Right in front of the harbour offices there's an excellent berth for small boats or yachts to go aground for a tide if they need to work below the waterline...
the Millenium has taken a similar berth at the end of the fish quay to carry on the summer paint job...
while inside the market there is a mix of fish from beam, inshore trawl and four invisible netters ready for auction...
and netted fish like monk, ray, brill and whiting from the Helford based, New Harmony of course...
while the big beam trawler Sapphire III put ashore plenty of megrim sole...
monk tails...
and Dover sole...
while the St Georges could not escape a fair few boxes of big haddock, the fish that will be the scourge of the looming Landing Obligation (when boats will be forced to land everything they catch) here in ICES Area VII...
many of the smaller boats 'wing' their ray before putting them down in the fishroom - saves on space and ice and handling...
with the turbot netters away tos ea there's only a few boxes of 'butt' for the buyers to fight over - prime fish at this time of year for anyone who wants to try many of the superb restaurants in Cornwall that serve the very best in local fish like The Shore in Penzance, Ben's Cornish Kitchen in Marazion and of course young Ben Tunnicliffe at the Tolcarne in Newlyn, or Rick Steins in Porthleven or Paul Ainsworth's Number6 in Padstow or even Nathan Outlaw in Rock, the list is positively endless!...
and there's every chance one of this box of Dorys will star on one of the above's menus tonight...
while this pair of grey mullet will stay a little more locally on the counter display of Mousehole Fish shop in PZ...
along with this brace of Dovers...
ling, one of the best fish for fish cakes and fish ie, firm, meaty tasty flesy robust enough to take all kinds of flavours and great for fish stews...
with a set of gnashers like that no wonder hake are one of the Atlantic's most feared predators, they taste pretty good too...
but they are going fast off the market floor...
the eyes have it...
net caught tub gurnards always look as if you could eat them raw...
thereby hangs a tail...
they don't come much bigger than these two specimen hake...
being sorted straight from the deck of the netter Ygraine who has just made it in to land before the end of the auction...
the fish are weighed and a tally put on each box...
before being stacked ready for sale...
there's a little gentle joshing as GaryM skipper Andy gives fellow Ygraine skipper some grief...
"caught all of them in the last net then did you?!" - after hearing days of, "not much in the that one skipper' over the VHF radio catting between the boats at sea...
evidence that there's been some mending going on down the quay...
still more hake, stiff as a board, being sorted...
graded...
and weighed...
before head auctioneer Ian gets down to the selling business of the morning...
just in time for Andy...
to get back aboard the boat ready to land...
closely monitored by young Roger, that kingpin of the Stevenson's company, a man who can turn his hand to almost any job thrown his way...
there's a few more of these waiting to go ashore - tubs full of blues means that the Gary M has been fishing with tangle nets for monk and turbot -which should keep the buyers happy he made it in time for the weekend - the ideal time to shift turbot and monk in quantity over the holiday period to all the best hotels and restaurants - see above!..
then it's time to scrub her down...
another paint job that will have to go on hold today given the rather damp forecast!..
Cordelia-K, possibly the biggest scalloper in the UK...
"back to back they faced each other drew their swords and shot each other" - nonsense verse by whom?