Skipper Stephen Leach 1950-2018

Stephen Leach, one of Newlyn's fishing gentlemen has died this week.

Stephen Leach aboard the Wyre Star in Milford Haven 1984

'Leachy' was a trawlerman through and through and one of the youngest skippers ever to get his full masters ticket when fishing out of Lowestoft. After many years fishing on the big trawlers of the day in the 70s and early 80s he moved to St Ives in Cornwall having invested in the Fleetwood registered 64 foot trawler, Wyre Star. The photo above shows Stephen with his son Gary in the stern of the Wyre Star after running into Miflord Haven from the Smalls in bad weather.

Stephen was one of around fifteen 50-60 foot trawlers that worked from Newlyn at the time. For many summers he fished for langoustine, often landing into Dunmore in Ireland. The Wyre Star, like many boats in Newlyn at the time was scrapped under the decommissioning scheme to reduce fishing effort across the EU.

He replaced the boat with the Wayfinder and re-registered her in St Ives as SS252. As with his previous command, Stephen and his son Gary worked the boat three or four handed depending on the time of year and continued to fish for langoustine on the Small grounds during the summer months. 

In the 1980s as the local fleet expanded rapidly to take advantage of high prioces and abundant fish a group of Newlyn trawler and netter skippers decided that the harbour needed an independent iceworks to supply the ever-growing fleet of private vessels in the harbour as demand was at times outstripping local supplies. Stephen, along with fellow trawler skipper Mervyn Mountjoy was one of the founding members of the Cornish Ice Company Limited.

After retiring, he and Gary decided that 'small is beautiful'...

and a new family boat of a very different class was purchased - the catamaran, Bethshan...

which son Gary now works mainly handlining for fish like mackerel in St Ives Bay.

This section of the Fishing Boats in Newlyn Harbour 1994 video starts with Stephen and son Gary aboard the Wyre Star in 1994.

Electronic Monitoring Program Toolkit: A Guide for Designing and Implementing Electronic Monitoring Programs

This comprehensive 15-page report published in October, 2018 by The Nature Conservancy walks the reader through design and implementation of an EM program.


From the Introduction:

The majority of global fisheries lack the scientific and compliance data necessary for effective management. A variety of approaches and tools can facilitate data collection on the water and help ensure compliance, yet the use of human observers or other reporting or patrol options tend to be infrequently used, subject to bias and misreporting, and are typically expensive to employ. The lack of accurate on-the-water data collection hampers the ability of fishery managers to assess the health of fish stocks and to effectively manage fisheries, potentially resulting in economic losses, declining fish populations, and a degraded marine environment. Accordingly, many fishery managers have begun to look to new technologies to help fill in critical data gaps.

Electronic Monitoring (EM) has the potential to be a scalable solution for collecting critical data and using it to employ new management strategies, enable robust assessment of fish stock health, and facilitate accurate monitoring of vessel compliance with the concomitant reduction of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In fact, EM has been shown to perform commensurately with, or in many instances, outperform, other at-sea monitoring tools (e.g., human observers and logbooks) with regards to accuracy, cost, and data integrity, and EM performance is continuously improving (see Box 1). EM also offers promising applications that are beneficial to industry, such as enhancing crew and observer safety and preventing theft or shrinkage of catch.

This toolkit presents an overview of key questions and issues that may arise when governmental bodies in general, and fishery managers in particular, are considering the development and implementation of EM programs. For purposes of this toolkit, EM refers to a system that includes cameras, hard drives (or similar data storage or transmission devices), electronic storage and optional gear sensors installed on fishing vessels. The EM system is used in conjunction with GPS data to provide detailed information on fishing locations, times, methods and/or total catch and bycatch (including discards). Other electronic information systems such as e-logbooks may be used independently or in conjunction with EM systems. However, this toolkit is confined to EM systems.

How to Use this Toolkit

This toolkit is a guide that is written in sequence, walking through the main steps to consider when developing an EM program. The toolkit identifies key decision points and potential outcomes, beginning with program planning and system design, followed by program costs, evaluation, and adaptation. Understanding how a general EM program operates, and how a program may be adapted over time, should inform overall program design. The guide may be useful to first in full, and then revisit separate sections as necessary.

Full story courtesy of Electroinic Monitoring:

Please take part in the 2018 Bass Survey for Sea Bass Fisheries Conservation UK (SBFC UK).

Line caught bass 

Welcome to the 2018 Bass Survey for Sea Bass Fisheries Conservation UK (SBFC UK).

