SOUTH WEST FISHING FOR LITTER PROJECT LANDS 50 TONNES OF LITTER

Fishermen across Cornwall and Devon have landed over 40 tonnes of litter through the pioneering Fishing For Litter project. Over 130 fishing vessels caught the 50 tonnes of marine litter in their fishing gear, and have brought it ashore.

The project provides vessels with large durable bags to collect marine litter. When full, these bags are deposited safely on the quayside, where the harbour authorities move them to a dedicated secure Fishing for Litter skip.

Fishing for Litter has been operational since March 2009, starting in Newlyn and steadily growing across South West ports to Brixham, Plymouth, Newquay, and Looe. A further four Cornish ports have just joined the project: St Ives, Mevagissey, Hayle and Padstow.

 Alison Elvey de Rios, South West Fishing for Litter Coordinator commented, “It’s great that this innovative, simply executed project, has landed over 50 tonnes of marine litter. The project’s momentum is growing year on year, and more fishermen are getting involved to help clean our seas.” Millions of marine mammals, birds, turtles and fish perish as a result of entanglement or ingestion of deliberately or accidentally discarded debris. Therefore, participating fishermen, by helping to reduce marine litter, are making a vital contribution to the protection of the marine environment as a whole. 

The Crown Estate’s Marine Stewardship Manager, Fiona Wynne said: “The Crown Estate is committed to supporting projects that help reduce the amount of litter in the marine environment. To have landed 50 tonnes of marine litter is a fantastic achievement for all involved in the project and with more ports and vessels signing up each year we are confident Fishing for Litter South West will continue to make a vital contribution to the protection of the marine environment.”

 A Duchy of Cornwall spokesperson said: “We are delighted to see Fishing for Litter in Devon and Cornwall passing its 50 tonnes milestone – removing a significant volume of harmful waste from the seas around our coasts – and we praise the work of these fishermen, who are committed to preserving and enhancing the marine environment”. Items commonly landed include pieces of plastic and polythene, rope and cord, nets, bottles, rubber, metals and textiles. If not recovered, these items could eventually end up destroying ecosystems or littering the region’s beaches and shoreline, which could also impact on the regions tourism sector.

 Councillor Edwina Hannaford, Cornwall Council Portfolio Holder for Environment, Heritage and Planning, agreed, “It’s wonderful to see the Fishing for Litter Partnership achieving excellent results, that is of real benefit to our maritime environment and to those who live and work alongside it. Cornwall’s beaches attract thousands of tourists each year, keeping them clean is very important; the waste collected by this project prevents it being washed ashore.” Dave Owens, Assistant Head of Environment & Waste Management at Cornwall Council, continued, “Cornwall Council has supported this programme from day one and it’s very rewarding to be part of this scheme, it’s great to see that the project is going from strength to strength.

The aim to add more ports and fishing vessels to the projects network will significantly increase the amount of marine and coastal litter removed from the seas.” Fishing for Litter Southwest is also supported and funded by The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Cornwall Council, The Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation, Duchy of Cornwall, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Devon County Council and The Crown Estate, through the organisation’s Marine Stewardship Fund. In addition, this voluntary project also helps fishermen themselves as a recent KIMO study, by Hannah Bateson, on the Economic impacts of Marine Litter, showed the average yearly cost of marine litter to a fishing boat is £10,000, through contamination of catches, broken gear and fouled propellers.

 Fishing for Litter forms part of the Fishing for Litter network run by KIMO, an international organisation of local authorities working to tackle marine pollution and environmental issues.

Notes to editors: The South West project is based upon Fishing for Litter Scotland which has been in operation since 2005. Fishing for Litter South West is coordinated by Alison Elvey de Rios from Seafood Cornwall Training Ltd. 

For further information please contract Alison on 01736 364324 or alison@seafoodcornwalltraining.co.uk or check out the website on: www.fishingforlitter.org/FishingforLitterSouthWest.aspx 

Mazey Day on the move

And Mazey Day is.......

Celebration of midsummer - the Feast of St. John - with bonfires, flaming tar barrels and burning torches was widespread in Cornwall until the late 19th Century. Penzance was one of the last towns to lose this tradition in the 1890s, as the perceived fire risk had made insurance premiums too expensive.

In 1991, the tradition was revived by Alverton School, members of Kneehigh Theatre, Penwith Peninsula Project and Penzance Town Council. From the one day of celebration - Mazey Day - and with the continuing support of Penzance Town Council, Golowan grew to revive the old traditions of the Feast of St. John, with the Golowan Band, Serpent Dances, the Quay Fair, Mock Mayor Election, greenery, banners and giant imagery on parade. Hand-made banners and flags adorn the town throughout the festival.

Mazey Eve each year sees the election of the Mock Mayor of the Quay and, after a spectacular fireworks display, the appearance of Penglaz, Penzance's 'Obby 'Oss, accompanied by the Golowan Band.

Mazey Day, launched each year by the Mayor of Penzance and the Mock Mayor of the Quay, is the centrepiece of the festival, in which artists, Schools and other community groups fill the streets with music and giant sculptures in a series of parades. Tens of thousands of people line the main street of Penzance, Market Jew Street, which becomes a huge market place for the day, with traders selling all manner of goods as well as food from all around the world to delight the taste buds.

