Scottish Fishing Conference 2020 - Innovation and Act!

Scottish seafood leaders to innovate and act for prosperous, sustainable fisheries 

2020’s Scottish Fishing Conference, delivered by Fisheries Innovation Scotland, will take the temperature of innovation in the fishing industry, spark new conversations, and identify projects to release the un-tapped potential in Scotland’s seafood sector. 

Fisheries Innovation Scotland’s announcement of the Scottish Fishing Conference 2020, and its focus – ‘from innovation to action’ – has been welcomed by Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing MSP. Mr Ewing remarked: “Innovation is key to ensuring a prosperous, sustainable fishing sector in the future and in particular, to help the industry play its part in tackling climate change and in enhancing our marine environment. Scotland’s highly productive seas are the fourth largest in the EU, and it’s important that we find more ways to work together to maintain and enhance our seas for future generations. The Fisheries Innovation Scotland conference offers us all an opportunity to come together and do just that.” 

Fisheries Innovation Scotland (FIS) has opened registrations for the significant two-day conference, to be held in St Andrews University on the 1^st and 2^nd July 2020. The conference theme speaks to a pivotal moment for the seafood industry as it meets, head-on, changes in management, markets and climate, and embraces new technologies to steward fish stocks for a resilient future.

FIS Executive Director, Kara Brydson, comments: “Scotland is rightly proud of its seafood industry and in a time of great change, we must make sure that is true long into the future. It’s important that the Scottish Fishing Conference delivers its aim of taking us through from new ideas to concrete actions. We’re going back to basics of looking at what innovation means to Scottish fisheries, and exploring all the areas where this innovation can make the greatest positive impact for our industry and the people driving it.” 

While discussion on new technologies will be central to many sessions, Ms Brydson emphasises the breadth of subjects the conference will touch upon: “We’ll be covering safety, marketing, finance, data collection and much more. I’d encourage anyone with an interest in the sea, in fish, in tech, in social science – anyone with new thinking to share – to join us.”

Extensive pre-conference research will identify priority areas for change from across the sector, and seek to define what innovation means to fishermen, scientists, academics, environmentalists and supply chain businesses; something that will be explored in greater detail through participatory discussions at the event. And the conference itself will be innovative: delivering highly interactive sessions, including a ‘Shark’s Tank’ – the Dragon’s Den of fisheries entrepreneurship – designed to attract researchers and innovators from outside the seafood world as well as fishers themselves.

FIS Board Members will conduct live, on-stage interviews with leaders from current FIS projects – getting to the heart of science and engineering already boosting the sustainability of Scottish fishing practices.

Elspeth Macdonald, Chief Executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, and FIS Board Member, spoke of the appetite for innovation in the Scottish fleet: “Our fishermen are determined to produce the highest quality sustainable seafood. We know the seas we’re fishing in are changing, and all around us new ideas for fishing, the supply chain, and marketing of products are evolving rapidly. It’s vital we’re open to those new ideas, and we’re leading discussions that produce innovations that may help define our business in the future”. 

RSVPs for the conference are open now. Tickets are free of charge and can be reserved via the following link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scottish-fishing-conference-2020-tickets-88824838483

A lively conference dinner will be held on the 1^st July at Lower College Hall, St Andrews University, for which tickets will be available shortly, via the registration link. Dinner tickets incur a charge. 

For any questions about the Scottish Fishing Conference, ideas or comments, please contact Mindfully Wired Communications:

•           Harriet Yates-Smith – Harriet@mindfullywired.org
•       Katrina Ryan – Katrina@mindfullywired.org

Westminster Hall - Trouble with CATCH APP?

The recently launched MMO's Catch App, has attracted a huge amount of criticism - one, that it is not for for purpose and two, simply the seemingly outrageous cost reputed to have been £1.8million pounds (given that the brother of a Cornish crab fisherman developed a near identical app for around £800) that works and was already in use and accepted by ICFA and the MMO for shellfish catch returns.

Make your thoughts know to your MP! - Have you contacted your MP yet and asked them to attend and voice your concerns?

WESTMINSTER HALL DEBATE

Sheryl MURRAY MP has secured a Westminster Hall debate next Wednesday at 0930 on the future of fishing. These are not usually well attended unless MPs are contacted by constituents and asked to raise issues. So all of you having CATCHAPP problems this is a great opportunity to email your MP and set out your problems. 