Please read the following information before starting the survey. ​

All fishers, both recreational and commercial across the UK (excluding Scotland) can take part in this survey. If you are not a fisher, please email us for further details on how you can contribute. SBFC UK is a project tasked with describing sea bass fisheries on a regional level to help improve future sea bass conservation and management. This survey allows us to complete that description by gathering information directly from you, we will collate this evidence to create an accurate picture of regional sea bass fisheries in the UK. We also want to underline where data gaps are to help prioritise our science to best suit the needs of fishers in each region. We hope to address these data gaps through fisher-led data collection and collaborations, email us for more details.

To take the survey please click here:

Once you've completed the survey, please feel free to share this survey using the link: https://tinyurl.com/SBFC-UK-Bass-Survey-2018

Important guidelines: 

This is a confidential survey and will take approximately 10-15 minutes. Only one entry can be submitted per person, to enter for more than one individual, using one device, please contact us. You can go back and edit your responses until you exit the survey by selecting "Go Back". You cannot save your progress between sessions, so please complete the survey before exiting. You can keep an eye on your progress with the progress bar at the bottom of each page.

​

This survey closes on the 31st December 2018 at 23:59. Thank you for your participation!


If you experience any issues please email sbfc@cefas.co.uk.

Anchovy - an exceptional year - in Brittany!

Looks like our Breton cousins are having a good anchovy season!

Yestarday's, Ouest France - a daily paper for the Brittany region of France ran this story:

Special port in Bolinche, Saint-Guénolé-Penmarc'h (Finistère) benefits this year of strong contributions in anchovies. 2018 is the year of records: 2,300 tons were fished.

Yann Raphalen, director of the auction in St. Guénolé-Penmarc'h

"An exceptional year. " Yann Raphalen, director of the auction in St. Guénolé-Penmarc'h (Finistère) since 2015, sets 2018 as regards the supply of anchovies. The record of 2017 (1,620 tons) has been largely beaten compared to 2,300 tons this year! And it's not over…

Higher selling price:

"Purse seining", because of its uncertain side, remains difficult to manage at auction level. "It's the charm of the job! ". Especially since 70% of the Penmarch's area's activity is linked to this fishery. This year, a fleet of 21 seiners worked, because of the fishing areas, between Douarnenez, in August in particular and the Bigoudène auction.

Depending on the weather conditions, the anchovy could still make exceptional landings by October 20th, the end date of quota renewals. "Good volumes but also a fish of good size, sometimes representing less than 35 pieces per kilo. And therefore a higher selling price, " says Yann Raphalen.

More complicated sardine:

Anchovy has given good results to the port of Saint-Guénolé. Because, until the end of July, as in the surrounding ports, the landings of other species was not impressive. On the langoustine side, 2018 does not follow in the footsteps of the previous years. In sardine, the figures for July and August are well below the usual intake: "We were at 400 tons last August, and 800 that same month in 2017," points Yann Raphalen. No reduction, given the 95-ton landing on Tuesday, October 9 ... "Depending on weather conditions, it's far from over. "

In both coastal and coastal fishing, Saint-Guénolé is a stronghold in terms of added value. "We should find a balance in the number of boats," says the director of the auction. Take the example of the Commodore, which now sells in Saint-Gué, but also three units of the Le Brun company present this summer.

New software project:

A cold room of 1000 m2, room for coastal fishing, storage hall for bolincheurs ... With its computerized sales system and its amphitheater, Saint-Guénolé was classified as "the most modern auction of Europe" in 1987.

"We always use this tool , continues Yann Raphalen. Today, it should be updated in relation to other sites. " Looking ahead to the bid which, Penmarch'aise specificity, is down. "It's penalizing certain high-value products, such as turbot, for example. "

As part of the standardization of sales, a new software project is being studied since this year, in connection with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Brittany West (CCIMBO). implementation of the landing obligations by the vessels, should lead to a change in the auction organisation.

A director from the field

Director of the fish auction of Saint-Guénolé since 2015, Yann Raphalen is at the head of a team of 15 employees on permanent contracts, to which are added four temporary workers because of the contributions of blue fish. After holding many positions in this auction, he succeeded, as director, Fañch Dorval, retired.

Mid-week fish market in Newlyn.

