Mapping European Seabed Habitats webGIS update

Latest news from MESH. 

They have updated their web site that provides an interactive mapping portal for mapping all European seabed habitats - MESH.

The recent updates to the Mapping European Seabed Habitats (MESH) interactive mapping portal include: www.searchMESH.net/webGIS. 

This portal allows you to view, query, search and download seabed habitat data for the waters of Belgium*, France, Ireland, Netherlands*, Portugal (including Azores), Spain and UK. The webGIS works in conjunction with International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) Spatial Facility, which contains a metadata catalogue that describes the mapping data.

It is still maintained by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee but is now funded by European Regional Development Fund – Atlantic Area through the MESH Atlantic project.

More details are provided below for those who are interested. Further data updates will occur in 2013; I will notify you again when the composite EUNIS habitats layer has its next major update. We hope that you continue to use and benefit from the data. If you have any questions or suggestions, please get in touch through info@searchMESH.net.

RIP - Guy Cotton a giant little man!

A man close to the heart of every fisherman who has sailed from Newlyn died today. 

The little man in mourning.

Guy Cotten died at the age of 77 years in Trégunc, near Concarneau. The man, fascinated by novelty and innovation, created a symbol for Brittany and seafarers. Cotten clothes are sold in 27 countries.

Guy Cotten‘s life was a classic rags to riches story.

The eldest son of seven children, his farmer father died when Guy was just seven years old. The youngsters first career was as a racing cyclist, before he turned to selling overalls.

He started the Guy Cotten safety clothing range from a workshop in Concarneau. In 1966 Guy invented the Rosbras, a jacket with a double velcro and a zip fastener designed never to let in water through the seams.

In 1974, Alain Le Quernec drew the little yellow man ‘le bonhomme jaune’ which became Cotten’s famous brand logo.

In the 80s Guy took over Pirelli’s survival equipment company Piel – for four years he laboured to create the ‘Thermal Protective Survival’ suit – a piece of clothing credited with saving the lives of Raphaël Dinelli and Thierry Dubois in 1996′s Vendée Globe Race.

Guy’s multi-national company today owns factories across France and as far flung as Madagascar, employing around 300 people.

On their website this afternoon the firm wrote: “Today, the little yellow man has his eyes full of his tears – but, faithful to the spirit of his creator, he’ll not lower his outstretched arms. All of Guy's family and the workers for the company would like to thank you all for your numerous messages of support.”

Guy Cotton, died today aged 77.



 He's either in black...

or in yellow...

the most famous name on oilskins in Europe!

Fisheries should be managed so that they are profitable, otherwise fishermen won’t go out to fish. And fishing for maximum sustainable yield (MSY)

Full article courtesy of Mike Urch, SeafoodSource contributing editor 29 March, 2013 - 

Fisheries should be managed so that they are profitable, otherwise fishermen won’t go out to fish. And fishing for maximum sustainable yield (MSY), which is a main criterion of the EU’s revised Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), is not the best way to achieve this objective.

So said Professor Sidney Holt when giving one of the Buckland Foundation’s annual lectures in March. “The value of the catch has to be more than the cost of catching it. Setting TACs (total allowable catches) is the worst possible way to manage a fishery.

“You don’t just use the brakes when driving a car. You have to manage the input not the output, which depends on recruitment [to the fishery].” The recruitment number can be the most variable, Holt said. “It can change by a factor of 100 year to year.”

Regarded as one of the founders of fishery science, Holt was speaking on the theme, “Why, or why not, maximum sustainable yield (MSY)? Contemporary thoughts on the rational management of fisheries” at Fishmongers’ Hall in London.

Although MSY forms a major constituent of the revisions now being sought for the CFP, the concept had first been introduced by the U.S. government at a conference in 1949 as a management objective for stopping Japanese fishing vessels coming into its waters to catch salmon.

There were no territorial waters in those days, Holt said, but added that the U.S. government sought to claim that it was fully utilizing the resources within what became its 200-mile limit or exclusive economic zone.

Maximizing yields using surplus production models is an unscientific method of managing fish populations, according to Holt. “You can’t use it to take account of selectivity. You’re catching too many fish when they’re young. This is the issue.

“You’ve got to look at the relationship between growth and death. How much more [death] is caused by fishing than nature?”

Ian Boyd, who preceded Holt as Buckland Professor for 2012/13, and spoke after him, agreed that there is little justification for the maximization of yield approach.

“If MSY is to be used then make it a limit not a target,” said Boyd.

Boyd went on to say that in his view fishing for MSY also ignores fundamental aspects of the ecosystem such as the need to leave enough fish in the sea for other parts of the food chain including mammals and seabirds. To do this means reducing the proportion of the fish stocks that is harvested.

Both speakers agreed that fishing in European waters should be reduced. Less fishing effort would mean more profit for those left in the fishery, and it would also provide a better balance between the components of the food chain that are harvested by fishermen, mammals and birds.

Determining the reduction in fishing effort required was difficult. There was a suggestion from a delegate that to achieve maximum economic yield in a fishery that was completely unregulated would mean reducing fishing effort by a massive 80 percent.

