Newlyn market end-to-end with fish

 The 140m Perseus J's with lights blazing, one of three ships at anchor as a nasty little front passes overhead.......

 Tom's keeping a close watch as ever.......

 looks like the Dignity is up for her annual scrub under the waterline......

 lesson number one in otolith collecting for Cefas........

 plenty of superb quality monk tails from the inshore boats......

 to compliment a cracking trip of turbot from the netter Gary M...... 

 along with a good run of hake and other white fish from the Ajax......

 where the boys are busy taking of nets to be mended by net maestro Freddie.......

 Sarah will be well pleased with this haul of grade 1 rubbish from the Harvest Reaper.......

 heavy showers were forecast and heavy showers is what the Bay gets.......

 two visiting Scottish boats huddle together in the icy blasts - though Cornwall can't quite beat the 5 inches of snow at Aviemore yesterday......

 as the Copious takes on board fuel.......

 more gear to go aboard the Govenek of Ladram.......

 showing off her hard chine hull.......

 Waghorn's has now transmogrified into a brand new art gallery for Newlyn - the Helen Feiler's new Gallery's first show is, NSA a fine catch - running until the 14th of April when the abstract works will be on show until the 30th of April......

 a selection of figurative....... 

 pieces and.......

 landscapes are the main themes for the current show......

 but did yer bin get picked up?...........

 auction styles, old hand Robin Turner studies the form......

 while Ryan Ladd makes a note of his latest sale......

a little later, a little lighter.

International conference: "Fishing tomorrow, without discarding?

Colloque International - Today, Thursday (28-03-2012) at Boulogne.

Last Friday, a conference was held in Boulogne-sur-Mer about discards within the next CFP reform (Fishing for Tomorrow, Without Discarding). 

Contributors came from all sectors of the industry and beyond : politicians from regional level (UK-like counties), scientists, fishing gear technologists, POs, fishermen associations, fishermen, fishing boat designers, fishing boat safety, fishing harbour authorities, fish auctions, and finally people from the industry involved in utilising fish-waste. Countries represented were: UK, Scotland, NL, Eire, Spain and of course, France. Both industrial and small-scale fishermen were represented. And, of course, EU representatives were there.

Debates were tough and some unanimous in agreement. Here is a summary of  the most interesting ones from the fishermen's point of view.

"Better avoid by-catches"

Everyone said from every country represented (except EU), and every level in the industry : " We don't want a discard ban. Better to avoid by-catches by several means: selectivity, fishing strategy/behaviour changes, incentives on research and fishing activities, much longer delays" 

"discard ban is useless and counterproductive"

Every country represented had held fishing gear technology experiments, which are worth a European network by themselves. They all required full involvement of the industry and the boat's crew. If the EU introduces a ban on discards, this involvement and confidence will be torn apart. Especially, nearly all improvements create a loss of production to the fishing boat and requires sacrifices. It is difficult, it takes time and this has to be rewarded by a secured access to fishing possibilities (not necessarily by ITQs), and a better confidence in the industry from outside.

"When a fish is dead, it is dead, at sea or ashore".

Scientists' point of view. "There is no need to take it back from an ecological point of view. there is no improve to the ecosystem to remove it, on contrary, you remove it from the food web. There is no impact of the stock not to discard". And, of course, alive fish must go back to sea. And if undersize, we mustn't keep them on board. When considering the past, giving value to worthless low quality by-catches never gave any incentive to improve selectivity and even delayed the research  

"slippers skippers and quota leasing speculation has a huge impact on discarding" 

Just a little focus on FQA's role in the increase of discarding. SWFPA gave some precisions: FQAs are not involved by themselves, it is the leasing of FQA which has enhanced the high-grading behaviour. What are called now the "slippers skippers". Onboard fishermen have to spent at last 40% of their expenditure to lease quotas. No wonder we came to 50% of discards in North Sea (multi-specific fisheries).

"Zero by-catch is impossible"

In any way, if a total ban discard is implemented, that will create more fish to carry, more loaded hulls, more no-value fish, a higher carbon footprint. Commission start to speak about a tolerancy ratio (%). But fishermen wonder how they will be calculated, and which reference years will be taken. Sea conditions are changing : global warming,  some stocks also get better and catching profile is changing. 3 years ago, hake was only 5% of saithe by-catches in North Sea. Year after year, the balance has changed*, and the average % of hake doubled: 5%, 10%, 20% because hake stock improved. If whole fish or fillet prices or markets don't raise at the same speed, fishing profitability will be endangered and the choice of reference years has its importance increased. How the allowable rate of discard will be updated ?

