Get your skipper's ticket funded before it's too late!

The old style 'Second Hand Special' skipper's ticket for vessels over  16.5m but under 30m - good for going as mate on over 30m and the Long Range Certificate for radio telephony.

Funding for Cornish fisherman to complete courses toward the proposed “Under 16.5m Skipper’s Ticket” free of charge, has been extended through to May 2011. 

The MCA have advised that in the future, it will be a requirement for all skippers of commercial fishing vessels under 16.5m  to hold the new ticket, therefore fishermen should be encouraged to take advantage of the funding while it lasts. More detailed information covering all aspects of certification can be found on the MCA web site here.

The funding had been scheduled to come to an end at 31^st March, but there are sufficient funds available to continue to offer courses in Cornwall free of charge until May.
In order to qualify for the funding, candidates must have completed their basic training courses consisting of Sea Survival, First Aid, Fire Fighting and Safety Awareness.

Fishermen are advised to contact Seafood Cornwall Training in Newlyn (Seafish Approved Training Provider) for more information and to book on course dates.

Contact: 01736 364324

Web: www.seafoodcornwalltraining.co.uk

Scallops and pollacks - a couple of firsts for the year.

Beach greening.......

with cash-strapped local authorities these days it doesn't pay to get spotted by the incredibly zealous foot patrol........

man the pumps.........

with a fine forecast the St Adrianne takes ice.......

watched by a few hungry gulls.......

before heading down the harbour and off to sea, though the next few days will mean taking extra care when trawling as the biggest tide of the year approaches........

superb shot of monk from the flagship Cornishman.......

accompanied by a good shot of Dory from across the water.......

back on the lines, the Sea Spray gets her first shot of line caught pollack on the market, though pickings were a trifle slack........

three tubs apiece for the beamers, looks like supplies of black gold are fast coming to an end.......

Mr Tonkin and M Downing take stock of the latest trip from the Golden Harvest........

inside the meat wagon (spot the hooks in the roof of the trailer) hands reach out to grab the bags of new season scallops coming ashore.......

from the Philomena, one the TN Trawlers' fleet of big scallop boats.........

after landing those shiny pollack, its time for skipper Dave and new crew member to get scrubbed down.

There's a Cornishman on the slip.

Always a good chance of a colourful sunrise at this time of year........

 which means a pleasant enough start to the day for men in punts.......

 over on the slip there's a chipping hammer on the go.......

 as the hull of the Cornishman gets tested......

and a figure given for the thickness of the plates.......

fresh supplies of anodes arrive.......

with a little paint job needed above the waterline.......

so it's up with the scaffolding tower........

view from the bottom of the slipway.........

looks like The Fish Shop in Newlyn has some special offers on this week for pollack, plaice and dabs at 3lb for £5, and in case you were wondering, - chittlins are fish roes.........

after getting his leg crushed aboard the beamer Lisa Jacqueline two weeks ago, Rob was airlifted off the boat to hospital in Brest by a French rescue helicopter  - he's now back up on his feet, full of praise for all the medical staff at Brest that so promptly fitted a pin in his broken leg and treated him so well, including providing him with a pair of walking crutches that appear to be the envy of all those at Treliske where he went for a check up......

pulling the plug - them scaly-backs get everywhere........

time for a wash and polish.

Paintings by David Langsworthy at Newlyn Mission.

Make time to visit the Mission in Newlyn to see David Langsworthy's series of oil paintings, many of which capture familiar faces at work around the harbour.


See examples of the paintings on show here.

Sardines solve traffic chaos!

Nissan's new "EPORO* robot car concept, which is designed to travel in a group of like-vehicles, mimicking the behavioral patterns of a school of fish in avoiding obstacles without colliding with each other.

Fish Behavior Rules


AREA 1: Collision Avoidance

Change traveling direction without colliding with other fish.

AREA 2: Traveling Side-by-Side

Travel side-by-side with other fish while keeping a certain distance between each fish (to match the speed).

AREA 3: Approaching

Gain closer proximity to other fish that are at a distance from them.

Generically, fish recognize the surroundings based on lateral-line sense and sense of sight and form schools based on three behavior rules. A laser range finder*4 is used for lateral-line sense, while UWB*5 communications technology is utilized for the sense of sight.

"We, in a motorized world, have a lot to learn from the behavior of a school of fish in terms of each fish's degree of freedom and safety within a school and high migration efficiency of a school itself. In EPORO, we recreated the behavior of a school of fish making full use of cutting-edge electronic technologies," said Toshiyuki Andou, Manager of Nissan's Mobility Laboratory and principal engineer of the robot car project. "By sharing the surrounding information received within the group via communication, the group of EPOROs can travel safely, changing its shape as needed." This is the world's first development of a robot car that can travel in a group by sharing the position and information of others within a group via communication technologies.

Like London buses, after two days of almost no fish on the market, four beamers land in one day.

Brixham super beamer, Sea Lady is operating in the black still......

but she won't be happy with the relentless increase in the cost of fuel oil.......

with what looks set to be the biggest Spring tide of the year in the coming days, take the chance of getting your points across on any harbour related matter to the Harbour Commissioners next Monday at 1pm in the Mission.......

magnificent mullet, sure to be on one of those London wet fish shop window displays tomorrow......

one hungry looking tub gurnard......

and a beady-eyed ling.......

washed up and needing repatriation........

where in the world, who put it there and why - over to you Ollie! - ps where are Zac's videos?

Liferaft floats free - eventually - and is found.

Yet another example of how the lives of fishermen are put at risk when the very equipment that is there to protect them fails to function. These days boats like the Ben My Chree are subject to stringent safety regulation and assessments - the equipment they carry on board, like EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicaiton Radio Beacons) and liferafts are supposed to activate after being submersed. It is just as well the crew of the BMC did not have to rely on their liferaft last Friday should the boat have sunk when they were aboard, on Monday the Sennen lifeboat was alerted and called out to pick up an inflated liferaft - three days after the vessel sank off Carn Base.

Margaretha Maria BM148 - liferaft on sea bed.

In other accidents the outcome has been less favourable; when the Margaretha Maria sank in 1997 south of the Lizard with the loss of all hands, both liferafts failed to activate - one can be seen here on the sea bed next to the hull.

The demise of the Ben My Chree signifies the end of an era in Newlyn. When she arrived in 1978 she was rigged for side trawling. At the time there were a handful of similar private boats and W Stevenson's fleet had four old wooden MFVs and four Sputniks all trawling. The four steel Sputniks were soon converted to beam trawling as the company put all its eggs in that basket. Meanwhile, the fleet of private trawlers grew. In the fifteen years that followed the arrival of the BMC, Newlyn's fleet of trawlers around and above 15m grew and grew.

Until last week, she was the last remaining boat in the port from the days when there was the Pathfinder, Gamrie Bay, Scarlet Thread, Keriolet, Galilean (replaced by the Ocean Harvester), Girl Patricia, Confide, La Critique, Defiant, Wyre Star, Fern, Green Cormorant, Excellent, Jacqueline, Trewarveneth, Anthony Stevenson, Bervie Braes, Sarah Shaun, ABS, Nicola Marie, Three Lads, Rose of Sharon, Lia G, Marina, and several others that came and went!

How times have changed, in today's fleet of Newlyn trawlers over 15m there is.................... the Crystal Sea II!