Christopher Booker from the Telegraph wades in to defend Newlyn's 'pirates' and their Mums

Outspoken and forthright, Christopher Booker writes in the Telegraph to highlight the plight of those recently convicted in the Black Fish case. He describes the stituation as, "A draconian quota sytem which forces fishermen to throw countless millions of saleable fish dead back into the sea".

Booker highlights two issues to arise from the case, namely that the fishermen concerned were prevented from speaking and that further research needs to be carried out to ascertain whether or not there was "quota available to lease" so that the fish could have been caught legally.

Christopher Booker often writes to champion the case of the UK versus Brussels and is a supporter of UKIP .

A must this June for traditional boat fans - Looe Luggers

This year's Looe Luggers festival promises to be the best yet with a promise of several Breton classic sail boats joing in the fun - find out more from the local paper, Looe Today. No doubt the local fleet of luggers (Barnabus, Happy Return, Our Grace, Dolly Pentreath) will be in attendance, including the Ripple which should be doing the rounds now she is afloat and fully rigged.

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.