Welcome to Through the Gaps, the UK fishing industry's most comprehensive information and image resource. Newlyn is England's largest fish market and where over 50 species are regularly landed from handline, trawl, net, ring net and pot vessels including #MSC Certified #Hake, #Cornish Sardine, handlined bass, pollack and mackerel. Art work, graphics and digital fishing industry images available from stock or on commission.
UK Coastguard received a mayday broadcast just before 1pm yesterday (2nd February) from a fishing vessel that caught fire with five crew on board, approximately 37 nautical miles off Newlyn, Cornwall. The fire, believed to have be in the engine room, was extinguished by the crew, but several members were reported to be suffering from smoke inhalation. The Coastguard search and rescue helicopter based at Newquay and the Lizard RNLI lifeboat was sent to the fishing vessel. Three of the crew were winched off the fishing vessel onto the helicopter and transferred to hospital. The fishing vessel, with the remaining crew, was able to make its own way to Newlyn, the Lizard RNLI lifeboat escorted the fishing vessel to ensure it arrived safely. Steve Mann, UK Coastguard, said: "Fortunately the crew were able to extinguish the fire, they were also able to contact the Coastguard when they needed assistance. This is another example why it is so important to make sure that you have appropriate safety equipment on board and several means of contacting the Coastguard if the worst should happen. "
Three beam trawlers and an inshore trawler for this morning's market...
landing some delightful John Dory...
mellifluous megrims...
while the other end of the market is dominated MSC hake...
lovley ling...
and perfect pollack...
outside on the fish quay the beam trawler Sapphire III...
has just taken fuel...
so her ends get let go...
as she is about to head back to a berth...
further down the quay...
leaving what might well be her last landing of cuttles as the black gold season draws to a close...
display or pay they say...
yet another Belgian visitor, 015 Zilvermeeuw...
one of the more traditional beamers to visit...
astern of her is a stern view of the Crystal Sea II, her fishing career in Newlyn now over as she is being readied to be sold away from the port - her replacement will arrive next month - the port's biggest investment in a trawler since the ill-fated Dumnonia in 1988...
that is one, wet looking sun this morning - expect heavy, cold, blustery, Northerly showers...
big boats need big gear and investment - here a new net transporter rig is being used to take off tiers of nets from the Karen of Ladram for repair...
right under the ice works...
taking in some of his domain...
the @FishMish man on his morning walkabout...
your transport awaits...
how the nets come off the boat...
and how the fish come off the Britannia V...
and the Ajax...
skipper Alan and Mr Net man Fred share a little blarney...
Not the best topic for a breakfast conversation - but sea lice are the plague of net fishermen working west of the Scillys! Listen live to the Norwegian Centre of Expertise on fishing in action.
Every day, somewhere out at sea the chances are a trawler or beam trawler will find itself in the same position as the scalloper Guiding Light III - her scallop dredges hitched tight or 'come fast' on an obstruction on the seabed.
Even in the relatively calm conditions - a mile off the beach in Torbay - there is a danger that the boat can be capsized with all the weight bearing on one side of the boat. While the skipper and crew attempt to free the starboard side gear from the obstruction - in this instance possibly a heavy wire cable - the boat is held over, the angle increasing - and the danger of capsize - every time the skipper puts the winch in gear and heaves the dredges higher to allow more of the obstruction to be cut away by oxyacetylene torch.
When the weight is finally cut away (7:40) the boat immediately rights herself - only for more of the obstruction still entangled and needing to be cut away before the boat can head safely back to harbour.
At that time the shipping forecast for Dover, Wight, Portland and Plymouth was southwesterly gale force 8 increasing severe gale force 9. A small boat like the Guiding Light III attempting this manoeuvre in Mount's Bay in the same forecast would have had the danger magnified hugely as there would have been a considerable ground sea (swell) causing the boat to rise and fall up to 2 metres or more. In such conditions, the skipper would have to balance the very unpredictable rise and fall caused by the swell with the amount he could haul up the gear - the tactic is to use the swell to help release the gear if possible.
The outcome to this kind of incident at best results in retrieving the gear with little or no damage - just a lot of consternation and lost fishing time, at worst it results in the loss of the boat and crew - as was likely in the case of the loss of the Margaretha Maria off the Lizard.
After 18 hours working to free the trawl, missing was the entire trawl net, one bridle and one trawl door.
In deeper water, twenty miles off the shore things can take much longer as it is only safe to haul the gear up tight to the boat during slack water (either high or low tide) as the tide pushes the boat at up to 3 knots making it impossible to heave directly over the top of the obstruction. To free the obstruction took four hours in the video - this photo was all that was left of the trawl aboard the Newlyn trawler Keriolet when she battled for 18 hours with the trawl in a wreck off Pendeen.
