Mizzly Monday morning in Newlyn.

Kilkeel based Unity, rigged, like many of larger fishing vessels in the UK for working well away from home with plenty of spare trawls aboard...

to keep those twin-rig trawls fishing...

though seeing this van on the quay...

is not always a good sign...

plenty of port action this morning with the netting fleet all set to sail...

Oirion SS273 bound in to land...

another day mending trawls for Alec and the boys on the Crystal Sea...

slowly but surely the Billy Rowney  is being brought back to life...

over half Stevenson's fleet are currently between trips or under repair...

seems it takes two forklifts to tango!

 

Pysk: seasonal fish fresh from Cornwall

 

Before COVID-19 and lockdown, Giles was busy building and repairing boats and Sarah was designing and developing websites. When their projects were either cancelled or put on hold they saw both a problem and an opportunity. Before long, and with some support from the Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust and Seafarers UK’s Rapid Response Grant Programme, Pysk was born, delivering fish boxes packed with seasonal seafood, caught from Cornwall’s day boats. Here Giles tells Pysk’s story and outlines their future ambitions. 

The opportunity began as more of a social endeavour than a business. We thought we could provide a local service, picking up a box of fish from a friend who runs a local day trawler and driving it around to housebound individuals the following morning. This worked in some ways and didn’t in others. We found that we had a long list of people to visit all over the place, many of whom were friends we hadn’t seen in a while. I am quite chatty and hard to shut up, so the round took an awfully long time! At the end of the day, we’d either run out of fish or had leftover that we didn’t know how to deal with. Everybody was happy with the fresh, whole fish and we were very tired. 

It was around this time that we applied to the Fishmongers’ Company for a Rapid Response Grant to help us with processing, packing and transporting fish, then blast freezing what was left from that day. They awarded us enough money to enable us to buy a filleting station, vacuum packer, a blast freezer and equipment that has enabled us to improve the quality of our products, supply individuals nationwide as well as some local shops and to reduce our waste.

silverWhat we learnt from these first few weeks gave us some thoughts on what we’d like to take with us and what we thought best parked. Sarah and I both like the idea of fish from local dayboats for many reasons. We like that the smaller boats spend shorter periods at sea and so provide fresher fish. We like that we are in contact with the fishers and so know that they use various techniques to look after the fish, such as bleeding, careful washing, slush icing and stacking in small boxes that don’t squash or damage the fish. Some of the boats have even taken me out fishing and shown me their processes. So, whether we buy their fish from the market or directly from the boat, we know how it’s been caught and handled. Cornwall Good Seafood Guide have also been highly informative and supportive of our ideas and have even visited us to share thoughts.

MAPWe want to be able to pass on our enthusiasm for these boats and their fish. In order to do this, we record the landing and packing dates of our fish, where it was caught, by whom and how for the consumer to see; we track the boats that we buy from using Marine Traffic (publicly available community-based facility), note their locations and draw these on the info slip included with each fish. Our customers have told us that they enjoy the information they receive in their box of fish. They also enjoy that we use only recyclable card and paper packaging (except the vacuum pouches). We don’t promise to dispatch the day of order, or even the next, because we depend on small dayboats and they depend on fine weather. Sometimes this may take the best part of a week, but we promise to deliver high quality seasonal fish within about 48 hours of landing.

The fishers we know are incredibly supportive of our project Pysk. I recently asked James Pascoe if he or his dad would be going out in the morning for mackerel and if I could buy directly from the boat, he said yes of course, or you’re welcome to come and catch it yourself! So we met on the pontoon at 4:30am and got some mackerel that was filleted and sent out that afternoon. This quality would not be possible without the generosity and support of the fishers.

Our plans are to improve our facilities and our network of suppliers and customers. Supplying higher volumes of day-caught fish will enable us to better support fishers, as they have us, and to improve some of our processes and packaging. We’d like to be able to buy more directly from the boats, rather than from the market, but that requires certain volumes in order to make it worth the while of the boats. We’d also like to be able to offer a full-time position to a fish filleter so that we can focus on improving other aspects of our business. We think that the highly skilled work of filleting should be left to a time-served individual with an eye for beautiful knife-work.

Saturday night, Sunday afternoon.

Saturday sunset over Sennen...

and the northbound traffic separation scheme is on full view...

Juicy on the winch landing fish from the St Georges...

to a safe pair of hands...

brotherly love watched over by young Dennis...

lone sailor arrives in Newlyn...

as Ian and Little Graham get to grips...

with all 160 boxes of prime fish...

for Stevenson's of Newlyn...

there's even a few boxes of discards to go ashore...

the boys seem to be attracting a fair bit of attention as they land the catch...

before the ends are let go and a springer used to move the boat away from the quay...

skipper Bill Worth keeping am ever-watchful eye on Baden and the springer...

Waterdance's big crabber landing to a vivier lorry...

looks like there's anew arrangement for parking up the fleet of artics that use the harbour...

young cap'n Cod lending a hand...

to Shane landing his trip of line caught bass...

as they leave Shane's safe hands...

and swing ashore...

she's not the only boat to land as the Girl Pamela makes for the fishmarket quay...

latest port visitors include the Danish built Northern Irish boat, Unity

and the scalloper King Challenger.

 

'Travel' to Norway for free and visit Nor-Fishing 2020 Digital 18 – 20 August!

 

This year the traditional Nor-Fishing exhibition will go digital for the first time in its long history. The event is fast approaching, and exhibition manager Kari Steinsbø reports several hundred pre-registered visitors.

‘To follow the event live, you must pre-register to receive login details. Attending the exhibition is completely free of charge for visitors, and now that the event is approaching, more and more visitors are signing up,’ she said. 