The morning auction huddle begins around...

 box stacks six high of line caught mackerel...

a few bass...

and a handful of squid...

also stacked are the boxes of hake from the only netter to land this morning, the Joy of Ladram...

other fish ready for this morning's auction include a few sardines...

red mullet...

ray...

and John Dory...

while this single cuttlefish from the Danmark just about sums up the seemingly non-existent cuttlefish season to date...

outnumbered by trawl caught lobster!..

and bream...

this conger would make a whole lot of fish cakes - for which it does an excellent job, add plenty of butter and fresh parsley to the mix for a real treat...

despite the early hour and going against the natural body clocks, much of the sale is carried out in good humour...

especially with stunning fish like these line caught bass...

and a big shot of ray from the Imogen III...

now and then the odd tuna gets caught on the lines...

inshore trawl fish, predominately flats like Dover, megrim and lemon sole...

along with the inevitable haddock catch...

although young Roger on the Imogen III...

just can't help mixing it with those John Dory whenever he gets the chance...

these days the boats seldom land good shots of whiting which, as a species, seem to have been usurped by the now very plentiful but sadly almost quota-less haddock - the fish that in ICES Area VII will undoubtedly be the fish that causes the biggest headache as the (seemingly unworkable) LO (Landing Obligation) kicks in next year...

as Brexit talks come to a head, spot the interlopers from across the channel...

through the square doorway this morning...

name this fish...

with its vicious looking dorsal spines...

though bass are not without spiky bits - the gill plates on these gorgeous fish are blessed with a single sharp point that has caught many an angler out when handling a wriggling bass for the first time...

taking a berth at the ice works, the Amanda of Ladram...

the sale is almost over.

CFPO launches a new film series on fishing in Cornwall!

This Autumn, the CFP are launching an exciting new film series. There's a new film each week - sharing stories of fish and people around Cornwall, and showcasing the CFPO community on land and at sea.

Join us for a journey around the Cornish coast, to meet the people that catch some of the UK's most sustainable seafood.

Stay tuned, the full series of videos will be launched from the 29th of October.

SFF & NFFO & FFL - The Brexit debate heats up!

The NFFO response to the Fisheries White Paper back in July 2018.

The Government has published its long-awaited White Paper on Fisheries. Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations outlines the Government’s vision for UK fisheries post-Brexit. Unsurprisingly, its headline objectives are those associated with the UK’s future as an independent coastal state outside the Common Fisheries Policy.

See the White Paper here

Priority is given to the pursuit of policies which promote sustainable exploitation of fish stocks. However, the Paper makes clear that the UK will control access over who is permitted to fish in UK waters and under what conditions. Rebalancing quota shares to more closely reflect the fisheries resources located in UK waters is also a top-listed priority.

The Government underlines its commitment to working cooperatively with those countries like Norway and the EU with which it shares fish stocks. However, the paper also makes plain that trade issues and fishing rights and management are separate issues, by international comparison and EU-third country precedent. This is important because the EU has signalled, in its negotiating guidelines, that it will seek to use an EU/UK free trade agreement as leverage to maintain the current asymmetric arrangements on access and fishing opportunities. The scale of those quota distortions, which work systematically to the EU’s advantage and the UK’s disadvantage, is spelt out graphically in an annex to the White Paper.

Comment

Overall, the Government has not been noticeably coherent or cohesive in its preparations for a negotiated Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. On fisheries however, its broad position is clear, cogent, and apparently uncontroversial - within the UK anyway. This White Paper will have required support across Whitehall, and it spells out what the UK wants and expects. This aligns quite closely with what the UK fishing industry wants and expects. The high attendance and level of interest at our recent NFFO lobby day in Parliament confirmed that there will also be very wide support across the parties for the broad approach outlined here.

Doubtless this unity reflects the widespread understanding in and beyond government that the entry terms in 1973 worked systematically and significantly to the detriment of the UK’s fishing interests - and have continued to do so over the intervening forty-five years. The UK’s departure from the EU gives us the long-awaited opportunity to address the distortions that arrived with the CFP.

The Federation has been working closely with Defra since the referendum and has submitted papers on all the policy main areas. It is encouraging, therefore, that our principal objectives are shared in the White Paper. These are:

1. The UK operating sustainable fisheries as an independent coastal state, with quota and access arrangements agreed in the context of annual fisheries agreements

2. Rebalancing quota shares to reflect the resources based in UK waters

3. Control over access to fish in UK waters

4. An adaptive management system tailored to the contours of our fleets

5. Unimpeded trade flows

The White Paper also reflects other industry priorities, including:

⦁ A flexible and adaptive national fisheries policy with the fishing industry closely involved in the design and implementation of policy. The frequency of unintended consequences of policy decisions and the need therefore to for a responsive management system post-CFP appears to be well understood

⦁ That safety considerations should be hard-wired into any new fisheries legislation has been taken on board

⦁ The need for a workable discard ban is emphasised

⦁ The removal of the artificial boundary between the under and over-10metre fleets is flagged

⦁ A measured and step-wise approach to trialling alternatives to quotas where this makes sense, is described

⦁ Producer Organisations will continue to deliver decentralised, tailored quota management in the ports

⦁ Throughout, there is an emphasis on a close partnership between the fishing industry and government

More Work Areas

However, below the headlines setting out the Government’s broad orientation, there remains much to discuss and work on. In particular:

⦁ How to operate a system of devolved responsibilities within an overall UK framework is underdeveloped in the White Paper. Discussions continue and is unlikely that arriving at a satisfactory agreement will be easy or straightforward, given the toxic politics involved.

