Cefas Endeavour - 24/7 survey work.

The "snow" is sediment in the water column that reflects the light from the lights on the camera frame as it flies past the camera

Looks like snow but is in fact sediment at 100m below the surface of the sea at the North of Celtic Deep in St George's Channel where the Cefas Endeavour is currently on station undergoing her MCZ Characterisation Survey 2012. 


The blog makes interesting reading this trip as there are two teams aboard the boat, the second being the JNCC Offshore survey team with their own blog to follow - the seagoing research blog wars are hotting up!

Howth RNLI lifeboat rescues ex-French Irish trawler north-east of Howth.

Video courtesy of Howth RNLI lifeboat.

Seven men were rescued by an RNLI crew in a dramatic rescue operation that took more than 10 hours at the weekend.

The crew of the Howth RNLI lifeboat battled a three-metre swell and force-six winds to tow a trawler to safety on Saturday night, as this dramatic picture from the RNLI shows. The 17m trawler was 58km north-east of Howth, Co Dublin, when it began to take on water.

A Coast Guard helicopter delivered a pump to the trawler as it was taken under tow. However, the rope snapped a number of times before the boats made it safely back at 10.30pm.

Wave Hub off Hayle attracts new customer.

Ocean Energy Limited, Ireland’s leading wave energy company, is working with Wave Hub, the world’s largest grid connected offshore marine energy test site, to deploy its technology at the site later this year. Cork-based Ocean Energy, in collaboration with its partner Dresser-Rand, one of the largest global suppliers of custom-engineered rotating equipment solutions, expects to deploy a full-scale device at Wave Hub by the end of this year having tested a quarter scale prototype of its OE Buoy in Galway Bay for three years.

Simple fish fry.

Take any firm white fish like cod, pollock, ling, haddock, whiting and fillet, skin and slice the fish into goujons........

coat with Panko (or homemade) breadcrumbs (not that ghastly orange stuff)........

shallow fry for a minute or so.......

great accompaniment to some pea and ham soup and bread of choice - with a little mayo on the side.

Plenty of herring? try an escabeche.

Plenty of herring coming ashore these days.........

though spent they are still tasty enough when filleted.........

in numbers........

coat with seasoned coarse polenta.......

and shallow fry in olly oil.......

poured over the fillets is the escabeche, gently cook red onion, currants and garlic for a few minutes then add diced carrot, marjoram and a bay leaf, small piece of cinnamon, allspice berries and a chopped green chili and a good pinch of brown sugar - once the currants have swollen and the carrot softened add chicken (or fish) stock and a dash of cider vinegar and bring to the boil..........

and poor over the cooked fillets leaving for half an hour to infuse.

For one Cornishman, the toughest place to be a fisherman? - Sierra Leone

Last year a delegation from Senegal visited Newlyn in an attempt to help publicise the number of foreign vessels plundering local waters - this time local fisherman Andy Giles gets to visit Sierra Leone and see at first hand the damage done by such vessels. 

Cornish fisherman Andy Giles gives up his state of the art trawler to travel to the coast of Sierra Leone, where the fishing is done from a dugout canoe. Living in a small community of mud huts, Andy discovers a very different way of life where a bad day's fishing means a hungry family. Even this precarious lifestyle is now under threat from foreign trawlers that fish illegally in the villagers' waters, taking their fish, destroying their nets and sometimes even sinking their canoes, with tragic consequences. 

Through the international language of the fisherman, Andy develops a lasting friendship with his hosts, in a film which highlights the plight of subsistence fishermen around the world.

If you missed the programme first time round catch it again on BBC's iPlayer here.

Prince Charles optimistic despite the picture from the WWF.

A new WWF study shows for the first time the global expansion of fishing activity, from 1950 to the present, through an animated map. It clearly shows that European Union fishing fleets have expanded beyond European waters exploiting new fishing ground since 1980 and increasing the pressure on fish stocks.

The study for WWF has for the first time transposed data about the global expansion of fishing activity, from 1950 to the present, to an animated map. It shows that European vessels are now traveling to the furthest corners of the world to exploit fish stocks. Declining domestic catches and efforts to reduce the number of vessels fishing in European waters have resulted in much of the European tuna and other pelagic fleets concentrating their fishing efforts overseas.

According to the EU, in 2008 the EU external fleet comprised of 718 vessels, which represents 25% of the EU fleet in terms of gross tonnage.

The 718 vessels broken down by Member State:

• Spain: 424 (59%)
• France: 100 (14%)
• Portugal: 73 (10%)
• Italy: 52 (7%)
• Greece: 18 (3%)
• Lithuania: 12 (2%)
• Estonia: 10 (1%)
• UK: 9 (1%)
• Others (Latvia, Germany, Poland, Malta, Denmark, Cyprus): 20 (3%)

Source:http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/documentation/studies/study_external_fleet/external_fleet_2008_en.pdf

UK vessels operating in non-EU waters:
According to DEFRA, in 2011 the UK had vessels fishing or licenced to fish in third country/external waters as follows:

• Indian Ocean (under Indian Ocean Tuna Commission): 4 vessels fishing under agreements with Mozambique and Madagascar.
• Mauritania: 1 vessel under a Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA)
• Falkland Islands: 1 vessel under private agreement
• Morocco: 2 vessels (although only

In a report publicised by the prince speaking at Fishmonger's Hall last week there are reasons for optimism about the future of the world's fish stocks despite their currently dire state at the launch of a report from his green think-tank. 

The report, Fisheries in Transition details 50 case studies of successful management in various parts of the world. The prince said the issue was dogged by a "debilitating fatalism". His International Sustainability Unit (ISU) is aiming to build constructive dialogue between industry and ecology. The report is the first offering on fisheries from the ISU, which aims to continue the kind of work done by the Prince's Rainforest Project on a larger range of issues. Speaking at Fishmongers' Hall in the City of London, the prince said it was "critically urgent" that countries find better ways of dealing with over-fishing and other marine issues. 

 Through research and interviews with people in the trade, it documents 50 examples from the shores of every continent illustrating how once unsustainable fisheries can be turned around. The Peruvian anchovy fishery - the world's largest - set quotas for the first time only three years ago. Catches have fallen, but profits and wages have risen. Fishermen choosing to leave the industry have been given free training for new trades.

The report provides a wealth of detail and helpful graphics to back up the more positive aspects a global dilemma.