Link below to all MP contacts in case you don’t have. MPs staff always hugely busy so putting Westminster Hall fish debate / urgent in message subject will help staff notice needs swift attention. 

All you need to know about the Catch App from the MMO.

Where an MP has a Parliamentary email (and local one) best to use the Parliament one, or both. This is a broad debate so opportunity to raise issues beyond Catchapp. Short and succinct vs long and rambling will get more response from MPs generally and by all means add list of questions you would like asked of the fisheries Minister, this is the MPs chance to raise them. 

Good luck!

How to contact your local MP representing your fishing interest.


Cornish MPs by port - contact them by phone or email!

Padstow

Fowey and Looe 

Mevagissey 

Newquay

Newlyn, St Ives, Hayle

Brexit done! Seafood Innovation Fund - £10 million up for grabs by the fishing industry.

What is the UK Seafood Innovation Fund?

The £10 million UK Seafood Innovation Fund will support the UK’s fishing, aquaculture and seafood industries to deliver cutting-edge technology and innovation. By supporting ambitious projects with a long-term view, the fund aims to kick-start a step-change in the productivity and sustainability of UK seafood into the future.

Running for three years, this programme administered by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), will share regular calls for applications, offering interested collaborators the chance to bid for up to £50,000 for feasibility studies, or up to £250,000 for full R&D projects.

The programme will support projects that aim to deliver longer-term, cutting-edge innovation across the seafood sector and supply chain. It will also support projects that will take innovative ideas from early-stage research to commercial viability.

From experts in the seafood space – cutting-edge businesses within the fishing, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors – to innovative thinkers in tech, engineering, data science and app development, let’s innovate together.


Who can apply?

The UK Seafood Innovation Fund will run open competitions, and welcomes applications from both inside and outside of the seafood sector. Your idea, technology or product must benefit the sustainability and/or productivity of the UK seafood industry.

The fund is open to all organisations within the EU who have an innovative idea meeting the objectives of the fund. EU organisations can apply as a project lead, or can be part of an application as a subcontractor. Collaborative projects including both seafood sector experts and technology businesses are encouraged.

For more information on whether you are eligible to apply for the UK Seafood Innovation Fund, please read ‘Am I Eligible?’ on our FAQs page.


What is disruptive innovation & technology?

The UK Seafood Innovation Fund is particularly keen to hear from applicants bringing novel innovation and technology to disrupt the seafood sector. These ‘disruptive innovations’ should bring techniques, skills and processes that can improve on current practices and bring significant benefit to the sector.

Disruptive innovations may have the potential to be scaled up and could be applicable to any part of the seafood supply chain – from boat or farm to plate.

If you have an idea and want to check if it is in scope for the UK Seafood Innovation Fund, please feel free to contact us.

Examples of disruptive innovation may include, but are not limited to:


AQUACULTURE
Innovations in feed, biotechnology, health, robotics, logistics, storage.

WILD CATCH FISHERIES
Innovations in gear, bycatch reduction, improving catch recordings, logistics, storage, transport.

PROCESSING
Innovations in robotics, logistics, traceability, packaging, storage.

DISTRIBUTION
Innovations in logistics, traceability, packaging, supermarket storage, selling point tools.

HARVESTING
Innovations in fishing gear around target catch, bycatch avoidance and selectivity, monitoring and reporting of harvesting activity.

FINAL CLIENT
New, intuitive tools for making decisions on purchase or consumption.

CROSS-CHANNEL TECHNOLOGIES
Innovations in traceability, Blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, satellite technologies, big data and marketing tools.

SAFETY AND WELFARE
Innovations leading to better working conditions for fishers and fish-farmers, or that lead to higher welfare for animals within the supply chain.

CLIMATE CHANGE

In the context of the UK Government declaring a ‘climate emergency’, innovations are required that reduce carbon impacts of aquaculture and fishing, accelerate or enhance best practice in this area, and effectively raise awareness of low-carbon options already available.

The UK Seafood Innovation Fund is also looking to hear from applicants with ideas about how to apply existing technology from other sectors into the seafood sphere. These ‘disruptive technologies’ already exist in other, unrelated sectors. Relevant applications to the UK Seafood Innovation Fund must outline how disruptive technologies could be applied to deliver innovation and benefits to any aspect of the seafood sphere.

