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.
With its southerly aspect, Newlyn and Mounts Bay get to enjoy some superb sunrises and this morning was no exception...
meanwhile, inside the fish market black is the predominant colour of things...
good to see plenty of ice on these mackerel - fish, especially oily fish like mackerel have their shelf-life extended greatly when ice well...
stack 'em high...
handy sized monk tails...
and a good sized John Dory from the Dawn Star...
the Ajax landed a good run of hake over the weekend to complete this mornings auction round-up......
good to see young Mr Nudd back in the wheelhouse chair of the Intuition...
much work to be done here...
someone should be able to ID this gear...
the Ecume des Jours and the Erispoe both called in for ice this morning...
since they were introduced in the early 80s most French trawlers are built along the same lines - the wheelhouse sits on top of the shelterdeck with the access stairs, galley, skippers cabin, washrooms etc housed under the shelterdeck on both sides of the boat allowing a clear deck amidships from the stern up to the forepeak, an aft gantry caters for up to four net drums with the cod ends taken over the transom...
the catch drop on deck and are sorted into baskets...
like many of the boats in Newlyn who have conger eels to deal with in their catches it looks like the Breton guys also follow the practice of leaving them for a watch or two before attempting to gut them - many a cherished gutting knife has had the blade snapped when a conger twits violently during the gutting process...
L'Ecume des Jours...
heads out through the gaps to resume fishing...
well south of Newlyn alongside the Erispoe...
it seems ageing members of the once mighty Stevenson fleet are being prepared for their final voyages to the scrapyard...
and are just waiting for a window in the weather before a tug can be despatched......
as the online auction nears its end the merchants arrive to pick up their morning purchases.
Coley or coalfish, also known as saithe or locally as blackjack are a large whitefish similar to cod.
They are caught and landed predominantly by the netters like the Ocean Pride when working on wrecks.
In Germany, they are preferred to cod where there has been a big market ever since the days of the distant water fleets fishing from Grimsby, Hull and Fleetwood. Rockall often provided big shots of coley - with some larger vessels making the long steam from the Rock to land direct to Germany in the 80s.
But the taste for coley has never quite matched that of the Germans in the UK. Years ago, when there was a Macfisheries shop on many high streets coley were sold as 'cat fish'. The flesh is firm and flaky but can be used in fish stews or pies.
An average price for saithe on the market would be around £3.00 per kilo.