Tiz the second #FishyFriday in May!

With summer on the way fish like these red mullet come into season, just made for a side-salad or mediterranean recipe...

so, too scallops begin to be landed by more boats in the south west...

more unusual fish like these megrim sole look-alikes or witches...

and John Dory...

and brill make a welcome addition to the dining table...

to supplement the bread-and-butter fish of summer beam-trawl hauls of megrim soles...

monk tails...

Dover sole...

and end-of-season lemon soles...

while more adventurous diners might want to get to grips with lesser known fruits of the seas like these sea urchins...

or thornback ray...

or maybe a few langoustine...

a superb line-caught bass, this one caught by the ever-cheerful Ryan Ladd...

or even the snake-like conger which make great fish pies or classic fish stew dishes like bouillabaisse...

stacked and ready to go...

one visiting scalloper lays ahead of the Annie-May waiting for the ice machine to warm up so she can take ice...

before she heads away to sea...

this time of year sees the smaller handline boats pick p good shots of mackerel - as for the umpteenth year running there are, as yet, still no sings of a Spring mackerel fishery...

the cloud cover this morning is deceptive as they have forecast heavy showers heading in this afternoon...

it takes two to tango and two to deliver a beam trawl derrick...

St Michael's Mount in a blaze of morning sunshine...

which served only to highlight just how quickly rust breaks through on the beam trawlers and made look as though they are decades old...

there's a new gallery in town for lovers of marine inspired art...

the Thomas Henry Gallery...

which features work from contemporary American and local artists like ex-fisherman Robert Jones...

Seafood Cornwall Training's front door is now eminently visible...

steaming off to catch a dream...

away anchored up in deep water in the bay is one of the world's largest heavy-ift vessels, Boka Vanguard. Owners Boskalis is about to set a new record and create another new horizon. The BOKA Vanguard, the world’s largest semi-submersible heavy lift vessel of Boskalis, is currently getting ready to load a 90,000 ton Floating Production, Storage and Offloading platform. This is equivalent to the weight of approximately 300 Boeing 747s making this the heaviest cargo ever to be transported by a semi-submersible heavy lift vessel. Until recently, the BOKA Vanguard was known as the Dockwise Vanguard. The renaming and subsequent rebranding of the vessel marks the start of the process to present the company’s integrated service portfolio for the Offshore Energy sector under a single brand name.

Scottish prawn trawl fleet grows in Newlyn.

Scottish prawn trawler Aquarius FR95 makes her way in through the gaps of Newlyn...

where she will land her latest catch of langosutine...

 to a waiting lorry...

as is the Revival FR316 berthed on the end of the Mary Williams pier...

a pair of visiting ;landing craft take shelter from the passing weather...

the Orion BF432 is all set to sail after landing her first prawn trip of the season...

fish boxes from far and wide...

yet another beam trawl derrick to repair...

work is nearly complete on the undersides of the James RH Stevenson...

but barely started on the burnt out Fishermen's Arms...

and almost complete on the Fishermen's Rest.

Barry Mundy, on wearing a PFD and a Cornish fishermen's Guernsey

A recent episode of BBC's Coast featured Mullion fisherman Barry Mundy and his 30 years-old fishing Guernsey.  

Four years ago, Barry featured in a documentary looking at attitudes to wearing a lifejacket - or Personal Flotation Device (PFD) as they are more commonly referred to today - conceived and filmed by Grace Pascoe for her MA.

Barry has been fishing for over 50 years out of Mullion, he’s fallen overboard without a lifejacket twice and survived.  Now he wears a lifejacket, funnily enough a Mullion lifejacket, when at sea.  Barry fishes on his boat Flowing Tide and processes his own bait for potting.  Barry used to work as a Coastguard and a fisherman but now only fishes for crab and lobster out of the cove.

Both documentaries were filmed and edited by Grace Pascoe.

Ian Gatt: On a different scale – how fishing industry helps scientists to count mackerel

Fisheries science and the calculation of stock ­sizes of individual ­species – or Spawning Stock Biomass as it is known – is an incredibly ­complex process, but vital in ­ensuring that we can set catch limits and other practical control measures aimed at ensuring sustainability of stocks and the fisheries that depend upon them.

Northeast Atlantic mackerel, our most valuable stock, has been the subject of much scientific debate in recent months. It all began when the NE Atlantic mackerel assessment was released last October by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which ­estimated a downward trend in Spawning Stock Biomass, ­placing it below a reference point that indicates ­management action should be taken to reduce fishing pressure.

