Cefas Endeavour Irish Sea Groundfish survey latest.

Towing between the Isle of Man and the mainland of Whitehaven, the Cefas Endeavour is on the fourth leg of her Irish Sea Groundfish survey work. Keep up with the latest from the scientific team working aboard the boat by following their new blog here:

Inky black morning.

Top quality squid much in evidence with the inshore boats at the moment......

as the buyers make their way past a night's work from the Imogen III........

there's more monk tails and cheeks from the Tracy Claire........

with the morning slightly warmer than last night when the temperature dipped to 3º the harbour is free of wind........

the new moon is still visible, despite the imminent arrival of the sun.

Asthore Cornish Sardine fishing at night.

Out for the evening and then heading back to Plymouth after a successful shot on the sardines for the latest member of the Cornish ring net fleet, the Asthore heads back to port.

Hake - a 400% markup seems harsh.

Extracted from the Ajax's Twitter account today.

You can see why the skipper and owner of the Ajax might feel a little aggrieved at the moment- seeing his fish average £1.25 per kilo on the market on Monday, and 100 yards down the road find the same fish will cost him four times as much. 


But that's not the full story it seems:


Good old Newlyn Fish to the rescue from their Twitter page:  "@joolyjooly @AjaxAH32 not here, we are selling hake FILLET delivered anywhere in mainland uk £5.40 per kg - cheaper at the store!"


To put that in context, as a rule, fillets represent approx 50% of the body weight as sold on the market - so at least double the price to make a comparison of the cost to the merchant who fillets.

Shiralee at sea.

Two days worth of fishing captured by AIS. The inshore trawler Shiralee's track can be seen starting from the end of Sunday's tow west of the Longships, bound in to Newlyn then back out again on Monday for a day spent towing the ground nor'west of the Wolf before heading for home once again.

It's World Fisheries Day today.

 Top quality fish from the Shiralee .........

after a day fishing nor'west of the Wolf and it looks like she's headed back out to the same place this morning......... 

 along with most of the inshore fleet........

 with the handliners getting good landings of bass ashore after a weekend of fine weather.......

 stacked five boxes high in 100kg stacks, hake from the Ajax........

 fills the western end of the market.........

 with a good run of bigger fish laid out for the buyers this morning........

 destined for good homes, a box of monk cheeks will no doubt end up on the slab of a London fishmonger.........

 St Ives cat, Dignity leaves her berth on the pontoons.......

exercise time for some before the sun puts in an appearance.

Ajax down by the head - binge workers at it again.

Ajax AH32 alongside the fish market with her white 'moustache' almost submerged.

Fishing over 100 miles west of Newlyn, 50 stone the first day, 60 the second, 700 the third and 750 on the fourth - the binge workers went in for binge fishing this trip all right - landing to commence at 11pm this evening for Monday morning's market.