Saturday's shipping in and out through the gaps

Tom Tom the piper's son...

Jeremy seems to be in something of a hurry...

about pass Lady Lou...

Silver Sea bound away for the evening...

Harvest Reaper heads back to her berth...

Kastel Paol enters the gaps...

and heads for the quay...

making waves...

it's a Breeze gigging to day...

the Emma heels over...

on her way...

through the gaps...

to take on board more bait for tomorrow's crab fishing...

a few volunteers row the local gigs back home...

signs of the summer, strings of mackerel being fished off the quay...

Llyod Tyler has a day off.

E-log problems Raised at North East meeting

So just how widespread is this problem?

Read this report on a recent meeting between fishermen, the MMO and DEFRA.


The latest of several regional and port meetings organised by the MMO and NFFO to address problems with the implementation of electronic log books, has been held recently in York.

The Federation has on several occasions raised the catalogue of e-log problems experienced by the industry and has highlighted flaws in way the e-log policy has been implemented, at national level. However, it was felt that the only way rapid progress could be made would be if the MMO and DEFRA heard directly from the fishermen who are obliged to use the new equipment and who are facing these problems on a daily basis. The regional/port meetings are therefore an attempt to flush out all of the issues and address them, one by one.

"After a period of denial through which the MMO and DEFRA refused to accept that there was anything wrong, beyond teething troubles, there is now an acceptance that there are a range of fundamental problems with the system; these potentially expose fishermen to prosecution for non-compliance", said Ned Clark, Chairman of the NFFO's North East Committee. "Thankfully, there is now recognition that there are indeed serious problems and these meetings around the coast are an important step forward in resolving them", he added.

The problems fall into a number of categories:

• Technical

• Safety

• Lack of adequate guidance

• Lack of advisory support

• High costs

"We appreciate the constructive and pragmatic approach now being applied by the MMO to get the system up and running in an acceptable way. When the new reporting technologies are used for vessel and catch monitoring and control and it is a legal obligation with serious consequences for non-compliance, it is essential that the system works. So far it hasn't."

Scallop differences to be settled at an historic meeting of minds in Brixham later this month

Here are the details of an important meeting taking place

How can tensions between nationalities be resolved? How can the fishery best be managed to achieve long-term sustainability? And what are the necessary next steps?

One thing’s for sure: collaboration is key.

GAP2 is delighted to be hosting this workshop – the FIRST EVER facilitated discussion between French and UK fishers with a view to developing a regional management plan – with support from the North-Western Waters Advisory Council (NWWAC), WWF and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

“THE FUTURE OF SCALLOP FISHERIES IN THE CHANNEL: TOWARDS A REGIONAL MANAGEMENT PLAN”

WHERE? The Berry Head Hotel, Brixham, Devon – UK!

WHEN? 14th – 16th April, 2014

AIMS? the project is to 

• To bring together participants representing a range of interests and professions linked to the Channel scallop fisheries and fisheries management

• To share experiences in achieving sustainability and profitability through improved fisheries management  

• To explore the benefits of achieving a regional management plan through co-managed and participatory approaches 

• To take the first steps in designing a ‘tool kit’ of management/implementing measures for the Channel fisheries

Translation services will be provided throughout the event 
You can see a current delegate list for the event here.

And the current agenda here.

Want to know more about the fishery? Why not read Giles’ blog for GAP2 ‘War and Peace: Sustainable Scallops in the Channel’?

For further information please contact Giles Bartlett, Marine Projects Manager, WWF: gbartlett@wwf.org.uk

And remember to look out for #GAP2 scallops on twitter!

The petition said, "Give us back our beach!" - and they will!

