Iconic small fishing boats of Cornwall face extinction warns Cornish fisherman.

The reality of the ban on discards - partly the result of a huge TV and media campaign - in the form of the Landing Obligation is already being felt here in the south west - and for some the results are already dire. 

Remember, the inshore fleet (under 10m vessels like the Lady Hamilton below) only have access to 4% of the TOTAL UK fish quota.

"A FISHERMAN has warned that Cornwall's iconic fishing boats face extinction due to new government and European Union red tape. The warning comes from fisherman Chris Bean, who has been forced to tie up his boat, the 8-metre Lady Hamilton, on the Helford River. He has been forced to pay a retainer to keep his crew but says he is unable to work, despite an abundance of fish in the sea. The Government has argued that quotas are essential to preserve fish stocks and ensure the long-term sustainability of the fishing industry.

Skipper/owner Chris Bean on the hauler of the Lady Hamilton off Falmouth.

Mr Bean said his quota for cod stands at only 230kg a month, which his boat can catch in just two days. A total ban on catching sea bass later this month will also hit small boats across Cornwall and beyond, he warned. "This has led to a disastrous situation for the small boat fishermen around our coast," he said. "After all, it is them that provide the local communities with the buzz, the tradition, the jobs and seamanship skills that so much of the nation enjoys, expects and admires."

He said he would be unable to catch alternative fish without also netting cod, which he would be forced to discard. He added: "Unless immediate action is taken to support small vessels, they will absolutely disappear. "Only an overhaul of fishing opportunities with the reallocation of quota will prevent the demise of a once vibrant local inshore fleet."

Mr Bean, who has fished since 1969, said there was plenty of fish reported off the coast including a shoal off the east side of the Lizard peninsula which was the biggest he had seen since the Seventies. "There must have been hundreds of thousands of tons of mixed pelagic fish there," he said. "There were pilchards, mackerel, herring scads and sprats all making up the feed for the normal winter predators. "The last two or three years had been the best I can remember for bass and cod."

Mr Bean has built up his business in the past 10 years, supplying fish to high-end restaurants in London, across Cornwall and local farmers' markets such as the twice-weekly one in Truro. "Unless immediate action is taken to support small vessels, they will absolutely disappear," he added. "Only an overhaul of fishing opportunities with the reallocation of quota will prevent the demise of a once vibrant local inshore fleet."

Fisheries Minister George Eustice, MP for Redruth, Camborne and Hayle, said quotas were crucial to safeguard the long-term success of the fishing industry. He said: "Quotas play a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of our stocks and it is important we strike the right balance between supporting all our fishermen and protecting the marine environment. "To help the inshore fleet, we took unused quota from the over 10-metre vessels and permanently transferred this to the under 10s, giving them an extra 678 tonnes in 2015. "This year, these vessels will also receive more than 1,000 tonnes of quota uplift to support smaller scale fishermen as they adapt to the discard ban, which came into force on 1 January 2016."

The EU Fisheries and Agriculture Council, after discussions with the UK Government, decided last month to a six-month closure of sea bass fisheries, to run from January to June.

Low-impact inshore fishing boats have a partial ban between February and March during spawning periods."

Courtesy of the West Briton. Follow @westbriton on Twitter 

#Penlee lifeboat Ivan Ellen out on a shout tonight.

Just making her way back to Nelwyn through the gaps, the Ivan Ellen was called out on a shout at 17:51 off the back of the harbour over in Penzance. #RNLI

Padstow and Appledore lifeboats attend to broken down cargo ship off Lundy.

The 91m cargo vessel Verity carrying scrap metal suffered serious engine difficulties on Thursday just after 12.30pm.  The AIS track shows how she drifted without power before being towed by the Dutch naval vessle D Ruyter which towed her to a safe anchorage in the lee of Lundy Island. The Padstow and Appledore lifeboats stood by (seen in red), Padstow eventually returning to port...

In the meantime the tug Bremen Fighter based at Holyhead on Anglesey steamed south to tow the stricken vessel to Swansea. Seven crew remain aboard the cargo ship.

Car carrier 'Modern Express' with huge list adrift in the bay of Biscay.

These car carriers always look top-heavy when they pass you at sea.

