Thursday 10 November 2011
Back to school for some.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Penzance Harbour - planning for the future.
To find out more about Transition Penwith at the Penzance Seafront Forum please see the website and consider signing up: http://penzanceseafront.com
The steering group has members from the diverse range of people and interested parties. The people who previously were "at war" over the Scilly Link plans, are working together within this Forum. This means that what were previously campaign pressure groups, are now central to the development work alongside the council. A truly powerful and exciting way to create the future within our community. It represents a "Transition" in terms both of the way things are done, and the way forward in terms of the actual developments, for example leisure/sports or supermarkets/carparks etc.
The Skate Park on the seafront has just now been granted funds for development. Whilst this was an entirely separate, and less contentious development, it has set an example for this new Harbour Development Consultation As the Seafront Forum, we have now set up in partnership with the Town Council, a new consultation exercise. This is to be launched publicly on 17th November: Harbour Development, the Penzance - Isles of Scilly Link
The Government has given funding for this consultation, through DfT and on down through the Town Council. European Convergence Funding is expected to match that and may go on towards further development of the Seafront. This Consultation is only for the Harbour Development, the Penzance-Scilly Link, and the brief is restricted to that. We need to consider the long term economic development of the harbour, as well as something that commands public support. Here is an urgent call out to identify the Harbour Link project, and design it around needs. The opportunity is there, between the Launch (17th November) and a week later, to offer up your own ideas (a sketch will do) to be considered.
This is an inclusive process and it's time for you or anyone else, to have their say. There is one week only to work in! There is a workshop planned for asap where you can check the brief, and either work out your own and/or work together to illustrate and perhaps make a model of a solution (to the Harbour Development) that is agreed on by consensus. There may be some Permaculture Principles and Ethics to work into the process. Start now and you'll have more time to work up any ideas ... the key is that they fit the Brief ... which you can see at:
http://www.transitionpenwith.org.uk/files/penzance-harbour-consultants-brief.pdf
"Save as" if you want to download it.
This should be a really interesting creative exercise. Go to http://www.pzharbourfutures.org through which you can submit suggestions (website goes live on 12/11/11) The Seafront Development Forum is still fairly embryonic and can do with more input, if anyone is interested and there is an urgent task list to do with the Harbour Consultation.
It is all happening very fast, there is a meeting on Thursday evening (10th November) to help move it forward.
http://www.transitionpenwith.org.uk/files/penzance-harbour-A5-electronic.pdf
All the files and links mentioned are also on the Transition Penwith homepage at: http://www.transitionpenwith.org.uk
The steering group has members from the diverse range of people and interested parties. The people who previously were "at war" over the Scilly Link plans, are working together within this Forum. This means that what were previously campaign pressure groups, are now central to the development work alongside the council. A truly powerful and exciting way to create the future within our community. It represents a "Transition" in terms both of the way things are done, and the way forward in terms of the actual developments, for example leisure/sports or supermarkets/carparks etc.
The Skate Park on the seafront has just now been granted funds for development. Whilst this was an entirely separate, and less contentious development, it has set an example for this new Harbour Development Consultation As the Seafront Forum, we have now set up in partnership with the Town Council, a new consultation exercise. This is to be launched publicly on 17th November: Harbour Development, the Penzance - Isles of Scilly Link
The Government has given funding for this consultation, through DfT and on down through the Town Council. European Convergence Funding is expected to match that and may go on towards further development of the Seafront. This Consultation is only for the Harbour Development, the Penzance-Scilly Link, and the brief is restricted to that. We need to consider the long term economic development of the harbour, as well as something that commands public support. Here is an urgent call out to identify the Harbour Link project, and design it around needs. The opportunity is there, between the Launch (17th November) and a week later, to offer up your own ideas (a sketch will do) to be considered.
This is an inclusive process and it's time for you or anyone else, to have their say. There is one week only to work in! There is a workshop planned for asap where you can check the brief, and either work out your own and/or work together to illustrate and perhaps make a model of a solution (to the Harbour Development) that is agreed on by consensus. There may be some Permaculture Principles and Ethics to work into the process. Start now and you'll have more time to work up any ideas ... the key is that they fit the Brief ... which you can see at:
http://www.transitionpenwith.org.uk/files/penzance-harbour-consultants-brief.pdf
"Save as" if you want to download it.
This should be a really interesting creative exercise. Go to http://www.pzharbourfutures.org through which you can submit suggestions (website goes live on 12/11/11) The Seafront Development Forum is still fairly embryonic and can do with more input, if anyone is interested and there is an urgent task list to do with the Harbour Consultation.
It is all happening very fast, there is a meeting on Thursday evening (10th November) to help move it forward.
http://www.transitionpenwith.org.uk/files/penzance-harbour-A5-electronic.pdf
All the files and links mentioned are also on the Transition Penwith homepage at: http://www.transitionpenwith.org.uk
Who's fishing where?
there's a new feature on the wheelhouse view of VesselTracker that allows the previous 24 hours track to be shown - here, three trawlers are highlighted.
