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.
If anyone these days starts talking about Cornwall and the visual arts, the chances are that it will be Alfred Wallis, Tate St Ives and the modernism of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson that come to mind.
But a new exhibition opening on Saturday at Two Temple Place – the fabulous faux-Gothic palace originally built by the American magnate William Waldorf Astor alongside Victoria Embankment – reminds us of an older and unfairly neglected tradition associated with that intermittently bleak and beautiful county.
Amongst Heroes: the Artist in Working Cornwall has been curated by the young art historian Roo Gunzi, in partnership with the Royal Cornwall Museum. It brings together paintings from artists’ colonies in Newlyn and St Ives, mostly executed between 1880 and 1920 and several of which have not been seen in public for more than a century.
"they aim to show not tragic victims of poverty and oppression, but the plain facts of honest toil"
What they characteristically depict – in a style influenced by masters of the naturalist Barbizon school such as Millet and Corot – is the daily life of peasants and fisherfolk, recorded with an absence of special pleading. The objectivity is significant, Gunzi emphasises. These aren’t sentimental or ideologically loaded paintings: almost all of them painted en plein air or directly from life, they aim to show not tragic victims of poverty and oppression, but the plain facts of honest toil. The artists (only two of them native to the area) focused on something both picturesque and primitive – a combination very much to the late Victorian-early Edwardian taste. Around the end of the 19th century, Cornwall remained an undiscovered part of the country, largely untouched by industrialism and not a holiday destination or romanticised by Daphne du Maurier.
London art lovers were fascinated by this unfamiliar landscape. Painters such as Stanhope Forbes found great favour at the Royal Academy with scenic tableaux such as A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach, while Charles Napier Hemy was admired for his spectacular depiction of the trawling of pilchards, painted on the sea from a neighbouring boat. Henry Scott Tuke’s portraits of grizzled seafarers also have great charm, but these painters were generally more interested in rural and maritime craft than in individuals, and as well as the skills and objects associated with boats, harbours and fishmongery, blacksmiths’ forges and claypit quarrying provided them with rich subject-matter.
The exhibition, which runs until April 14, will complement the pictures with relics such as pressing stones, netting needles, hand barrows and even an oyster dredger. Don’t go expecting to see masterpieces, but this is a rewarding examination of a little-known chapter in the history of British painting. Story courtesy of the Arts section in the Daily Telegraph.
Mackerel has been taken off 'fish to eat' list due to overfishing outside the EU. But eating the occasional tin won't do any harm
Single handed inshore fishermen like Dennis Pascoe above must feel entirely aggrieved at the decision to remove mackerel from the 'fish to eat' list - the amount of mackerel caught by fishermen in a year would not begin to amount to a single haul from one of the big boats who take 99.9% of the NE quota.
It was ironic that I got the call that the Marine Conservation Society , had downgraded mackerel from its "eat with a happy heart" list, to "eat with caution", as I was putting a tin of mackerel into my shopping basket. Just last week, we were told that mackerel was plentiful and good for us. But, although this is news that hits and confuses consumers now, it's actually a story that started some years before. First, let me tell you that the mackerel in question is from north-east Atlantic stocks (an area from Gibraltar to Russia). It is not endangered. Not yet. The scientists at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) are the ones that look at fish stocks and make recommendations as to what are the limits of any fish caught . This limit changes every year, is decided in December and becomes part of the common fisheries policy (CFP) which governs EU fisheries. These fishing quotas are reported in the press but most consumers quite understandably glaze over them. But if you had read the reports, you'd have seen that something was going on with mackerel.
What the ICES has said about mackerel is that its spawning stock biomass is currently at about 2.7 million tonnes. The safe biological figure is 2.3 million tonnes and it's not expected to fall below that figure at "current exploitation levels" until 2014; but that's only next year – hence why fish conservation organisations are concerned now. So the spawning biomass is currently above the levels required for a healthy stock, but, it's declining and there is a downward trend.
It's a sad story. Until recently mackerel fishing was well managed. The EU and Norway (which has allied itself closely with the EU in fishery terms) had a 90% quota of the total mackerel quota; the remaining 10% went to Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Until 2008, there were almost no catches reported in the Icelandic and Faroese waters, because there just weren't that many mackerel in the water to catch. But, in recent years, the mackerel have started to migrate, due to a myriad of factors such as rising sea temperature and to chase their food. These other coastal states wanted more than their 10%. In 2010 they started to increase their catches from 20% to 32% of the total allowed. Since 2009, Iceland and the Faroe Islands have unilaterally agreed their own quotas, which they are legally allowed to do as they are not governed by the common fisheries policy. Their own quota is about 150,000 tonnes over and above the recommended limits.
So you see, there is currently no international agreement which governs mackerel fishing limits, although there is hope of one this year. Understandably, EU fisherman are pissed off and everyone is confused.
