AIS range gives view of Irish fishing west of the Scillies

With an area of high pressure covering the north Atlantic and the UK, the VesselTracker AIS has increased range allowing a glimpse of Irish registered fishing vessels, some working deep off the Scillies. The Irish registered 38m Play deTuya (bottom left) looks like she is working either lines or nets. Some of these trawlers would have been working near the Newlyn netter Ajax.

Silver Dory update

This rare fish was landed on the market by the beam trawler Chloe T this morning.

Jubeeeelation as another silver dory landed, this time in Guernsey hits the headlines.

Fifteen in the fish on fishy Friday

 Four beam trawl trips fill the market this fishy Friday.......

 

the sheer amount doesn't seem to be doing Mr B's back any good despite the words of sympathy from Mr A......

 chefs-to-be from Jamie Oliver's Fifteen at Newquay get to see a good mix of fish this morning......

 

like these hotly contested megrim soles........

 being whipped away at high speed......

 

if quality is what the students are looking for then here's a treat, prime turbot by the box, and a silver dory to boot......

 top of the quality stakes, pollock from the inshore boat Sea Spray.......

 

there's plenty to see.......

 and the smart ones are taking notes as they go........

 

someone give Martin a shout.......

all set for the street party, Newlyn does its bit for the Jubilee celebrations......

and will be doubly delighted if local girl Helen Glover comes home with the gold as a rower!

Students from Fifteen at Newquay

Desperate times - Fishermen turn to Piracy

The west has been very quick to judge the extreme acts of piracy at sea off the east coast of Africa - but how did it start and why?

The roots of the Somali piracy problem lie in illegal fishing vessels working off the Somalian coast, starving the population and forcing them to choose between piracy and starvation - a simplistic but accurate description that brings us to how things have escalated initially motivated by basic human desire - a well documented human response and know to students of psychology the world over as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - and they begin with food, it's that simple.

Video and story courtesy of Marine & Oceans

An exceptional description of Aart Zeeman (images of Ton van der Plas), on the Somali pirates, produced by KRO broadcast company. Confidence of a pirate questioned in this paper: "When you want to survive, one exit, find money. This means: search foreigners with white skin (...). We're not afraid of ships of war. Even if they shoot at us, we board. We do not fear one thing - much worse than the guns and bullets - hunger! Bring your aircraft, your boat, your submarines, we do not fear. " M & O chose to disseminate this document so that we learn that the European Force struck a base of pirates onshore in Somalia, under the new mandate given to it by the United Nations until 2014.


Does this have any relevance to the lives of working fishermen in the UK? 


Many think so. The current Fishermen's Friend movement is seeking to publicise the rise of powerful business interests buying up UK fishing rights by the back door through the management and ownership of quotas. With the POs responsible for the biggest vessels in the UK fleet, under 10m and other inshore fishermen are slowly, quickly in some cases losing the power to make a living from fish just as if illegal fishing vessels were entering their waters and taking the fish. Things are so bad for these fishermen that NUTFA has taken the unprecedented step of joining forces with Greenpeace to try and save the livelihoods of working UK inshore fishermen who feel they are being forced to the wall by crude fisheries management that fails to take into account the sustainable working practices that they have been using for years. They are unlikely to resort to the desperate measures of their Somalian brothers of course, though some might see an alliance with Greenpeace as an act betrayal bordering on insanity - desperate times need desperate measures and it is good to see both sides willing to put the past behind them and move forward - witness the state of Palestine and the sad state of the West Bank as a glaring example of where this has yet to happen,

The Sea Spray's quota has now been slashed to just 2.25 tonnes.

In Area VII this month, the current pollock quota was cut to one ton a month per boat - for those inshore boats that catch pollock for a living this could mean the end. Even if they were allowed to catch as much as they could, that amount might not exceed ten tons at this time of year - but that ten tons would earn them enough to sustain them financially for those winter months when they cannot even get to sea. 


Here are two relevant comments posted below from the Guardian's article earlier this week:

"This is the sort of issue, and approach to the issue, that saw my wholehearted support for GreenPeace in the distant past, before you became increasingly associated with "opposition to everything", much of which conflicts with my views of best outcomes for humanity and the planet in the short, medium, and long term. Congratulations on an excellent choice of target, and please continue to raise the profile of your activities in this area."

Interesting to note the reaction and action suggested in this comment apropros the story at the beginning of this post!

"Overfishing is not simply a UK problem, nor is the problem restricted to one or two types of fish that we like to eat. Shortsighted greed is destroying entire ocean ecologies with practices such as driftnet fisheries that kill everything and then throw away anything that isn't being canned that day. It's hard to believe flying a pennant on small fishing vessels will accomplish anything. It's time to declare war on the piracy of fish stocks before the ocean becomes a dead place. The piracy of fish stocks is ecological terrorism. Send in the navy."

Local fish, local restaurant, local customers.

How one restaurant with very strong connections with the local fleet is giving customers the freshest fish with guaranteed provenance.

Plea from fishmongers 'up country'!

See newlyn fish market closing down for 4 days for bank holidays!!! FFS WE NEED FISH EVERY DAY!!!