Good news! - Storm Damage Gear Replacement Scheme

Axis 1: Measures for the adaptation of the community fishing fleet

Through the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) around £11 million is available to help fishermen in England to make improvements on their vessels.

Storm Damage Gear Replacement Scheme

Money is available towards the cost of replacing lost or damaged fishing gear, such as crab and lobster pots and other static gear, during the winter storms of 2013/2014. More information on support for fishermen affected by storms.

• General conditions that apply to all grants (PDF 75 KB)
• Application form (PDF 446 KB) and guidance notes (PDF 139 KB)
• Business case and declaration form (PDF 123 KB) and guidance notes (PDF 55 KB)

Claim forms and information – once application has been approved

• Claim form for Storm Damage Gear Replacement Scheme EFF grant (PDF 327 KB)
• Guidance notes for claimants (PDF 81 KB)
• Top 10 tips for claimants
• Details of suppliers and creditors form (AP201) (PDF 1.1 MB)

The EFF scheme was designed to help implement the latest reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. Money is available through the EFF for diversifying into other stocks, for example where quotas are larger and allow for a higher number of days at sea. People have also used EFF funding to afford a range of items which help them to be more productive, such as insulated bins, safety equipment and improvements to crew facilities.

Through the EFF scheme you may get around 40% funding (or more) towards projects costing a minimum of between £1,000 and £1,200. If your idea is smaller than this, you may want to consider combining it with an application for other equipment, or seeing whether your fishermen’s association can submit a joint application.

The following things might qualify for EFF funding:

• non-mandatory safety equipment, additional to what is required by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency
• improving conditions and facilities for crew
• equipment to help improve hygiene and help you deal with waste better
• fish handling and chilling equipment to maintain the quality of fish and help get a better price for your catch
• equipment to help you fish more sustainable stocks, and minimise the impact of fishing on the wider marine environment
• replacing your engine
• making your vessel more energy efficient and reducing the amount of fuel you use.

Application form and guidance notes

General conditions that apply to all grants (PDF 75 KB)

Application for a grant for investments on board your fishing vessel

Application form (EFF-AX1-VEM001) (PDF 446 KB)

Eligibility guidance notes (PDF 139 KB)

Wednesday dawns

Sea Spray looking for pollack - with the monthly quota at just 12 tons many of the newlyn boats caught theirs in just three days - not difficult at this time of year when the pollack are in abundance - shame none of the boats were able to catch a single pollack in January and february because of the inclement weather...

just the one onshore trawler on the market tgis morning...

the market was cleared in minutes after a 6am start...

and left spotless soon enough...

new boxes now arrived for the Hosking fleet, Stelissa and Silver Dawn...

paint up and hull maintenance time for the William Stevenson...

the worms have been feeding well of late...

so new timber fenders have been ordered...

fly past on a dull morning...

waiting for boxes, the Hosking fleet at rest...

a South Devon tourist...

blue sterns...

as a little early morning light falls around the Mount.

A plea from our African cousins - artisanal fishers demand a voice and action to preserve their way of life

In this World Women's Day on 8 March 2014 after two days of discussions,

We, representatives of the African Confederation of Organisations in Artisanal Fisheries - CAOPA-,

On behalf of our professional organizations Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Morocco, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Cape Verde and Côte d'Ivoire, welcomes us,

Particularly on behalf of women in these organizations, and communities that depend on fishing for their livelihood, Solemnly call on the Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture of all African countries, Which will meet from 14 to 18 March 2014 in Uganda at the second Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture - the CAMFA-, To take into account our concerns and proposals when deciding the future of our industry by voting the Pan-African strategy to reform EU fisheries policy and aquaculture.  

We believe:

• That there are limits to order regulatory developments in the legal arsenal of fisheries in our country, including with regard to artisanal fisheries in order to ensure sustainable management of our fisheries for the benefit of coastal communities and populations;

• That we must find ways to limit fishing capacity in fisheries where access is free;

• That there is good reason to suspect that illegal fishing is growing in many African countries and the difficulties to combat, both in ways that policy will remain immense.

• That the African artisanal fishing shows more capacity, if it is supported appropriately, to be an engine of social, economic and environmental development.

• Let the professionals working in the artisanal fishing, and women in particular, are not sufficiently informed (s) consulted (s) involved and (e) s in the process of decision-making that directly affect , whether national, regional or pan-African level. 

We are concerned:

• The increasing vulnerability of women in artisanal fishing communities, which does not allow them to fully play their role in contributing to food security, through the processing and marketing of fishery products, and fulfill their responsibilities for the well-being of families and children's education.

