New Newlyn Harbour commissioner Rob Salvidge gives his view of the harbour's future

HAVING spent a lifetime in communications, Newlyn Harbour commissioner Rob Salvidge admits that's one thing the port authority does not do so well. But sat on his replica sail ship, the Matthew, the former broadcast journalist, who played a key role in the regeneration of Bristol's harbour, said it's something he and the commission are determined to change. 


 One of a new raft of members to join the authority after a turbulent year, which saw it oust three of its commissioners and become the subject of BBC investigative programme Inside Out, the Bristolian is hoping to use his experience to engender change. ​ Replica of Cabot's 15th-century sailing ship the Matthew revisits Fowey on its way to London for the Queen's jubilee celebrations. 

The Matthew leaving Newlyn for the IOS World Gig Championships.

He already has a string of ideas on how to improve links with the community, which at times has said it feels disenfranchised from the running of the commission, but concedes it may not happen overnight. "The question is, how do we bring everyone together with mutual understanding?" said Mr Salvidge. "We need to understand the problems of the past. It's really old fashioned talking to people. It's really important we should never be too busy to do so. "We have got to listen to people, we need to make it possible for them to understand the day-to-day issues." 


 But Mr Salvidge's ambitions for the commission aren't just limited to establishing better links to the community. Improved signage, a better infrastructure and the development of the port's ability to cater for the tourist sector are all part of his wish list. And he aims to use his experience of promoting the historical aspect of his home city's harbour to aid him. 


 He said: "I really think it (improved signage) sends out the right message. It's something that needs to be done quickly." Mr Salvidge added that improving the ice plant, doing something about the buildings on North Quay and sorting out decommissioned trawlers were next on the agenda for the harbour trust.  


Aside from his work for the port authority, he spends most of his days onboard the Matthew, which his father, Bill, was involved in building in 1997. The replica sail ship mimics the vessel belonging to intrepid explorer John Cabot, who, contrary to popular opinion, discovered North America when he landed in Newfoundland in 1497. The ship, often found moored in Falmouth, visits ports up and down the country providing an educational and historical interest for communities, as well as a challenge for sailing enthusiasts. It also took part in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations on the River Thames. 


But readers from Penzance may be familiar with the Matthew for the role it played in landing the Pirate World Record last June. Mr Salvidge explained that it was through his work with the Matthew that he became familiar with Newlyn, and ultimately appointed to the commission. 


 He said: "I have always been aware of how important Newyln is as a harbour. "I got chatting to the Newlyn Harbour Master, Andrew Munson, and few other people I know and just seemed like an obvious mix. "I've been involved in the regeneration of Bristol harbour. No one can just stand still. Newlyn is a valuable fishing port but there's lots of other things a good harbour needs to be with different people working together. "Newlyn is the most strategic harbour between Falmouth, North France, the Isles of Scilly and the Bristol Channel for serious pleasure boats, it's important to make plans." 


Story courtesy of the Cornishman.


 Mr Salvidge said it was vital that progress was made on all fronts when it came to the future of the commission. "I would hate to be here in six months and nothing's been done," he added.

Blue skies over Newlyn as lifeboat arrives.

Despite the strong winds sending clouds scudding across the Bay there's patches of blue sky appearing over Newlyn this morning......

though the boys aboard the St Mary's lifeboat will have had a pretty uncomfortable ride across in order to have their radar systems looked at in the comfort of the harbour.......

and looking at the chart recording wind speed at the Sevenstones Lightship where gusts have topped 45mph in the last 24 hours.

Q&A: Eat that fish! When overfishing is also sustainable

Many of us think that if a fish species is overfished we probably should be wary about choosing it at the supermarket or on the restaurant menu. But the opposite may be true. Our boycotting of some overfished species may be hurting us and the American fish industry, not the fish. This counterintuitive opinion is laid out by Ray Hilborn, professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the University of Washington, and co-author of Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know. Hilborn holds that the public, food retailers, NGOs and congress have misunderstood what defines a sustainable fishery. In fact overfishing and sustainable can, oddly enough, go together. SmartPlanet caught up with Hilborn in Seattle, WA to get a better understanding of this paradox and why he thinks a fish boycott doesn’t make sense. 


