Not quite surrounded by Breton trawlers

VesselTracker's re-styled Cockpit view shows how there is a fleet of Breton trawlers all working in approaches to the Bristol Channel - 'up channel' would be the Newlyn term. Still working despite the bad weather, the biggest of Newlyn's fishing boats the beam trawler St Georges can be seen south of Mount's Bay - well away from the Breton fleet. 

North Sea Groundfish Survey

The North Sea Groundfish Survey is the longest running fisheries time-series that Cefas runs. In the early 1960's European institutes were running their own small scale pelagic surveys (mostly herring as at the time this was a very valuable fish in the North Sea). Then in the mid 1960's a group called the International Young Fish Survey group, formed and started to try and standardise all countries survey protocols. Finally in the 1990's this group (now called the International Bottom Trawl Survey Working Group), managed to get each participating country (8 in total), to use the same gear, the same sampling protocols and now we are even putting all of our collected data into the same place (DATRAS, an ICES data centre data portal). 

It is difficult to imagine the amount of time and effort required to get all of the participating countries to do this ( at least one 5 day meeting a year as well and countless hours during long days at sea), but the outcome is a well coordinated, highly successful survey series that contributed to more than 11 stocks for ICES stock assessment and numerous additional scientific uses, including work for PhD and Masters students, as well as internal Cefas and Defra science, that will be used to inform the future of fisheries science and stock assessments. As we fish around the grid, we collect data that will be quality controlled, uploaded to databases and examined, in order to provide the highest quality data for the uses mentioned above. Cefas prides itself on the production of this high quality data and invests time in training its entire fisheries sea-going staff, to make sure they are all trained to the highest possible level. 

On this survey we have one "new to fisheries surveys" staff member that, by the time she leaves the vessel at the mid survey break in Aberdeen, will be able to use the Electronic Data Capture system (EDC, described in last year's blog), biological sample a number of commercial fish species and identify the majority of the fish species that we catch during the first half of the survey.

Cheryl learning one of the many skills needed to carrying out the NSGFS.

Get the full set of postings from the seagoing Cefas blog here:

Well wet Wednesday

 With a forecast giving gusts up to 50mph some boats at sea beat ahasty retreat and managed to get their fish on te market this morning........

 including these megrim soles from the Billy Rowney......

 and a cracking mixed trip from the William Samson Stevenson.........

 including these gleaming cod, their man down the fishroom does an excellent job........

 summer ray by the box......

 always the trickiest part of the job, as a Cefas recruit learns how to cut out otoliths from lemon soles...... 

 landing to the back of the waiting transport......

 net fish from the Britannia IV.........

 bound for tomorrow's fish market at Plymouth.......

 courtesy of Dennis Oates transport......

 after the trip it i time to go through the beam trawl and replace all those worn out links and shackles, rebuilding port side.......

 it may dry up later and allow more painting and scarping aboard the Cornishman........

 more pots being put together for the new crabber.......

after 112 years serving the fishing community, it appears that headquarters at Barclays are to shut the Newlyn branch - on landing days not so many years ago, someone from W Stevenson and Sons' office would make the short walk to the bank to pick up sufficient cash to pay out the boats and crews - in those days most of the boats would settle up with cash rather than cheques - on very busy landing days this would probably exceed £200,000! - and the preferred means of carrying the cash was more often than not a couple of Co-op carrier bags!

A shared vision with UK fishermen to ensure a future for fishing

All rights reserved. Credit: © Greenpeace

Cornish fisherman, Ben, with Greenpeace campaigner, Alicia, raising the Be a Fisherman's Friend campaign flag

This year, as we've been working closely with UK small scale fishermen, one thing has become abundantly clear: the EU Common Fisheries Policy, or CFP, is not working. Full stop.

It's not working for fishermen in the communities along our coasts; it's not working for fish or the marine environment and it's certainly not working for consumers.

That's why, today, we launched a joint manifesto with NUTFA (the New Under Ten Fishermen's Association, the guys who support and represent small scale fishermen), and a number of Fishermen’s Associations.  This manifesto is our shared vision -- it calls on the UK government to ensure a future for fish and fishing communities by supporting local, sustainable fishermen, via radical reform of the CFP.  And it sets out agreement between Greenpeace and fishermen, as to what exactly needs to change.  Yes, that’s right, environmentalists and fishermen agreeing on fishy issues!