- If women and our communities are vulnerable is that fish become scarcer and more expensive and the cost of fishing operations is increasing;

- One of the main reasons for this is the trend in recent decades to the intensification of fishing in many African countries by foreign flag vessels or foreign re-pavillonnés, charter, or fishing illegally, and increasing export of fish away from our continent, while the needs of African countries in protein and nutrients from the fish are growing, given the increase in our population.

- If any part of these foreign vessels fishing under formal agreements, a large number of fishing vessels appear in opaque conditions without respecting the laws in force in African waters - including legislation to protect the area artisanal fishing - using very little selective and destructive methods.

• Foreign vessels are not the only cause of the pressure on fish stocks in African waters, it also assists the uncontrolled growth of artisanal fisheries in many African countries.

• As soon as the fish become less abundant due to overexploitation, the tendency of local fishermen in some countries is to use desperate measures to maintain the level of catches, such as the use of very small stitches, or worse dynamite . We call our Ministers for Fisheries and Aquaculture in the context of the reform strategy in African fisheries

To improve governance for a more transparent and participatory fisheries management

• promoting with their respective states, the signing of the Aarhus Convention on public access to environmental information;

• committing to make regular information on fishing licenses granted and contracts and agreements,

• by establishing commissions licensing work seamlessly and independent actors including representatives of artisanal fisheries;

• by conducting independent audits of the effectiveness of fisheries administrations;

• considering the organizations representing democratically professionals artisanal fishing activity as their interlocutors;

• developing with them a dynamic partnership, including permanent consultation mechanisms with the women and men of artisanal and civil society, based on:

- the recognition of capabilities, knowledge and knowledge communities artisanal fisheries initiatives to build management and conservation of resources

- the ability of the state to share its power and responsibilities for management and conservation, to define a policy framework for fisheries management , to provide an effective legislation; to ensure its effective implementation, to provide various types of assistance to communities (means of implementation, scientific, control, awareness, etc..)

o in particular, the establishment transparent participatory monitoring devices in each country, as part of the dynamics of co-management should be supported (legal recognition of stakeholders, premium incentives, provision of means of communication, exchange visits, training committees management)

• giving, in these approaches, special attention for women communities are equally represented (50%) in the consultation for decision making and in the planning and implementation of those decisions;

• empowering artisanal fishing communities in the integrated management of their land adjacent marine ecosystems, through a negotiated agreement between the users (through their organization), and responsible for fisheries, which defines the objectives of management authority, the rights and obligations of both parties, duly approved by the competent local authorities;

• encouraging active groups of the civil society and the media to denounce some do not comply with regulatory practices and ethics in this context, freedom of the press must be complete;

• when criminal activities are identified, with penalties and sanctions that are of sufficient severity and receive wide dissemination in the media.

• stimulating cooperation between different jurisdictions within the same state, and among African States to: - fight against illegal fishing - manage, collaboratively shared resources; - improving and harmonizing legal frameworks and regulations in a manner that recognizes the local co-management initiatives;

To give priority access to resources for sustainable artisanal fisheries

- Reserving exclusively for artisanal fishermen resources they have the ability to fish sustainably;

- Reserving the coastal zone and the continental shelf artisanal fisheries in the clearly defined in legislation, and protecting effectively against the incursions of trawlers;

- Recognizing the rights of access of artisanal fishing communities in legislation and management measures for fisheries resources;

- Refusing to privatize and organize a market for resource access rights, as suggested in the reform strategy, as these systems allow those who have the capital to capture fisheries resources artisanal fisheries depends to live, causing our misery and poverty communities;

- Adopting at the next Committee on Fisheries of the FAO in June, and implementing as soon as possible, the International Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Artisanal Fisheries of FAO, to preserve livelihoods local populations to ensure their food security, economic survival and the preservation of their cultures

- Implementing a "restorative" eco-management systems using devices of artificial reefs and marine protected areas;

- Promoting the use of new technologies throughout the value chain, better management and use of resources;

- Fighting against the complacency pavillonnement

To implement the right to food, and to ensure the contribution of fisheries to the realization of this right

- Encouraging their governments to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the result, in particular as regards the right to food in their constitutions and national legislation;

- putting in place a process that Pan citizens can use to compel governments to respect the right to food and the laws relating thereto - Concerning the promotion of aquaculture, which is an important element in the strategy proposed reform of fisheries policy Africa to increase fish production, we call for:

- Restrict the development of aquaculture in non-carnivorous species, which do not depend on the fish meal produced from our small pelagic need to book direct human consumption

- Encourage small-scale aquaculture, through the establishment of a national agency for aquaculture development;

- Encourage the agency through private investment in the sustainable aquaculture through programs for capacity building, awareness raising, with financial and technical support, while ensuring integrated coastal populations in this dynamic so that they benefit.