This size of reduction would not be necessary for fisheries regulated by the current CFP. However, because of the practice of discarding, scientists — and therefore fisheries ministers — didn’t know how much fish was already being harvested, which would be necessary before a reduction in fishing effort could take place. Said one delegate: “We don’t know what is caught in the North Sea as 45 percent of the total catch is thrown away (discards) without being recorded.”

A discard ban — another objective of the revised CFP — was much in favor with delegates, although there were very few fishermen in the audience and not all are thought to agree with this approach. It was mentioned that there was a better understanding of fisheries management in the Netherlands because fishermen and scientists work better together there.

As Colin Bannister, a trustee of the Buckland Foundation, put it in his summing up of the proceedings: ‘Fisherman have a great deal of knowledge that is worth tapping into.

“The ideals of fisheries management are relatively simple,” Bannister told delegates at the beginning of the proceedings. “But the practice is actually very difficult.” However, as the proceedings concluded he did think there was “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Speaking afterwards he said: “Scientific advice for the crisis stocks is now aiming to establish a fishing rate rather than a stock biomass,” said Bannister. “Fishing rates are now falling in the most critical fisheries, and are closer to MSY, which even though not the ideal is nevertheless a step on the way to the profitability that [Professor Holt] is seeking.”

Wednesday out and about

Sapphire II back in port...

looking for breakfast...

a bargain for someone...

even boats now have scaffolding for some work...

fly past Newlyn style...

Harvest Reaper not the biggest boat to go up on the slip...

slip repait overhaul work in progress on the cradle...

the ever popular fresh Newlyn crab soup at the Red Lion...

another haul of nets for a beamer...

visting Brixham beamer, Carhelmar is in Penzance wet dock...

as is the Algrie after her Penzance Dr Dock visit...

big job just to change a light bulb on the Scillonian III...

looking for business, the Dry Dock awaits its next customer.

Sapphire II makes her second landing on Wednesday's market.

Back in from her second full trip...

the Sapphire II looks to be getting sorted on deck...

with her fish...

on the market and ready for sale.

The man who ran the biggest protection racket in the world is dead!

Reportage de TEBEO aux Ets GUY COTTEN à Trégunc by GUY-COTTEN

Seven per cent of fish sold in Britain mislabelled

Let's face it, it could be worse!!

Here are a few extracts from articles in the media today:


From the Guardian:

About one in seven fish sold in shops, restaurants or fish and chip shops may not be what they say on packs or menus, according to trading standards checks.

Figures supplied by councils to the UK Food Standards Agency indicate that 41 of 303 checks on packaged frozen or chilled fish and in catering businesses in 2011 did not meet labelling requirements.

In 27 cases the fish described as cod was another species, such as haddock, whiting or pollock. Other types of fish were also incorrectly described among other breaches of labelling rules. said the agency.

The UK fishing industry has demanded tougher action to ensure consumers are not misled over the type of fish they are eating amid mounting evidence of mislabelling of fish internationally and as Europe reels from the horsemeat in beef scandal.

And this article from their mobile site:

Eating fish: it's complicated With all these tales of fishy labelling floating around, how can we tell the codliness or otherwise of our fish suppers?
Two stories today further complicate the already vexed issue of eating fish.

The first is the news, if you can call it that, that eating oily fish is good for us. As far as most fish-eaters are concerned this is not an earth-shattering revelation. For years we've known, or have at least been told, that mackerel, herring, sardines and so on are all good stuff. But now it seems that loading up on omega-3s can add 2.2 years to your life, cutting "the overall risk of dying by as much as 27%", however that works.

Second up, and perhaps more significant, is the piscine challenge to the horsemeat scandal, with the discovery that fish counters and chippies are swimming with incorrectly labelled produce, including some fish that hadn't previously entered the food chain.

The connection between the two is that for all the health benefits imparted by fish, eating them is becoming ever more of a headache. Let's take the sainted mackerel, that sustainable, economical, plentiful, omega-3-rich, not to mention delicious specimen. Earlier this year we were told to control our mackerel-eating urges due to over-fishing. Never mind the (disputed) health benefits – mackerel should now be a rare treat.

And a trip to the chippie, once a haddock-or-cod affair, has now been muddled not only by dissenting voices about the ethics of eating cod, but also by the possibility that your simple fish supper consists of a frozen and air-freighted monster of the Mekong.

So where does one begin? Who do we trust?

"Labelling fish accurately is a very difficult thing to do," says fishmonger Robin Moxon. "Every restaurant in town seems to have 'hand-dived' scallops, but I've only ever met two divers. When I get my fish out of Plymouth I know pretty much exactly where it's been fished. But with a new supplier you don't know if it's come from way out at sea, and isn't quite as local as you might have thought."

Perhaps you don't know, but you can, says Calum Richardson at the Bay Fish and Chips in Stonehaven. His chippy has digital menus that display the name and registration of the boat that caught the fish on that particular day. "All the boats have GPS, so every time they drop their nets they log where they were dropped, at what time, the species caught, and how much. When I get a box of fish delivered to the shop I know everything except the fishes' names."

I demolished an exemplary fish supper from Richardson's shop in November (Maimai FR432 was the fishing boat, if you're asking), and was pleased when it was awarded Best Fish and Chips in the UK at this year's Fish and Chips Awards. According to Richardson, six out of 10 of the finalists had bought fish from his supplier in Peterhead.