 SmartPlanet: What are red listed fish? Ray Hilborn: Red lists are advice that a number of NGOs provide on what species of fish one should avoid eating. 


 SP: And Whole Foods stopped selling such fish based on these red lists? RH: Yes Whole Foods made a commitment to not sell any food that’s on the red list of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Blue Oceans Institute. 


 SP: And other stores and restaurants have done similar things? RH: Yes red lists are widely used. 


 SP: What are the criteria for red-listed fish? RH: The three criteria that most NGOs use. One is status with respect to overfishing. The second is concerns about bycatch. So if you have a fishery that is catching a significant number of turtles, or sharks, or other species they’ll often get red-listed. Finally there are concerns about the environmental impacts of fishing, particularly concerns about trawl nets, or nets that touch the bottom and change bottom habitat. 


 SP: But you have made the point recently that if a species is overfished it doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t be sustainable. And this seems counterintuitive. People might say well red lists sound more like the right thing to do. RH: There’s an enormous lack of understanding about what sustainability really is. Essentially sustainability has nothing to do with the abundance of the fish and much more about the management system. So if you’re managing it in a way where if it gets to low abundance you’ll reduce catches and let it rebuild. That’s clearly sustainable. You can have fish that are overfished for decades but still be sustainable. As long as their numbers are not going down they are sustainable. Some of it is “overfished” with reference to the production of long-term maximum yield. It doesn’t imply declining and it doesn’t imply threat of extinction. 


 SP: And even if it falls into this latter category that you just described it should be safe for consumers to eat? RH: So long as it’s in a management system like the U.S. where when stocks get to low abundance we dramatically reduce catches, and the evidence is they then rebuild. Then yes, those stocks are perfectly sustainable. 


 SP: What about this issue of bycatch? RH: OK, so the NGOs will say, “Oh this stock is not sustainable because there is bycatch of sharks.” Well the stock is sustainable. Every form of food production has negative impacts on other species. And that’s where there’s an enormous double standard applied to fish. For instance, I guarantee you there’s a big environmental impact of buying soybeans that come from cutting down rainforest. There’s a much higher standard applied to fisheries than almost anything else we eat. 


 SP: What goes into creating a sustainable fishery? RH: The first thing is you have to monitor the trend in the stock. You have to have a system based in good science, that says this stock is going down. Then your management actions have to respond to the trend. 


 SP: What about foreign fish? Which ones can we eat? RH: Much of the fish of the world do not qualify as sustainable because we just don’t know what’s happening in other countries like Africa or Asia. Now, very few fish from those markets makes their way to the U.S. market. But some of the Atlantic cod populations in Europe are still fished much too hard. But the big propulsions in Europe are actually quite sustainable. Much of the cod that make it to the U.S. are coming from Iceland or Norway where the stocks are in good shape. 


 SP: But how do you tell the difference if it’s cod coming from an overfished area? RH: Well, that is a major problem. But if it’s Marine Stewardship Council certified you can be pretty sure that it’s what it claims to be. Personally, I tend to buy a pretty narrow range of fish that come from my region, like salmon, halibut, and black cod. And pretty much all of those are MSC certified. 


 SP: You mention that the boycott on sustainably caught fish does nothing for conservation. RH: You can boycott this all you want, it’s not going to affect what’s caught. Because for these overfished stocks enormous effort is being taken to catch as little as possible and it’s not the consumer market that drives the amount of catch. Those fish are going to be caught and they’re going to be sold because there are a lot of markets in the world that don’t care about classification and red lists, essentially all of Asia, which is the world’s biggest seafood consuming market. The places that consumer boycotts might have an effect is for fish like bluefin tuna or swordfish. 


 SP: Well if boycotting makes no difference, is there a negative side to boycotting? RH: My real target is to tell retailers and the NGOs, “Look, let’s get more reasonable about what we mean by sustainability.” 


 SP: And we need to get more reasonable about the definition of “sustainability” because there are real economic dangers to the fishing industry? Or is it because of something else? RH: Yes, that’s certainly one of the issues. Let’s not punish these fishermen who have paid a very high price to rebuild these stocks. Let’s let them sell what they’re currently catching. 


