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

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Mid week and John Dorys put in an appearance of sorts.

A brighter dawn...

for the ever-watchful Tom...

some views in Newlyn have remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years...

well worth a visit tonight...

it's all smiles on the deck of the Girl Pamela...

as she heads out through the gaps for a day on the pots...

leaving behind hera pretty much empty harbour save for a few boats between trips or in with mechanical problems...

every anchor picked up by the trawler fleet has a story to tell...

for sale, a full uncapped English fishing licence with shellfish, 2.24 tonnes and 16Kw, a good deal at £3,500 for anyone intent on investing in a small inshore boat - call Marcus on 07861391093...

the battle for top John Dory king is now underway, a few boxes form Tom on the Harvest Reaper...

and even more here...

while the JD man to beat looks lie it is still young Roger Nowell...

with others making just a few boxes to put ashore....

barely covering the bottom of the box, come on Nigel!...

the cod get the data treatment...

signs of a boat using trammel gear for turbot and monk, a few crab claws togo with the catch from the Karen of Ladram...

along with the hakes of course...

the painter painteth...

another view of the all but empty quay...

could be years ago when they were first built.

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Mud and the banks - where's there's muck there's brass!

Below is an extract from the Norie Bristol Channel Pilotage book published in 1839 - which of course does not mean the data contained therein will be anything like as up-to-date as the publication date!

The trepidation with which sailing vessels must have approached the western land mass of the UK must have been extreme in anything but fine weather given the huge leeways involved in some of the navigation tips provided!

This selection of pilotage covers an area west side of Scilly...

and makes great mention of the muddy bottom in the area - that information being hugely important to sailing ships who used a lead weight filled with tallow to help determine the nature of the bottom they were sailing over...

on the end of a line marked to indicate the depth...

today's technology allows for a level of information and accuracy that those sailors in their heavy sweaters and leather boots would be amazed...

and all displayed for the benefit of the skipper of a modern trawler in a range of wheelhouse displays...

and a muddy bottom of course means one thing only to fishermen - prawns! - and so it is we find the half dozen Scottish prawn boats currently working out of Newlyn fishing along the Jones Bank west side of Scilly - the AIS plots are based on the frequency of AIS tracks over time which now clearly show the Jones, North West and Labadie banks traditionally fished by prawn boats mainly from Brittany but increasingly by Irish vessels.

Fish week at Senara restaurant Penwith college!

Each day this week will feature a different menu designed and created by students taking into account seasonality and availability of local produce where possible - and with Newlyn fish market leas than a mile away the ingredients don't some much better!

Time to tempt the taste buds at @PenwithSenara restaurant this week as the level three students in their final year get to showcase their cheffing skills and provide piscine pleasures every lunchtime...

each dish lovingly prepared by first and second year students under supervision of a level three student acting as head chef for the day...

and served straight to the restaurant...

showcasing a variety of styles in both presentation...

and cooking.

Hake is no substitute for bass!

From a French newspaper:

In January, Europe has banned pelagic trawlers fish for bass in the Channel, until the end of April. Eight boats Lorient are concerned.

On 27 January, the European Commission officially banned fishing in the bar, in the Channel, Celtic Sea, Irish Sea and southern North Sea, pelagic trawlers. Only them, only in these areas north of the 48th parallel.

The decision affected eight Keroman trawlers allowed to track their favorite carnivore until 30 April. The reason? Protect the bass stock, considered weak by scientists.

A few days before the lifting of the ban, where are we? What did the boats? What are the economic consequences for armaments and their crews?

"Bass constraints, we referred on hake that was caught in the southwest of the tip of Penmarc'h" says Eric Guygniec, co-manager of armament Apak in Lorient. But hake sold € 2 per kilo could not compensate for a bar to 7 €.

Result: the shortfall by boat is estimated at € 160,000 in the first four months of the year. Directly reflects on payroll crews. Eric Guygniec estimated "€ 1,500 a month" lost wages by boat

A fisherman says massive ships anchored in Mounts Bay have cost him £1,000 in ruined equipment in the last fortnight alone.

Jeremy Hosking, who operates out of Newlyn on his boat Nazarene, said the huge bulk carriers have decimated lobster and crab pots and ruined fishing grounds. Two years ago he lost more than £5,000 worth of equipment when a group of large ships anchored in the bay for weeks on end.

"This is an issue which I thought had gone away," he said. "Mount's Bay is a pristine fishing ground and the massive chains which these vessels have, weighing hundreds of tonnes, cause untold damage to the seabed when they move with the tide. "As fishermen we are still struggling to get back on our feet after the storms last year and I don't know what, if anything, is going to be done to resolve the situation this time around. "There are so many layers of bureaucracy and legislation that it could take years of lobbying but we have to do something."

At the time of the article there were four tankers in Mounts Bay, two of them from Hong Kong and two registered to Liberia, with a gross weight of around 90,000 tonnes and almost 300 metres in length. Mr Hosking is convinced they are there to avoid port charges in Falmouth.

"Mount's Bay is not a safe anchorage as the prevailing wind is from the south west and if a storm does get up and something happens, a vessel could be blown onshore. "These vessels need to be anchored in an area which can be considered safe."

Sam Davis, chief officer of the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, said she would raise the matter with the Marine Management Organisation and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

"This is an area of concern with the fishermen," she said. Paul Trebilcock, chief executive of the Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation, said that the increasing number of vessels anchoring in the bay was "of great concern" and called for "urgent talks" to resolve the situation.

Read more: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Mounts-Bay-tankers-ruining-business-says-Newlyn/story-26458220-detail/story.html#ixzz3ZTH7niC9 Follow us: @WMNNews on Twitter

Monday, 11 May 2015

Monk on Monday morning's market.

Head-on monk - Newlyn is the only major fishing port in the country where monk fish are tailed at sea - historically this is because the local fleet beam trawlers have small fishrooms and cutting off the head of the the monk - nearly two thirds by volume and weight of the fish - takes up much lees room and ice in the fishroom - there monk were from Replenish one of the Scottish prawn trawlers that landed their catches over the weekend - their prawns catches are graded and weighed as they catch them at sea and then sold via the internet direct to the processors in Scotland...

a Dartmouth Crab Company vivier lorry tops up with sea water in Newlyn...

no shortage of lights on the crabber - all round red over white means the vessel is engaged in fishing with fixed gear (nets or pots or longlines) - not that they should be left on when in the harbour...