Newquay Fish Festival 2016

Forget the horrors of Newquay's stag and hen do weekends - the 2016 Fish Festival is in town...

which means thousands of people flock to enjoy...

three days of fishy fun for the family...
 

along with the fishermen of Newquay who make it all possible...

the huge marquee provides a great cooking stage kitchen for popular local chefs like...

Aaron Janes from the Harbour Fish and Grill ably assisted by the unflappable Kosta... 

while at the other end, the main music stage provides interludes from the likes of the Figurehead Singers...

throughout the festival there is plenty of support for sustainable fishing...

looking after the environment...

showcasing the fantastic work by the Newquay Marine Group...

while every visitor it seems tried some grilled Cornish sardines as the boys ran out of them by Sunday afternoon!...

apart from fishing Newquay is famous for its surf...

and family holiday hotels...

entertainment included...

Shakespeare in a Shed!..

maybe he's gone fishing...

Newlyn fisherman Dick Edes is a regular contributor here explaining how a traditional withy lobster pot is constructed...

or a dozen or more different Cornish Meadow preserves...

the port is famous for its shellfish like these crabs tucked away in a store pot...

keeping an eye on things...

the evening ended with a Last Night of the Proms...

with the audience in fine voice, their whistles wet by cold ales and warmer beverages...

the local RNLI station will get the benefit of a charity dinner...

extravaganza courtesy of HFG.

#FishyFriday finds Newlyn full of the finest and freshest fish.

One hour after high water...

two of the big boats are back in action again...

and landing on this morning's market...

giving the buyers a choice...

of the finest Newlyn harbour fish...

from boats like the Sapphire II...

landing spotty fish...

or lemons from inshores like the Harvest Reaper....

or these beasts of the deep from the Milennia...

good mackerel fishing with the punts...

and a hoard of hake from that star of the TV series, The Catch...

so are these spotted or blondes?...

knowing your fish marks, make haddock easy to identify...

two fabulous top-drawer flats, but which is which, the turbot and brill, or brill and turbot?..

time for the Sapphire II to take on board fuel...

most of the netters are in port this morning...

jog on...

just passing through, Windcat 4...

a little repair work looks like keeping all hands aboard the Imogen II busy on the quay today...

a weekly task, dropping the derrick to grease the blocks...

so where's The Catch?

EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee Wednesday 14 September 2016 Meeting started at 10.30am

Subject: Brexit: fisheries

Witness(es): Mr Thórdur Aegir Óskarsson, Ambassador of Iceland to the UK, Icelandic Embassy Mr Vidar Landmark, Director General, Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries Mr Geir Ervik, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries

Mid-week market in Newlyn

All quiet, after the deluge...

the kind of weather JMW Turner would have died for...

with a broken beamer trip and inshores...

filling one end of the market with superb quality fish...

like these monk from the New Harmony...

though there is still very little sign of autumnal squid...

there were some titanium white turbot...

meaty monk...

a solitary bass...

and young Nigel managed to bag a few JDs from ending up in the Imogen IIs cod end...

with their distinctive 'thumb print' market that gives rise to the fish's name Saint Pierre in France...

telling fish apart by their individual distinctive marks is in most cases easy enough but when it comes to these ray, which one is the blonde...

and which one is the spotted variety?...

"must have put them somewhere"...

Dunlop workboots, de rigeur in the fishing industry either ashore or afloat...

the lazy gulls patrol the market edge for scraps...

while their keener cousins take to the wing...

 in search of breakfast...

looks like early retirement for yacht Taranga, one of the Normandy Channel yacht race - after calm conditions on leaving Plymouth the fleet encountered some more challenging Atlantic type conditions as they rounded the Lizard and headed for land's End during the night. Here's a sniuppet of a race report from Miranda Merron aboard the, Campagne de France:

"We had a very exciting time to negotiate the passage from the Lizard because of ugly clouds, enormous scales of wind and many grains. It is obvious that this kind of fun always happens at night! Then, approaching the southwest tip of Cornwall, the horizon is darkened, the wind suddenly shifted ... we had to roll up urgently the gennaker to pass through the small shortcut between Longship and Land's end, which is only a few hundred metres wide. It happens, as long as the GPS and maps are accurate. Now we await the depression, in absolute calm conditions! Generali is a few miles ahead, and Serenis not far behind ...all drift northward with the current ... "

the collective noun is, a bevvy of beamers...

the Gallilee now has the bulk of her topside work completed, well the woodwork at least! Roll on next year Jeremy ;-)