Small boats, big seas.

With gale warnings giving 10s and 11s for Plymnouth, Sole, Lundy and Fastnet...

it's no wonder to see a dozen French trawlers east side of the Lizard, a small number are dodging out of the weather close to the land off the Helford while a few hardy types continue fishing right along the six mile limit...

further out to sea, the small coaster Arklow Ranger is battling into huge seas off the Lizard and has been reduced to making around 2knots ever since she cleared the Lizard in the early ours of this morning, she has altered course to make the run north around Land's End more comfortable as the wind hopefully eases...

though at the moment the new Cefas Wavenet weather service webpage is showing 10 and 11 meter high waves right where she is headed!

the weather is so bad that the Sanskip Endeavour has been forced to turn round and seek shelter in Mount's Bay - the skipper having decided that rounding Land's End would be too dangerous for her.

Good morning Irene, Good morning!

Four big beam trawlers and three netter put ashore the bulk of fish...

 on this Monday morning's market in Newlyn...

as storm Irene blew her way through the side doors...

blowing cold air over the Dover...

and lemon soles...

megrim...

big turbot...

on a crowded market floor...

with just a few tubs of cuttles from the Sapphire II...

while at the western end of the market the net boats had plenty of fish to keep the porters...

and buyers busy...

bidding on the biggest and best fish of its kind...

to be had in the south west...

thereby hangs a tail, name this fish...

more tails this time from the monkfish...

big mesh in the nets also means bigger fish...

and the most sustainable of these are our very own MSC Certified Cornish Hake...

from the Ajax this morning...

throw in a few big tub gurnards...

all of the fleet are now in port so there won't be much in the way of fish for a few days again...

while Irene blows through the port...

no doubt the Nowell family all enjoyed their son's epic performance for England over the weekend, especially as young @Nowellsy15 scored yet another try for England to help win back the Calcutta Cup...

he even helped sports photographer Dan Mullen win Getty Images Sports Photo of the Year Award!...

away out to sea at the Sevenstones lightship the wind has been gusting up to 50 knots...

and the average wave height has now crept up to over 30 feet...

while a few dodging in the lee of the land off the Helford, half a dozen French trawlers are toughing it out still fishing.

Poor weather hits Newlyn and Penzance as gale force winds lash Mount's Bay.

Saturday's weather is poor enough; ahead of storm Irene the fishing fleet of Newlyn is already weather-bound. The gill netter Karen of Ladram lands her fish to the market as the French trawler Alexandra runs into the port to escape from the heavy seas. Penzance promenade is lashed by by waves as the Isles of Scilly supply ferry Gry Maritha rolls her way into Penzance Dock.

Soaked on a Saturday - Through the Gaps' 6000th post!

Nothing beats a happy crew - the boys on the Karen of Ladram take a break from landing their fish to the market...

looks like the chippy will be busy aboard the Wialliam Samson putting in new decking...

Bruno, ex-skipper of Le Sillon that went ashore last year has brought the 27 year old Alexandria into Newlyn for weather and a problem with his trawl winch...

plenty of fresh water coming down the Coombe river...

over in Penzance the Dr Dock building is now looking very spruce alongside the Scillonian III in the dry dock basin.

Mittens and mugs of tea weather.

Spare a thought for our Canadian cousins aboard the Mersey Phoenix - here's the view from a few days ago looking back after over the stern of the boat as she pushes her way through an ice-field...

the EarthNull weather chart can be used to show the temperature at sea level not just the wind speed and at -11.7 degrees things are chilly enough!

EU Fisheries Economic conference in Malta.

#EUFishEcon Tweets

Todd Fisheries Technology’s first full scale Lobster Hatchery in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland.

Great to see ourt Irish cousins take up the challenge and create their own lobster hatchery! Read on:

The hatchery, known as Seascope is based in Kilkeel.

Read here how the hatchery was put together by the Todd Fisheries Tech group:

"We were delighted to be awarded the contract by Kilkeel Development Association to design, manufacture and install the new state-of-the-art lobster hatchery. The hatchery is called Seascope and incorporates a visitor centre and oyster hatchery (also manufactured by Todd Fish). The motivation behind the hatchery was to ensure the locally important lobster fishery was stable and sustainable. Renowned researcher Professor Paulo Prodohl, from Queens University in Belfast, is working with the hatchery on new research relating to genetics, diet and efficacy of lobster hatcheries. The North Coast Lobster Fishermen’s Association are also partners and supporters of the project.

Now managed by Jessica and her team the hatchery is gearing up for the start of the lobster fishing season this year. The hatchery includes broodstock tanks for the berried female lobsters. Once the eggs hatch the larvae are planktonic and move into large kreisel tanks. Kreisels create the correct flow and water movement to enable the larvae to feed using as little energy as possible and avoiding other lobster larvae which are cannibalistic. Once the larvae moult 3 times they are stage 4 juveniles and naturally settle out on the sea bed. The juveniles move into our new design of tank which is circular and has trays with individual compartments. The trays move around with a spray bar which can automate feeding. This reduces the manpower required. At this stage traditional hatcheries create a bottleneck as they do not have enough floor space to raise sufficient numbers of juveniles for release. The time to feed and check the juveniles is also a challenge in other hatcheries. Our new juvenile system solves this as they are automatically fed and can be easily seen from above. The water flow is optimised and there is no dead zones which can collect dirt and be hard to clean. The juveniles can be released between stage 4 and 7 (the pros and cons of each stage in another blog).

Todd Fish lobster hatcheries can raise hundreds of thousands of lobster juveniles for release back to the fishery. Current hatcheries raise tens of thousands (in a good year) and cost much, much more. Lobster hatcheries are not aquaculture – they are fisheries enhancement. The numbers, both of the capital cost and numbers released and returning to the fishery, need to be right."