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.
Making her last landing for the year, young Jermey Hosking's Nazarene lays to the fish market...
as the sky begins to lighten...
the harbour gets a warm glow from the south...
there's still plenty of work to do on this beamer...
interestingly, Newlyn's latest boat to the join the fleet is still sporting her French name and number...
and she is by far the biggest purpose built netter in the local fleet...
sporting a huge stern...
there's still a few jobs to be finished on the big three beamers from Stevenson's fleet before the boys can finally hang their oilies up for the last time this year...
while aboard the Corin's new boat the paint is being applied during breaks between showers...
one of the green team's admirals, Charlie Downing takes a break...
before a helping hand is offered...
the Cornish Sardine cat, Lyonesse makes her way in...
looks like a new name and numbers for the new blue beamer...
the harbour's tree is looking spruce...
as is the one outside the Mission....
the recent heavy seas have scoured the beach off Newlyn Green to reveal the subsoil in places, its not so long ago that the fields on the Lidden ran down to the beach...
Tom is still keeping an eye on things...
pretty as a picture and calm enough with a gale forecast for the night sure to curtail the year's fishing for the fleet.
The Newlyn trawler Fern and the St Mary's lifeboat search in vain for survivors in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The Penlee lifeboat had been called out to the coaster Union Star which was unable to use her main engine. She later founded on rocks near Tater Dhu. The Penlee lifeboat was dashed to pieces by the force of the storm.
The crews of both vessels were lost and some bodies were never recovered.
Many of the Penlee crew had been socialising in the British Legion club when the alarm was raised.
Only one volunteer per family was chosen because the weather was so treacherous.
Reports suggest the Solomon Browne crew kept moving alongside the Union Star, at least twice it was thrown on the coaster's deck, and on another occasion slammed into its side.
But it appeared to move away under control and its last message confirmed four people had been rescued.
A helicopter crew saw Solomon Browne, only 50 yards off shore, apparently turn back perhaps in another rescue bid.
There was no further radio contact with the lifeboat and her lights disappeared 10 minutes later.
Posthumous awards of gallantry were made to the coxswain, crew and station and the Queen sent a message of sympathy to the bereaved families.
This will be an intense fisheries week in Brussels, with ministers setting next year’s quotas and the Parliament’s Fisheries Committee voting on the most important file in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
EU fisheries ministers will set quotas for the North Sea and Atlantic next year.
The UK fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, described this yearly tradition to the Observer: “It is 48 hours of solid, sweaty negotiations. It is known as a three-shirter session.”
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will vote 18 December to put a stop to this tradition.
MEPs will vote on the following proposals: Fishing quotas should be fixed at certain limits under multi-annual plans, instead of having 48-hour negotiations once a year. In case a multi-annual plan is not in place for a fish stock, there will be a default rule forcing ministers to follow scientific advice and set sustainable quotas. More precisely, sustainable quotas would be put in place 2015 in order to rebuild fish stocks tto follow scientific advice and set sustainable quotas. More precisely, sustainable quotas would be put in place 2015 in order to rebuild fish stocks to healthy levels by 2020.
However, the vote is expected to be very tight. There is a division between MEPs who want to rebuild fish stocks on the one side, and MEPs who want to keep the status quo on the other. One member of the Fisheries Committee, UK liberal Chris Davies, tweeted last week: “Counting Heads. Very tight. Maybe one vote in it on rebuilding fish stocks.”
Everybody can follow the voting online on Monday on the Committee website. The rapporteur, Ulrike Rodust (Germany, S&D), has scheduled a press conference 16:30 Tuesday 18 December, which can also be viewed online.
More information: Fisheries Committee meeting 17–18 December 2012
Ministers should honour their commitment to restore Europe's fisheries by 2015 by making catch reductions this year
From fish and chips after work to smoked salmon at a Christmas party; jellied eels to Stargazy pie: fish is part of our culinary heritage.Overfishing is emptying our seas, ruining once profitable fisheries, and costing us dearly in reduced landings and lost jobs. Crucial decisions to be taken in a few days' time could determine whether or not generations to come will enjoy the dinner-table staples so many of us take for granted.
Tomorrow, on 18 December, UK fisheries minister Richard Benyon, will join his EU counterparts to agree on the 2013 catch limits for European fish. It is an opportunity for ministers to show resolve and set fishing limits that do not exceed scientific advice. Benyon should prove that he has the best interests of the UK's fishing industry at heart by supporting the restoration of Europe's fish stocks.
Also tomorrow the fisheries committee of the European Parliament will vote on reform of the EU's common fisheries policy. Members of the European parliament have the chance to take a stand on decades of chronic overfishing. MEPs, including the influential senior vice-president of the committee, the Scottish Conservative Struan Stevenson, need to lead the EU out of the wilderness of its failed fisheries policy, and hold firm to member states' 2002 international commitment to restore fish stocks to maximum sustainable yield by 2015. Overfishing is a waste of jobs and money, and if Stevenson wants to support the livelihoods of fishers and coastal communities he will need to support fish stock restoration.
In short, these two decisions by ministers and MEPs will be milestones in determining whether we end overfishing in and by the EU and, if we do, by when. With 62% of fish stocks in the Atlantic and 82% of fish stocks in the Mediterranean currently overfished, and catches in the North Sea down from 3.5m tonnes in 1995 to less than 1.5m in 2007, the situation is certainly challenging. But it is not hopeless; overfishing is the most immediately solvable environmental challenge facing the EU. There is the knowledge, experience, tools and public support to stop it. What is needed is the political courage to end 30 years of fisheries management based on short-term interest.
An example for the EU is the United States, where overfishing was made illegal in 2006 under the Magnuson–Stevens Reauthorisation Act. The ministers and MEPs involved in next week's votes need to show the same level of ambition as their US colleagues by setting limits in accordance with scientific advice and by calling for the restoration of fish stocks. Only this will guarantee the long-term profitability of Europe's fisheries and the future viability of our own fishing communities.
Last year, catch limits set by fisheries ministers exceeded scientific advice on average by 41%. In June, the European Commission issued a communication outlining the state of fish stocks, and has proposed fishing limits for 2013. Its assessment revealed that limits based on restoring fish stocks are already starting to deliver results, most notably in the Atlantic, where the rate of overfishing is going down. Cod stocks in the North Sea seem to be slowly recovering from the brink of collapse.
Ministers must honour their commitment to restore Europe's fisheries by 2015 by making the necessary catch reductions this year. Any claims that doing so is impossible in light of the economic crisis are counterintuitive; we cannot afford not to act, in order to make fishing more profitable in the medium term. A recent study by the New Economics Foundation, Jobs Lost at Sea, shows just how much we are losing – in terms of fish, revenue and jobs – by failing to do so. Restoring 43% of stocks in the north-east Atlantic would generate an additional €3.2bn (£2.6bn) a year (more than three times the current EU fisheries subsidy), and support over 100,000 new jobs, including more than 11,000 in the UK. The value of the catch in the UK and other fishing states would more than double, while prices for consumers would go down.
Benyon, Stevenson and their colleagues need to capitalise on growing public support and seize this historic chance. By voting to finally turn the tide on overfishing they would really give us something to celebrate this Christmas.