⦁ Cost recovery before the institutional arrangements are in place to give the industry shared responsibility, as discussed in the White Paper, would be premature, unjustified and very controversial

⦁ Auctioning incoming quota is a new concept with some obvious disadvantages; it will need detailed scrutiny

⦁ The practicalities of a workable system of overage (permitting bycatches to be landed even though quotas are exhausted with a charge to disincentivise targeting) to address the problem of chokes under the landing obligation, will require close attention

⦁ Remote sensing undoubtedly has a future role to play in monitoring fishing activities: the question is how and where and how does it fit into a partnership approach based on trust and confidence?

Summary

On the big-ticket issues, the White Paper is clear and confident. To be sure, the EU27 will seek at every turn to blunt its application but in truth the EU only has one weapon in its armoury and that is the nuclear option of denying the UK a free trade deal unless the UK caves in on fisheries. That would hurt many businesses in the supply chain in the EU - at least as many as in the UK. Politically, such is the parliamentary arithmetic, that the UK government could not agree to a capitulation on fisheries and survive.

It is self-evident that the Government has much work to do on its own positions before the next rounds of negotiations. On fisheries, however, as the White Paper spells out, the big issues relating to jurisdiction, access and quota shares, are already settled by international law: the UK becomes an independent coastal state. Everything else flows from that.

Fishing for Leave however, have an entirely different perspective on Brexit claiming to represent the small-scale fishers who make up around 70% of the UK fleet.


If only so many knew the truth..

For two years Fishing for Leave have bit our lip for the sake of the wider cause of the industry and way of life we are fighting for.

However, after continued misrepresentations and protestations by the Scottish Fishermens Federation (SFF) and National Federation of Fishermens Organisations (NFFO) of their 'speaking for all the industry' we feel we can stay silent no more.

The tipping point is knowledge of discussions of agreements to stay mute on a transition deal, one that would prove disastrous for the majority of Britain's fishing, along with selling the industry a pup in exchange for maintaining the current system beneficial to a few.

The SFF and NFFO have become a corporate racket dominated by a few big quota holders and heavily influenced by EU owned but UK registered 'Flagships'

Rather than fight to replace the system that has ruined British fishing they continually pursued managed decline to a few. The consequence for so many fishermen and communities is heartbreakingly apparent to see.

After twenty years of supine retreat, when the chance to escape the CFP came they wouldn't back Brexit.

Hiding behind 'neutrality' after being ambivalent or hostile to British withdrawal since the 1990s - some heads are on record as having voted remain. Main stream and fishing media archives record all this.

They abandoned the industry they now purport to represent. It was left to the grassroots to initiate and fight under Fishing for Leave .

We alone were instrumental in making fishing one of the 'acid tests', from the Thames flotilla on whilst the NFFO and SFF hid at home.

Rather than come together following the vote, as FFL openly offered at meetings in Aberdeen and Peterhead, the SFF in particular resorted to attack FFL through proxies.

The two federations then did a volte face to control the Brexit dividend for a few and fend off what they saw as a threat by FFL banging the drum to replace a failed system (one with feathered nests for a few) with new British policy that would work for all from big to small.

As the Bible eludes beware wolf in sheep's clothing!

**FFLs repeated warnings that the NFFO and SFF are a cartel of big, mainly foreign interests, dominating the industry for a few to the detriment of the many they claim legitimacy from was vindicated by the Greenpeace Unearthed report.

https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/10/11/fishing-quota-uk-defra-michael-gove/amp/

FFL would caution against one element of the Greenpeace report. Not all big are bad, small are good. Some of the biggest companies and Producers Organisation (POs), such as Interfish and Northern Ireland Fish PO back both Brexit and a fair distribution for all - sadly many of their contemporaries who are in the SFF and NFFOs policy is all for one none for all.


WHICH FISHERMEN...?

SO, after two years! of avoiding actual detail it would be great to finally hear exactly how the SFF (and the NFFO) propose allocating their much vaunted simple phrase #seaofopportunity?