"Boats are too old and dangerous"

Even the latest brand new Dutch  boats are already 10 years old. Floating stability is not as safe as new regulations would require. Old boats and too high floating gravitational center. They can't have a safe full load in the hull. We need larger boats (get rid off GT management). We already need safer at-sea tools. And keeping not valuable by-catches increases the risk to boats at sea.

"We are not children" (proper French word is "gosse", which would means "unresponsible children you have to keep an eye on")

Both Fishing industry, industrial and small scale one, have now in their hands very expensive tools. In the last 10 years, fishing industry size decreased. Fishing boat prices increased. The  industry has changed and is more aware of sustainability. And building a new boat is extremely expensive, at any scale it is expensive. For industrial size: a 25m long is 3.5 €M,; A 45m long is 10 €M. When it is so hard to invest without subsidies, of course you want the most secured conditions and you will behave in such way.

"bringing back valueless fish will create an unwelcome change in the harbour"

Nor on the boat or in the harbour, we don't have enough place for that. They will required new and heavy investments in cold storage. And you will need to change the boats; Which ground industry has to change all its production plant for regulatory reasons ? 

The question of delay is also huge. In Norway, they took 20 years to implement a discard ban. In fact, they don't have a single by-catch fish in the harbour. In Europe, even if we take 5 or 10 years to implement the ban discards, because we have more multi-specific fisheries than in Norway, we will drown our harbour with no/low value fish. And it will cost a lot to move it for fishing harbour staff. And fishing industry will have to pay for that. At least 7 €M.

"giving value to fish waste: everything is possible if you bring it in at less than 0.2 €/kg to our plant's doors"

Fish waste is a bad word for fish going for meal. But it is historical. Fish meal has now a high range of commercial outlets, and the profits are high, if you keep the raw materials at low prices. The fish-waste industry anyway states they are quite willing to try to find new outlets. They are very enthusiastic in R&D. But no hints of prices were given. the 0.2€/kg given-to-door price was estimated by European Fishing Harbour Association. Overall feeling is: they are nice people, but the price they are ready to pay won't cover the catching and landing costs. They asked about how much it costs to land the fish, using extra hull space, etc. They have difficulties to understand what is involved in fishing. And if they give such enthusiastic hints to EU they may create a false hope: valorisation way could exist, but won't pay the producer of the raw material.

Quotes from EU representatives:

I have picked up 2 sentences from EU staff and put in [ ] some out-of-the-record reaction they raised ; They are taken out of the context, and the EU will not be amused for that - but it gives some hints if you ever attend an EU meeting with such high level people:

- "we have already thought about it, but we didn't write it in our proposal" - [so why did you wait one year to tell it ?  your political negotiation strategy impact real life people]

- "we didn't go in such details and feasibility that much" - [ let's say devil is in detail ] 

"Finally : industry is ready to move on the way to avoid low/no value or unwanted by-catch"

With thanks to @pechefraice - this is a summary of the conference as delivered not necessarily the author's points of view.

* This is true of haddock and cod in Cornish waters.


Linked-in update: Follow the debate as it unfolds on the Linkedin web site.

First gale forecast for some time.

Main areas that fishermen are interested in for the waters off Cornwall
- Portland, Plymouth, Fitzroy, Sole, Fastnet, and Lundy

Shipping Forecast. Portland, Plymouth, Sole NW 3/4, increasing 5-7, phaps gale 8 later Plymouth Sole. Moderate/rough. Occasional rain or showers. Moderate/good


Shipping Forecast. Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea NW 4/5, veering* NE 6-gale 8, perhaps gale 9. Moderate/rough, Occasional slight at first. Rain/showers. Moderate/good* 


*A veering wind is one that changes in a clockwise direction - a backing wind moves anti-clockwise.


*Moderate/good indicates the degree of visibility

Ajax second landing of hake

 A lone angler tries his luck at high water off the promenade as the lugger Ripple sails by........

 from the depths of the chilled fishroom come the hake.......

 up to the waiting transport bound for Brixham.......

cousins Tom and Jack Hicks whose skipper fathers can be seen in action aboard the family boat, Ben My Chree when she was pair-trawling with the Keriolet.......

crew with attitude........

customer focussed crew.

I name this ship Emma Louise!

