Ready for the pot ce soir :-) a la Monty Hall - episode 3

Listen to Monty Hall on Wednesday evening's Fishermen's Apprentice when he travels across to Brittany with his hard won catch of spider crab - revered in Breton restaurants and treated like crustacean royalty, the spider crab epitomises the huge gulf - 100 miles of open water or a "vast chasm" as Monty puts it - between French eating culture and the status that they afford fish like spider crab as compared to home territory where not so many years ago spider crab were dumped back at sea as there was no market for them - even now they make little money when sold here - at the end of the sound bite listen out for the surprise result of the blind tasting when the edible crab goes shell-to-shell with arch enemy spidercrab.

Excerpts from episode 3 of Monty Hall's Fisherman's Apprentice courtesy of BBC2.

In episode 3 of Monty Hall's Fisherman's Apprentice, the edible crab goes head-to-head with the under valued spider crab.... and it just so happens that the Through the Gaps household sat down to enjoy said spider crab for supper........

slip a couple in a good sized pot.......

and after 20 minutes they are ready - this applies to edible or brown crab, lobster and crayfish.......

 dried off the spiders look good enough to eat.......

ready to hand, a selection of shellfish picking tools - keep your eyes open in Lidls - a set of six on the left for a couple of squids.

A long day and a late night landing for the inshore boats

 Quality catcher, Harvest Reaper comes alongside ready to land.......

 while aboard the Lamorna boxed fsh are already hitting the quayside......

 and getting the ice treatment.......

 one for Mr Eddy, you might just recognise the old boy tugging on the trolley.......

 looks like fish from the beam trawler Trevessa is ready for sorting.

Film Festival - Pecheurs du Monde, Lorient

If you happen to be in Lorient, France between the 22nd and 25th of March then make sure you visit Pecheurs du Monde, the only film festival in Europe devoted to fishing around the world!


The Festival is a special cultural event that offers new or very recent films dedicated to the sea people of the world. These films introduce the public to magnificient areas full of dreams and freedom where tragedy and hardship exist but also happiness and wonder. 


The Festival is a place of debates and exchanges. It not only invites us to discover images of the sea but also to debate on the main economic, social and environmental questions related to the fishing industry. Since its creation, more than one hundred movies dedicated to fishing and fishermen from all over the world were showcased. The Festival has also awarded and honored many French and foreign directors . The Festival is also a meeting place for all those who love the sea. Each edition gives the fishermen the possibily to speak about themselves. It enables the workers from the sea to introduce their world to the audience, to express their love for their jobs and to share their hopes and fears. After each film, debates are encouraged with the directors, fishing professionals, scientists and of course the public. 


The Festival wants to introduce the young generations to the fishing world. The active participation of young people is encouraged. The students from the Lorient highschools are welcomed at the Festival where their enthousiasm is always very appreciated. The future of Fisheries lies also in the ability to pass on existing know-how and capacities.

Comments on the Al Jazeera programme “Pirate Fishing“,

This video highlights just how easily it is for entirely illegal fish to arrive on our EU plates - we, the consumer, are being duped as a result of economics driving individuals, organisations and governments to wantonly ignore not only the law but also the ethics and common sense of fisheries regulation.  The quantity of fish found aboard the featured vessel, the Ocean Sea Queen/Ocean-3 and the difficulty facing the authorities makes the way in which we pursue tiny inshore vessels here look positively draconian and out of proportion by comparison. If every small handliner's catch for a year in Cornwall was stored together it would not begin to fill the refrigerated hold of this vessel!

Here's what Maria Damanki posted on her blog: "I watched with empathy, in the second episode of Al Jazeera programme “Pirate Fishing“, the adventures of the fisheries ministry inspector Victor Kargbo and the reporter Juliana Ruhfus, chasing the Sea Queen/Ocean-3, caught fishing illegally in Sierra Leonean waters. And I was thrilled when they succeeded! I am ever more convinced and committed that the EU has to play a leading role to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. 
A lot is already being done: we need to identify the vessels fishing illegally (and we are doing so), so that they can be pursued even if they change name and flag. We have to put pressure on those countries that are reluctant to cooperate, protecting under their flags those who pillage the natural resources of countries that cannot effectively protect them. We need to work with our international partners, as we started doing with the U.S. administration. We have to introduce a new framework for Fisheries Agreements, to assist third countries to build technical and institutional capacity, to work with us ensuring a level playing field. But all this risks to have a limited impact, if there is no common and shared commitment. This is why my aim is to set up an international catch certification system, which would close major markets to the product of illegal fish and bring to an end to its profit. Fighting effectively IUU fishing is to be one of the priorities that the EU pursues when it comes to define sustainable development goals, in Brazil, in June, at theRio+20 conference."

As reported in previous posts, the EU is in a difficult position here as it has licensed a number of very large and powerful vessels to fish off African waters - who are therefore considered to fish legally! Some would argue that they are just as culpable as the unlicensed and illegal vessels from non-EU states like the vessel arrested and prosecuted in the Al Jazeera programme.

Who said, I can see for miles? - in the fog!

 With the foggy weather comes unusual atmospherics - resulting in hugely increased reception for AIS - here the gas platform GSF Arctic-3 at Kinsale of the south coast of Ireland is surrounded by her standby and service vessels.......

further south, the cargo ship Pos Alendrift is picked up nearly 260 miles south west of Newlyn!

Penlee lifeboat takes off Injured seaman in thick fog off Land's End.

The volunteer crew of the Penlee RNLI all-weather lifeboat launched to an injured seaman onboard a 230 metre oil tanker in thick fog off Newlyn yesterday afternoon. 


The seaman had suffered a serious hand injury when a heavy hatch had fallen on it and needed immediate medical treatment. The volunteer crew at Penlee launched the all-weather lifeboat Ivan Ellen in thick fog conditions at 3.25pm to head to the oil tanker’s location 25 miles south of Newlyn, arriving alongside the tanker at 4.20pm. 


Patrick Harvey, Penlee RNLI Coxswain said ‘It was quite a tricky journey out to the tanker through the fog. The crew were watching closely for other vessels, which despite seeming to be some distance off, when you are travelling at such speeds, are quickly in your path and we had to change course a couple of times. "Once at the tanker, the casualty, helped by his fellow crew members, was lowered down on steps to the lifeboat. "Because the tanker was still moving at about six knots and rolling slightly, we had to be careful to get close enough to grab the casualty without damaging the lifeboat and this took a couple of attempts." 


The casualty was taken back to the lifeboat station at Newlyn where a road ambulance took him to Truro hospital.

Race for the hake!

Bound away steaming through the Traffic Separation Scheme off Land's End, the Newlyn netters Govenek of Ladram, Ajax, Sparkling Line and Gary M head for the grounds. This is not much of a fun journey when the visibility is almost nil in thick fog as reported this morning.