US surfer Garrett McNamarra rides a monster wave in the heavy swells of the North Atlantic.
Big waves to surf are normally the preserve of the reefs off Hawaii, this one is a little closer to home down off the coast of Portugal - caught by US surfer Garrett McNamarra riding this 90ft (that's 27m) monster. Thought to be the highest wave ever surfed.
A bigger slice of the quota cake?
The Westcountry's struggling inshore fishing fleet could be handed a bigger slice of the quota "cake" under plans to create community co-operatives in England.
Under the pilot scheme announced yesterday, small boat owners, with vessels under ten metres in length, will be able to form groups and access the quotas of larger fish producers.
The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) says the scheme, which will be overseen in the South West by one of three new EU-funded liaison officers, will keep the inshore fishing fleet afloat. But neither the national voice for small fishermen nor the region's main fish producer organisation have shown any enthusiasm for the project, describing it as "destabilising" and "tinkering". The National Under Ten Fishermen's Association (NUTFA), based in Ivybridge, represents small operators which it claims make up 75 per cent of the active national fleet but receive just 4 per cent of the available quotas. It says Defra is talking about "top-slicing" the producer groups' quotas by about 3 per cent and transferring up to 80 per cent of unused quotas to the new co-operatives. Chairman Dave Cuthbert argues that "tinkering" will not give smaller groups the "critical mass of fish" to become "a credible voice" and called for a national under-ten-metre inshore producer association. "We have toured around the country and there is not a vast amount of support for this – there is a need for a critical mass of fish not quotas scattered around the country," he added.
The pilots are part of the Government's response to a consultation on reforming the management of the inshore fleet, which was virtually unregulated up until 2006. Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon said the inshore fishing industry was being "stifled" by an outdated system and had to be fixed. "To survive, fishermen must become more profitable and we think the answer is giving them greater control over how they fish and market their catches," he said. "They've asked us to test options, and that's what these pilot projects are all about." Jim Portus, chief executive of the South West Fish Producers' Organisation – one of the groups set to lose quota – said the scheme was "robbing Peter to pay Paul". He said it was "patently unfair" that quotas in England be put into a pot accessible by smaller boats from places such as Scotland and Wales, adding: "This whole announcement is destabilising and doesn't solve anything but just puts more confusion into the mix."
A Defra spokesperson said: “This scheme to support our fishing fleet is only being run for English fishermen and there are no plans to take quota from English fishermen and give it to other nations.” St Ives MP Andrew George, whose constituency includes Newlyn, home to the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, said the scheme would be "good for the industry, good for some of the lowest-impact fishing methods, good for the economy of our coves and the sustainability of our fishing stocks."
Story courtesy of ThisisCornwall.
The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) says the scheme, which will be overseen in the South West by one of three new EU-funded liaison officers, will keep the inshore fishing fleet afloat. But neither the national voice for small fishermen nor the region's main fish producer organisation have shown any enthusiasm for the project, describing it as "destabilising" and "tinkering". The National Under Ten Fishermen's Association (NUTFA), based in Ivybridge, represents small operators which it claims make up 75 per cent of the active national fleet but receive just 4 per cent of the available quotas. It says Defra is talking about "top-slicing" the producer groups' quotas by about 3 per cent and transferring up to 80 per cent of unused quotas to the new co-operatives. Chairman Dave Cuthbert argues that "tinkering" will not give smaller groups the "critical mass of fish" to become "a credible voice" and called for a national under-ten-metre inshore producer association. "We have toured around the country and there is not a vast amount of support for this – there is a need for a critical mass of fish not quotas scattered around the country," he added.
The pilots are part of the Government's response to a consultation on reforming the management of the inshore fleet, which was virtually unregulated up until 2006. Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon said the inshore fishing industry was being "stifled" by an outdated system and had to be fixed. "To survive, fishermen must become more profitable and we think the answer is giving them greater control over how they fish and market their catches," he said. "They've asked us to test options, and that's what these pilot projects are all about." Jim Portus, chief executive of the South West Fish Producers' Organisation – one of the groups set to lose quota – said the scheme was "robbing Peter to pay Paul". He said it was "patently unfair" that quotas in England be put into a pot accessible by smaller boats from places such as Scotland and Wales, adding: "This whole announcement is destabilising and doesn't solve anything but just puts more confusion into the mix."
A Defra spokesperson said: “This scheme to support our fishing fleet is only being run for English fishermen and there are no plans to take quota from English fishermen and give it to other nations.” St Ives MP Andrew George, whose constituency includes Newlyn, home to the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, said the scheme would be "good for the industry, good for some of the lowest-impact fishing methods, good for the economy of our coves and the sustainability of our fishing stocks."
Story courtesy of ThisisCornwall.
White Heather loaded.
The ring netter White Heather making her way in to Newlyn fully loaded with over twenty tonnes of Cornish Sardines after a night at sea.
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Ajax at sea.
Current approximate position of the Newlyn netter Ajax AH32 fishing for hake - due to land in Newlyn on Thursday morning.
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