We hope that our voices will be heard by our Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and we wish them a fruitful discussion for the adoption of a strategy to reform the African fisheries that recognizes and protects the rights of our communities to develop a sustainable African fisheries.

There's still Cod and Coley swimming in the North Sea! - from an ROV #eatmorefish #underfishing

Cod swimming in the North Sea. This video was taken from an ROV (Remotely Operated vehicle) working in the North Sea somewhere between Scotland and Norway. The sea bed depth is around 135m, The ROV is at 120m below sea level. Interestingly, although the ROV is looking straight ahead, the Cod seem to orient themselves so the top of their bodies is towards the light and their bellies away from it, so it appears that the camera is looking down. Some of the Cod have discolouration on their backs - this is from where they have rubbed themselves in the mud on the sea bed. The video was taken during a subsea construction job from a saturation diving vessel. Published first in 2013.






Shoals of Coley seen on the Seabed near to Subsea Oil Structures in the Northern North Sea. Proof there are still fish in the North Sea!!! Shot in 2013.

#endofanera - British cooking the Wright way

Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright 1947-2014

Perhaps best summed up by the story of her visit to the doctors when she became ill 27 years ago - on receiving the test results told her that the only thing he could think of to cause her such suffering was quinine poisoning, he laughed and joked, "of course you could only get that if you drank huge quantities of tonic".

The great Waitrose hake debate - part II

Fresh and plentiful - uncertificated hake from the Newlyn gill netter Ajax - and therein lies the problem

In response to a direct question about using African hake Ela Farrell received this reply from Waitrose:

Dear Ela
Thank you for contacting us via Twitter.

I've looked into this with our fish buyer and they've advised that at Waitrose we have been working to a responsible seafood sourcing strategy for over 15 years and have made a commitment that by 2017 all our fish and seafood will be independently certified as responsibly sourced.

Waitrose recognises a number of independent Standards for wild caught fish including the Marine Stewardship Council and the Food and Agriculture Organisation based Responsible Fisheries Management. In line with our policy to only buy independently certified fish, our South African hake is from the Marine Stewardship Council fishery and is certified as sustainable.

However as one of our Waitrose Way commitments is to Champion British products selling UK Hake seems an obvious choice, especially as the stocks appear to be healthy. Should the fishery gain independent certification as being responsibly managed we will of course introduce this fish to the Waitrose assortment.
I hope this helps with your query but should you have any further questions please let me know.
Kind regards

Paul Neun

Waitrose Customer Sales and Support

This only highlights the dilemma and complexity of an industry where MSC certification has now become the holy grail and/or stick by which to beat others - getting certification is not that straightforward - and worse still, just because a fishery does not have MSC accreditation does it mean stocks are unhealthy. The same problem exists with fish line caught fish - where the customer would be led to believe that line caught fish are to be preferred to those without that label - it's just not that simple!

Supermarkets obviously feel driven to do their PR bit and say how wonderful they are to use MSC accredited fish - even if home grown fish like hake would be their preferred choice!

Maybe it would be in the supermarkets interests (as M&S did) to help fishermen achieve MSC accreditation for fish species like hake without feeling they are doing the wrong thing.

Those that fish in the south west must be hoping that MSC accreditation is forthcoming for their hake sooner rather than later - especially as they can do the maths and see that the supermarkets selling hake at £16+ a kilo is 10 times greater than the 31.60 per kilo they get on a bad market!

Monday's market full of fish again #eatmorefish

No wind this morning as high water approaches...

as three big beamers land...

also on the market are a few bass...

and a good shot of grey mullet from the inshore fleet...

signs of John Dory about from the beam trawler trip...

as the three big beam trawlers' fish fish the market...

fresh is blood red gills...

and shiny eyes...

with the net fish that filed the western end of the market...

almost tropical, cuckoo wrasse make for a great display on a wet fish counter...

two shades of grey on the back of these fish, but what are they?...

latest bid goes in the book...

while Andy gives an overview of the fishing industry to Falmouth University students on their Ocean Science module, a twelve week 16 lecture course...

fish on the move...

supplies of cuttlefish seem to have improved...

while down the quay the gear on the Calypso has been hung out to dry...

while she waits to sail again.