Fish of the Day - week 14 - the delicate dab.

 

Dabs, a member of the plaice and flounder family do not feature weight-wise in terms of landings on the market at Newlyn. Boats fishing 'up-channel' (that's the Bristol Channel) deep off Pendeen are more likely to have a bog haul of dabs than anywhere else.

When it comes to eating dabs provide small, delicate fillets that can be used in any recipe that suggest you use plaice or other flats. the fillets cook in almost seconds, gently fired in a shallow pan, steamed or if you have the gear, deep fried, whole on the bone. They are also generally a much cheaper option than other more well known flats so one to keep your eyes open for if you are feeding the masses!

Dab are a relatively abundant species of flatfish which provide a more sustainable alternative to more vulnerable, longer-lived and overfished species of flatfish such as plaice. They are mostly taken as bycatch in trawl fisheries and often discarded because of its low market value. Stock levels of dab are poorly understood in our the south-west (though fishermen have all the evidence to say exactly where and when they can be caught)  but there is little evidence that the stocks are unhealthy. They can be bought on the auction for an average price of £1.50 per kilo.

Catches of dab landed in Cornwall have fluctuated between five and twenty tonnes per year since the 1990's. In 2019 a total of 5 tonnes of dab were landed to Cornish ports with a value of £3.5k (MMO data). As of July 2019.

Artist and fisher chronicles life on one of the last southern New England trap fishing boats

 

Cory Wheeler Forrest says she is in a line of work that lends itself to photography. Corey Wheeler Forrest is a third-generation fisherwoman. Her family owns the last trap-fishing business in southern New England. Forrest loves the work, and quite often is taken aback by the beauty she sees out in the open water.

Several years ago, she started taking pictures of her surroundings, her family, and the tools of her trade, and posting them on Instagram. Now 30 of those pictures are included in the new exhibition "Fish & Forrest: Through the Lens of a Commercial Fishermom”, now on view at Mystic Seaport’s Meeting House.

During fishing season, Forrest, along with her brother, 76 year-old father, and quite often her daughter get up early, load up their boats and head out to one of several traps in nearby waters. Their way of life was the subject of a 2019 documentary by Hudson Lines called “The Last Trap Family.”

Forrest said there is something about her line of work that lends itself to photography.

“Because all of the elements are there” explains Forrest. “The early morning golden light, the salty characters I work with, we have the nets, rust, all of the colors just come together.”

But Forrest said photography and commercial fishing are often in conflict. She guesses because of her work on the boat, she misses more chances to take a great picture than she makes.

“Fishing can be a grind, it can feel like “Groundhog Day” every day, but then again it’s also so different,” Forrest said. “We’ve gotten caught out there in lightning storms, and gales come through with hurricane-force winds, and then it’s over 5 minutes later and there’s a rainbow. It’s just beautiful. It’s magical.”

"Fish & Forrest: Through the Lens of a Commercial Fishermom” is on view at Mystic Seaport’s Meeting House through the summer.

Belgian beam trawlwer sinks near Lands End

The 24m Belgian beam trawler Sylvia Mary Z525 has sunk off Gwennap Head...

while steaming from her home port of Zeebrugge she called in to Oostende...

after hitting the Runnelstone Reef, a notorious rocky reef...

there's a bit of a break in her AIS after she passed the Lizard until the point of contact with the reef...

the extent of which can be added which can seen on the nautical chart...

marked by the Runnelstone Buoy...

as she was steaming to the Dover sole fishing grounds in the Bristol Channel...

from her home port of Zeebrugge...

The 24-metre fishing vessel struck rocks about off Porthgwarra but the four crew onboard has been safely rescued from a liferaft the Sennan Cove RNLI Lifeboat brought them to dryland at Newlyn. Two other Belgian beam-trawlers, the Albert Bos Z-41 and the Grietje Z-187 were in the vicinity at the time of the incident.

In a statement, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said:

 “Four crew from a fishing vessel which struck rocks at Lands’ End have just been rescued and are on a lifeboat on their way back to shore. The crew made a mayday broadcast and abandoned their vessel earlier this evening, taking to their liferaft from which they were rescued by lifeboat just a short time later. The Sennen all-weather RNLI lifeboat was requested to launch by HM Coastguard and a Coastguard and a Royal Navy helicopter also assisted at the scene. “All crew have been accounted for and are safe and well. The fishing vessel remains on scene.”

'Spatial squeeze', what's it all about - the latest Fathom podcast.

 

The Fathom podcast has partnered with The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO) to produce a series of informative and highly topical episodes, focusing on the challenges and opportunities facing UK fishermen in the post-Brexit landscape.