This was the trigger that resulted in the ­decision to suspend the Marine ­Stewardship Council (MSC) ecolabel certification for the fishery, which is an independent endorsement that the fishery is being responsibly and sustainably managed.

But there was a problem. ICES – the scientific body that evaluates stock status and provides catch advice – was uncertain whether the assessment accurately reflected what was ­happening with the stock, which could be due to issues with data inputs and the way the assessment model handles the data.

Fishermen were also doubtful about the ­veracity of the assessment, given that they were seeing an ­abundance of ­mackerel on the ­fishing grounds.

In particular, ICES noted that the way the mackerel tagging data is treated by the stock assessment model can change the estimate of the stock size considerably. Another factor that may have contributed to the 2018 assessment is that estimates for the number of young fish due to enter the fishery had not been ­quantified for 2016 and 2017, due to the data being unavailable at the time of the assessment.

As a result, ICES instigated an inter-benchmark process that brought the scientific community together to investigate these issues, and which reported back at the start of April. Their conclusion was that there were flaws in assessment, resulting in the stock size being revised up from the original 2.35 million tonnes to 4.16m tonnes – a 77 per cent increase.

ICES is also undertaking a ­special scientific workshop in May which will strategically examine what improvements can be made to the information needed to assess ­changes in the mackerel stock, and to enable improved scientific advice in the future.

Naturally, Scottish mackerel fishers welcome this news, not least because they are committed to ­sustainable and responsible fishing and want stocks to be as healthy as possible.

But what I think is especially positive is how the fishing industry, both in Scotland and Europe, is collaborating with ICES by using inputs from our own independent scientists to provide as much data as possible.

The tide has now turned on the days when fishermen and marine scientists showed little engagement with one another. Now, the mackerel and herring sector is investing considerable resources in marine science to enhance our knowledge of stocks that will help make informed ­management decisions. We ­recognise that financial resources are limited for respected bodies such as ICES and Marine Scotland and it is only right that our fishing industry contributes to the process.

Our own marine scientist, Dr ­Steven Mackinson, has played a key role in this process and is involved in several ICES working groups and is also co-ordinating a number of scientific surveys and projects using Scottish mackerel and herring fishing ­vessels as research platforms. The ultimate objective is to ­provide ­additional data that can be used in scientific assessments and research on changes in the marine environment.

With more knowledge of the size of stocks such as mackerel, we can continue to harvest a valuable and nutritious resource that helps ensure the world’s food security whilst protecting our marine ecosystem.

Hopefully, this new reassessment of the NE Atlantic stock will now pave the way for the lifting of the suspension of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) ecolabel certification of the fishery. There is already a joint ICES approved management strategy in place for the fishery between the EU, Norway and the Faroes, and we would urge Iceland and Greenland to become part of this process, too. As a responsible industry, we are committed to the long term sustainability of mackerel and ensuring effective management measures to achieve this.

With the stock in robust shape, people can continue to eat Scottish caught mackerel – whether fresh, smoked or tinned – safe in the knowledge that it is being ­harvested from a healthy and sustainable source.

Full story from Ian Gatt, chairman of the Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group in The Scotsman Opinion section.

Flooded with fish this Tuesday morning on the market in Newlyn.

Whole monkfish - the stuff nightmares are made of...

red gurnard keeping an eye on things...

to the untrained eye it would be hard to tell the difference between a Dover sole and these little fellas...

red mullet and turbot - what a quality mix!..

the mighty MSC Certified Cornish hake...

it's the time of year when landings of megrim soles grow by the day as the boats move off to deeper waters...

cuttlefish - the ocean's tiger...

pristine line caught blackjack (coley)...

and pollack...

fish like these plaice from the Imogen III always looks like it was landed still alive...

as do these lemons from the Ocean Harvest...

whiting only look as good as this when they are looked after well and trawl times are kept to 3 or 31/2 hours a tow...

Tom picked up a few handbag sized John Dory aboard the Harvest Reaper...

taking advantage of high-water the William Sampson Stevenson begins to land her fish directly to the market...

while the beam trawler Louisa N makes good her beam trawls and the visiting prawn trawler Nereus prepares to sail after landing her first run of Cornish langoustine for the season...

these boats often keep both beams raised to ensure a stable working environment, even in port...

this morning's visitor, Commodore-P built for work on offshore windfarms...

work gets underway on stern of the slipped James RH Stevenson.