The new Ajax, homeward bound

The new Ajax (ex-Kairos BF36) seen here during her conversion from stern trawler to netter in McDuff...

skipper Alan and crew are currently steamimg towards the Tuskar Rock Light...

after taking several days to negotiate the Caledonian Canal...

and a few narrow channels before heading south and home. 

Crabs and fish landed on the market this morning

Early start for the Emma Louise this morning...

landing crab from her vivier tank...

with each bongo weighed on the quay...

before heading to the shore vivier storage tanks...

alongside the Emma, on the quay are part of last night's sardine fishing - over 100 tubs of fish were landed by three boats...

all destined for the market by road...

getting the measure of the red gurnard population the Cefas way...

clean decks on the Cornishman after landing this morning...

there's some serious pump action by the closed bridge in Newlyn this morning.

Emma Louise landing crab in Newlyn.

Rowse fishing's flagship crabber, the Emma Louise landing to a vivier lorry in Newlyn.

Ireland thinks there's something to be had at Rockall

Distant-water trawlers returning to their home port of Fleetwood would be challenged as they passed through the narrow cut from the seaward-side Wyre Dock to the inner Fish Dock,

" Where've ya been? "

" Rockall! "

" Whaddya catch? "

" F*** all! "

Today, it seems there might be some value in the grounds around the rock made famous by its shipping forecast area name, several attempts at inhabiting it for short periods and repeated claims over sovereignty and a number of fishing related incidents - not least it's fearsome weather during severe winter gales - like these Spanish trawlers riding out a storm.

Ireland is recalculating its claim to potentially oil and gas-rich Atlantic waters — right down to the very last centimetre. For the first time in almost 60 years, the exact measurements of the country’s territorial waters, including part of the disputed Rockall Bank, are being taken from 50 specially selected points. Operation Baseline will help chart more accurate maritime maps and be used to cement claims to the continental shelf up to 565km from shore. Over the last few weeks, the Air Corps winched geographers on to some of the most inaccessible headlands and islands on our shores to mark co-ordinates first given to the UN in 1959. 

A Department of Foreign Affairs official said: “The new co-ordinates will be used to update electronic maritime charts and the project will also allow the outer limits of the State’s maritime zones to be determined with much greater accuracy. “More accurate mapping is important for a range of matters, including exploration, licensing and law enforcement.” 

As part of the operation, an Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) team used GPS to pinpoint the 50 locations and permanently marked them with brass plates. The most northerly is Scart Rocks off Malin Head, with the western extremities including an unnamed rock beside Black Rock lighthouse off Mayo and the Great Foze Rock off the Blasket Islands in Kerry. Along the south coast, Bream Point on Cape Clear in Cork and Carnsore Point in Wexford are on the limits. 

Andy McGill, Operation Baseline co-ordinator with the OSi, said: “Basically, it is redefining the territorial limits.” Ireland has a 19km territorial sea and a 321km exclusive economic zone before any additional claims are made to the continental shelf, including the Rockall Bank. The Geological Survey of Ireland says potential territorial waters stretch to 898,442km sq — an area bigger than the oil-rich North Sea. However, claims to Rockall itself are virtually pointless under international law. 

Ireland has never attempted to seize the rock but has made claims for some of the potentially oil-rich sea bed around it up to 500 nautical miles from shore and known as Hatton-Rockall. The claim has been agreed with the UK but is rejected by the Faroe Islands. Ireland has successfully claimed an extra 39,000km sq of seabed off the west coast beside the Porcupine Bank and a second claim for a swathe of the Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay is being negotiated with France, Spain, and the UK.

Boat handling - part 1

Nice bit of seamanship bringing the Arromanches away form the old Cornwall Canner's slip in Newlyn at high water this morning.

Monday morning in Newlyn

If the beam trawlers can catch cuttles, so can the inshore trawlers it seems...

or even a few mullet...

the Britannia's hake was the only net fish in the market this morning...

along with a good shot of bass...

destined for those quality restaurants up country...

nice little graphic on the Silvery Sea tally...

the handliners are catching huge squid with their jigs over the weekend...

along with a few boats still fishing heavily on mackerel...

seems even the JDs have fed well this season judging by the size of them...

auction action...

crabber in-action...

menders in action...

as the ex-landing ship Arromanches leaves the slip...

adult and teenager...

more action, an old scrubber in the harbour...

coming to a store near you.

Ghost fishing - let's have accurate information and data please!

Below is an extract from an article that appeared in the Western Morning News this week. While the content is entirely well-intentioned and the motives for beach cleaning by students interested in the environment entirely commendable the information and way in which the story is presented is not quite so commendable. 

"A team of 25 volunteers from the Green Team at Cornwall College Newquay, spent two hours tackling 400 metres of coastline as part of the Surfers Against Sewage autumn beach clean.

The event was organised by student Beth Buckell-May, who said: “I am so happy with the amount of litter we collected; 10 full bags of rubbish and over 300 pieces of ghost fishing gear removed in just two hours. This is so important, as millions of sea animals become ensnared in discarded fishing gear every year. We have saved countless lives.”

According to figures from Surfers Against Sewage, in the tangle net fishery off the southern tip of Cornwall, it was recently found that 18 vessels lost a total of 263 nets per year; a total length of 24km.

Only around one third of these nets were recovered."

Firstly, it would be good to see a reference for the source of seemingly very accurate data over the amount of fishing gear lost by those 18 fishing vessels.

Secondly, using superlatives such as 'millions of sea animals' and 'countless lives' seeks only to sensationalise the story. It would be equally accurate to surmise that in the waters off Cornwall millions of fish are eaten by other fish and predators like seals each year - it's what happens in a food chain naturally.


Thirdly, 300 pieces of ghost fishing gear removed in just two hours sounds highly improbable - 300 pieces of beach litter maybe.

Let's put this in perspective: 

There are ten net boats based in Newlyn to which the figures refer to in the article.

Let's say a box (30Kg) of fish sold for auction on the market in Newlyn contains on average 30 fish.

An average trip consists of 200 boxes - that's 200 X 10 = 2000 fish.
A boat might do on average 20 trips in a year owing to weather etc that's 20 X 2000 = 40000 fish.

Using the same figures, let's calculate what that would mean for the 30 large boats fishing from Newlyn, that's 30 X 40000 = 1,200,000 fish.

In other words, the entire fleet of net boats plus another 20 tralwers from the largest port in Cornwall (3rd in England) lands, one million two hundred thousand fish in a year in total. Let's say those figures are inaccurate - let's double them to 2.4 million fish.

Can 'countless' fish be lost to ghost fishing?

Ask any net fisherman to tell you what happens to a net when it is lost and he will tell you - within a few days the net becomes rolled up due to the action of the tide in the water - as any fisherman will testify when they have retrieved lost nets - it takes hours to untangle and un-roll the net! As soon as a net is rolled up it no longer 'fishes'. Monofilament nylon nets are used because they are almost invisible to fish - however, once they have been in the water for a few days they become covered in algae and sediment from the seabed - this makes them visible to fish who, in turn, then avoid being caught.

Fishermen go to great lengths to see that they don't lose gear - it's expensive. Nealry 200 boats fishing from Newlyn and other ports take part in the 'Fishing for Litter' campaign. 

They re-cycle their old nets as part of the project.

Read the full story above in the WMN here: