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.
Skipper Terry Jack on board his trawler, Nereus. He is forced to fish miles from his home waters because of the Home Office ruling.
A west coast fisherman has spoken out about “impossible” Home Office rules that he claims could drive him out of business. Terry Jack – and others – say their livelihoods are at risk because they are not allowed to operate within 12 miles of the UK mainland if they take on crew from outside the European Union. They say Border Force staff stop non-EU crew members from working on vessels if they are within this limit. As a result, local boats have to travel further afield for their catches with no guarantee of success. Skippers maintain there is a “major shortage” of locally skilled men and, if the ruling isn’t changed, they could be forced to sell their boats. And Highland politicians are backing the fishermen’s concerns. Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil is calling on Brandon Lewis, the UK government’s Minister of State for Immigration, to step in and help. While Skye, Ross and Lochaber MP, Ian Blackford, hopes “this ridiculous state of affairs can be addressed.” Mr Jack from Gairloch is a trawler skipper who fishes for prawns and langoustines. The 41 year-old employs 10 crew – seven Britons and three Sri Lankans. He said: “The best prawns come from West Coast waters, but I have had to go far from home to fish because of this ruling, so it’s a loss to the local economy. “It is almost impossible to recruit locally as there is a major shortage of skilled men. “I don’t want my business to go to the wall. But If this continues I’ll have to sell up due to rules that are impossible to adhere to. Skipper Angus MacLeod from Barra said: “I am trying to get my previous engineer, a Ghanaian national, to return to work on my vessel. He is being detained at Edinburgh airport on the basis that my boat doesn’t spend enough time in international waters. “We regularly fish there, but we have to make up the numbers required to put to sea and fish safely. “It’s extremely difficult to access a full complement of local crew.” In March, Mr MacNeil hit out at the Home Office for failing to reintroduce a scheme which would allow non-European Economic Area, EEA, nationals to work in the industry. He said: “This inaction is hurting the industry as it is a struggle to crew these vessels. I know of men desperate to return to the boats they worked on.” Mr Blackford added: “This industry is vital for us so I have taken the matter up with the Home Office.” A Home Office spokeswoman said: “It remains the government’s policy not to operate migration schemes for non-EEA nationals coming to fill vacancies at lower skill levels while employers have unrestricted access to labour from elsewhere in the EU.” Full story courtesy of ANN MACK July 6, 2017.
Superb mix of inshore day-boat trawl fish along with two beam trawlers and a netter with hake and turbot on board...
which means there were plenty of monk tails up for auction...
along with plenty of Dovers...
all auctioned under the auspices of head auctioneer Ian Oliver, seen here with his very own fishcam which relays the sale live to the office staff...
technology has come along way in the fishing industry and this is an exclusive for Through the Gaps as we get first sight of FalFish's buyer Edwin using the newly developed QR code reader for cuckoo ray...
a good shot of langoustine for the James RH...
four-score and ten gurnards...
enough to make you watch in wonder...
these huge pair of red bream have Chelsea written all over them...
some bass even come with their own tub of sweet-and-sour sauce...
smart move Sid...
especially with the hake too...
a pair of perfect monk tails...
from the Karen of Ladram...
a moody Monday morning Mount...
another huge scalloper from north of the border lands to a lorry - scallops fished in any quantity are always landed direct to a buyer at an agreed price rather than put on an open auction...
a tidy ship is...
scallops heading ashore...
from the Cordella K...
an indication of the size of the boat, drawing three metres at the bow...
its not every day you get one of the UK's leading fisheries consultants heaving on your net...
not much room for anymore scallop bags...
big boats need big nets...
you need a sense of humour at sea...
hammerlock links have all but replaced shackles on many rigging jobs.
Summertime means that the Border Agency boats are on the hunt for smugglers...
coming on, work in progress on the new tugboat for Stevensons, wonder what they will call her?..
the Mousehole boys are off to sea...
the wing end of the new trawl...
the first section of the belly with the bobbin...
bottom trawls have a row of 'guard meshes' immediately adjacent to the fishing line - made from heavier twine - as the first dozen meshes suffer the most abrasion as the footrope is dragged across the bottom...
Govenek of Ladram looking good as she sails...
you know it's summer when the harbour has visiting scallopers...
like the Albion from the land of the cats without tails...
nonchalant sanding down of the hull...
the new timber and tyre fenders are now in place on much of the North pier...
32 dredges in all on the UK's biggest scalloper...
the boat and the bait...
Penlee lifeboat heads out on exercise...
all the scalloping spares you need...
on the deck of the Dumfries registered, Macduff Shellfish scalloper...
tooth bar comes in useful, an old mooring trick on how to pass a spring through and eye without fastening it...
local inshore scallopers, not quite in the same league as the Albion...