1) Will it be through equal shares of repatriated resources to ALL fishers and communities as FFL propose? Or through the disastrous FQA allocation system (which have become the stocks and share unit currency that has made a national resource a corporately traded commodity) driven consolidation to a few, crushed the family fishing and communities the federations virtue signal about seeing revived?

2) Pelagic resources are the main bulk of what Britain regains...do the SFF and NFFO agree with FFL that half should fairly go to the 25 large vessels in the specialist pelagic fleet and half to all other vessels and communities? So as to recreate opportunity of seasonal fisheries and provide an adrenaline hit to struggling vessels and communities?

Why does Mr Armstrong of the SFF continually peddle the lie publicly and in parliament that 40-100ft trawlers cannot pursue pelagic species as they happily manage in Norway and Ireland?

3) The discard ban addresses the discard symptom rather than the quota cause. It is acknowledged as an existential threat to the viability

'Choke species', when vessels have to tie up on exhausting their lowest quota to avoid discarding, will cripple all bar a few of the biggest quota holders.

Why did the SFF, after talks in Downing Street, roll over so easily to a transition where the EU will be free to enforce the 2019 discard ban, bankrupt all bar the biggest quota holders, and then claim the resources we would no longer have the fleet to catch using UNCLOS Article 62.2?

4) Given no credible solution has been found in 8 years to discards or choke species being the result of quotas, why do the SFF and NFFO resolutely want to maintain quotas and the unsolvable discarding that will ruin the majority and leave only a few big players?

5) Why do the SFF and NFFO continually seek to defile the unique, world leading hybrid quota/effort control system FFL have developed to achieve discard free, soak time at sea fisheries. One generating accurate science from all catches being landed, preserving and adopting FQAs and their investment, whilst providing all a limit of time at sea to survive.

If it is doomed to fail why not support a credible trial on 20 vessels to prove it is wrong or, if it works, have a credible alternative for everyone to survive....what's to lose?

6) Why does the SFF continually make representations to government to keep quotas, & worse to keep the FQA share system that drives consolidation to few big corporates? Why are continual governmental assurance also sought for allocating all repatriated resources through the disastrous FQA system too?

7) Is the resistance to not continuing with the same failed system by moving to new better management less to do with environmental and operational concerns and more to do with preserving a quota trough for some prominent members who have their trotters firmly in it?

8 ) How can the NFFO say it speaks for British fishermen, and does the NFFO not have a severe conflict of interests, given that the government FQA register and Companies house show that the majority, around 75%!, of the NFFO membership of POs and their FQAs (and therefore the financial clout) is controlled by EU owned but UK registered 'Flagships'?

9) How can the SFF purport to speak for Scotland's fishermen when many fishermen and associations from Orkney to the Western Isles to Lothian and Fife are not in the SFF; the founding Clyde Fishermen's Association quit due to problems addressed in the questions above; and many are hugely disgruntled at the corporate racket but persist only to obtain the necessity of guard work jobs?

10) Why will the SFF and NFFO not condemn quota renting and 'slipper skippers', who SeaFish statistics show are bleeding 50-60% of the profit for reinvestment from the industry as active vessels have to pay to fish? Do they agree with FFLs position that, slipper skippers should be banned; that entitlement to fish should only be on active vessels; and that the price of swapping entitlement should be capped at 4% of the gross realised for the fish caught by that entitlement?

Quotas have trashed the environment with mass discards and trapped the industry in perpetual data deficiency on actual catches.

Quotas and the now economically prohibitive and illiterate cost of rent and purchase of FQA entitlement units has crippled community and family fishing the federations say you represent and wish to protect.

It has culled recruitment of a next generation to realise a sea of opportunity by barring a career from deck to wheelhouse. All this and yet you both lobby to keep the same failed system reviled by so many fishermen you claim to represent ...why?

We suggest it is for the same reason - preserving the status quo on quota - that stopped the NFFO and SFF backing Brexit.

Until the above Ten questions are honestly answered there is a long gap between actual fishermen and the two federations who purport to represent them.

So the choice is; come together by decrying the failed systems of the past. Say repatriated fish will be distributed to all fairly. That slipper skippers and flagships will be banned and curtailed and that we trial a potentially world leading hybrid refined effort control system that would work and give a future for ALL

...OR will the SFF and NFFO continue trying to preserve a corporate racket of quotas, FQAs discards & slipper skippers for the benefit of a few?

One thing is certain, coastal constituencies will decide on MPs choice of what is listened to... MPs and government can listen to a bright future for all or keeping trotters in the trough for a few...?