Classe Mini 6.50 race from Lymington to Plymouth today - Mad Dogs and other Englishmen......

The aerial view of Lymington where competitors for the Lymington to Plymouth via the Wolf Rock Lighthouse race are assembled - courtesy of YellowBrick who have an app for your phone that will provide livetracking of the event!

The boats make their way to the start line at 1512.

Local Sailmaker Andrew Wood (who provides one of the Through the Gaps web cams) - himself also Minitransat competitor - is a co-sponsor of the event with Geoff Duniam carrying a Solo Sail aboard his boat Mad Spaniel - the second of two Mad Dog competitors!


Follow on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23solent650

Check out the Lymington Yacht Club web cam for local weather conditions here:

A pleasant day for a stroll.

 If you've lost a buff........

 blue is the colour......

 one well-worn slip......

 and a great source of nitrates for the garden waiting to be collected.........

though that bank of clouds looks ominous

 but where are we?..........

for a change, the beachgoers are dressed for the occasion..............

 the old ship's daughter passes a famous rock that doesn't.......

 the boulders run way down to the back garden of this house.......

 not partisan then.......

 memorial to the first skateboarder in Cornwall.......

 Cap'n Nudd is on his way in,,,,,,,

 what's in a name.......

just wondering who she used to speak to and why she was pals with little Louis?

S.O.S. - Men from Mousehole man Penlee Lifeboat - a film from the 1930s

Original Description:


The Work of the Lifeboats 'Britain's lifeboatmen must be ready at all times to put to sea to help sailors in distress. At a lifeboat station in Cornwall fishermen are ready to man the lifeboat and go to the aid of any ship in distress however rough the sea. From time to time an inspector from the headquarters of Britain's voluntary lifeboat organization , the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, carries out a rigid inspection and test of the boat. A fault in the propellor is remedied in time for the men to put out to sea in response to an SOS from a ship in difficulties.' (Films of Britain - British Council Film Department Catalogue - 1941) 


Trivia: This film is set in Mousehole in Cornwall. 

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If you intend to visit the old Penlee Lifeboat house it is easy to drive past, as it is set below the road level.

The ships in the harbour at Mousehole all carry the registration mark ‘PZ’, for nearby Penzance. The main character in this film, Bill Blewitt, was a genuine Cornish fisherman and postman. After a chance encounter with director Harry Watt, he starred in GPO documentary The Saving of Bill Blewitt (1937), and would go on to have roles in a handful of feature films such as Nine Men (1943). He also appears in the British Council Film Trinity House.


Fil archive courtesy of the British Council Fil Archive.

New hake recipe from Russell Brown, Dorchester.

With the Ajax and other boats in the Cornish fleet of hake boats having just lkanded their catch, why not visit your local fishmonger, extend your culinary skills and enjoy a few fillets of the finest Cornish hake with this new crab and chilli twist recipe from Russell Brown. Chef Russell Brown runs the Sienna Restaurant in Dorchester, the county's only Michelin starred restaurant. 


If you plan to be in the area you can find out more here www.ChefRussellBrown.co.uk

"Discarding unwanted fish is widely acknowledged as an issue affecting almost all fisheries"

A new video released by Seafish, the authority on seafood, has revealed that the ongoing debate over discards has sparked an increase in take-up of gear technology. For more than 15 years, Seafish has been leading the development of this technology, designed to help reduce discard rates. In the video, filmed at Newhaven harbour in Scotland, Seafish's chief executive, Paul Williams, explains recent industry response to the long-established research programmes which exist to address the issue of discards. The industry authority also runs the Discard Action Group (DAG) - a forum established in 2008 which brings experts together to discuss how the problem can be addressed to reduce discard levels.

