#FF Friday's market full of the finest fish!

The old Barclay's Bank building is now home to a recycled and vintage collectables, antiques, shabby chic and retro items shop, The Strand...

fresh new art in the Bridge Gallery...

one conger keeps an eye on the morning auction...

while a mackerel buires its head in the ice...

just the one big brill for the Sapphire II...

along with a big run of monk tails...

megrim...

'addock...

plaice...

and lemons...

enought to keep skipper Mike Corin happy as he talks fishy business with Mr Bick...

loks like a bit of a huddle with the buyers...

who will soon have the fish sold off and aboard the waiting transport...

the weather has blown a few of the smaller boats back to port...

while the Sapphire gets to go through her gear...

with all hands on deck...

some cutting out to be done on the cod-end...

and a few meshes to be made by that old man of the sea, 'Milford' Mike...

making light work of topping up the dollies...

that's a few tons of steel swinging around above the heads of the guys on deck, about 8 to be precise!...

Who was the oldest man in the fleet!

There's always more than one way to look at something...

though technology now allows unique views...

Milford Mike goes down aboard the Sapphire II to lend a hand going through the gear after another successful trip for the port's newest and biggest beam trawler.

Just about to arrive at the office - as Frances would say, work is for those who can't fish

Amanda J on her mooring just off the Feryboat Inn, Helford
Picture ©Phil Lockley

Not only that, there's plenty of squid in the Helford Passage at the moment!

“Smart Fishing Vessels” Workshop Advances Industry Data Collection

On September 29th in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, the World Ocean Council (WOC) convened the “Smart Fishing Vessels” workshop to expand and improve ocean and atmospheric data collection by fishing vessels. 

The report is available online here.

The workshop was organized by WOC and the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation, and held in conjunction with the World Seafood Congress (St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, 30 Sep–3 Oct, 2013).

The workshop attracted the participation of thirty-two (32) representatives from: the fishing industry, marine technology and instrumentation, IT/communications, national and international data collection organizations, government officials, spatial data experts, existing voluntary observation programs, and scientific/research organizations.

The workshop provided insight in a case study of the FishSmart Program under development by the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation and the perspectives of a large panel of data users and data providers on the use of fishing vessels as platforms for environmental and atmospheric data collection. Additionally, all participants took part in a series of breakout sessions designed to generate specific and useful input into components of a Smart Fishing Vessel program such as stakeholder engagement, opportunities and constraints, logical pairings of industry data collectors, decision support tools and quality assurance of data.

The “Smart Fishing Vessels” workshop builds on the WOC “Smart Ocean/Smart Industries” global program to facilitate, coordinate and scale-up data collection and sharing by ocean industries. The workshop was facilitated by Leslie-Ann McGee of WOC and Bob Verge from CCFI. The diverse industry participation included three WOC member organizations participating in the workshop (Louisbourg Seafoods, ESRI and OLRAC SPS).

The WOC, CCFI and other WOC Members partners will continue efforts to foster use of fishing vessels to collect data, as part of the broader WOC “Smart Ocean/Smart Industries” program. Interested companies and other parties are encouraged to contact the WOC to get involved.

The WOC is the only international, cross-sectoral alliance for private sector leadership and collaboration in “Corporate Ocean Responsibility”. Companies and associations worldwide are distinguishing themselves as leaders in ocean sustainability, stewardship and science by joining the WOC. Members to date include over 70 leadership organizations from a wide range of ocean industries: oil and gas, shipping, seafood, fisheries, aquaculture, mining, renewable energy, ocean technology, maritime law, marine environmental services and other areas.

Contact: Paul Holthus, Executive Director, WOC

Over 1,000,000 million page views and counting!

Just noticed on the site stats page that #throughthegaps has now had over 1 million pages views since its creation in 2007!

So just how much was the UK fishing industry subsidised? - look at Newlyn, England's top fishing port for the last 25 years or more...

Next time you read a piece of sensationalist NGO propoganda about over-fishing which appears to damn UK fishermen as maurauding pirates of the high seas raping our once bountiful fishing grounds - here are the facts:

• In 25 years not 1 new built UK fishing boat has received any subsidies

• In the last 20 years the UK fishing fleet has been cut by 67% 

• In last 13 years of EFF subsidies Spain received 61%..

• France received 24%..

• Germany recieved 9%.. 

• The UK did not even receive 1% in subsidies

For 'green' NGOs to give the public the impression all fishermen received massive handouts is wrong and it's about time they were taken to task on this (a big thank you to John Clarke/skipper of the Reliance)

For example, Newlyn, which for 25 years has been the most consistent fishing port in England, saw the following new boats over 15m built:

1969 - Rose of Sharon - 18m - actually built for the Stevens family of St Ives

1978 - Dew-Genen-Ny - 21m - actually a cancelled order bought by skipper/pwner Rober George

1981 - Girl Pat 111 - 23m - built for Tommy 'Bar' Thomas of Newlyn

2012 - Emma Louise - built for Rowse Fishing Ltd

2014 - ?????????? - 15m - being built for Rowse Fishing Ltd

That's all folks!

However, this has as much to do with an indifferent banking sector seemingly unable to develop any kind of real understanding of the industry. 

I would challenge Barclay's Bank of Penzance, which handled the accounts of the majority of the fleet including Europes largest privately owned fishing company, to name any of their managers who walked down the quay at any time to meet the people who created the weatlth of the port much less one who ever set foot aboard one of 'their' fishing boats!

Contrast that to Breton fishermen who enjoy the support of the giant French bank, Credite Maritime - staffed by peole who understand and are directly involved in the fishing industry.

In stark contrast, just two Breton skippers had four boats over 18m built for them in a 7 year period, two Bugaled Breizh and the Kas Dei and Hibernia!

All the more reason to commend and admire a number of owners and skipper/owners brave enought to commit to new builds of less than 15m with O% in subsidies! 

This list is far more impressive and includes:

1987 - Sowenna - 14m Netter built for Phil Mitchell

1989 - Intuition - 14m crabber built for Mike Rowse (now Rowse Fishing Ltd)

2001 - Silver Dawn 14m built for Anthony Hosking

2008 - Lyonesse - 12m ring netter built for Sam Lambourn

Can you help?

Here's a request fro information from an ex-Newlyn fisherman back in the mid 1970s?:

The fishing boat Silver Dawn mainly used for hand lining mackerel .I worked on board with the skipper who I only remember as Laurie in the mid seventies. Could you tell me if the boat still works or even exists? 

Happy memories... Cheers ,Tony Pellow