In our fifth and final episode of the series, NFFO CEO Barrie Deas and CFPO CEO Chris Ranford are joined by a series-record number of guests who include: Nathan de Rozarieux, a fisheries consultant and fisherman operating out of Cornwall, Merlin Jackson, a former inshore fisherman operating from the Thames estuary and currently a fishing liaison to the offshore wind industry and Colin Warwick, retired fisherman and chair of Far and Large Offshore Wind (FLOW). Our panel were on hand to help us explore the issue of spatial squeeze, giving an insight into how marine space has been swallowed up over the past twenty years, the concerning reality of future competition for space and what can be done now to ensure fishing grounds are protected.

“Spatial squeeze” is a concept that has become more prevalent in marine terminology over the past couple of decades. It refers to the increasing competition for space in the seas around our coasts, acknowledging the effect that new infrastructure such as offshore wind farms and marine protected areas are having on ever-shrinking fishing grounds.

The episode was timed with the release of a report by the NFFO. The report sought to reconcile local and regional snapshots of marine projects to date, and show predictions of further developments to create a national picture of spatial squeeze from past to present and how impending plans will see future space used. Barrie kicks things off with the report’s daunting prediction that in the best-case scenario, we will lose a third of our fishing grounds and in the worst, up to a half.

We then hear from Merlin and Colin who provide an overview of how we got here, with Merlin suggesting that the planning and licensing process was set up so that by the time fishing communities received an opportunity to contribute their thoughts or concerns on new offshore wind farms, it was too late to do anything about it. Similarly Colin argues that there isn’t a level playing field with the absence of any statutory requirement to consult fisheries in the same way as other statutory consultees on new marine developments.

Nathan gives us some insights on a project he worked on with energy developers and the Crown Estate, who own virtually all of the seabed in UK waters. This virtual planning exercise sought to explore how coexistence between offshore wind and fishing could work. Nathan’s conclusion was that there was a chasm between what was theoretically and practically possible in terms of fishing inside an offshore wind farm, and the practical difficulties were not being taken into account in the planning process.

The final part of the discussion centred on what the fishing community needed to do to ensure the survival and growth of the industry into the future. Here, there was broad agreement on exerting pressure on the government, the MMO and the Crown Estate to make both a cultural and statutory shift that would give fishermen a seat around the table in marine spatial planning. To do this, our panel agreed that there needed to be a concerted effort from the community to garner support from the public to the same degree as the Brexit campaign, and to build a recognition that food security needed to be taken as seriously as energy security.

Catch up on other Fathom Podcasts here.

Manic Monday morning market in Newlyn!

Everyone needs to try fish roe at least once, you may just get a big surprise...

Monday's market was a mix of net fish like these hake from the Silver Dawn...

Britannia V...

and pollack from the Annie May from working wrecks...

there was plenty of inshore fish too from the likes of the New Venture...

along with some good Dovers from the Trevssa IV...

some may have seen skipper-to-be-one-day Danny Fisher holding up this 'gurt' hake earlier in the week......

well here it is on the market weighing in at just over 7kg......

another net boat to land a big trip of mainly hake and haddock...

and pollack was the Silver Dawn...

there were still plenty of dogs to be had as they are everywhere at the moment...

as are haddock...

with the Britannia V topping out their trip on them...

plenty of hake with the Ocean pride too...

even the inshore fridge was chocker with fish...

with plenty of mackerel...

and buried in there somewhere...

as young Mr Smart was to find out were his haul...

of herring, just some of the 1.9 tons of line caught herring on today's market...

a brace of pissers...

the bulk of beam trawl trips are quality flats, either Dover...

or megrim soles...

just in from a few shots, the Shetland boat Acciona...

one of the few boats fishing southwestern waters using the traditional Scottish seine net with rope reels

the boxes came ashore...

closely monitored by the MMO duty watch...

straight up from the fishroom...

kept at just the right temperature by the King of Cold himself, Alex Pino...

the boat beimng one oof the many that rely on his hard work keeping their catches at...

just the right temperature during the course of a trip...

now headed in after six days at sea, the Enterprise...

a few minutes later the Ocean Pride heads away closely followed by the punt Ali Cat...

there's a bit of a fresh breeze this morning as the sun breaks the sky...

as the boats come and go in Newlyn...

the Trevssa IV takes on fuel...

as the boys make fast the Enterprise...

and under skipper Nathan's watchful eye...

begin the process of overhauling the chain mats...

and replacing worn out links...

along with checking the blocks and derrick head...

before the next trip...

latest boat to join the fleet, smart looking Cygnus, the Katy B.