Consultation on Options for the South Inshore and South Offshore Marine Plans-

Closing on 4 March 2015

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is currently preparing marine plans for the South Inshore and South Offshore Marine Plan Areas.

The MMO has already undertaken a number of stages of plan preparation;

· analysing the evidence,

· identifying issues,

· drafting the Vision and Objectives.

For information on the South marine planning process to date please go to the South marine plans pages on the MMO website.

The MMO is now launching consultation on draft plan Options.

The Options process focuses on the consideration of different ways of achieving the draft plan objectives and vision, to make sure that the choices made and their implications have been considered.

We have produced an Options report, explaining the options and this is available to view here.  This is an informal consultation on the Options report and it runs for four weeks from the 3 February to the 4 March 2015.

There are a number of consultation questions we would like you to address in your response:

Question 1 - Which is your preferred option? In answering this question, please note it is not possible to select a combination. However, in your response to question 3 you can tell us if you prefer a combination of the options.

Question 2 - Why do you prefer this option?

Question 3 - Would you make any changes to this option and, if so, what? Would you like to combine aspects of different options into a new option? For example, if you prefer option 1 for objective 1 but option 3 for objective 2, please tell us.

Question 4 – Do you agree with the intent of the policies? If not how would you change them?

Question 5 – Please indicate those issues you feel are out of scope (area/range/remit) (eg. those appropriate for signposting rather than marine plan policy).

Please respond to the consultation via the online consultation tool

https://www.connect.marinemanagement.org.uk/consultations/south-options

We look forward to your response.

Many thanks,

The Marine Planning Team

Her Majesty’s Government – Marine Management Organisation

Lancaster House,

Hampshire Court,

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE4 7YH.

Tel: 0191 376 2790

Web: www.gov.uk/mmo

Twitter: @the_MMO

Facebook: /MarineManagementOrganisation

No fish! No Fish! A thousand thunders man, no fish!

The heavily scoured  beach at Newlyn Green...

flown over by a flock of gulls sheltering on the Green...

nothing moving yet in the harbour,..

and not a single fish on the market this morning - apologies to George Bernard Shaw for the quote in the title - but which work of his?

Today's agenda at Gap2 - Newlyn trawler skipper David Stevens is on the panel this morning.

Interested in participatory research and sustainability in fisheries, yet couldn’t attend the GAP2 International Symposium? Have no fear! GAP2 will be live streaming portions of the Symposium via Bambuser. View GAP2′s Bambuser channel here. To set up an account and follow GAP2, please click here.

If you are interested in following our panel sessions and workshops live, please click on the video below. Have a look at our English and Spanish agendas to see what time the sessions you are interested in are being streamed.

You can use the chat in the Gap2 Bambuser channel view - not full screen view mode - use Chrome rather than Internet Explorer as the chat doesn't work in some versions. 

Biggest wave EVER?!! not quite ;-)

Despite predictions to the contrary, the biggest waves ever recorded failed to materialise on the Cornish coast this morning...

meanwhile in the Mission...

skipper Keith Dixon posts the agenda for the Gap2 conference which is being livecasted in the Mission so that fishermen can take part virtually in a fishing conference coming from Barcelona...

all quiet this morning...

though the sky looks a little wet in the Bay...

the sun streams in through the Mission windows.

Gap2 LIVE fishing conference from Barcelona

Interested in participatory research and sustainability in fisheries, yet couldn’t attend the GAP2 International Symposium? Have no fear! GAP2 will be live streaming portions of the Symposium via Bambuser. View GAP2′s Bambuser channel here. To set up an account and follow GAP2, please click here.

If you are interested in following our panel sessions and workshops live, please click on the video below. 

Have a look at our English and Spanish agendas to see what time the sessions you are interested in are being streamed.

Livecasts start today at 8am, then again tomorrow and Thursday.

Remember – you will be able to use this app to submit questions during panel sessions, which we aim to share with the audience in Barcelona.

Watch live and ask questions of the speakers.

