Support the #RNMDSF from Friday 5pm - Salt of the Earth book launch in the Mission, Newlyn

Profits from the sale of Salt Of The Earth, which is being launched tomorrow in Newlyn, will go towards the Fishermen's Mission charity in the village. Mr Penprase, who is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, said: "The most impressive thing was that the fishermen are such a close bunch, almost like a band, a unit, so responsive to jokes, but also to being serious. "It was difficult to know which emotion to portray. "There's a very serious side to fishing, and there are serious pictures in Salt Of The Earth. "We want people to buy it, so we want them to like the pictures and be lifted by them." 

Fish on fish

Harbour 2 Harbour, which captures the lives of more than 700 people from Porthleven, raised £26,082 for Cornwall Hospice Care in less than three months after its launch in 2012. The collection was a sequel to Mr and Mrs Penprase's first book, called Harbour to Harbour, which raised £30,000 for Children's Hospice South West. Mrs Penprase said: "What's important is that no one will earn a penny from this. "Everyone has worked for free." 

Shooting the lifeboat crew

More than 300 people from Newlyn posed for the book during more than 160 photographic sessions, which started in June. The book was brought together by people including Julian Waring, from the mission, who approached the Porthleven couple to carry out the project. 

The Salt Of The Earth launch party will be at the Fishermen's Mission, in Newlyn, and is on sale for £20. 




Read more from the West Briton here: 

Why do we need large scale vessels? - a point missed by some!

Infopgraphic courtesy of Cepesca:


Cepesca has made a series of interesting videos - if your Spanish is up to it!

Just how relevant to the plight of inshore fishermen like Ben Stoten is the story of the Cornelis Vrolijk and huge quotas under foreign ownership?

Just how relevant to the plight of fishermen like Ben Stoten and the recent MMO fish closures is the story of the Cornelis Vrolijk?

The Cornelis Vrolijk featured in a recent Greenpeace report which showed how five of the top ten vessels by size of quota are controlled by overseas companies - some 28% of the UK's fish quota.  

The national media picked up on the story as it seemed to indicate that these huge ships and the Cornelis in particular and their huge quota share are responsible for the plight of the inshore fishermen suffering the MMO closures for skate, ray and plaice until the end of the year.

Daily Mail story  - Independent story 

Newsnight ran the story with a representative from the company that manages the Cornelis strongly defending the vessels fishing operations and a contribution from Charles Clover also making it clear that there is no link between the problems with quota and inshore fishermen and boats like the Cornelis which fish solely for pelagic fish like mackerel, scad and herring.

The Cornelis is currently fishing west side of the Shetlands.

The fishing pattern of the Cornelis Vrolijk can clearly be seen fishing well offshore over the last 12 months around and even beyond UK waters.

12 months AIS track for the Cornelis Vrolijk

Below are her movements for the same period - which includes a number of UK port calls as required in order to meet the Flag of Convenience regulations under which the Dutch vessel operates.

Fishing data supplied by VesselTracker.

Old Ajax slipped

The old Ajax has now been slipped prior to her leaving the port for pasture anew.

Nice to know how fishermen are treated by the very people who are supposed to look after them - some sort of response is needed methinks!

Fisherman and skipper Ben Stoten very quickly responded to the last post which quoted his letter to his local MMO office in Hastings - which is more than can be said for those he has been writing to himself:

Here's what he said:

"As of yet I've had no response or indeed even any acknowledgement of my emails of which I've sent one direct to Mr Eustice and one to my local Hastings MMO....all though Mr Eustice's auto response email says allow 10 days for a reply."

Come on guys - on the very day we find a single Dutch boat takes 23% of an entire UK #fishquota - Ben's letter deserves a reply at the very least - the fishermen of England deserve better -  the taxes they pay, pay you - not responding could be seen as something of an #insult at the very least.

Why conferences like the Gap2 Symposium are now so important for fishermen to attend or be involved.

The Symposium on Participatory Research and Co-management in Fisheries - just the very language makes this seem far removed from the very real world of fishermen and fishing - and yet this three day conference is of huge significance for an industry that relies all to heavily on third-party data collected, collated and processed for the large part anonymously on its behalf only to end up providing the means of the EU via the CFP and the quota system to effectively control the lives and livelihoods of every fisherman in the UK.

