Through the Gaps! - Newlyn Fishing News Cornwall UK fish commercial fishing fish cooking and art

Sunday 23 June 2013

England claw some points back in the JWC final!

England's first try is disallowed!

Art in the public domain - of poets and poetry

To see paintings hung in museumsand galleries is a rare treat - Penzance has the wonderful Penlee Gallery which plays permanent home to a number of stunning Newlyn School works by Forbes, Harvey and other members of this amazing art phenonomen, however....

The current show at Penlee Museum and Gallery includes the iconic painting by Garstin, The Rain it Raineth, taking photos in the gallery is strictly forbidden so it was by pure chance that these two images came the way of TtGaps ;-), there is no chance of printing any kind of quality image from low resolution image taken on a phone - but the number of people seeing this image reproduced 1000s of times across social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram might just hugely increase the number of people keen to visit the gallery who might never have heard of it...

and you really need to see works like this watercolour in the flesh to appreciate the truly dazzling palette of reds!

Greenpeace’s ignorance will damage small-scale fishermen

The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations response to Greenpeace’s interpretation of the CFP reforms:

A long-awaited agreement on EU fisheries policy is finally in sight. This is welcome news to all concerned, including politicians, those working in the commercial fishing industry and by environmentalists, too. Yet, some environmentalists appear to have become confused by what this Common Fisheries Policy reform will mean: Greenpeace has got itself excited that it will result in a wholesale redistribution of quota from the offshore larger vessels, which are mostly in producer organisations, to the small-scale fleet of which only some are in POs. From what we have seen of the CFP text, it means nothing of the sort.

Currently it is the member states’ prerogative how quota is distributed internally and it looks like that’s the way it’ll stay. Ministers already have the authority to redistribute quota and have used their powers from time to time by "top slicing" (extracting quota for redistribution before it is allocated on the usual basis) and "underpinning", where additional quota is redirected to the under-10m fleet when quotas fall below a certain level.

In its appetite for a simplistic narrative of victims and villains, Greenpeace departs from some important realities. A four per cent share of the national quota, which it claims is the extent of the under-10s chunk, is a good hook for Greenpeace's emotional propaganda; but as always with Greenpeace, the reality is a little different. Most species caught by the small scale fleet, like crab, lobster and bass, aren't even under quota. We consider that Greenpeace is exploiting divisions and frustrations in the fishing industry for its own ends and, while it asserts itself as on the side of small fishermen, its ignorance of the industry and issues at hand will damage those it claims to represent.

It is important to challenge Greenpeace fictions as they arise and so we would make the following points:

The size of a fishing vessel is no guarantee that it is fishing sustainably. Large or small, it is what the vessel does that counts. Discards are a challenge for large and small vessels equally.

Small vessels tend to have limited range. Inshore waters therefore come under greater fishing pressure than offshore areas. A mass transfer of quota from the “industrial” fleet to the small-scale fleet would mean two things: a lot of quota going uncaught, as it would be out of range, and an increase in fishing pressure in the vulnerable inshore zone as new vessels joined the fleet. It would be existing inshore fishermen who are the worst hit – a serious own goal. To a high degree, large and small vessels are interdependent. As we have seen with the port of Lowestoft, without a fleet of large vessels, port infrastructures are unsustainable and the small-scale fleet withers. The larger vessels provide the continuity in landings necessary to support marketing and ice facilities. Greenpeace considers that gill nets are indiscriminate, bottom trawling destructive and long lines have an impact on sharks and seabirds; this leaves the question: how are we going to catch fish to provide food security for our people?

The inshore fleet does face challenges and some of those challenges relate to quota shortage. However, there is not, as Greenpeace asserts, a generalised quota shortage across the whole under-10m fleet. The shortages are felt most acutely amongst the larger under-10s in the South East and these are best addressed by groups of under-10m fishermen working collaboratively with their local producer organisation. Producer organisations have the direct day-to-day experience of sourcing quota as and when it is needed. Recently, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) successfully brokered an agreement between a number of producer organisations and under-10m fishermen in the South East and Thames Estuary, breaking the preceding deadlock. This was a demonstration that the industry has the capacity to work together and to generate solutions.

Clearly Greenpeace’s reading of the recent CFP reform is different from ours. But to be clear, UK ministers have always had the power to redistribute quota through top-slicing and under-pinning and in that regard nothing has changed. Moving on from these reforms, our preference is for the industry to work together to alleviate quota shortages as they arise and the NFFO will continue tackling disputes with this proven approach of cooperation and collaboration.

Barrie Deas Chief Executive, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations

Under a mackerel sky, under new ownership - a must-do place to eat in Penzance

After over ten years of outstanding quality and service under the nurturing hand of Stevie McCrindle...

the Mackerel Sky restaurant in Penzance now has new owners who have already stamped thier own mark on this iconic Penwith eatery in the centre of town...

owner and chef Jamie MacLean's better half, art teacher Nina has added some colour and joie-de-vivre to the upstairs room...with this eponymous mural of Mount's Bay under a mackerel sky...

this squid in feather-light batter was a work of art in itself...

and like all the fish on the menu it doesn't get any fresher than that supplied by either the Newlyn Fish company or Mousehole Fish...

the welcome aboard sign outside means come on in and enjoy in any language!

Rubbishing Science?

Here's a post from the NFFO with regard to some recent comments from Greenpeace and scientific advice:

It's more than a little strange for Greenpeace, in its attempts to demonise the NFFO, to claim that we should "respect scientific advice rather than rubbishing it". Where have they been?

Haven't they heard of the groundbreaking Fisheries Science Partnership, which has set the standard for participative scientific advice in Europe, and which the NFFO pioneered along with CEFAS and DEFRA?

Or what about the NFFO's role in the NWWRAC's data deficiency initiative, working with ICES?

Or our work with scientists on long term management plans in the Celtic sea, the Irish Sea and the North Sea?

Wasn't the NFFO a leading member of the North Sea Commission Fisheries Partnership that established a dialogue with scientists at an international level for the first time and led to the establishment of the North Sea RAC?

Hasn't the NFFO called for the Commission to take into account the latest scientific work on deep sea fisheries?

Once again some rudimentary homework would have saved Greenpeace a lot of embarrassment. The first rule of science is "get your facts right". As we have said on more than one occasion now, fishermen have a deep interest in objective, rigorous, impartial science - if only to fend off the more outlandish claims of professional doomsayers like Greenpeace.

Saturday 22 June 2013

Our Lass III - brand new fishing vessel craned into the water in Whitby

Another young skipper and fishing family invested into the industry and there vessel will be launched today, we at Real Fish Fight wish them all the very best. Our Lass III Whitby.