The drift of the "Modern Express" was steaming on Jan 29. The ship is rolling in a swell of 4-5 meters and has a drift speed of less than 1,3 knots in winds of 27-36 km/h about 168 miles west of La Rochelle. In the morning of Jan 29 the Argonaute of the French Navy joined the other ships in site. Salvors of Smit intended to try a boarding in the afternoon in order to prepare a towing connection to the Abeille Bourbon.

After 39 years of NOAA/NMFS fisheries management, how are they doing? How are we doing because of their efforts?

Freshly landed fish are rare enough on this freshy #FishyFriday!

Six am and a small huddle of buyers are all that is left on the market this morning...

desperately looking for some fish to buy...

from just a couple of inshore boats lucky enough to get out ...

and fish for a few pollack...

with not more than a dozen boxes in total fish will be at a premium come Monday's market...

as the weather is still poor enough to keep all but the biggest boats in port, though today will see the rest of the big netters head back out to sea at the start of this neap tide...

the Fish Box Club will no doubt be supplying a few lucky customers...

while the grading machine will lie be ready for action again come Sunday midnight when the first of next week's fish are landed...

the bigger boats in the port put out 'springs' - two opposing ropes rigged fore and aft of the boat that help minimise the movement of the boat against the quay...

won't be long before the Emma Louise is blazing a path out to sea again...

but for now the quay is quiet.

Wild, wet 'n windy weather on Wednesday.

Suited and booted, Falfish take to the market floor...

along with that merry band of merchants that make Newlyn the country's finest fish port...

there's fish for all...

including the incorrigible conger...

raucous ray...

as Nathan illustrates the finer points of crab conversation...

this fine specimen of an octopus has Chelsea written all over it...

while these mini monk tails makes tasty morsels...

the FalFish crew get a closer look at a John Dory or St Pierre as it is known in France...

JDs aren't the only fish with big 'thumbprint' marks on them, Cuckoo ray have a similar mark although much better defined, each is unique...

octopus of the type more commonly landed in these waters...

consider yourself brilliant if you can ID this fish...

the taking care of  business look...

the wild, wet 'n windy weather this Wednesday has blown all the boats back to port...

including the Plymouth based beam trawler Admiral Gordon...

from l-r, three distinctive bows, Scottish, French and Cornish...

the weather is so bad even the St Piran has had to suspend patrolling the waters around the coastline...

a fleet of nets from one of the port's smallest netters...

and the moneybag end of a beam trawl...

possibly not an alien encounter...

the colour of gold in Newlyn is black for some...

while Tom gets a good washing form the west again...

as does anyone walking near the promenade.

How The Responsible Fish Scheme is changing the fishing industry

The Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS), developed by Seafish, aims to raise standards in the fishing industry and is the only global standard that audits compliance on board fishing vessels, including ethical and welfare criteria. It enables those within the seafood supply chain to demonstrate their commitment to the responsible sourcing of seafood.

Seafish initially launched the scheme in 2006 however, following recent slavery issues that have been reported internationally, have newly revised the scheme to include health and safety of crew on board.

Certification to the RFS requires an independent, audited assessment of the application of good practice by an individual vessel and its skipper and crew. The assessment considers these five aspects of the fishing vessel operation:

• Safety, health and welfare

• Care of the catch, including storage, handling, hygiene and quality management.

• Training and professional development of the skipper and crew

• Care of the environment use of selective fishing technology, reduction of discards, management of waste and discharges.

• The Vessel and its mission meaning it complies with all regulation regarding fishing gear, where it fishes, what it catches

For more information click on this link to the RFS website - http://www.seafish.org/rfs/

"We cannot afford be caught out over fishing policy."

The Landing Obligation or 'Discards Ban' - The ban is being phased in in 2016 for key species, such as prawns and will have its own distinctive impact north of the border in Scotland. 

From Mike Park CEO at the SWFPO:

"DISCARD ban extension could end up killing off the industry, writes Mike Park As every manager knows, from lowliest football coach to FTSE-100 company boss, success depends on taking people with you. It’s no different for governments, civil servants and regulators, who must surely realise that it is better to work together than to use power to impose your will. We have reached a stage with the implementation of the landings obligation, which prevents fishermen discarding catches at sea, where it is sadly obvious that this kind of commonsense approach is lacking in many areas. 

