The great New Zealand fishing scandal - food for thought.

An impassioned expose on an issue close to New Zealanders hearts…
We have all heard of New Zealand companies closing down here and moving offshore, depriving people of jobs and creating more profit for companies but how would you feel if instead of moving offshore, they fired their Kiwi workers and replaced them with foreign workers, paying them much less and with no regard to health and safety. As a country we would be outraged wouldn’t we?
This scenario is happening today in the fishing industry, and has been for the past 20 years.
Every year, foreign factory trawlers with foreign crews, Korean, Russian or Polish, operate in New Zealand waters, chartered by New Zealand companies to catch their Deep-sea Quota, depriving New Zealand crews and processing workers of much needed jobs, and our economy of revenue.
THE GREAT NEW ZEALAND FISHING SCANDAL is a comprehensive examination and expose of an issue all New Zealanders should be aware of, and outraged by.

New Zealand has the 4th largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world (within a 200 mile boundary line around our country) measuring 4.4 million square kilometers, controlled by our government. Within that zone, 130 fish species are commercially caught every year, with a quota value of $38 billion and an export value of $1.5 billion and yet New Zealanders are not reaping due rewards.

For more background information read the full story here:

Out with the old.

Waiting to be fitted and replace the existing rubbing fenders that line the quays at Newlyn........

 profile view of the fenders after removal from the quay.......

 revels the extent to which the waterlogged timbers are being eaten away.......

by the resident army of wood chomping worms.

News from Ajax AH32, 100 miles off the Scillies.

One of the boats fishing in the proximity of the Ajax is the french trawler, Les Calanques - seen here on the VesselTracker AIS which is picking up boats nearly 100 miles off - must be due to the weather conditions as AIS has a similar working range to VHF - line of sight and about 30-40 miles at the most.

Early morning glow.

 Down on the beach the dying embers of all that remains of the crabber Dom Bosco frame the Govenek of Ladram as she returns to sea.......

on the market, five tonnes of hake grace the market floor from the netter Ajax....... 

 along with a good run of fish from a mixed landing of trawl, beam trawl and net fish........

 a close up shot reveals why this fish has the name yellow fin........

 being discussed by auctioneer Ian and James shortly before the sale started, the fish made £4.60, well under the expected £20-25 per kilo.........

 both ends of the market were full with fish........

as was the White Heather when she came in to land with over twenty tonnes of Cornish Sardines on board........

 there should be extra interest from the local community and other harbour uses at this week's harbour meeting - with the expected announcement of new faces to replace the three members recently removed.........

too much water in some quarters as the boating pool is full to the brim.

Trials to reduce fish discards could be expanded

Trials to reduce discards from fishing vessels could be expanded as the government says initial results show they are working. Boats in the trials with CCTV cameras have to keep all the fish they catch but are rewarded with extra quota. Findings from 15 boats in England have seen discards of less than 1%. There are also similar trials in Scotland.


Full story courtesy of the BBC see it here:

Yellowfin tuna ready for auction.

Check out the size of this cracking fish due for auction at about 8.30am - http://bambuser.com/v/2106563.

Tuna update: the yellow fin tuna fetched £4.60 per kilo - meaning that the whole fish made £354.20 for the netter Sparkling Line.

Dom Bosco 1959-2011

After many years stirling service in the Rowse crabbing fleet, the Dom Bosco has met with a fitting end on the beach at Sandy Cove in Newlyn. Once mistakenly referred to as Tojo by an NCI watch person - not realising that they were in fact reading her port registration as her name!!

See the slideshow here.