Slideshow and soundtrack of the blessing and naming ceremony.

Listen to the blessing and naming ceremony.

Bubbles shower the assembled guests during the naming ceremony!

Let party begin! Bubbles shower the guests as Emma, wife and partner in Rowse Fishing does the honours and christens the family's new crabber, Emma Louise.


How good to see a new build celebrated within the local community. After Newlyn Mission skipper Keith Dixon did the honours and blessed the ship he followed tradition and handed over a Mission Bible to skipper Mario to keep aboard the boat before Emma Rowse did the honours and christened - literally - the boat and the assembled guests.


After a few words of thanks to the designers at Macduff, Tom's of Polruan and all those involved in her build from fleet owner Mark those present were treated to a few glasses of bubbly before moving on to the buffet reception in the historic Trafalgar Room at the Union Hotel suitably entertained by local Celtic songsmiths Rig-a-Jig.

A gallery of pictures can be seen here:

Saturday around the Bay

Chilly but dry........

and signs that the summer is underway with the first of the season's sailboats in berth.......

the AA goes through her gear.......

some words of wisdom on the subject of lifejackets from the MCA.......

after being out of action for nearly a year the Wherry Town skate ramp is being demolished......

evidence of several successive quiet days on the beach.......

bound in to Penzance wet dock.......

the beam trawler Admiral Gordon heads in through the dock gate........

watch the paintwork - the ever-cheerful Bruv has a fender at hand.......

with a few hours to go before the naming ceremony, Cyril from Squirrel Signs, ends all that speculation about the name of the new Rowse crabber........

things aren't quite ship-shape aboard the........

new crabber, Emma Louise.......

plenty of paint to hand.......

across the road the Dock Inn caters for all tastes.........

Penzance's premier gallery's latest show is on for Easter.

Discards - a developing story

Discussion started by Yan Giron in LinkedIn

"I was on night work in last Feb 2012 and missed this position statement. Then came this famous discussion at the EP about discards. Again the French professionals' official view is to avoid by-catches and funny, today in Boulogne Sur Mer, it was astonishing how other European professionals support this type of measures, instead of a total ban discard. Then somebody showed me this document. Funny how it may be closed to our professionals' view regarding their reject of a total and overall ban discard. And that is what we received for that: a furious campaign from FishFight http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/20/campaigners-eu-fish-discards-victory"

CFP Reform Discussion: Guess who said "The proposed discard ban is not a measure against discards, but an incentive to discard on land" ? That, if I am right, means "I don't support a discard ban" The discard ban is on the agenda because it is easy to relate to, even without too much knowledge about the substance. In that sense the “ban” is a good public driver for better management. If I may put the concept in a few boxes. First what do we want to obtain: “MSY-sustainability”, in a TAC/Quota management that entails setting targets – not to be exceeded but to count all catches against the quota, as WWF says: “ Fishermen must be held accountable for what they catch.” This is also the point of focus in the joint declaration: http://www.fvm.dk/Admin/Public/DWSDownload.aspx?File=%2fFiles%2fFiler%2fEnglish%2fFisheries%2fPaving_the_way_for_a_New_Common_Fisheries_Policy__revised_15__october_2009.pdf If fishermen must count all catches they will minimise discards whether done at sea or on the pier. Second a discard ban may be an add-on to full catch accountability – this will be an ethical consideration, it may put some additional pressure on “best utilization”, and it should be prudently phased in.

Thirdly you may notice that accounting fully for your outtake of our natural capital requires that the user (or fisher) documents his outtake, hence the requirement for CCTV etc (now being trialed on 70 vessels in DK, Germany, Netherlands and UK). Once all catches are accounted for quotas can be increased with the amount of calculated discards now being deducted before TAC-setting. In a phasing in model you would allow vessels with full documentation a quota without discard deduction. Vessel segments without CCTV would have to endure a “taxing” for the calculated discard. If these segments employ better practices and establish better data for science to reduce the discard estimate they benefit – eventually with full documentation the deduction is zero. A concrete target to strive for. Other efficient modalities can be considered.

Using incentivizing result based management will ensure the driver for better utilization of our stocks with the fishermen. They can and will do much better than to-day and the main challenge they must relate to is the choke species problem in certain mixed fisheries.

If I should relat to the TFC discussion: The reason the Commission wants TFC is to manage capacity - and the argument for managing capacity is that we don not manage total catches.

More on this a www.fvm.dk/yieldoffish