The promise of regionalisation and improved good governance, which was to be a significant shift from the old regime, is woefully lacking as some member states continue to fight the concept of inclusion. To recap quickly, the discard ban, as it is more commonly known, kicked in at the beginning of 2015 for pelagic species such as mackerel and herring. Now, at the beginning of 2016, it is being phased in for demersal catches, starting with the key species such as haddock and prawns. By 2019 it will encompass all regulated commercial species. 

When the Common Fisheries Policy was reformed, the new European legislation provided for greater regionalisation and enabled fishers’ bodies such as the advisory councils 
to play their rightful role in being advisors and helping to implement policy through the buy-in principle from the sector. In my experience, the advisory councils are serious bodies, which after much deliberation now accept the principle of the landings obligation, which is a political solution to a practical problem, and have worked hard to inject a much needed dose of realism into proceedings with practical and well-balanced suggestions and ideas. 

As everyone knows, the legislation is a square peg which fishers will have great difficulty fitting into a round hole on the fishing grounds. Against this background it is ironic indeed that when it comes to finding a way to make the discard ban work without putting perfectly viable boats out of business, the level of intransigence still on view within European institutions and within some member state governments is extraordinary. 

It’s not as if Scottish fishermen haven’t shown the way before. It is now widely accepted that their commitment to sustainability over a number of years brought us to the position where the majority of stocks are in good health, as confirmed by the science and the quota uplifts at the December Fisheries Council. If we are to avoid undermining this good work, the politicians and 
fisheries regulators need to start showing greater respect for those whom, until now, they have dispatched to the sidelines; in short they must adopt a more pragmatic approach. 

Fishermen managed to overcome the deficiencies and frailties of the current discredited fisheries policy to deliver the healthy stocks we have today. It would be disappointing for all concerned if change brings about a slowdown in that recovery. The industry faces significant dangers, particularly in future years when more species are introduced to the discard ban. There remains a real risk that perfectly viable businesses will go under because measures designed to end the practice of throwing fish back overboard deliver the unintended consequence of killing an industry."

Read more from The Scotsman:
Follow us: @TheScotsman on Twitter 

"Horror images for the fisherman" - the LO in action.

The discards ban has kicked in for all fishermen - not just in the UK - here small Dover soles landed at Den Helder in Holland are died red to prevent them from entering the market for human consumption and hence to a landfill - if they were fed back to the sea as would happen under normal circumstances they would at least enter the food chain again.

Translated by Google:

Fishermen would like to see these fish grow to undersized fish and reproduce. By feeding them and destroy is the future of fishermen at risk. Fishermen do everything possible to fish in a sustainable manner and are open to innovation. But this arrangement is unsaleable to fishermen and the rest of the world. There is a " temporary " solution , which allow the supply of discards now is fortunately limited . Fishermen therefore hope for an even better solution .

Monk and megrim on a Monday Monday morning.

Monk tails...

and megrims...

ray...

and red mullet...

name these fish?...

haddock...

and even bigger monk tails...

plenty of fish to keep the buyers busy this Monday morning...

and the Ninja photographer...

now where is that otolith...

this morning's prices seem to be the cause of some consternation judging by Colin's reaction...

though putting the boot in would seem to be a little drastic...

what seals do to net fish given the chance...

all eyes on auctioneer Ryan...

#bass, the subject of a story on last night's #Countryfile - just where did they get the data from to calculate that anglers account for 25% of the bass landed in the UK? - ...

looking down the viewfinder...

just a solitary grey mullet on the market this morning...

it is that time of year again, spawning time so there are good supplies of big roe on the market, maybe some homemade Taramasalata is called for...

king of the claws...

no sign of landed discards as yet on the market but other ports are reporting the tipping of such fish...

not something to worry the netting fleet when fishing form white fish as they use 125mm mesh nets so they do not catch undersized fish at all...

the mackerel men would be happy to see bigger shoals these days...

a 4 kilo turbot staked up would be ideal for a restaurant on the 'specials of the day' board...

on a good day the bulk of a netter's trip of hake fall in the 2-3 kg grade...

just the two beam trawlers this morning...

but with the UK about to be hit by the remnants of snowstorm Jonas due to hit the south west tomorrow afternoon bringing strong to gale force winds for the next few days most of the fleet will be held in port...

though the netters are bound by the tides of course and at the moment the big Spring tide for once coincides with the impending poor weather.