Cyrus Todiwala, shellfish champion of Great Britain!

Nothing could highlight the lure of fresh fish and fresh Cornish fish in particular than the sight of one of the country's best loved chefs out on a boat actively involved in hauling aboard the main ingredient for his quayside shellfish cooking demonstration!

With his enthusiasm truly matched by the flavours of his very special but easily doable Parsi influenced cuisine, Cyrus Todiwala from Cafe Spice cooks and talks passionately about the spider crab - a hidden gem found in increasing numbers all round the coast of Cornwall and soon to be found on the wet-fish counter  and restaurant menus near you!

Email in any questions you might have about to fishermen like lobsterman Andrew Stevens about catching, cooking or sourcing this truly under-appreciated but abundant fish.

Fishing is a hard way to earn a living anywhere in the world, nowhere more so than off the coast of Gaza.

An account by aid worker Eva Bartlett.



"In November 2008, I joined a boat of European Parliamentarians sailing from Cyprus to the Strip, attempting to symbolically break the blockade. Apart from the act of solidarity, it was also my sole means of entering Gaza. With all but one border crossing controlled by Israel, and the remaining crossing by the complicit Mubarak rule in Egypt, entry by sea was the only option. However, the outcome was not certain: Israel also controls Palestinian waters.

Israeli gunboat flanking the Dignity as it sailed through international waters towards Palestinian waters.

Organized by the Free Gaza movement, the November sailing was the third of its kind. Two more boats reached Palestinian shores before Israeli warships begin violently obstructing passage, including ramming one boat.

I joined the handful of other human rights activists from the ISM to begin what would be over two years of the most surreal and horrific experiences as an activist I have ever had.

Our work comprised accompanying farmers and fishermen as they attempted to work their trades, routinely coming under machine-gun fire from Zionist soldiers. In the case of the fishermen, they are also subject to shelling and heavy-powered water cannon attacks—the force of which shatters windows, splits wooden structural components of the boats, and destroys electronic navigation equipment. The Israeli navy also often adds a chemical to the spray which leaves the soaked victims stinking of excrement for days. [videos]

In one assault on fishermen, the navy first sprayed machine-gun fire at a fishing trawler one kilometre off Gaza’s northern coast for about fifteen minutes, then firing a missile which set the boat aflame. The fishermen jumped overboard and were saved, but the boat was not. Gutted by flames, the vessel was destroyed, and along with it the livelihoods of the eight or so fishermen who regularly worked on the boat.

Half an hour into my first venture out with fishermen, in November 2008, an Israeli gunboat charged us, swerving at the last minute. Intimidation. The fishermen scrambled to reel in their nets. Soon after, another gunboat sped towards us, water cannon firing. Our trawler managed to escape before the dousing. This minor harassment pales in comparison to the repeated assaults that usually occur when fishermen try to fish even a few miles off the coast. Under the Oslo accords, Palestinian fishermen have the right to fish 20 nautical miles out, but under Israeli rule six miles is the limit. Often, when the fishermen are attacked at sea, it is repeatedly as the Israeli navy follows them from one location to the next, rendering their fishing efforts largely fruitless.

Fishermen are routinely abducted, their boats stolen by the navy. If the boats are returned, it is inevitably after many months, and stripped bare of nets and equipment. The process of abducting fishermen usually plays out as such: one or more israeli gunboats attack the fishing trawler (or the small, rowed boats common in Gaza) with machine-gun fire and/or shelling; the navy orders the fishermen to strip down to their underwear, dive into the water, and often makes the fishermen swim or tread water for extended periods, regardless of the temperature of the water. Fishermen are then hauled aboard, abducted to a detention centre, and interrogated on anything but fishing.

Life ashore is even worse - read the full account of life as it in Gaza here:

Mid-week market in Newlyn.

When approaching a roundabout and a pedestrian crossing

the 'rules of the road' (Collision Regulations) are slightly different to those of the Highway Code - though one rule definitely applies to both - 'might is right'!..

meanwhile, it's all go on a busy mid-week fish market in Newlyn...

with some fish held over in the new chill-room for tomorrow's auction...

to spread the mass of fish more evenly over the week - fine weather across the NE Atlantic always brings a glut of fish and depressed prices (and fishermen)...

though top-drawer fish like these big fat juicy John Dory always make good money...

while the flats like megrim soles...

and plaice can suffer owing to the huge quantities being caught and landed...

with no hake netters landing the hake on the market came courtesy of the prawner Bracoden...

and the turbot from the Stelissa...

getting dragged away as quick as possible...

as the brisk bidding continued...

for turbot...

and more turbot...

and more - it's that time of year - how about a treat for Father's Day?!.

biggest monk tail this morning...

it's good to see that these days fish like scad and small gurnard have now been added to the menus of restaurants and the tables of the more adventurous home cooks...

despite the abundance of haddock throughout ICES Area VII not many of them are this big..

Dover soles would be on more menus if the quotas for them reflected the state of the stocks - fishermen wince at the amount not retained on board at certain times of the year... 

out in the morning sun...

and the still waters of the harbour...

is too much for some...

there's an early start on the Govenek of Ladram up on the slip below the waterline work anti-fouling, caulking and anode replacement...

Tarka complete with lifting bags...

it's official!, the new Rowse crabber has been named, Nimrod...

the Stelissa, currently fishing for turbot looking resplendent in the morning sunlight...

some expensive looking undercoat going on the hull of the Spirited Lady III...

as the beamer Admiral Gordon makes her way towards the gaps...

the police boats that escort the Queen Elizabeth...

make their way in for a crew change...

as another visiting yacht...

heads off towards Lands End...

looks like Tom is keeping an eye on one of the biggest vessels to anchor close inshore in recent years.

Spider Crab – no longer just for export!

Spider crab are one of those species of fish for which traditionally there is little local (as in UK) demand for - until now. Most of these crabs with their sweet-flavoured meat are exported to France and Spain where they are cherished.  

But now, times are a-changing! Chef Cyrus Todiwala working with the Shellfish Association of Great Britain is leading the charge in putting spider crab on the menus and BBQs of British restaurants and households.

The video records how Cyrus spent a few days in Newlyn in the company of fisherman Andrew Stevens who fishes totally sustainably from his small but well equipped punt, Benediction for shellfish like brown crab, lobster and spider crab using salted bait he caught and processed himself in the winter months.  The visit ended with a great cooking session in the company of Mike Warner from SAGB showcasing four simple Parsi cuisine inspired dishes cooked by Cyrus on the very quayside where Andrew lands his fish.

In the Gulf-stream warmed waters of the Cornish coast spider crabs are being landed by a small number of boats to feed a growing local demand. An increasing number of restaurants are adding spider crab to classic dishes lie fruit-de-mer and whole spider crab are a sought after addition to the BBQ.

Spider crab, scallops, langoustine, lobster, brown cab - all of these delicious fish are being caught right now by boats of all sizes around the coast of Cornwall - ask your local fish supplier to supply you a selection for a summer treat!

Brexit is a red herring when it comes to the plight of UK fishermen

Small fishing companies are harmed not by the EU, but by government rules that allow big interests to corner the quotas

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act 2, scene 1:

Third Fisherman: Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.

First Fisherman: Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.

"William Shakespeare might have been writing about the 21st-century fishing industry. Forget, for a moment, “taking back our waters”. The real scandal in British and European fisheries over the past 35 years has been the relentless hoovering up of catching opportunities by big boats and big companies.

Ukip, Conservative Brexiteers and some fishermen’s leaders would like you to believe that the important battleground in European fishing is Britain versus the rest. It is not.

A more damaging issue, one that transcends national boundaries, is “big” versus “small”. In several EU countries, but most notably in Britain, powerful trawlers and large fishing interests have squeezed out the smaller, more environmentally friendly boats on which local communities depend.

None of this is directly “caused” by the existence of the much-maligned EU fisheries policy. Nor is it certain – despite glittering promises by the UK and Scottish governments – that Brexit will bring much relief to coastal fishermen.

A much-delayed fisheries white paper, now expected this month, will set out the government’s vision of an independent British fishing policy post-Brexit. Drafts circulating within the fishing industry are as slippery as freshly caught mackerel.

On the one hand, the document says, the government is open to “alternative approaches to the future allocation of quota”. On the other hand, it promises to “recognise” the “business model” which has allowed big fishing companies to buy up (from other fishermen) an indecently large share of catching opportunities in Britain. The same pattern can be observed in some, but not all, other EU fishing countries.

Such accumulations run directly contrary to the principles laid down by the common fisheries policy (CPF). Article 17 of the CFP bans “dominant positions” and calls on member states to allocate their fish quotas according, among other things, to “the impact of fishing on the environment” and “the contribution to the local economy”.

Since the creation of the CFP in 1983 these core principles have been systematically ignored by Brussels and several member states, but most egregiously of all by successive UK governments. Small, coastal boats under 10 metres, which make up 77% of the English fleet, currently have the right to catch 3% of the total English catch of quota-controlled fish such as cod, haddock, plaice, sole, herring and mackerel. One super-trawler, British-flagged but ultimately Dutch-owned, has the right to catch 94% of the English herring quota in the Atlantic and North Sea.

A recent investigation by the EU lobby group for coastal fishermen Low Impact Fishers of Europe (Life) uncovered the opaque ownership pattern of the half-dozen fish producer organisations (POs), which possess 97% of English quotas.

The investigation, entitled Fishy Business in the EU, found that one of the English POs belonged, in effect, to a single Dutch company. Another, the Fleetwood PO, is dominated by UK fishing companies controlled by Spanish interests.

In Scotland, foreign companies have been kept at bay but the country’s generous quotas for species such as herring and mackerel have been bought up by a handful of fishing families. Two-fifths of the entire Scottish catch by value, and 65% by tonnage, was landed by 19 powerful super-trawlers in 2016. Small-scale coastal fishermen, who operate 80% of Scottish boats, have to make do with 1% of quotas.

