding to sustainability concerns. I don't need to tell you that this perception is gaining ground in Europe. I don't want to have a situation where fish is left on the shelves of supermarkets, because consumers switch to other sources of protein. This would be bad for our fishing industry and bad for the consumers. Fish is rich in Omega 3 and DHA, a fatty acid that is essential for good brain and heart functions. So we have to help fish keep its good name. We have to help consumers, so that they can still buy fish with a good conscience. But it is not just about the consumers, it is also about good old common sense.

This is why I propose to phase out discards in all fisheries in a step by step approach. We will accompany this with better gear selectivity and with proper support for the industry to implement it. Then we will have to land every fish caught in the nets. If it is undersized fish, then it goes into fishmeal production. If it is oversize fish, then the fishermen can sell it for human consumption. They will keep, of course, the profits from this sale.

I have not spoken about the many more facets of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, which are also very important. They would lead us to reach a sustainable level of exploitation –what we call Maximum Sustainable Yield– of fish stocks by 2015. They would also lead us to implement the same fishing rules wherever we fish. In European waters but also outside Europe, on an international level. I have not told you about the need to boost aquaculture production in Europe, to avoid being dependant on imports from other countries. I did not mention the ways I intend to finance the transition towards sustainability and help fishermen to achieve economic profitability.

But the time is limited and I believe that discards is really the core issue. It is symbolic and can mobilize public opinion. We need you to express your views clearly because this is the only way to convince everybody that this policy has to be turned around to become a policy that makes sense.

It is important to not loose the momentum for change and convince people that they have to choose sustainable fish for the sake of their health, as well as for taking care of both the environment and the future of fisheries altogether. But how can people choose? How do they choose their fish? How do you choose your fish, ladies and gentlemen? Your choice is key and convincing.

You can show people, you can show us all, what to choose. That is why today's event is so key for getting it right.  If European citizens are ever more aware of the need to value sustainability, this is also thanks to the way that European chefs, restaurants and retailers work. Your can drive the change: eating sustainably means fishing sustainably. But you have already proven to be a key player in this. The sustainably Fish City initiative in London is a perfect examples on how you are driving change in the world towards better and more tasty menus. So help us to keep the momentum and move forward!

Penlee Pedlars set off from Plymouth for Newlyn!

Penlee's volunteer RNLI lifeboat crew are putting some power behind their peddles at the end of the month, cycling 125 miles from Plymouth along the coast road back to the lifeboat station in Newlyn to raise funds for the charity's annual SOS Day 2012. 

Starting on SOS Day (Friday 27 January) the five strong team made up of; Coxswain Patrick Harvey, volunteer crew Sam Gillchrist, Dan Sell and David Raymond and Deputy Launching Authority Graham Henderson, will set off from Plymouth RNLI lifeboat station at 9.30am and travel across the Torpoint ferry to Cornwall. From Torpoint they will tackle the gruelling Cornish coastal road back to Newlyn, calling in at Looe, Fowey, Falmouth and The Lizard RNLI lifeboat stations on route to say hello to their lifesaving colleagues. 

The money raised through the challenge will go towards the provision of new state of the art lifejackets for the station's all weather and inshore lifeboat crews. The two brand new types of lifejacket were designed over a three year period and in close consultation with the RNLI's volunteers. They are made using the latest material technology to meet the charity's current operational search and rescue requirements. 

The manufacturer's recommended price for the new all-weather lifejacket is £350 and for the inshore lifejacket is £330. As a result of securing a discount on these costs it will cost around £7,000 to equip the crew of both lifeboats at Penlee. 

 

Patrick Harvey, RNLI Coxswain at Penlee and one of the five riders says;

'We've given ourselves three days to complete the mission which works out at about 42 miles a day. We're all training hard, but it's a big a step up from the 50 mile route round the west of Cornwall we completed for SOS Day 2011. We're expecting it to be a pretty tough course along the exposed, hilly, coastal road and are hoping the weather will be kind to us! 

In 2011 we raised nearly £4,400 which was amazing, but with the extra distance under our belts we're hopeful about hitting £7,000. Please sponsor us at  or drop into the station.' 

