#FishyFriday finds fish-a-plenty on Newlyn market

Visiting Bideford registered Our Olivia Belle spent the night in port...

pots awaiting anew home at sea...

in front of the the old pilot's office...

 which has a commanding view of Mount's Bay out to the Lizard and across the harbour...

including the quay crane that is now suffering from serious neglect...

and likely to be removed as H&S concerns become more important than maintaining some of the harbour's character - maybe the opportunity for a restoration project #goodidea ...

early start for the Rowse crab boys...

as they head for a landing berth...

there's a run of small cod on the inshore grounds at the moment...

while the signs of autumn grow daily as the #bass boys get to work

there is still plenty of fish with the beam trawl fleet...

filling the market at one end...

going strong to are the sardiners...

here the Asthore makes her way back to her berth on the pontoon...

plenty of pots to sort on the crabber Intuition...

plenty of paint still need for the Lisa...

only 25 sleeps before Newlyn regains its beloved Co-op!...

a hazy start to #FishyFriday...

as the sun tried hard to crack the cloud cover.

Dead dolphin washed up on the beach

Washed up on the beach at Newlyn Green and at first sight for many the result of the animal having been caught up in fishing net around its tail...

however, closer inspection reveals that the small size of the mesh does not justify this as the cause of its demise...

the tag denotes that it will be logged and studied.

There is a live database of stranding around the Cornish coast maintained by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust - click here for more information.

Newlyn harbour's new Advisory Board members get the harbour tour

Newly appointed members of the NPHC Advisory Board met last night for the first time as an informal get together and were given a tour of the harbour by harbourmaster Rob Parsons. Gilbert McCabe, chair of the commissioners and Rob Wing walked and talked in support.

The aptly named  Go For It! makes her way to the fish market to land...

as harbourmaster Rob Parsons...

takes the newly appointed members of the Advisory Board on a tour of the harbour...

where some of the changes under his new leadership are already self-evident, like recently appointed assistant harbour master Paul Oliver on evening walkabout...

the harbour is at the heart of the community in Newlyn, the harbour office flying at half mast evidence of that closeness...

where danger is never far from people's minds as the two lifeboats are testimony to...

an industry striving to create a better future for the men who work in it, here a new small-scale fish pumping system get demonstrated to the skippers of some of the local sardine boats...

as tyhe evening sees the rest of the day boats...

make their way to the fish market.

NPHC Advisory Board

The new Advisory Board will meet for the first time in October when they will get the chance to elect a chairperson and familarise themselves with their role and responsibilities.


Board members represent a broad cross section of the local community from the local church, ex-fish merchant, fishing skippers to IFCA, Green Cornwall Programme Manager and a Marketing Specialist!

Ford Steven
Jeremy Hosking
Joe Clive
John Moreland
Keith Owen
Laurence Hartwell
Paul Trebilcock
Sam Winters
Simon Cadman
The Good Governance Guide stipulated that each Trust port should work with a nominated Advisory Board to put in place a system of checks annd balances.  The terms under which the AB operates is outlined below:

Role and Responsibilities

The Commission will convey to the Advisory Body the issues that they plan to address over not less than a 3-month period, so that the Advisory Body can offer advice and guidance.

The Advisory Body will

• Consider as a basis for their work, the Operational and Strategic Business Plans of the Commission, so that they can input in a timely manner.
• Independently determine issues that they wish to address in relation to the governance and management of NPHC operations.
• Respond to requests from the Commission or any of its committees for advice and guidance.
• Keep abreast of activities in the harbour and discuss matters of concern.
• Address issues raised with them by other stakeholders.
• Make recommendations based on their discussions for the consideration of the Commission or a Committee of the Commission.
• Meet jointly with the Commission from time to time to discuss strategy and future plans.
• Provide members to panels set up by the Commissioners requiring independent representation.
• Provide feedback to the Commission as to the effectiveness of its stakeholder consultations and the quality of its communications.
• Assist with the organisation of consultations, surveys and questionnaires to identify stakeholder opinion concerning the services delivered by the Commissioners.

