Welcome to Through the Gaps, the UK fishing industry's most comprehensive information and image resource. Newlyn is England's largest fish market and where over 50 species are regularly landed from handline, trawl, net, ring net and pot vessels including #MSC Certified #Hake, #Cornish Sardine, handlined bass, pollack and mackerel. Art work, graphics and digital fishing industry images available from stock or on commission.
Two day's work traced as Roger aboard the Imogen III tows his trawl in none too fine weather - his fish should make good money on Tuesday's market - even though there will also be plenty of fish from a number of bigger trawlers likely to be blown in by the coming gales landing as well.
When customers buy their hake from a fish shop that buys from Newlyn or Brixham fish markets they can be confident that the fish they have on their plates has come up from the Ajax's fishroom.
North Atlantic hake, Merluccius merluccius, is the hake of preference for the people of Spain and can be enjoyed here in the UK. Ask the fishmonger where his hake has come from - if he's worth his salt the chances are he'll be able to tell you which fishing port at the very least. These days more and more fishmongers can quote the source of their fish down to particular boats - easy in the case of the Newlyn netter, Ajax.
Leaflets like these are available for display alongside the Ajax's fish by fishmongers ontheir counters.
Investigation in Spain on provenance of North Atlantic Hake.
In Spain however, it seems things might be different - with the unknowing Spanish customer being duped into buying hake that just ain't what they appear to be!
With a total of nine days planned for the trip, the Ajax makes her second landing of hake and other white fish in Newlyn. The first 100 boxes of hake are destined for the fish auction at Brixham and are loaded on to waiting transport. The rest of the fish is stored in the fish market holding fridge in Newlyn ready for market staff to sort, grade, weigh and tally in the morning. The week days only fish auction starts at 6am.
Scallops ahoy! The Jacoba, one of the Uk's biggest scallopers working 27 dredges a side gears up for the new season......
a little head scratching on the deck of the Billy Rowney, recently featured in programme four of Monty Hall's Fishermen's Apprentice, faced with two huge sets of gear to repair there's afew hours work ahead.......
at this time of year there's plenty of visitors down on holiday and fascinated by the scale of the fishing gear being worked by these big trawlers.
Goujons of Hake aka Cornish Fish Fingers - well, that's what the visiting kids were told they would be having for supper.
The week before Easter is a high spot on the fishing calendar. Traditionally, Good Friday is a day of huge fish consumption in much of the Western world, especially those with significant Catholic populations.
Having done some research TtG has found as many reasons for the consumption of fish on Good Friday as there are species of fish landed on Newlyn market on an average day - loads. Most seem to centre around the need for some form of penance in the shape of abstinence or fasting - though those two are not the same nor mutually exclusive. Others include historical references that cite the high cost of red meat being prohibitive for many, making fish a viable alternative, to more religious ones on the grounds that preparing meat involves the letting of blood á la JC on the cross.
This fish-eating Good Friday thing is also a well knownphenomenon across La Manche where the missus of Louis XIII (Marie Antionette, though it may have been Marie-Thérèse the missus of Louis XIV) actually said 'hake' not 'cake' and is oft mis-quoted.
Be it penance or pleasure, the eating fish is also permissible and indeed to be encouraged on every day of the year.
In the penultimate episode of the Fishermen's Aprentice, Monty Hall takes his mentor, pot fisherman Nigel Legge across the big pond to the once thriving port of Gloucester. Apart from the difference in accent Nigel acknowledges that the fishermen of Cadgwith and Gloucester are all but identical. However, after the disastrous consequences of the failed cod stocks back in the 90s things are looking up for some small scale operations thanks to community fishing schemes (CFS).
The challenge is, could such schemes work here in Cornwall for some of the smaller boats fishing from their isolated coves? The mechanism for such an enterprise already exists in the UK - Community Interest Companies. Here's what Monty and Nigel heard from those involved and some of the customers of the CFS.
With the aid of VesselTracker's AIS, two vessels involved in assisting a dismasted yacht can be seen tracked.
St Mary's lifebaot, The Whiteheads was called out and launched at 4.14pm to go to the aid of a yacht 26 miles southwest of the Islands. Dismasted in strong northeasterly winds, the single-handed yacht, Betelgeuse is waiting assistance. The 200m car carrier Aquamarine Ace had altered course in response to the Mayday call earlier.
MCA update:
Meanwhile, Falmouth Coastguard had requested St Mary’s RNLI lifeboat to launch. The lifeboat was an hour away in rough weather with a five metre swell. Once the lifeboat arrived on scene, the sailor was rescued from his yacht and taken back to St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. The yacht had to be abandoned due to the rough weather.
Terry Collins, Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager says:“In an emergency situation, using VHF DSC makes a massive difference to how quickly we might be able to get rescue resources to vessels in distress. A VHF DSC alert gives us an instant position allowing coastguards to deploy lifeboats, helicopters or other units almost immediately. In this particular case, DSC was even more helpful because voice communications were difficult due to the vessel being dismasted.”