Ask, and it shall be given - and ask is what the people of Newlyn and Penzance did thanks to the likes of Emily Smith who started a petition calling for the Council to take immediate action - and the petition, now with well over 1,000 signatures has helped spur Cornwall Council into action - all this after David Cameron promised the government would do whatever was necessary to make good damage resulting from the worst winter's weather in living memory - and so far that translated into a mere £1.2 million on the table for an estimated £20+ million repair bill...

on a sunny Easter holiday the coastal path between Newlyn and Penzance would normally be busy with holidaymakers and locals alike - however, this morning the path was home to a meeting between exasperated local business owners like retailer Andrew Fawcett and Ben Tunnicliffe from the Tolcarne Inn...

and Cornwall Council's Head of Environment & Waste David Owens, Cormac representatives including Ian Newby, County Councilor and ex-head of Penwith Council Jim McKenna and local councilor Roger Harding all keen to resolve the horrendous eyesore that the seafront has become after a huge - and unnecessary say protesters - Berlin Wall-like barrier was erected to keep the public away from the small section of path that actually needs repairing...

the group walked the length of the coastal path to Wherry Town so as to take in just how off-putting the eyesore of a 'safety' fence was and just how unnecessary on health and safety grounds - let's face, it for much of the Coastal Path of Cornwall in the far west there are 200 foot sheer drops and old mine shafts to negotiate with nothing more than a few warnings signs to warn the visitor...

how many meetings can see such immediate response?! - even before many of those who attended had made it back to their cars Cormac had dispatched a team of men to begin removing the barriers!...

as the first of a 3-stage plan to redress the current situation swung into action.

It's #FishyFriday!

Lovely lemons from the fish from the inshore trawler Innisfallen...

hook and line pollack...

make for a very #FishyFriday...

with the shiniest of pollack on sale from the Serene Dawn...

and handsome hake for the Gary M...

who landed this happy chappy, one mean looking male lobster...

even the fridge was full of fish...

Brixham beamer Lloyd Tyler put in an appearance...

as the inshore boats make their way out of the harbour...

like DrecklyFish's Bess...

after a night's work it's time to turn in...

maybe less than three weeks to go before Newlyn's £2 million ice works is commissioned...

which will be providing top quality dry ice for the top Cornish port into the future...

another load if ice ready for the Cornish Sardine fleet is loaded...

it won't be long before the new one is ready.

Some interesting views from those with direct experience of Aid and the activities of NGOs

The Development Set 

Excuse me, friends, 
I must catch my jet- 
I’m off to join the Development Set; 
My bags are packed, and I’ve had all my shots, 
I have travelers’ checks, and pills for the trots

The Development Set is bright and noble, 
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global; 
Although we move with the better classes, 
Our thoughts are always with the masses.

In Sheraton hotels in scattered nations, 
We damn multinational corporations; 
Injustice seems so easy to protest, 
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.

We discuss malnutrition over steaks 
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks. 
Whether Asian floods or African drought, 
We face each issue with an open mouth.

We bring in consultants whose circumlocution 
Raises difficulties for every solution- 
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating 
By showing the need for another meeting.

The language of the Development Set 
Stretches the English alphabet; 
We use swell words like ‘epigenetic’, 
‘Micro’, ‘Macro’. and ‘logarithmetic’.

Development Set homes are extremely chic, 
Full of carvings, curios and draped with batik. 
Eye-level photographs subtly assure 
That your host is at home with the rich and the poor.

Enough of these verses — on with the mission! 
Our task is as broad as the human condition! 
Just parry to God the biblical promise is true: 
The poor ye shall always have with you.

From Graham Hancock’s book “Lords of Poverty”; 
Reprinted here


With those words in mind here is an insightful look at the work of NGOs - written almost 5 years ago to the day by Indian journalist, Arundhati Roy - she has received numerous accolades in her work against poverty and injustice and her novel The God of Small Things, won the prestigious Booker Prize for literature in 1997. 

"A SECOND hazard facing mass movements is the NGO-ization of resistance. It will be easy to twist what I’m about to say into an indictment of all NGOs. That would be a falsehood. In the murky waters of fake NGOs set up or to siphon off grant money or as tax dodges (in states like Bihar, they are given as dowry), of course, there are NGOs doing valuable work. But it’s important to consider the NGO phenomenon in a broader political context. 