Vinatge footage of the beam tawler Anneliese PZ197 fishing from Newlyn

Anneliese part 1



Anneliese part 2

Enjoy a trip aboard the beam trawler Anneliese, PZ197. The video gives a great insight as to howe the boat is worked - plenty of action footage steaming off, towing, hauling, gutting  and icing the fish away before heading back to the market at Newlyn.

These are just a small selection of videos and photos to be found on the Penzance Parish Youtube Channel, many courtsey of Jack Guard from Mousehole.

Away west goes the Ajax

Narrowly avoiding the Wolf Rock and its naitical learning opportintiy hazard warning device, the Ajax has settled back on the grounds west of the Islands.  At this time of year west of the Scillies can become a very congested area with netters, liners, trawlers, prawn trawlers and the occasional pelagic boat. Breton trawlers being by far the most mumerous.

Smokes and mirrors - get involved guys!

Straight from the home page of the Real Fish Fight SORC - "Have pasted this from the trusty Fishing news group - In light of the disastrous news about the quota cut for cod stocks, here lies a glimmer of hope and at least a battle won for the industry's paper. Have pasted this from the trusty Fishing News group and it's editor, Cormac Burke.

As a taster to the lead story in this week's Fishing News (which goes to print tomorrow) I thought people might like to see the Editor's comment in this week's edition:

Smoke and mirrors

Fishing News this week has come out against what is considered ‘a final straw’ as Greenpeace tries push its self-perceived ‘powers’ onto the editorial policies of a newspaper that has represented the fishing industry for over 100 years.

In a chain of emails that began politely but soon showed true Greenpeace form when making a veiled threat to report me to the Press Complaints Commission, it would appear that the green group certainly don’t like when they aren’t given page space to defend any bad press they receive – but don’t seem to mind that the fishing industry never gets a right to reply to the Greenpeace articles that regularly appear in the national press.

I am well aware that several hundred NUTFA members support Greenpeace involvement in the fishing industry and that is their right and the opinion they are entitled to. However, several hundred out of 12,000 fishermen and up to 20,000 people in onshore related fishing industry jobs is a far cry from the level of support that Greenpeace are trying to claim that they have.

Greenpeace recently got 110,000 members of the public to sign a petition – and then issued a press release along the lines of “we have the support of the UK’s inshore fishermen and we have 110,000 signatures”, thereby attempting to fool the public into thinking that somehow they have the backing of 110,000 fishermen.

Much of the Greenpeace fight is about the NFFO and how that body manages its operations. But the NFFO have offered to sit down and talk to Greenpeace several times – all of which were rejected by Greenpeace. Therefore I think that if Greenpeace are unwilling to talk to NFFO man to man, why should they be allowed do it through Fishing News? But I do think Greenpeace should be answerable to the industry through the proposed (and also rejected) offer for Greenpeace to face questions from fishermen.

Perhaps the majority of fishermen in the UK do actually want Greenpeace to have a voice in how our industry operates. I hope this Comment, and the article on page 2, will prompt fishermen to voice their opinions.

Anyone in the fishing industry who would like their comments published, please email Cormac Burke - editor@fishingnews.co.uk

#therealfishfightsofc #eatmorefish #democracy

Fishing in Newlyn in the 1940s

A great snapshot of the fishing fleet that worked from Newlyn in the 1940s after the Second World War.  At the time there was a growing number of long liners that fished mainly for ling, ray and skate, As a summer fishery, long lining carried on until well into the 1980s when gill netting for hake became the ''next big thing'!  

For many years the long liners used squid caught by the trawlers in the fleet, until a more adventurous fish merchant discovered that the rest of Europe would kill for squid.  The boats would work around 24 baskets of lines shot at night and hauled the next day. mackerel and pilchards were used as bait most of the time. The hooks were big and brutal, getting 'hooked up' was common enough when 'shooting' the lines from the stern of the boat - normally three men stood around the basket baiting as they were shooting - the 'shooter' was ostensibly in charge and it was down to him to alert the skipper if there was a 'frap' when a hook became caught in a basket of came out in the wrong order. With the boats working many miles offshore in the summer getting hooked up also meant getting treated at sea - it was simple enough - a pair of pliers was used to snip of the end of the hook which allowed the hook to be pushed out the way it went in - not always a pain-free affair!

Usually, the boats worked two sets of lines 12 baskets long with, jut like netting, an anchor and dhan at either end.

Newlyn Long Loners in the 1970s included the Kilravock, Girl Pat, Girl Pat III, Defiant, Spes Firma, Ben My Chree, Rose of Sharon, Alida, Castle Wraith, Spaven Mor, Dew-Genen-Ny, Bonny Mary, Renovelle, Our John and Gallach Millis.

A dismal Wednesday morning all round

It's a kind of blue hue day today..

and another dollop of megs makes the market floor...

where things are a little dim and dismal inside the market, who would have thought neon tubes were so hard to find...

maybe the price of monk tails will brighten things up...

the new kit used by Cefas for data logging is now in use on the market floor...

with the sexy blue zapper doing it 70s disco thing...

hake from the netter Ajax should make good money as it is the only net fish on the market, not surprising as around 5 or 6 of the big netters land away to French markets these days...

breakfast ahoy!...

a timeless classic on display, or you can walk down the quay and see the real thing between trips...

casting a few rays of sunshine over the Bay...

ti catch a real adventure holiday why not get some real blisters on your hands and enjoy a trip with the classic lugger, Greyhound with Greyhound Lugger sailing currently in the wet dock in Penzance.