Mike Mahon makes a stand over giving away rather than dumping fish.

Grimmy Mike makes the front pages again in his one-man campaign to combat what he sees as a crime against humanity when it comes to dumping pefectly good but over-quota fish on the seabed. Mike has been giving away fish in Newlyn to visiting yellow-wellies (in return for a donation to the Mission or RNLI) and others in defiance of the law. In a small inshore trawler like Mike's it is nigh on impossible to avoid catching certain specieas of fish as they are found all over the grounds.

Bizarrely, the South West is seeing more haddock of late than for many, many years. The current quota is 500kg (although if you read the article in the Western Morning News' website it reads 500 tons! - he should be so lucky!!). The last thing fishermen want out of this action is a modified ruling on discards. 'Through the Gaps' spoke to an inshore fisherman today who no longer records the monk heads left in his nets by foraging seals as they count against his quota - in other words fishermen are forced to mis-report and for good reason - they need to stay in business!

A Friday market full of fine fish.

Tom gets to peer through the early morning mist rolling across the fleet...
and its good to see the Ripple sporting her fully rigged sails...

although in this weather a heavy dew covers the fors'l .....

the gill net fleet still use a sail - the mizzen to steady the boat and keep it 'head to wind' when hauling the nets - wjen steaming in poor weather the mizzen helps slow down the boat's rolling movement and can be used canted to one side when steaming in a following wind to cut fuel consumption - here, skipper Phil shares a joke with two of his young crew....
small inshore boats that work from the small coves in West Cornwall

not only use the insulated tubs with slush ice aboard the boat, they then keep the fish in the tubs in order to transport them to the market in tip-top condition..... looking back over a full western end of the market with a mix of inshore and netter fish alongside 22 tubs of Cornish Sardines which are plentiful at the moment....
these quality monk cheeks will no doubt feature on the menu of several key local fish restaurants this weekend...

after weighing a decent sized Porbeagle shark the tally is marked up....

after which Mark finishes off the laying out of Carol H's fish with a topping of flake ice... a subtly striped species of gurnard from the Scorpio's landing in superb condition....

Dancing on flake ice

Admire a few early morning pirouttes from the ice man as the George Johannes takes ice....
and fuel, it's a long way down the ice chute.....
seems the Cornish Sardines have learned to spell and are trying to give us a message....
where do starboard-hand buoys go when they retire? - they are put out to grass of course.

Quality will out!

Visiting scalloper Philomena from North of the border receives a fresh batch of tooth bars from JJ Marine, Annan....
stunning looking red mullet landed by inshore boat Scorpio illustrate the quality of fish that has been held in slush ice at sea in the insulated tubs provided through Seafood Cornwall ...
quality line caught examples of the "king of the sea" as chef and fish champion, Keith Floyd always referred to them- 8 boxes of best bass will tempt the buyers this morning....
another champion of quality fish, inshore trawler skipper, Roger Nowell, builds a spare trawl for the Imogen while she waits for a new bottom bush for her rudder to come back from the workshop....
over at Wherrytown - where, over 100 years ago, a Serpentine mine ran out under the sea, work continues to re-instate fresh water from the stream trhat feeds the boating pool.

Biggest fish festival ever!

Cap'n Keast, on harmonica, serenades visitors to this year's festival as they make their way over one of the old stone bridges that allow access to Newlyn... a visitor checks out the model of the orginal Mystery that is upstairs in the Mission's museum...

one of 100 local scouts on the gates that worked so hard on the day of the festival, a big thank you goes out to them for their continued support....
here's one of dozens of volunteers on the day with important jobs like handing out free festival programmes to visitors....

there were huge numbers this year helped by the dull start to the day - many seen here gathered in front of the sound stage listening to a range of local artists - from several sessions by soul band, Heart 'n Soul to the Rum and Shrub Shanty Men and, the much acclaimed, National Youth Champions, Camborne Youth Band - a star xylophone player featured amongst their number....
large audiences watched a rolling programme of fish cooking from Seafish - spider crab courtesy of WH Harvey & Sons.....
outside, Dick Edes entertained a constant crowd with the art of withy pot making - catch Dick if you missed him at the Newquay Fish Festival in a few weeks time......
general view of the entertainment section....
some youngsters were able to make their own length of rope on the Falmouth National Maritime Museum's stand under the tutellage of their education staff....
Mithe Howell, from the Pilchard Works hands out samples for tasting - local producers sold or gave away huge quantities of fish and fish samples throughout the day - Seafoodandeatit had no problem shifting all their shellfush products including the whelks.....
delicious aromas emanated from the pots on the Little Cornish Curry Company stand and attracted a constant stream of hungry punters....
always attracting the attention of kids and adults alike, the monk or anglerfish has a 'fishing rod' over its head to attract its supper as demonstrated here on the Responsible Fishing Scheme's stand courtesy of Drew Davis and crew...
Crystal Sea II skipper and better half turn were kept busy prepping tasters on the Seafood Cornwall stand.....
while the Cornish Sardine boys were out in force this year selling 1000s of grilled sardines in baps...
Mervyn kept the kids amused with his 'mobile' school of dolphins playing alongside the boat....
later in the afternoon, fish merchant Robin Turner extracted huge sums of money for the Mission from visitors with his charismatic auctioneering style.....
main event of the day, Keith Dixon, Mission Skipper blesses the Spirit of Mystery in front of a huge crowd....
with a few words from skipper, Pete Goss.....
and when the sun eventually came out, hundreds soaked up the atmosphere outside the Dolphin and Swordfish pubs.

Newlyn wakes up to an early start - setting up for the Fish Festival

Harbour boys, unsung heroes of the festival get off to an early start....
while Nick Howell begins to set up what will be a display of largely pelagic fish this year - few boats landed during the week so it was not possible to get donated fish from the fleet as per normal....
Emma Rowse, matriach of Rowse Fishing assists with the addition of shellfish from their bpats....
just some of the companies who source their fish from Newlyn.....
as ever, the Kipperman has put in an appearance...
Shane brings the St Piran to her berth for the day over the top of the Spirit of Mystery.....
a fine mini display of local fish from one of the exhibitors.....
a favourite foody pub in Penzance sets up their stand to keep visitors fed...
last minute checks by Sarah Henshall, Festival Co-ordinator before the gates open.

Rigging the Ripple slideshow

View a slideshow of the masts being craned aboard and details of the rigging now in place aboard the Ripple. She will be on display at the Fish Festival alongside Pete Goss' Spirit of Mystery on a pontoon berth.