On 31 March 2012, all seven mackerel fisheries in the UK that held the Marine Stewardship Council "tick" logo lost their accreditation. In other words any fresh mackerel they caught and that we buy, from that date on, could no longer be described as traceably sustainable. This suspension came after two years of catches above scientific advice and as a result too much mackerel catching by non-EU fleets.
There is hope. Next month there will be a meeting of scientists, representatives of the EU fisheries and also those from Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland to find a way forward. Various scientific data will be carried out this spring with results expected in September which will give up-to-date information on mackerel stocks.
The Marine Conservation Society reached its decision after looking at scientific advice, the Marine Stewardship Council's move to suspend mackerel certification, and the reasons behind that move. Its "fish to eat" list is updated annually, in February each year, hence the timing of this announcement. The advice may well change back again next year.
So, do you need to be carefully concerned? Yes. Alarmed? No. But the difficulty is that there is no obvious help for the consumer. You can ask where mackerel in a shop or restaurant has come from and how it's caught, but as no fresh mackerel currently holds the MSC tick logo, technically none is sustainable. So, time to look at other sources of omega 3s and treat yourself to the odd tin of mackerel occasionally. On these you will likely still find the MSC logo, as they would have been caught prior to 31March 2012. So you can breathe easily. For now. Story courtesy of the Guarian. In response to this news, the much publicised 'mac in a bap' campaign led Hughr Fearnely-Whittingstall is being toned down - though the chef has said they will continue to source ther mackerel from South West handline caught sources - good news for the likes of Dennis Pascoe and all other handliners in the region!
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall said he would, in line with the MCS guidance, be dropping his call for mackerel to be more widely eaten. He was infuriated that mackerel stocks have been allowed to decline and urged countries involved in the mackerel war to reach an accord.
“When we started the mac bap campaign 2 years ago, mackerel was certified as sustainable and part of a well managed fishery,” he said.
“Unfortunately things have changed, and politics and greed are getting in the way of common sense. If the countries involved could agree sensible catch limits this could still be a certified sustainable fishery.
“We hope that these so called mackerel wars can be laid to rest as soon as possible, so we can all go back to eating mackerel again with a clear conscience.”
He promised to reduce the use of mackerel in his River Cottage restaurants in line with MCS advice and added: “MCS are advising that handline-caught mackerel from inshore boats is the best choice to make when eating mackerel.
“At our River Cottage cookery school and canteens we will continue to serve South West handline caught mackerel on an occasional basis, as we do not wish do withdraw our support from small scale local fishermen who are catching mackerel in the most sustainable way possible.”
Raymond Blanc, the two Michelin-starred chef, described the plight of mackerel as “horrible” and said its decline “clearly is an example of the failure of politics”.
Tim Glover, chief executive of Fish2fork, was equally appalled: “It is quite unacceptable that mackerel has become a political pawn. It is paying the price of irresponsible brinkmanship.”
Just two years ago mackerel was being hailed as the sustainable alternative to cod but it is now being heavily overfished.
Of course there's an equally nutritious Cornish alternative to Omege3 rich mackerel - why not seek out plentiful Cornish Sardines at your local fresh fish shop - many supermarkets - like Waitrose sell these fish which are in top condition at this time of year.
Here's an excellent reason to justify the actions of individual fishermen in making their voce heard via new communication tools! Here, Jim Portus chairman of the South West Fish Producer's Organisation passes on his thanks to Aaron Mcloughlin who has started an online discussion: Campaign to Continue the Discarding of Fish
I am so pleased that a professional fisherman has started of his own accord this sensible debate. As a representative of such fishermen I will find it so much easier to take this argument to the top of the bureaucracy in Westminster and in Brussels where dyed-in-the-wool desk drivers have been pontificating for a number of years about banning discards without any regard for the practicalities and, crucially ignoring the fact that many species survive quite well the discards process, especially if fishermen are mindful of the need to be prompt with their handling of such fish that they have no need to keep. Many fishermen in SWFPO Ltd and in other sector groups, have been working with enlightened scientists studying the rates of survival with worthy results. Most flatfish, Plaice, Sole, Skates and Rays survive at 40% to 100%, thus a ban on discards would increase mortality without benefit. If inshore small-boat fishers are forced to keep discards there are obvious safety and stability implications, not to mention the dispiriting effects of sorting fish for no reward solely for a landfill site! Well done Aaron.
No snow in Newlyn but those who traveled in from a few miles away were all subjected to a few inches overnight...
with the only ice around being in the boxes of fish waiting for auction...
the White Heather landed late this morning...
with a good shot of twenty tons...
these Zoology students are the first from University of Falmouth to visit the harbour and see the auction in action - such was their dedication that even thought their minibus driver didn't make it because of the snow they rallied round at 5 am to sort their own transport!!...
a good shot of cuttles from the beamers filled the middle market section
