Chef Galton Blackiston is in Newlyn making it a very #FishyFriday in the best fish town in the west!

When ling get hauled from the depths they can become goggle-eyed...

plenty of MSC Certified hake on the market this morning from boats like the Charisma...

which also landed some early season turbot - a fish for which there is almost no scientific stock assessment data...

unlike thornback rays...

as ever, there are always those omni-present handful of cod...

yet more 'butt' from the big netter...

along with a handful of Dory and Dovers...

and some mighty meaty looking monk tails...

the unmistakable spots of the plaice...

and, wherever the boats fish now, there are haddock on the grounds...

harbourmaster Rob Parsons gets filmed being quizzed by TV chef Galton Blackiston who will be cooking some of Newlyn's finest fresh fish down the Mary Williams pier later in the day...

both auctioneers in full swing sell the last of the morning's fish...

eagerly snapped up by the buyers...

looking to get more Cornish hake...

and turbot...

from the netters' trips...

someone will get the benefit of these delicious little parcels of monk cheeks...

normally the middle fridge is reserved for landings of handline caught mackerel - not that there any signs of Spring mackerel at the moment!..

luckily, some of the boats can turn to alternative fish like these trap-caught cuttles...

not a breath of wind this morning...

as the resident seal...

demonstrates how he deftly skins each fish before eating it...

seems to be a shift in the message...

work in progress...

a big name in fishing on the quay...

the beamer Algrie takes fuel...

spare combination warps on the Revival FR316...

big sterns on the netters...

fuel-up time...

 for the Karen of Ladram...

sisters...

there's still plenty to do aboard the beam trawler James RH  before she gets her gear put back aboard...

there's a story behind the mis-shaped bow of this one...

it took a day to create and looks like it could be a week before this quay sculpture is completed.

Newlyn Art Gallery - Conversations about time and place.

Just as the bronze memorial statue outside Newlyn Art Gallery makes a connection between the land and those that go down to the sea so Magda Stawarska-Beavan, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid have created three very different works for their current exhibition titled, Conversations about time and place.

“A rural ecologist, an urban drifter and a diasporic optimist examine the invisible layers underneath, the lost spaces on the edge and the forgotten places in between.” Lubaina Himid.  

The exhibition explores the work of three artists, Magda Stawarska-Beavan, Rebecca Chesney and Lubaina Himid, who consider the poetic investigation of place, space and time, through painting, sound installation and place-based research. 

All three artists use their work to uncover the hidden, understand a place as it is experienced by those who know it well, and remember apparently unknown histories.

Each artist has made new work for the show. See here for details.

Invisible Narratives is curated by Lubaina Himid CBE, winner of the 2017 Turner Prize.

The show runs until May 29th.

Also part of the current show is a piece by Rebecca Cheney that draws inspiration from the historic Tidal Observatory at the end of the South pier in Newlyn.  For nearly 100 years navigational charts cited sea levels as being taken from the tidal observatory in Newlyn.  Newlyn Tidal Observatory was established to determine mean sea level as a starting point for measuring height and levelling throughout the UK, and provides some of the longest sea level records ever kept. The length and consistency of the observatory workings give the data collected huge historical significance - especially so with regard to global warming and climate change.

Yesterday afternoon the gallery was treated to a talk...

from Richard Cockram, the vice-chairman of the Newlyn Archive, on the history and importance of the observatory...

and from artist Rebecca Chesney on how a visit to the observatory inspired new work for her show, Invisible Narratives...

Rebecca's work uses the data from the observatory...

 starting in 1916 up to 2018...

in a longitudinal piece...

on paper strips reminiscent of the paper roll used by the original Munro gauge recorder...

since the recordings taken in the first few years...

moving to the last few, it is easy to see how sea levels are continually moving upwards. It is possible to view see the live data streamed from the observatory's bubbler gauge along with hundreds of other stations that form a global network.

Also included in the exhibition is Rebecca's Forewarning, a three-screen video and sound installation filmed in 2018 on South Walney Island off the coast of Cumbria.

Local photographer Greg Martin produced a series of images on the day of a visit organised by Richard Cockram on behalf of the Newlyn Archive - the visit was also recorded by for Through the Gaps here.

For June, the gallery is planning a walk & talk tour in the harbour - which will necessitate a 6am start and appropriate footwear in order to see and hear the fish auction in full swing!

Another day in Newlyn.

This time of year sees a regular stream of visiting Scottish prawn (langoustine) trawlers using Newlyn as a base for their fishing trips west of the Scillys, Orion BF432...

local crabber Harriet Eve heads in through the gaps

and makes her way to a landing berth alongside the Chris Tacha...

in addition to the prawn trawlers there's always a handful of visiting Scottish scallopers that come and try their luck...

crabbers Chris Tacha and Harriet Eve land their two-day trips of crab...

for the Real Cornish Crab Company...

there's always work to be done on the trawls...

time for the Twilight III to sail...

Uncle Tom on the Harvest Reaper has decided to switch over to a scraper trawl now that megrims have begun to show up - which should see a reduction on the amount of haddock they have been catching - referencing the measure being taken to introduce a series of MPAs around Cornwall in order to protect salmon and sea trout - in 35 years fishing Tom has seen two sea trout - many fishermen in Cornwall have never seen a live sea trout or salmon...

so a different set of bridles and rig are wound back on to the winch...

the Evening Star is one of a handful of shelterdecked scallopers in the UK...

interesting looking steel yacht, Second Chance from Pembroke Dock...

the recently re-fitted James RH makes her way in through the gaps and heads for the quay...

where her ropes are taken...

an old hands' trick, using a heavy mooring rope as a fender to swing the boat on its bow against the quay...

like any other fishing boat, it seems there are always 101 jobs to be completed between trips, here the Brixham scalloper checks over all her running gear.