 

Watch Paul Williams' discards video

 Paul Williams, chief executive, Seafish, said: "Discarding unwanted fish is widely acknowledged as an issue affecting almost all fisheries and fishing methods and, although significant progress has already been made towards reducing the levels of discards, the rate of change needs to be stepped up. "With the increasing importance of social, economic and political factors in fisheries management, Seafish gear trial work over the last 15 years has helped develop new selective technologies and net-based fishing activities to reduce discards. This technology is now being rolled out in commercial fisheries. "Seafish is managing a new project to trial four different highly selective TR2 gears operating on Irish Sea Nephrops grounds and running flume tank and sea trials on a new grid design aimed at reducing the numbers of discards in the Scottish trawl fishery for Nephrops. "The importance of this gear technology work is evident in the popularity of the courses Seafish runs at the Flume Tank at the North Sea Centre in Hirtshals, Denmark, operated by SINTEF. Seafish has been using the facility since 2007 for practical trawl gear technology training and an essential part of all courses is to familiarise fishermen with a wide range of methods of improving selectivity of their trawls and reducing discards. In the last four years, more than 200 fishermen have benefited from the training courses."

French fishermen are 'dining on our dolphins' caught illegally off the Cornish coast

This story was covered in the Daily Mail today:


Callous French fishermen are eating steaks carved from dolphins which have been illegally caught in the English Channel, conservationists claim. Experts believe the animals are being hauled on board trawlers after becoming trapped in nets off the Cornish coast. Fillets of flesh are then sliced off to be eaten before the bodies of the highly intelligent mammals are callously tossed back into the water.

Since the beginning of January, Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Marine Strandings Network has examined and recorded 50 dead dolphins and porpoises. Just under half, 23, showed distinct signs of having died in fishing gear.

A common dolphin, examined on the beach at Mousehole in early April, one of five discovered in the same week, showed scars typical of a large trawler net from which it presumably tried to escape. A spokesman for Cornwall Wildlife Trust said: 'A large fillet of flesh had been removed from the back - presumably for eating. 'This is a known practice on French boats and French pair trawlers were working close to the south coast at the time. 'The dolphin's tail had been cut off in the course of cutting the animal free from a winch strop which was used to lift it over the side of the boat. A common dolphin discovered on the beach at Mousehole, Cornwall, shows signs off having been trapped in trawler nets 'Local people were very upset to see what had been done to this beautiful animal and to hear that this was just one of many.' 

TtG editor's note: It's a shame the photo the Daily Mail have used is one of the Falmouth registered Peter John II and as far as we know, the boys aboard the Peter John II are not in the habit of eating dolphin or any other cetacean!

Cetacean researcher, Nick Tregenza, added: 'UK mid-water trawlers have been pushed outside the 12 mile limit by national fishery regulations but French vessels are allowed to come in closer. 'Some research is underway by the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St. Andrew's University in Scotland they're hopeful of finding an acoustic deterrent to keep animals out of the nets but there's no EU requirement on fisheries to use such a device. 'In the present situation we believe that EU mid-water trawlers should be subject to video monitoring to assess the size of the bycatch offshore of these animals that are so highly valued by people here and across the world.' Dolphins that died in gill nets were also recorded by the network and four porpoises that had been caught almost certainly by local boats were also found stranded. Nick Tregenza added: 'Many people are unaware that porpoises were a common sight quite close to shore in the recent past but they suffered a major decline that was almost certainly caused by pesticide pollution of the sea from agricultural run-off on land. 'That problem has diminished substantially and if pingers were widely adopted, we could expect to see porpoises along the coast and in our estuaries again. 'In the 1800's they were commercially hunted in the Fal estuary and it would be great to see them back. 'However the data from the Trust's Marine Strandings Network indicates that accidental capture in fisheries for other species may be doubling their natural death rate and we're concerned for their welfare.'

A spokesman for Cornwall Wildlife Trust added: 'Cornwall Wildlife Trust is encouraged that some inshore fishermen are showing an interest in using the acoustic pingers that are known to greatly reduce the accidental capture of these animals. 'Cornwall Wildlife Trust is grateful to the public for contacting them about the strandings. 'We urge people to continue to report stranded marine animals as quickly as possible to the Marine Strandings Network's Hotline on 0845 201 2626, so that they can be examined and recorded by the volunteer team.' Freshly dead animals may be retrieved for post mortem examination by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Polwhele in Truro. 


 Read the article as it appears in the Daily Mail here:

Danish fishing vessel low in the water

At first you might be fooled into thinking this is dramatic footage of a fishing boat sinking at sea. Watch closely and you will soon see different. The Danish sandeel fishery has been the subject of much debate over the years - many feel that the fishing effort and huge huge catches were having a negative effect on fish stocks like cod in the North Sea - sandeels being a crucial member of the food chain, right at the bottom.