A quiet-ish morning in Newlyn.

"Heave Ho! and up she rises, early in the morning"...

stretching out a trawl on the quay means only one thing...

mending time!..

tug boats either end of the James RH Stevenson manoeuvre her into a berth...

master and commander of the prawn trawler, Revival surveys his domain...

after exchanging a few words with Mr Spirited Lady...

pink, it seems is the new in colour for net bags...

Maverick handline maestro Dave Smith heads of for another stint singlehandedly targeting pollack on wrecks...

the prawner, Aquarius turns for the quay...

king of all he sees.

Fixed Quota Allocations and sustainable fishing - view from the NFFO.

The NFFO’s members span all sizes of vessel and so must be scrupulously fair when it comes to the controversial issue of quota distribution, which has been raised as the Fisheries Bill passes through Parliament. This detailed paper argues that despite some flaws, Fixed Quota Allocations have played a central role in putting fishing in the UK on a sustainable basis. It also makes the point that the challenges currently facing the small-scale inshore fleets have little to do with the FQA system itself and cautions against abandoning a tried and tested approach.

After over forty years of NOAA/NMFS management how are we really doing?

Nils Stope has devoted well over two decades to familiarising himself with and writing about various aspects of the domestic US commercial fishing industry. He has done it in a way that provides a reasonable amount of insight into what are largely complex and too often confusing issues.

Since being involved in the industry – and this involvement goes as far back as the passage of what is now called the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act –  he has seen the focus of government fisheries management increasingly shift away from the fishermen to the fish.

The provisions of the Act as it was originally written were put in place to allow the U.S. fishing industry to regain control of the fisheries in the United States’ highly productive coastal waters, fisheries which had been for the most part taken over by the distant water fleets of other fishing nations. The legislation was singularly effective, so effective that within ten years or so of its passage the greatest portion of our domestic fish and shellfish production was being harvested by U.S. fishermen on U.S. vessels.

Read this latest take of his on the state of fisheries management in the USA - while their fisheries may be up to 5,000 miles from here many of the management issues are mirrored here in the UK!


Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet USA
© 2019 Nils E. Stolpe
June 1, 2019

Monday morning fish auction in Newlyn.

A huge shift in the weather in the last 24 hours as Monday morning's market starts under clear blue skies...

with each market chill-room filled end-to-end with fish...

which included this big shot of turbot from the Amanda of Ladram...

her catch also included a good run of big thornback ray...

a by-catch of big crab claws...

and a good shot of hake to go with the big prime flats...

like these brill...

the netter Ygraine also landed a good shot of turbot too...

and a few of these voracious MSC Certified predators of the sea...

while the trawler Imogen III managed an excellent shot of ray...

to go with his much beloved John Dory...

still relatively rare, a good sized Mediterranean octopus...

there's only one fish that with skin like this...

with so much fish to be measured and otoliths to be collected  Gary from Cefas is glad to have some help this morning...

measuring the length of hundreds of megrims...

caught by the beam trawler Sapphire II stacked high on the market floor...

allowing Gary to log yet more plaice, though the process is now much faster using a light pen...

and modified tablet...

it's the time of year when scallops make an appearance in ever-increasing quantities...

yet more hake came from the netter, Stelissa...

along with monk tails...

and even more turbot...

late season whitefish roes by the kilo...

and whole monk landed by the Scottish prawn trawler, Vision...

in addition to a few boxes of big haddock...

the netter Ajax landed a huge trip of hake...

helping to fill the western chill room...

while a handful of buyers bought their way through a few boxes of line caught fish in the smallest chill room, normally full of mackerel but there is still no sign of these fast swimming fish with the guys and the hooks...

fastidious about the quality of their fish, the boys on the Annie May take insulated tubs to sea with them in which to keep the catch in slush ice...

likewise the netter Ygraine lands fish of the highest quality from short wreck and rough ground trips...

the business end of Dr Dory's Imogen III...

liking the embroidered Through the Gaps logo (and here's hoping that young Mr Stevens on the Crystal Sea doesn't change the colour scheme for the new build - again!) on the new workcoat from eXhibit1 work and leisure-wear...

sometimes a black & white image does the scene more justice...

"when I grow up I want to be one of those", says inshore trawler Still Waters to the big Spanish stern trawler, Sanamedio...

coming slowly up the slip...

the beam trawler, Admiral Gordon...

for her annual bottom scrub...

checking that she's sitting correctly in the cradle...

before she dries out..,.

and her old anodes are replaced and join the pile on the slip...

the waiting lorry reverses into position...

to land the big Spanish owned trawler...

on a glorious morning...

the rebuilt lugger Ripple joins the list of boats undergoing paint-ups...

built for speed not comfort...

smallest of the visiting Scottish prawn trawlers heads for the fish market to land...

of course, as a Flag of Convenience fishing vessel the Sanamedio is actually a registered British fishing vessel...

and therefore, correctly, entitled to hoist the red ensign when in port.