While five of the crew are battling the hills, the rest will be doing a Soap Our Saloons car wash and serving up bacon rolls from the Sizzle Our Sausages BBQ at the lifeboat station between 10am and 3pm on Saturday 28 January.

One boat this morning.

 Some prefer dark chocolate........

 crab pot bait delivered.......

 another day with the net needles in action.......

 sophisticated 400kg tub handling kit just delivered........

 with few boxes on the market this morning delivery times are swift.......

waiting for the sale to finish.

World's biggest fishing on a huge scale - reporting a disaster in the making?.

This story from around the other side of the planet would appear to have a message for every, any and all those connected to the fishing industry, but especially those for whom fishing is of political or economic concern on a grand scale.

Aside from the sheer size of the statistics involved around the Jack Mackerel fishery (shades of mackerel fishing in the South West in the late 1970s perhaps) - a fishery in which ex-Irish and other EU vessels have been sold into - see this infographic - if some of the boats look familiar they were based in Killybegs at one time) the organisations involved in the management and research bear scrutiny also - right at the bottom of the article in a footnote appears the line -"ICIJ received a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts in the past." - the Pew Charitable Trust is thought to receive funding from the Oil Industry - who may, or may not, have a vested interest in where fish are caught.

Photo courtesy of Periódico El Ciudadano

As the article appears on the iWatch web site:

TALCAHUANO, Chile — Eric Pineda peered deep into the Achernar’s hold at a measly 10 tons of jack mackerel after four days in waters once so rich they filled the 57-foot boat in a few hours.

The dock agent, like everyone in this old port south of Santiago, grew up with the bony, bronze-hued fish they call jurel, which roams in schools in the southern Pacific. “It’s going fast,” Pineda said. “We’ve got to fish harder before it’s all gone.” Asked what he would leave to his son, he shrugged: “He’ll have to find something else.”

But what else is there to find? Jack mackerel, rich in oily protein, is manna to a hungry planet, a staple in Africa. Elsewhere, people eat it unaware; much of it is reduced to feed for aquaculture and pigs. It can take more than 5 kilos of jack mackerel to raise a kilo of farmed salmon.

Yet stocks have dropped from an estimated 30 million metric tons to less than 3 million in two decades. The world’s largest trawlers, after depleting other oceans, now head south toward the edge of Antarctica to compete for what is left.

An eight-country investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists of the fishing industry in the southern Pacific shows why the plight of the humble jack mackerel foretells progressive collapse of fish stocks in all oceans. Their fate reflects a bigger picture: decades of unchecked global fishing pushed by geopolitical rivalry, greed, corruption, mismanagement and public indifference.

St Ives fisherman Simon Rouncefield - text my fish!

Inshore hand line fisherman, Simon Rouncefield who puts his fish on to the market at Newlyn is making use of the latest communications tools to boost sales of his top quality fish to local customers. Fresh fish from his punt, Jen can be bought over the phone direct from the boat while still at sea. Customers can give their mobile number to Simon who will then text them his catch as he heads for port. Arrangements to pick up the fish are agreed beforehand to ensure that the day's catch gets to the customer direct from the boat, often still alive!

Here' Simon talking to Radio Cornwall's breakfast programme this morning explaining how he has joined the 21st Century and the technology available to exploit more opportunities for sales to customers. Later on in the audio extract you can hear the Harbourmaster at Looe commenting on the feasibility of selling fish direct to customers and the possible consequences for bigger vessels if they follow suit.

Sound recording courtesy of BBC Radio Cornwall Breakfast Show.

Mid-week and a relatively quiet market.

Just the one beam trawl trip this morning......

though there's a good selection of inshore fish from the finest line caught bass........

which always flies off the market floor........

as will these stiff little mackerel.......

then there's plenty of cuttles.......

that need shifting.......

from the man himself........

it's a wrap.......

one crabber all set for the off........

a few days off for the gill net fleet.......

outside its fronbt door, the Mission's 'resuss' kit is ready for action - let's hope the cobwebs gather on it!