 SP: So it seems the word “overfished” is also more nuanced? RH: Well I think Congress had this very naïve view that somehow you could manage every stock separately and if cod is depleted, at low abundance well we stop fishing it, but they don’t appreciate the cost of all the other species that we could not catch because we can’t catch those species without also catching some cod as bycatch. Now, there’s a lot of work going on to try to solve that problem. But I it’s important to convince people that we will always have some overfished stocks. And if we continue with our current U.S. statement that ‘no stock shall be overfished’ we’re going to have to give up a lot of food production. We’re certainly doing that now. 


SP: You’ve also argued that fish is a food we need? RH: If we don’t catch certain fish with trawl nets, and let’s say it’s twenty million tons, then that food is going to be made up some other way. And what’s the environmental cost of the other ways of producing the food? My initial calculations suggest that it is quite a bit higher. We should always be saying, “Well if we don’t eat this, where else is the food going to come from, and what’s the environmental cost of that?” 


 SP: So you ultimately feel that the marketing of these red lists has gotten to the point where it’s lost rational sense? RH: Yes. I’m pretty convinced that seafood production is more sustainable than growing corn in Iowa or wheat in Kansas. Because growing corn in Iowa forces us to lose topsoil every year. In another 200 years the topsoil will be be largely gone. Is that sustainable?

By Christie Nicholson | May 30, 2012, 7:17 AM PDT

Fish at last, the first market for four days

Back in action measuring the fish landed......

maybe the market should ignore these extra days off, think of the premium piscine prices possibly paid!......

just some of the Ajax's hake........

cracking cod just waiting for those top bids.......

turned a bit chilly this morning.......

under some very heavy shower skies......

as thew Ajax begins to enter the cradle before going up on the slip for a scrub down......

must be scallop time, the Troon registered Mattanja is back again......

looking a little less threatening......

anywhere you see this sign you'll find a friendly artist's studio open.......

Tom looks set for a shower.......

as the prom dries off from the last one.

EU updates - North Sea to be used as management model

Last Friday, the fishing industry, scientists, NGOs and policy makers unanimously agreed that the North Sea should be used as a testing ground for exploring how European countries can reclaim more control from Brussels over their fisheries. Organised by GAP2, the meeting brought together groups from Belgium, the UK, Netherlands and Denmark with disparate and often conflicting interests in the North Sea ‘s fisheries. 


Their purpose was to thrash out the practicalities of one of the most controversial proposals of the EU Common Fisheries Policy reform package – “regionalisation”. Steve Mackinson, fisheries scientist and GAP2 coordinator said: “If we want sustainable fisheries, we need to involve the full range of fishermen, scientists and policy makers in deciding how and what we fish. Ending the practice of all fisheries management decisions being made centrally in Brussels is one way we can achieve this. But a lack of answers about how this would work in practice may leave us with the failing status quo.” “So we need people who live, work and breathe fisheries to work together, and find answers which still make sense when fishermen take them to sea.” 


Barrie Deas, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations said: “Missing the boat in putting an end to Brussels’ micromanagement of our fisheries is not an option. "Europe’s fisheries need effective, flexible regional management, involving managers, stakeholders and scientists – and using the North Sea basin as a pilot for regionalisation would give us a set of practical recommendations, granting meaning to the Common Fisheries Policy reform.” 


The fishing industry, policy makers and scientist also agreed on a range of other issues, from the need for greater political will behind regionalisation, to the need for better understanding about how such changes would be funded by the European Maritime & Fisheries Fund.

Newlyn Harbour Jubile preparations

 One of the oldest members of the Stevenson fleet........

flies the Elizabeth Caroline flies the Union Jack from her foremast.......

 as does her owner overlooking the harbour....... 

later that day six beam trawlers from the Stevenson fleet take part in their own parade of fishing boats across to the Mount led by the Penlee lifeboat, Ivan Ellen.

Saturday morning with work to do.

Landing day for the netter fleet, Ajax, Nova Spero and Govenek of Ladram still to come......

one way to take down the derrick......

off comes the triple-rig gear and on goes the Dory-bashing kit......

fishroom manager, Trystan Trenery.......

party time at the Tolcarne Inn......

so Debs reckons........

new hanging in the Feiler Gallery.......

get those langoustine on the BBQ!.......

all set at for a day of festivities at the Swordfish and Dolphin Inn.