Claims by Ukip and others that the British fishing industry has suffered a calamitous decline “because of the CFP” are misleading. The big British fishing companies and the big boats are doing fine. They are now the most prosperous in Europe, with record revenues in 2017 and operating profits averaging 25%.

It is the small-scale skippers and coastal communities who are struggling with operating profits close to zero. This is due not to competition from European boats (with local exceptions in the Channel) but to the failure of UK governments to challenge the “eating up” of quotas by big fishing interests.

Much the same accumulation of quotas has occurred in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. There is a healthier balance in France and in non-EU Norway. Paris and Oslo forbid the private “ownership” of quotas, which is not enforced by the EU, as some fishermen’s leaders claim.

Some degree of concentration of the fishing industry is inevitable and desirable. Small scale-fishermen have a limited range; processing factories cannot be built all around the coastline. The present egregious imbalance between big and small interests is unhealthy: it destroys small coastal communities and hands over entire fish stocks to high-impact – ie more destructive – types of fishing.

Coastal fishermen’s complaints have been fobbed off with promises of “hundreds of thousands of tonnes” of new fish for small boats when the UK leaves the EU. Such promises helped to persuade up to 92% of British fishermen, including most coastal skippers and their crews, to vote for Brexit in June 2016.

Until a few months ago, Michael Gove and others were implying – absurdly – that this great new share-out of fish would happen the day after Britain left the EU in March next year. This was always implausible. All the same, coastal fishermen feel betrayed by the government’s decision to delay the alleged quota bonanza until the end of the Brexit transition.

In theory, this will last to December 2020. The Irish border issue and pressures from British industry and agriculture now suggest that transition may last for up to seven years – or indefinitely.

Jerry Percy, chairman of the Coastal Producer Organisation, which was created to acquire more quota for local fishermen in the UK, says the time has come to put aside the Brexit rhetoric. If Michael Gove and others are really concerned about the survival of “iconic” coastal communities, they need to act now and within existing rules, he says.

“Unless something concrete and dramatic is done to help in the immediate future then the ever-more seemingly ephemeral promises of a post-Brexit windfall of quota and access will be meaningless to those small-scale coastal fishermen who have gone out of business,” he said.

What can be done? The government has transferred small amounts of “unused” quota from big interests to small in the past. In 2013, one of the big fisheries producer organisations challenged these transfers in the British courts and lost. The final judgment reluctantly accepted that fish quotas were private property but suggested that the legality of this ownership was “built on sand”.

If the government really cared about small fishermen, it could make emergency transfers of more unused quotas. It could follow the Danish example and move a small proportion of quotas away from private ownership. It could, some experts have suggested, apply a kind of “quantitative easing” to the fishing industry by simply printing more quota allocation licences.

As Percy suggests, it is time for the government to do something to rescue small fishermen rather than treating them as expendable bait on the Brexit hook."

In many ways this is not a UK problem - https://www.proarti.fr/collect/project/oceans-2-la-voix-des-invisibles/1

Full story courtesy of the Guardian:

• John Lichfield is a former EU correspondent based in France

Monday morning market in Newlyn - and a visit from a queen.

A mix of crabbers, netters, trawlers and scallopers in the harbour this morning...

while the market was full of net, beam trawl and line caught fish...

with the netter, Silver Dawn putting a shot of turbot ashore...

along with a few paws...

there was a mix of rays from the beamer Twilight III...

while the hake on the market bought by Smarts came from the Britannia V...

along with some cracking haddock bought by Fish for Thought...

Ocean Fish had their share of hake too...

as did Martins...

bags of scallops filled one corner of the chill room....

a box of tasty looking monk cheeks...

much of the market floor was taken up with fish stacked six or seven boxes high...

which didn't leave much room for the buyers...

next door there was far more space...

for plaice...

and Dover sole...

so when the second phase is complete space will not be an issue on busy days...

not that these fine red mullet care one jot...

or this haughty hake...

stacks of fish 200kg in weight...

are no match for Ed-the-machine man from Falfish...

huge ray from the Pascoe's...

while low in numbers these beautiful fish fetch a premium price on the market whatever the weather...

the odd shark dropped by...

while a welcome sight were several boxes from the bass king himself...

as Cod put ashore a good selection of these magnificent fish...

anyone missing a beam trawl?..

Lily Grace at rest between scalloping trips...

cracking signwriting on the stern of the Brixham scalloper, Kingfisher...

not quite in the same league as the heavy footrope used by the powerful Scottish prawn boats...

two of the police boats that play escort to the navy's biggest ship exchange a few words in the harbour...

before they head back out to carry out there duties at sea...

as the Harvest Reaper passes the Queen Elizabeth...

 and heads for the gaps...

at 280m long, the @HMSQnlz she makes for an interesting juxtaposition against the Newlyn skyline.