This conference is all about finding ways to involve fishermen and the catch data they have to be part of the science that determines THEIR quotas - and as such, there should be a strong contingent of representatives from all UK fishing communities. These meetings - like most events that affect fishermen - are not accessible simply because any fishing time lost at sea cannot be made up afterwards - and the practicalities of attending such a conference are out of the question except for a lucky few who are able to be released from their duties!

I think this is a really important meeting - one that fishermen and fishing organisations should be attending and contributing to in a big way - the guys are catching fish like cod in the North Sea in quantities that have not be seen for years - in the South West I was talking to a skipper last week who is dumping 3-4 stone of Dover soles virtually every haul - and they haul 7-8 times a day! The science that provides the data behind the quotas is way too slow at present to respond to the changes in fish stocks at present - if scientists were able to use catch data from the boats maybe this would be very different. As it is, huge quantities of fish are being dumped, dead, back to sea and will continue to do so even when the discards rules are introduced from next year. 

Our maritime universities should also be sending staff/students to take part so that we don't have a repeat of the report published earlier this year that was based on landed fish - giving an entirely skewed set of statistics to the overall picture - not helpful to anybody including the student who was probably unaware just how counter productive the research was in the context of the current situation.
Wouldn't it great if our wonderful internet and the technology of social media could help bring the conference agenda and those talking about the future of fishing directly to those that it ultimately affects most - fishermen like Ben Stoten who wrote in desperation to his local MMO office a few weeks ago.

The letter quoted below is born of desperation and frustration from a young fisherman directly affected - like hundreds of other small fishing businesses - by the current quota system - he would, for sure, love to attend the conference if only to stress to the scientists and other involved just how the lack of accurate data and lack of flexibility in the current system may all too easily cost him his way of life - for him, for the next generation, possibly for good.

The Newhaven fisherman sent the letter below to the MMO at Hastings.

Good morning,

My names Ben Stoten and I'm based up at Newhaven East Sussex.

I'm sure by now you have had tons of emails and calls regarding the current madness that is the under 10m fish allocation for the back end if this quarter but I'm going to add my two pence worth anyway.

I spent 9 years in the army prior to that I was a fisherman, sadly during my time in the army I was severely injured in Afghanistan losing both my limbs,how ever with full rehab I'm now fully mobile again using prosthetic legs and decided to go back to the job I know and love which is fishing. I currently own and operate with a crew a small quarter boat or punt as they are referred to. How ever I have made the commitment to my chosen career and indeed the fishing industry by purchasing a new build 10m Sutton cat at as you can imagine at some considerable expense, as your aware with the boat comes all the gear and moorings that go with it also.

However I find myself questioning the judgement to do this when I get emails on a weekly basis telling me I can now no longer fish for skate the remainder of the winter, then I get another telling me I can no longer catch plaice for the foreseeable future which is utter madness at a time when you can't move for plaice off Our shoreline at the minute and they are all thick prime plaice which by the time they re-open again will be skinny and almost see through and pointless fishing on.

Then to top it off completely or as some have said "twist the knife" our cod quota for the quarter has been slashed as well from 400kg to 200kg even less once you deduct the appropriate weight for head and guts. So how is a small boat supposed to go out at this time of year and catch just Dover sole with nothing else in the net??? And to earn a living off of that how much sole am I going to have to catch if I cannot subsidise it with other species??? If you know of a way then please tell because short of becoming a spear fisherman I can't be that selective in what I catch!

We also hear from various sources that the French have only used 28% of there skate quota to date, which is also considerable more that our own quota even though they fish in the "English channel"
When are we as an industry going to get the support we need and what is going to be done to make sure the fisherman can at least have a half sensible Christmas without having to worry about cuts left right and centre, as last year with all the storms and severe weather and gear damage it wasn't exactly tearing to say the least.

Look forward to a response all though I suspect it will be a copy and paste job but such is life.

A concerned fisherman
Ben Stoten

As yet, Through the Gaps is unaware of the response from the MMO to Ben - perhaps he can enlighten? 

Participatory Research and Co-management in Fisheries Symposium - a must-go-to for elected representatives of UK fishing organisations by region.