Advisory Board Terms of Reference

1. The Commissioners hereby establish the Newlyn Pier and Harbour Commission Advisory Body in accordance with Article 12 of its Harbour Revision Order 2010, which the Commissioners must consult on all matters substantially affecting the harbour.
2. The Commissioners must take into consideration any matter, recommendation or representation which may from time to time be referred or made to them by an advisory body whether or not that advisory body has been consulted by the Commissioners.
3. The Advisory Body to the Commissioners therefore is constituted to consider all issues pertinent to the good governance and management of Newlyn Harbour and its related operations and assets, paying particular attention to the role of Newlyn Harbour as a Trust Port.
4. The Commission and its component Committees are required to consider any recommendations made to them by the Advisory Body, but are not compelled to implement any advice or guidance. They are however expected to provide the Advisory Body with feedback on any advice not implemented.
5. The Advisory Body established under article 12 of the Harbour Revision Order is to consist of such number of persons appointed by the Commissioners as the Commissioners consider appropriate. The Commissioners have determined that the Advisory Body will consist of a minimum of eight and a maximum of twelve at the point of inauguration.  However, Commissioners will be willing to consider any recommendation from the Advisory Body for additional named members supported by rationale.
6. Appointments to the Advisory Body are made by the Commissioners in accordance with a scheme prepared by them for that purpose and the scheme must provide for the appointment of persons who, in the opinion of the Commissioners, are representative of persons having an interest in the functioning of the harbour.
7. The Advisory Body will meet not less than four times a year.
8. Quorum of the Advisory Body to be four members.
9. The Advisory Body must appoint a chair from amongst its membership.
10. An individual member of the Advisory Body may, on giving notice in writing to the chair of that body, send a named substitute to any meeting of the body.
11. A member of the Advisory Body is to hold office for the period of three years from the date of appointment and at the end of that period is to be eligible for reappointment.
12. A member of the Advisory Body may resign his office at any time by notice in writing given to the Chair of the Commissioners.

Reporting

The meetings of the Advisory Body are to be minuted and the minutes are to be available to members of the public.  Minutes are to clearly show matters that are referred to the harbour board for consideration.

Hake in abundance!

First light...

and heavy cloud cover descends over the Bay...

looking South towards the gaps in Newlyn...

Tom has one eye on the impending shower...

plenty of sardines this morning...

together with hake...

and the reddest of red red gurnard...

all captured on film...

along with red mullet...

the market is busy...

taking turns out of headline ropes for hake nets...

checking the light levels...

some of the Ajax crew after a hard few days at sea where the hake fishing is the heaviest in living memory - seven hours to haul one tier of nets to produce 200 boxes of hake - it would normally take under two hours to haul one tier...

now it's time for the boys to get their hake ashore...

and rush them to the auction...

Dan ponders the results of a long night's sardine fishing...

his Pride of Cornwall one of three boats still landing in the early hours...

along the sea frontit seems Newlyn Green is getting greener!

Mario and Emma crab fishing

Newlyn web from ITV Westcountry on Vimeo.

A short movie made for ITN Westcountry news prior to last year's Newlyn  Fish Festival - a memorable trip, especially for the film crew who foolishly left their sea legs at home - just as well it was nigh on a flat calm #armchairsailors

Last of the Hunters - 1986 fishing documentary

This 29 minute extract covers the first half of a documentary screened back in 1986 when everyone thought the sea was full of fish and would last forever! The documentary went to sea with some of the biggest names in each sector at the time. Two family families feature in the guise of - Andrew Bremner aboard the Boy Andrew the the brothers Andrew and Willie Tait who at the time shared command of their latest purser the Philorth fishing alongside another boat in their fleet, the Chris Andra - Trerry Taylor represents the English fishing effort at the time with his stern trawler Maureen June.

The story starts with Andrew Bremner who was one of the top white fish skippers in the UK at the time - when fishing with the seine net was the preferred method of catching big trips of fish. He was well know for his willingness to push his boat and crew to the limit when fishing inhospitable waters around Rockall where he made huge hauls of haddock - which helped him gross over £1 million pounds in 9 months!  Worth noting is the fish handling practice of the time of 'cementing' the boxes of fish together in the fishroom (12:50 minutes in) - use of wooden boxes pre-dated  plastic stacking boxes and they were heavily over-filled and covered with ice - not the best way to keep cod or especially haddock in top condition for the filleters! The boxes needed to be cemented together to cope with the violent roiling of the boat in poor weather - Andrew Bremner was one of those skippers that sailed from his home port of Wick at midnight on Sunday - no matter what the forecast!

The Tait family fished with three purse seiners for pelagic fish like herring and mackerel under the watchful eye of father Andrew Tait - before mid-water trawling became more proficient with the introduction of net monitoring technology.  The bigger boats in the fleet were capable of catching well over 500 tons of fish in a single shot. 

The entire Scottish purser fleet at anchor in Mount's Bay, New Year 1980

The family and their exploits are well know to the older generation of Cornish fishermen as them and the entire Scottish purser fleet would descend on Cornish waters every winter in the late 1970s and early 80s chasing the huge shoals of mackerel.

English deep-sea skipper Terry Taylor is featured in the full version of the movie - he fished with one of the largest of the UKs fishing vessels the Maureen June - one of the big stern trawlers form the East coast ports of Hull, Grismby and Lowestoft.