At last, a Monday market!

First time in weeks there have been a significant number of boxes put through the steam cleaner...... the Sapphire takes on fuel after landing...... with around 8 tons of crab to come ashore the Intuition moves out to allow the Emma Louise to pull back and allow her to get to the waiting vivier lorry..... black gold on the market...... making its mark..... as the fickle black finger tallies the scales....... there's even a few mullet for auction...... along with a box of sprats..... careful picking by a safe pair of CEFAS hands removes an otolith from a small haddock.....
beginning to land her brown crab...... ahead of the Emma Louise...... no more backs of pickups running in foul water with these beauties...... another sepia ink masterpiece...... and a crucial part of the WS&S installation piece.....with a huge trip from the St Georges which included a few boxes of faithful old pouts, or as they are known locally, 'bothicks'...... just to keep the 'mongers happy there's a bit of bass being caught to boot!

Marios or in Cornish, 'Hern Ys Aysel'

A great favourite around the pilchard (sardine) catching communities of Cornwall is the dish known simply as marios - marinaded pilchards. Just like the pasty, every fishing family's mum, grandmother and great-grandmother has their own 'unique' recipe - all based around headed and gutted pilchards, vinegar, cold tea, thinly sliced onions, salt and pepper, brown sugar, fresh bay leaves and, of course, the inevitable secret blend of spices.

If you don't know yourself, a blend of the appropriate pickling spices can be bought - if you know which - and mixed yourself. Once upon a time a small chemist's shop over in St Ives was a well-known source for such a mix, some folks may still know the bend of spices concerned!

The spice recipes may vary, but the method of cooking remains the same. Essentially, the gutted and headed fish are laid in a dish, a blend of tea and sufficient wine vinegar (definitely not malt) added to cover the fish along with the spices to suit your personal taste. Most recipes call for the fish to be cooked overnight (the sort of thing Cornish range ovens of old or today's Agas are ideally suited) at a low temperature (60º) or, alternately, baked in a conventional oven at a high heat (150ºC) for 40 minutes and then left to cool for 24 hours. This will ensure that the bones almost dissolve and can be safely eaten.

Trouble is, the weather of late seems to have pushed the sardine shoals well offshore!

Here's another version sent in from St Ives ex-fisherman Billy Bunn - who can these days be found earning a living as skipper of the oil production rig standby vessel, Putford Provider and tracked using AISlive - she berthed in Great Yarmouth at 1am this morning.

"I headed, tailed, gutted and sniped off all the fins, put bay leaves in the bottom of a large deep pan, a little bit of salt, a few pinches of the spice, put some spice in the belly of each pilchard and a bay leaf - lay them in the dish - sprinkle some spice over and some leaves - repeat with another layer of pilchards then finish off with some leaves and spice - cover with malt vinegar - either put on a lid or cover with parchment paper - cook on a low heat overnight and test in the morning, the bones should be soft - to lesson the strength of the vinegar if you want add a little bit of water."

Keel Alley floods for the first time in years

Desperately, the sun barely breaks through the heavy cloud cover in the Bay, the glassy sky forebodes another wet day ahead.....
and for those boats at sea it can't be too comfortable as a heavy swell scours the stone beach along the prom......
up for Christmas for the first time in years, but will she be decked out in festive lights? - only time will tell......
who says men can't multi-task?, landing cuttles from the Chloe T and taking a call all in one subtle movement.....
a quick tow job to the market for WH 578.......
ahead of the Amanda who has run in before the weather and put her fish ashore......
all hands to the firs, as Michael Williams drops off this year's Newlyn harbour Lights Christmas trees......
contemplative mood in the Mission this morning complete with mystery hands......
shades of past times with Keel Alley flooded once again, a measure of just how sodden the ground is after the last few weeks of heavy downpours.....
only in Newlyn, it appears Christmas is for sale!

When science and sense prevail - CEFAS and Brixham fishermen work togther

Continuing to build a strong working partnership with the fishing fraternity - CEFAS have just published a paper on the '50%" discards trial. Working closely with beam trawlers from the Brixham fleet, CEFAS scientists and the fishermen have exceeded the 50% target and reduced discards in their trial by 62%!
The full report is available her as a pdf file, and makes fascinating reading; a chance to see just what can be achieved when scientists and fisherman get to work as a team in determining the nature of the fishing research.
CEFAS staff can often be found on the market at Newlyn, here Sam samples otoliths from plaice last year.

Of interest to the sardine boys perhaps?

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has just given notice of a 30 day consultation period for the Southern Brittany Sarine purse seine fishery. For all the details check out the page on the MSC web site.

New on the web site - AIS goes live - track Newlyn fishing boats

As of today, using the new ship plotter tracking page, you can track those fishing vessels fitted with AIS who work around the Land's End area - or anywhere around the UK.

Relatively inexpensive and simple to install, AIS has greatly increased awareness of traffic at sea - even small yachts fitted with AIS can accurately track and identify any vessels in their vicinity - whether they have them in sight or not - potentially very useful in poor visibility or fog.

Locally, boats like the netter Silver Dawn and Responsible Fishing Scheme crabber, Emma Louise are some of a growing number of local vessels fitted with AIS.

Access to the new AIS page is from a link on the Newlyn Harbour home page.

Follow that boat!

With the advent of AIS tracking it is easy to follow live the progress of individual ships as they ply their trade off Land's End. This also includes those fishing vessels fitted with the AIS system, like the French trawler above. On this tracking site it is possible to click on each arrow which shows the speed of the vessel at the time. In this instance the boat concerned was making 10 knots untill she shot and altered course to tow up past the Wolf and off towards Pendeen.

Further up the channel the Dutch freezer trawler Oceaan VII has weaved an interesting course today.