Identification and development of disruptive technologies may require:

• ‘Outsider’ perspectives and input.
• Forging new connections between businesses and sectors, making it clear where economic and environmental opportunities lie.
• Collaborative working.
• Our Steering Group

Comprising representatives from the fisheries, aquaculture, academic, regulatory and innovation sectors, the Steering Group provides invaluable advice to ensure that the UK Seafood Innovation Fund supports a breadth of innovative projects. The Steering Group meets regularly to keep abreast with the fund’s progress.

The Steering Group also has a crucial role in reviewing applications to the fund. Once the group reaches consensus, they make recommendations to the UK Seafood Innovation Fund Executive Board about which projects should receive funding.

Meet our Steering Group.

Are you ready to apply to the UK Seafood Innovation Fund?

Read through our FAQs page to find out how to apply.

HOW TO APPLY.

Plenty of fish for this #FishyFriday in Newlyn.

Ian conducts the first auction on the market this morning with a huge range of fish up for sale and the buyers spoilt for choice whether it be

lingering ling...

huge haddock...

quality cod...

scintillating scad...

meaty monk...

red red mullet...

magnificent mackerel...

spotty smoothhound...

delicious Dory...

luscious leons...

gargantuan gurnards

'appy 'ake...

congruous conger...

ravenous ray...

brilliant brill...

pristine plaice...

or scintillating scallops...

almost all the mackerel landed on the market at Newlyn is caught by fishermen working single-handed with hooks and line...

there's a few local restaurant owners like Bruce Rennie at The Shore in Penzance that will be delighted to see the boats starting to land monk livers...

meanwhile, down the quay and well before sunrise sparks are flying as a welding job is completed on one of the port's biggest beam trawlers - fishing is pretty much a 24/7 job.

Sardines, Breton ones that is make for good TV in Brittany too!

Seems our Breton cousins are also celebrating the humble sardine on their TV screens with a programme dedicated to the history and sardine fishermen of Douarnenez:

Sardines, this small migratory fish are caught from May to October. From the Vendée coast to Ouessant, the fishermen will hunt down the shoals of sardines with their bolinches and then quickly bring them back to shore.

Douarnenez, world capital of sardine can The town of Douarnenez in Finistère alone symbolizes fishing and the sardine trade. For a long time, it was the top sardine port in France. With the invention of the can by Nicolas Appert, the fate of Douarnenez will change. Robert Chancerelle was the first to open his cannery in 1854, a cannery still in operation today.

In 1900, Douarnenez had 32 canneries. 4,000 people worked in these factories.
800 boats with 3500 sailors on board set out on a sardine fishing campaign. Douarnenez thus becomes the number one French coastal fishing port.

Telenn-Mor is a replica of a sardine boat from the 30s of Douarnenez, This traditional sailboat is today dedicated to maintaining the memory of this glorious fishing period.

Coastal sea sardines in a canning

Old-fashioned navigation aboard the Telenn Mor, the replica of a sardine boat by Douarnenez. On board, Nicolas Corre, the captain, tells us about the sardine fishing of that time. - Littoral

But in 1902, the sardine crisis broke out in Douarnenez. Overnight, sardines are scarce and fishermen return empty holds. One after the other, the canneries closed, plunging part of the population into misery. In 1958, there were only 14 factories with only a hundred employees a year.

The struggles of the "Penn Sardin"

In the canning factories of Douarnenez, most of the workers are women. They're called the Penn Sardinians. These women, renowned for their strength at work, fought in 1905 to obtain the right to be paid by the hour. In 1924, with "the great strike" they demanded a salary increase. All the factories in the port of Douarnenez will join the movement. On January 8, 1906, after 46 days of strike, agreements were signed. The Penn Sardin strike becomes a symbol in the history of union struggles.

Today Douarnenez has only three industrial canneries and one artisanal canning factory. The Chancerelle industrial cannery has been awarded the "Living Heritage Company" label in July 2019. This label recognizes the oldest sardine cannery in the world still in operation for its traditional know-how in processing sardines "by hand".

Littoral, the sardine from the deck to the can.

In Douarnenez the Chancerelle cannery was born in 1854. Françoise has worked there for over 40 years. - Littoral

The port of Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in Vendée is also famous for its sardine.
In summer, when the sardine fishery is in full swing, the "Bozo" unloads the famous "fresh sardine from Croix de Vie" daily. A few years ago, the "Bozo" could not sell all of its fish in auction. Gaëtan, the boss, decided to test the direct sale on the quay. Word of mouth did the rest ...

A Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in Vendée the Bozo is at the quay… And there are crowds to buy the sardine "at the bottom of the boat".

In 2018, sardine fishing in Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Vie , in Vendée, was listed in the inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of France. The little blue fish has not finished talking about him.

#SavingESTER - The Pearl of Crowdfunder Projects

Saving 'Ester' - Cornish for 'Oyster'!

A Wild Cornish Native Oyster Hatchery 

Whether you enjoy eating oysters or whether you just want cleaner seas and a diverse marine ecosystem, by supporting this project you will help oysters that are a backbone species in marine habitats and encourage many other plant and animal species to flourish.

Even the smallest donation will make a real difference to the survival of this species.

What is the project?

We aim to hatch and release 1,000,000 Cornish native oysrers into the Fal estuary and crowdfunding is the only way we can kickstart thos project in 2020.

Working in the environment:

Oysters play a vital role in filtering seawater and keeping marine habitats alive, just one oyster can filter over 200 litres almost 50 gallons every day, clean seawater also helps with photosynthesis, which in turn helps marine plant species!

Overfishing, pollution and disease has wiped out 85-95% of the worlds Native Oyster population in the past 2 decades alone.

It goes without saying that there is “No Planet B!” it has taken thousands and thousands of years for the Oyster to acclimatise and to be crowned as one of the longest serving edible seafoods. There is evidence primates have been using stone tools to eat shellfish for millennia. 

Scientific research and screening can eliminate the spread of disease, sustainable local aquaculture can reduce the pressures of overfishing the juvenile wild stocks before they have had chance to reproduce and cooperative management can put a stop to pollution of our estuaries and seas.

Our plan is to save large disease resilient Cornish Native Oysters and put them through a controlled hatchery program, so we can study the growth patterns of larvae and spat (baby oysters), then they will go through natural seawater settling and holding tanks, as well as upwellers and silos, this will encourage an increase in survival rate of wild native oysters.

Image above: Native Oyster Larvae Stages - Copyright: Rodriguez-Perez, A., Sanderson, W. G., Møller, L. F., Henry, T. B. & James, M. (2020).

By aiming to put more than a million spat (baby native oysters) back in to the Fal Estuary every year we will be "putting more on than are taken off for relaying and consumption"

"Seafish estimate the current survival rate for larvae to 12 months old in the wild is 1/500,000 or 0.0002%"

Oyster 'pediveliger spat' on a Queen Scallop Shell - Copyright CJ Ranger

The project has very achievable expectations of a 1% survival rate, it is well understood in the USA that a 30%-60% survival rate can be achieved with hatchery born and nursery managed stocks. Also when mature oysters are stored at a density with many male and female oysters they will all help to trigger male oysters, when fertilized with billions of eggs created in the female shell they release millions of larvae in to their wild natural habitat, the Fal Estuary.

Native Oyster Tray Microreefs - Copyright Jersey Sea Farms Ltd.

WHY IS THIS PROJECT SO IMPORTANT?

The Native Oyster Restoration Alliance (NORA) and the Berlin Oyster Recommendation says doing so will: “bring back a key ecosystem engineer by developing and supporting best practice in Europe”.

Background: Sufficient seed oyster supply is a key limiting factor for native oyster restoration projects in Europe. Translocation between sites of seed oysters or any other size classes from wild beds should be discouraged to avoid increasing the pressure on still existing wild beds and reduce the risk of spreading invasive species and disease.

Recommendation: Action should be undertaken to support existing hatcheries, spatting ponds and spat collector techniques and to establish new hatcheries and spatting ponds for the production of robust and genetically diverse Ostrea edulis seed. Brood stock sanctuaries should be established and used for local reinforcements."

If you are just browsing or short of time right now, please just read the bold text OR look at the pictures showing native oyster growth stages AND sign up to our newsletter!

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Brexit good for fishing - time will tell.

Simon Nixon writing in the Times says: Promises to UK fishing industry were just another Brexit fantasy - will he be proright or wrong?

For a moment of self-proclaimed national triumph, the lack of celebration is striking. No grand treaty-signing ceremony in Brussels, just Boris Johnson alone at his desk in London. No festival, no fireworks, not even a Big Ben Bong; just a light show in Downing Street and a televised fireside chat by the prime minister. But on Friday at 11pm Britain will finally leave the European Union and on Saturday emerge blinking into the sunlit uplands, an independent nation once again, ready to seize the opportunities afforded by Brexit. If only anybody knew what they are.

