Gales and a weekend off for the fleet

A few residents can keep an eye on Tom from the comfort of their homes......
while two local swans keep their heads down as gale force winds whip across Penzance Boating Pool in Wherry Town.....
this chart, courtesy of the NOAA's website shows just how quickly the wind came on Saturday evening, peaking at 52 knots before dropping back to around 30 knots for the duration of Sunday.....
a member of the Responsible Fishing Scheme gets to fly the flag, literally.......
over in Penzance Harbour their are some serious pieces of heavy lifting gear against the quays....
a good handful of locally caught langoustine were on offer at WS&S's fish boutique, shoppers are riminded they can place an order and pick it up after completing their shopping in town....
waiting for a break in the weather the Crystal Sea II......
as usual, Phil on the gillnetter Carol H is keen to take ice and get away first for the next neap tide.....
the new crabber Emma Louise is considerbaly longer than fleet sister the Dom Bosco.....
while the final member of the Rowse fleet is blown off he quayside in the wild condtitons.....
as the sun rises, Silver Dawn reflects some early morning light.......
the fishing day signal (which should not, of course, be shown in port!) - two inverted cones can take many forms - is intended to indicate to other vessels during daylight that the vesel concerned is engaged in fishing activities....
this one has seen better days.....
and used to look like this......
a sign of the times perhaps, one of the better looking housing developments in the area has ceased to progress......

someone has gone to the trouble of making a rope fender for a specific purpose on the bow of the Chloe T.....

Anodes galore

With sixteen anodes visible on the starboard quarter of the Billy Rowney there must be around 60 in total needed to protect the boat - at £20 each that's lot of cuttles.....
waiting for high water and the journey back down the slip......
there must be a drop left somewhere......
ready for a nother big trip, boxes for cuttles sit on the quay alkongside the St Georges......
there's a temporary gap in the side of the Rowney.....

and a full set of scaffolding around the gantry up forar'd.

Big moon, big tide

The George Johannes ablaze with deck lights in the early hours before sailing.....
time for the boxes to be put back aboard the Sapphire, no doubt they will be hoping to turn grey into black.....
there's a new kid on the block from Foey - Fish for Thought who are obviously capitalising on the fact that, as as every fishermen knows, fish feeds the mind and gives you brainpower....
almost a full moon, low down in the sky it heralds another big tide.

Round the other side of the world....

It is often easy to assume that you are alone and unfairly treated at times - but take a look at the fishing effort off the coast of Thailand. Here the Thai government banned all trawling many years ago in order to preserve stocks and minimise damage to the seabed. Interestingly enough, they are now in the process of introducing legalised trawling in some areas.

Read the full story here from the Jakarta Globe website.

Spirit of Mystery update

With the New Year behind them the boys on the Spirit of Mystery are looking to the final leg of their tans-oceanic voyage to Australia and have just left Simons Town, South Africa.

However, skipper Pete Goss has decided that cannot miss the opportunity to call in to one of the world's most remote islands, Ile St Paul. Apart from a scientific research station the island is often uninhabited other than by unique colonies of birds and other sealife.

Views from elsewhere - Nathan de Rozerieux attracts some feedback

In response to the FSA's call for yet another government funded consultancy programme to see if the consumer should be asked if they need to be encouraged to eat fish twice a week - one oily, one white - Nathan, from Seafood Cornwall's response was adamant, NO! - all sectors of the industry now work together to promote the benefits of healthy eating by including fish on a regular basis and, that consumers are now better informed than ever as to the provenance of fish. There are individual chefs like Tom Aikens, many restaurants and even supermarkets that, these days, like to inform customers about fish sourced locally by displaying information to customers, like those fish that are line-caught or tagged or from MSC recognised stocks.

Jim Portus, from the Suth West Fish Producer's Organisation, also feels that the FSA are needlesly adding their weight to a push for change in thinking when the drive for such change is already well under way, "Thanks for your advice. The industry has got the message, the fisheries department has got the message, the fishermen have got the message, the EU in Brussels has got the message and we are all striving to achieve it."

Of course, one of the downsides of schemes that promote the above are that they inevitably suggest to the public that fish from other sources is, therefore not from sustainable or managed stocks or ethically caught. This again reinforces the need for all hands to work together for the benefit of future generations as eating, shopping and living standards change to reflect the more environmentally aware world in which we live.

Read the full article in the Western Morning News.

On the coast - but where?

For those who know their coastal geography this should not prove too difficult.....
where the local chippy, of considerable size for a small coastal town, cod not resist the obvious pun for the shops name.....
of course, (in ye olde english) and further inland, are the remains of a better clue.