The alliances that have formed between Greenpeace and fishermen this year may seem unusual to some – but gone are the days of throwing stones at each other – at the end of the day, both Greenpeace and the UK’s inshore fishermen want a  future with (sustainable) fish on the plate but plenty left in the sea.  We work with low impact fishermen, who look after their patch.  And who, tragically, may be the last of their kind, due to broken European and domestic fisheries polices that are stacked in favour of powerful European fleets.

Europe's fishing grounds, which were once the largest in the world, are dwindling. In fact, over 70% of our fish stocks are overfished. And the situation isn't getting any better.  Highly industrialised European fishing fleets continue to overfish our seas, using unsustainable and often destructive methods of fishing. Their fleets are so powerful that they can catch up to 3 times more fish than the ocean can handle.

If only there were rules and regulations to stop this from happening! This is where the CFP comes in. The irony is that this policy was put in place by the EU some 40 years ago precisely to avoid this kind of situation. The situation we find ourselves in today, however, is a mess.

Both current and past policies favour the most influential and powerful European fishing fleets, enabling them to overfish our seas.  These operations, many of which are both environmentally and economically unsustainable, are often kept afloat with taxpayers' money.

What this means in practice is that parts of the European fleet catch more fish than is sustainable, while disenfranchising small scale, sustainable fishers. In the UK, these small scale operators - also known as "under 10s" or boats that are under 10 metres in length - make up more than three quarters of the total UK fleet. The majority of them use selective methods that produce high quality fish, allow fish stocks to replenish themselves and have little impact on the marine environment.

But they have consistently suffered under an unfair system – despite representing 77% of the UK fishing fleet, small-scale boats receive only 4% of the fishing quota.  Our local fishermen in Cornwall, East Sussex, Devon and other coastal communities around the UK are in real danger of losing their livelihoods. Local fishing communities who have fished responsibly for generations are shrinking, and may disappear forever.  Meanwhile, they watch as highly-industrialised vessels from countries such as Spain and France fish on the 6 nautical mile mark, given “traditional” fishing rights under the CFP.

So, as the CFP is under review for the first time in a decade, Greenpeace and fishermen jointly call for a new CFP that gives the right to fish to those who fish in the right way, ends destructive fishing practices, and puts the health of our oceans at the very heart of the CFP.  

By working with Greenpeace, the voices of the UK's sustainable fishermen have a chance to be heard. Together we are trying to salvage a future for fish, fishermen, and coastal communities. But we can't do it without you. Be a fisherman's friend and show the UK government that together, we're a voice that must be heard.

One sunny Tuesday morning

 A quiet market this morning, but it was top quality inshore fish on sale at 6.30am.......

 with some big guns from Cefas on walkabout.......

 large medium mackerel were making over £6 a kilo - good news for the hand-line boys able to catch them!......

 a night on the scad for some.......

 a guiding hand in the back of the lorry.......

 takes fish from the ever-calm Tuna King.........

 hot work in the fishroom.......

 the St Malo trawler, Azur has reduced revs and raised temperatures on her engine - a sure sign there is something around the propeller - mending the trawl while waiting for the diver to arrive......

 also waiting, this time for a quiet spell of weather before heading off to the Scillies........

 heading back to tier - top scad boat.........

 Lola, a classic wooden yacht from........

 Skagen in the Sweden

 time for the old timer to go up on the slip......

 never mind the weather, the Hull registered Cloudy heads into port.......

 waiting to get wet......

 waiting to get dry.......

 landing time for the Nova.......

 there's word that tuna are being caught around the Porcupine Bank, maybe next year.......

 now you know where to go when in need of a local picture framing service in Newlyn.....

 the ever polite Debs in the Star puts Mr Mundy straight.......

 no problem........

 get on yer bike and raise some cash, the Penwith Peninsula cycle ride......

don't forget, Olympic Champion rower, Helen Glover will be showing off her gold medal this coming weekend!

Glover ice cream victory bus hits Newlyn and Penzance

1/2: @JessicaS_PZ: RT @CornishMining: Sunday, Aug 19 Gold Medallist Helen Glover open top bus tour through Newlyn and Penzance starting at 11 am. Get out there!

Thursday morning

 Looks like the torch, and not an Olympic one, has been wrought on the Anneleise......

 to remove the winch-house casing.......

 plenty of fish on the market this morning including plenty of langoustine from the Trevessa IV.......

what looks like a promising day weatherwise as low wisps of cloud hang over the sea......

giving the Bay an eerie feel.......

you never know what will come up next in the trawl - all photos courtesy of Edwin Hosking at Ocean Fish.