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Sunday, 16 January 2011

Nearly there!


Monday should see the FishFight campaign top half a million signatures!

Profile Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall - courtesy of today's Guardian.

The Guardian today provides as closer look at the man behind the FishFight campaign. From Eton to 'eatitall', as he became known after his first TV series, 'A Cook on the Wild Side'.


A quote from the article provides some thought for where HF-W's next battle may take him!




"The venerable Prue Leith has dedicated years to campaigning for improvements in the nutritional standards of school dinners only to be fobbed off; it took an Essex boy and self-styled "shit-stirrer" on terrestrial TV to jolt the government into action. Similarly Greenpeace, Charles Clover and many others have been on the offensive over tuna, heinous fishing methods and discards but it has taken our floppy-haired toff to really bring the issue to the fore and gain some concessions.

Unencumbered by any endorsement deals with supermarkets, Fearnley-Whittingstall is free to give big business a going over. One wonders what will be his next target."

All will be revealed shortly no doubt.

Dispatches - 7.05pm tonight on Channel 4.


Dispatches investigates the fish sold on Britain's high street to find out where it is sourced, how it is processed and what is actually in it, as Channel 4 News presenter Alex Thomson unwraps one of the nation's favourite dishes.
Through DNA testing Thomson discovers the fish in fish and chips may not be quite as advertised and exposes how one major supermarket is misleading consumers about the sustainability of the cod it sells.
The apparent health benefits of fish have driven demand from consumers and made it a lucrative multi-billion-pound industry in the UK. But Thomson reveals the chemical additives used in some fish products.
He also uncovers that packaged fish on sale in the chilled section of the supermarket may have been frozen for nine months before it's defrosted and sold to consumers, some of whom assume this is fresh.
Dispatches also goes undercover to investigate the prawn industry in Bangladesh, which supplies Britain with several thousand tonnes of prawns each year, and finds a dangerously unregulated industry. Secret filming reveals serious hygiene issues and the use of a widely banned pesticide to combat disease in prawn ponds. The report also exposes how prawns are injected with a dirty bulking liquid to increase weight and profit.

Saturday, 15 January 2011

Come on Newlyn!

It seems that the Brixham Boys enjoyed a bumper year in 2010 - Brixham Trawler Agents - who operate the independent fish auction have just announced that last year the port saw £24,000,000 million pounds worth of fish pass through the market- that means that Newlyn can no longer call itself England's number one fishing port!


Last week saw three boats in Newlyn gross 150,000 between them - but let us not forget that there are still a significant number high grossing boats that continue to land their fish away to Plymouth and France.  Newlyn must do what it takes to bring the fish from these boats back across the market floor - the market need that fish to keep port viable for the future and they need to pay for those new fenders!

Four hundred thousand and counting - FishFight heads for half a million!

High's FishFight marches inexorably towards the half million signature mark!

Fishing boats for sale!

Check out the new for sale section on 'Through the Gaps':


Fishing boats wanted

Gear for sale

Early gulls gets the worms.

A fishermen's tools of the trade......
flagged beamer Ora et Labora is back in town, this time with her beam gear back on......
not too sure what this sign is banning, those 1970s disco dancers maybe.........
plenty of bait going aboard the Nazarene.........
Mount's Bay's tug the Doris K is about to go to Holland to complete her massive refit.......
leaving a big space alongside the quay.......



sparks fly aboard the Lisa Jacqueline........
as another load of ice is readied for the beamer fleet.......
watched over, the Trinity vessel, Patricia with the MCA's Anglian Princess beyond......
Badcock's Gallery is still open for business - but the shop is now shut - try online though their web site needs updating!........
there's a distinctly chilly ambience to the window display at the Newlyn Design Centre
always a sign of strong winds, the local gulls take to scavenging worms on the Green!