Viewers can post questions to the conference floor via the chat facility.

You can chat live and post direct to Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

If you can't see the chat box try Chrome not IE.

Or use Twitter to ask a question using the hashtags below.


Follow the GAP2 International Symposium 24 - 26 Feb here and on Twitter: @GAP2_Project / #GAPIS / #GAP2simposio

There will be a Google hangout at times during the day - stay posted for details.

Megs, monk and many more fish on Monday's market

Another dent made in the ray TAC for the year...

as several big beam trawler trips fill the market...

with megrims galore...

the incisions in whole ray are there to aid drainage from the gut cavity when the fish are stored in the fishroom...

which fish?...

impossible to tie a knot in a conger...

monk by the box...

and mackerel get a look in...

there's still a trail of black to follow...

the sum total of hake for a full beam trawler trip...

still more sepia-soaked floors...

most of the fleet are in port on the back of a short, sharp gale over the weekend...

two of the big names in Cornish fish merchants go back-to-back...

that might just be a heavy shower in the offing heading for the Lizard...

Newlyn's red light district.

UKIP is the answer?

The UKIP fishing manifesto:

Looks looks to make sense at a glance

This kind of post gets some support from the fishing community - understandable given the raw deal we seem to get on quotas - let's not forget who signed our fish away in the first place - many thanks Mr Heath. But that act of betrayal is history. 

Are UKIP really the party with solid and practicable ideas to make the future of fishingsecure?

Here's one well-informed view referencing all of the above UKIP actions in response to the post above:

"I don't want to get into a war of words over it,but what UKIP say they will sustain is already happening no?

We have an EEZ.... and access rules are historical and British vessels have similar rights abroad....

selective fishing gear - do you need rules for that, or do many of you choose use 100mm for haddock anyway?

Seasonal closures already exist for cod...ie Trevose box.... voluntary agreements exist...mid channel agreement.....

MCZ's and MPA's already exist to prevent aggregate dredging in sensitive stock areas....

land what you catch = discard ban.....and the funding comes from the EU through EFF/EMFF.

Now their 'discard' list:

Two way street - you can tell our scallopers they can't fish French waters....

221kw pointless until industry stop derating/blueprinting engines.....

discard the discard ban...but land what you catch? That's a wordsmith at work.

Pulse trawling is banned under the CFP,as it uses electricity....

and the pointless stats about the economy? What 2.5bn?

I really wanted a party to come out fighting for industry,but this just isn't it. Compare their policy with the Greens - a few sentences vs a few pages. I don't agree with the Greens, but at least they put some actual effort in. And now I'll go away!

Before jumping into bed with UKIP as a way out of the political tit-for-tat game that our present system seems to have descend to - where many people vote for what they don't want in order to not get something else - take the time to read the Green Party's manifesto on fishing - not just a flyer gleaned from populist sound bites guaranteed to make easy reading and appeal to the masses who know not of the complexities of the fishing industry in the UK and its position in the CFPO. 

The Green Party don't have all the answers - but - it's a little longer than a page of simplistic bullet points dreamt up by master of PR - and to remind us of just how seriously the fishing industry has been taken by UKIP's leader just take a look at the drubbing Mr Farage gets by another MEP over his appalling attendance record at EU Fisheries Council meetings. Lack of action speaks louder than words.

Successive UK governments may have fought to get back from the EU what was given away by the Tories in 1973 but it might just be pertinent to consider what and how these governments would have provided for the industry with regard to investing in new builds, modernisation, infrastructure and port modernisation, marketing and training. For example, for every £1 that the UK gives to the EU we, in Cornwall get £4 back.

At a regional level Cornwall has always been neglected by HMG whatever the colour - education and schools under resourced, an NHS crippled by cuts and centralisation, the residents held to ransom over huge water bills for the benefit of tourists and under-funded rail and public transport - it is £6 return ticket from Penzance to St Just - £20 will buy you a SEVEN day bus pass in London!

We might not like being in the EU but it must be worth considering where we might be were we not.