What makes this moment extraordinary and, no doubt, explains the low-key celebrations, is that even now, three and half years on from the referendum, the government still can’t point with any conviction to any upsides to leaving the EU.

Brexit was always a solution looking for a problem. It has turned out to be a solution that causes far more problems than the Brexiteers, whose ignorance of what the EU does and how global trade works, has been cruelly exposed, had ever anticipated. Once Britain is outside the bloc, their rhetoric will inevitably collide with reality.

Nowhere is that collision likely to be so painful as in the case of fish. The fishing industry played a central role in the Brexit campaign as a symbol of all that was supposedly wrong with the EU. The tale of how it was betrayed in the negotiations over Britain’s entry to the European Communities in 1973 supplied the original stab-in-the-back narrative that sustained the anti-EU cause for 47 years. Brussels’ demand that Britain open up its waters to rapacious foreign trawlers was a disaster for British fishing. Leaving the EU was an opportunity to reverse this historic injustice by quitting the hated Common Fisheries Policy and taking back control of Britain’s territorial waters.

Yet as with so often with Brexit, this narrative was almost entirely wrong. It was not the EEC, as it then was, which brought foreign fishing fleets into British waters. They had been fishing them for centuries. The fisheries policy, for the most part, codified fishing rights that already existed by allocating quotas to European fishing fleets based on historic catches. It is true that the British fleet dwindled after joining the fisheries policy but that was true of fishing fleets everywhere, whether they were in the CFP or not, reflecting the trend towards larger ships and increased industrialisation.

If the British industry declined faster than others it was in part due to a domestic political decision, unique in Europe, to allow British fishermen to sell their quotas. In a depressingly familiar story of British short-termism, many businesses took the opportunity to cash out rather than invest. The result is that more than half Britain’s quota is held by Dutch, Spanish and Icelandic-owned ships sailing under British flags. More than half Northern Ireland’s quota is hoarded on to a single trawler. One Dutch multinational controls a quarter of England’s quota.

That is not to deny that there have been many problems with the CFP over the years. It took too long to grapple effectively with the problem of over-fishing. The result was that some fishing grounds had to be closed and quotas cut to allow stocks to revive. That included restrictions on North Sea cod fishing, which is important to the UK market. Nonetheless, recent reforms, that Britain played a leading role in shaping, appear to have addressed many of these issues.

It is important to note that the CFP bought benefits to the UK fishing industry too. The reality is that Britain imports 70 per cent of the fish it eats, such as cod and haddock, but exports 80 per cent of the fish it catches, mostly to the EU.

British waters are rich in species such as langoustines and crab, which are popular in France and Spain, and mackerel and herring, which are sold in Northern Europe. By opening up new markets for British-caught fish, EU membership helped create a thriving fish processing industry in Britain even as the numbers employed in catching fish dwindled.

Yet Brexiteers characteristically promised the fishing industry that, outside the EU, Britain could have its cake and eat it. Britain would become an independent coastal nation again, they said, taking back control of its own territorial waters, which under the UN Law of the Sea extend 200 miles from the coast. It would be up to the British government to decide how much access, if any, to allow to foreign ships. British fishermen were told they could expect massive increases in quotas without any restrictions on their ability to sell their catches in European markets.

This is of course a fantasy. Britain’s fishing fleet almost certainly doesn’t have the capacity to catch all the fish in British waters – and even if it did it would certainly need access to European markets to sell them. But the EU has been clear that the price of access to its markets must be access for its fishing fleets to British waters. There’s no reason to believe it is bluffing given that many EU countries have their own, often highly militant, fishing industries to worry about. Under the EU Council’s own negotiating guidelines, the EU wants a deal that would guarantee that existing access is maintained. Senior EU figures have suggested that access to EU markets for British financial services firms could hinge upon agreeing such a deal on fish.

What will the dawn of the Brexit era bring for the UK fleet?

That has prompted talk of a major clash later this year. But it is hard to believe that Mr Johnson is really going to die in another of his famous ditches over an industry that generates less than one per cent of GDP and employs just 12,000 people. Besides some parts of the industry, not least fish processors, will be pressing for a deal. Environment secretary Theresa Villiers last week introduced a bill in parliament that legally guarantees Britain will leave the CFP. But the government will have little choice but to negotiate a new deal that looks remarkably similar to the CFP. How Mr Johnson sells that deal to those whose expectations he so recklessly raised remains to be seen.