The event is broadcasted live over three days, from 18-20th August, and each day’s broadcast will last for about five hours. To those who are excited about how the digital event will be, Kari Steinsbø explained that following the event will be like watching a live TV programme that you can participate in yourself – by asking questions to debaters or talking to exhibitors in digital meeting rooms.

‘Each day of the event includes a good mix of features with lectures from leading researchers, debates and of course some highlights such as student features and celebration of the exhibition’s 60th anniversary,’ she said.

The full programme is now updated on the Nor-Fishing web site, and will be updated continuously until the event opens.

‘We think it’s great that the year Nor-Fishing celebrates 60 years will be the year when the first digital fishing event kicks off. We have worked hard for our viewers to experience an exciting event – and we are really looking forward to going live on Tuesday,’ she added, commenting that all you need is internet access.

‘Although it is strange and a little sad that the industry will not meet in Trondheim this year, the digital platform has several benefits. Visitors avoid all expenses and logistics in connection with travelling to the event and can participate from anywhere in the world – as long as they have internet access. If you are at sea during the event, you can participate as long as you have internet access on your mobile phone,’ Kari Steinsbø said.

Register here as a visitor to Nor-Fishing 2020 Digital

Return of the Penlee Lifeboat, The Brothers.

Writes Jonathon Banks: 

"When I heard that The Brothers (a near 100 year old historic ex lifeboat, with so many local connections and stories) was potentially going to be scrapped for parts, in my mind we had no option but to get involved in trying to save her. Sat in a marina 300 miles away, holes in her hull and with little time before her imminent demise, I realised the best way to save her was to take her on myself, buy her and bring her home."

It's an honour to be heading this project to save such an important boat and a huge thank you to everyone who's offered their help and support so far. But we need more help. If she is truly to come home we need to find somewhere close to Newlyn/Penzance where we can keep her and work on her while she is restored. If you know a farmer, estate owner, someone with a large garden, a spot on an industrial estate or perhaps someone at the council can help. 

If you think you can help in anyway please email me on jonathan@thebrothers.uk or call 01736 887301.  

THE BROTHERS Lifeboat (ON 671) was the first motor lifeboat to arrive at Penlee and was based there from 1922 until 1930. A Watson Class, she was the first to be fitted with the new 90 B.H.P. 6-cylinder engine. Her donors were the Misses Eddy of Torquay, who also provided the money for alterations to the boathouse and slipway made necessary by the larger lifeboat. 

This plaque at the head of the Penlee Boathouse records the extraordinary generosity of these three spinster ladies. 

A ‘Save the Brothers’ website will soon be available- Facebook page here - https://m.facebook.com/SaveTheBrothers/

Thank you once again for all your support.

Misty start to the day in Newlyn.

The Belgian beam trawler Vaya Con Dios landed her fish to a lorry to be overlanded back to the fish auction at Ostend...

aye!, tall stories down the quay...

as the Vaya Con Dios heads out through the gaps...

and back to sea...

she has been working in the Irish Sea for the last month from Milford Haven before heading to fish south of Scilly...

plenty of new steel going aboard the beam trawler...

'twas a misty morn in Nelwyn...

for Stevenson's Aaltje Adriante landing at the fish market...

 

along with Ocean Fish's scalloper, Le Men Du , Cornish for Black Hill .

How fish stocks will change in warming seas

 

New research out today highlights the future effects of climate change on important fish stocks for south-west UK fisheries. 

 

The study, which generated future projections of climate impacts on fish in a rapidly warming sea region, suggests changes in the availability and catchability of commercially important Atlantic fish species including Atlantic cod, Dover sole, monkfish and lemon sole. This could have implications for fisheries management, and future fish diets of the British public.

The Celtic Sea, English Channel and southern North Sea have experienced significant warming over the past 40 years and further increases in sea temperatures are expected over the coming decades. Projecting future changes can help prepare the fishing industry and management systems for resulting ecological, social and economic effects.

The study involved researchers from the University of Exeter, the University of Bristol, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Met Office Hadley Centre. They used computer models to look at how fish abundances may alter by 2090 under a range of future climates. This provided opportunities to not only understand future trends, but how these trends might differ depending on the amount of warming in these seas.



Main findings from the study include:

Projections suggest increases in abundance of warm-adapted species red mullet, Dover sole, John dory and lemon sole, and decreases in abundance of cold-adapted species Atlantic cod, monkfish and megrim. These changes will challenge current fisheries management systems, with implications for decisions on future fishing mortality rates, fishing effort and allowable catches. For example, declining species may need further measures to reduce their vulnerability to further warming temperatures.

Increasingly flexible and adaptive management approaches are required that reduce climate impacts on fish species while also facilitating industry adaptation. Importantly, the results indicate implications not only for the wider ecosystem (e.g. predator prey dynamics or community composition) but that the fishing industry and management systems will likely have to adjust their operations to address these changes. British consumers may need to also adapt their diets into the future to eat species that could benefit under future warming, such as the warm-water species red mullet, Dover sole, john dory and squid.

Lead author Dr Katherine Maltby, who undertook the research while at Cefas, said: “Our results show that climate change will continue to affect fish stocks within this sea region into the future, presenting both potential risks but some opportunities that fishers will likely have to adapt to. Consumers can help fishers take advantage of these fishing opportunities by seeking out other fish species to eat and enjoy.”

Co-author Louise Rutterford, from University of Exeter, said: “We know from working with fishers that warmer water species are appearing in catches more. Bringing together their ‘on-the-ground’ experiences with studies like ours will help inform future management decisions that enable sustainable exploitation while supporting fishers’ adaptation.”

The paper, entitled ‘Projected impacts of warming seas on commercially fished species at a biogeographic boundary of the European continental shelf’ was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Date: 10 August 2020