In India, for instance, the funded NGO boom began in the late 1980s and 1990s. It coincided with the opening of India’s markets to neoliberalism. At the time, the Indian state, in keeping with the requirements of structural adjustment, was withdrawing funding from rural development, agriculture, energy, transport and public health. As the state abdicated its traditional role, NGOs moved in to work in these very areas. The difference, of course, is that the funds available to them are a minuscule fraction of the actual cut in public spending. Most large-funded NGOs are financed and patronized by aid and development agencies, which are, in turn, funded by Western governments, the World Bank, the UN and some multinational corporations. Though they may not be the very same agencies, they are certainly part of the same loose, political formation that oversees the neoliberal project and demands the slash in government spending in the first place. 

Why should these agencies fund NGOs? Could it be just old-fashioned missionary zeal? Guilt? It’s a little more than that. NGOs give the impression that they are filling the vacuum created by a retreating state. And they are, but in a materially inconsequential way. Their real contribution is that they defuse political anger and dole out as aid or benevolence what people ought to have by right. They alter the public psyche. They turn people into dependent victims and blunt the edges of political resistance. NGOs form a sort of buffer between the sarkar (colloquially to address someone of authority, a "political overlord") and public. Between Empire and its subjects. They have become the arbitrators, the interpreters, the facilitators. In the long run, NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They’re what botanists would call an indicator species. It’s almost as though the greater the devastation caused by neoliberalism, the greater the outbreak of NGOs. 

Nothing illustrates this more poignantly than the phenomenon of the U.S. preparing to invade a country and simultaneously readying NGOs to go in and clean up the devastation. In order make sure their funding is not jeopardized and that the governments of the countries they work in will allow them to function, NGOs have to present their work in a shallow framework, more or less shorn of a political or historical context. At any rate, an inconvenient historical or political context. Apolitical (and therefore, actually, extremely political) distress reports from poor countries and war zones eventually make the (dark) people of those (dark) countries seem like pathological victims. Another malnourished Indian, another starving Ethiopian, another Afghan refugee camp, another maimed Sudanese…in need of the white man’s help. They unwittingly reinforce racist stereotypes and reaffirm the achievements, the comforts and the compassion (the tough love) of Western civilization. They’re the secular missionaries of the modern world. 

Eventually–on a smaller scale, but more insidiously–the capital available to NGOs plays the same role in alternative politics as the speculative capital that flows in and out of the economies of poor countries. It begins to dictate the agenda. It turns confrontation into negotiation. It depoliticizes resistance. It interferes with local peoples’ movements that have traditionally been self-reliant. NGOs have funds that can employ local people who might otherwise be activists in resistance movements, but now can feel they are doing some immediate, creative good (and earning a living while they’re at it). 

Real political resistance offers no such short cuts. The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in. Real resistance has real consequences. And no salary."

NGOs commonly found to reach out to provide research and/or aid to the fishing industry are GreenPeace, WWF and Friends of the Earth.

Creative art courses in Cornwall - Newlyn School of Art

Outdoor Courses for 2014

For those of you who love the challenge of painting Cornwall's dramatic coastline we've put together a message to show you some of the exciting outdoor courses on offer at Newlyn School of Art this year.

LANDSCAPE COURSES FOR 2014 The Cornish Landscape - with Mark Spray Paint, Landscape and Light - with Tom Rickman Abstract Landscape - with Gareth Edwards Coast I - with Paul Lewin Coast II - with Paul Lewin Seascapes & Landscapes - with Hannah Woodman Painting with Acrylics - with Andrew Tozer Expressive Painting - with Maggie O'Brien Find out more

12 WEEK LANDSCAPE COURSE We've had a great response to the launch of our new12 Week Landscape Course. It runs one day per week from July to September 2014. An inspiring masterclass in painting the dramatic coastline from many of the most respected artists working in Cornwall today including Paul Lewin, Neil Pinkett, Mark Spray, Tom Rickman, Gareth Edwards, Paul Wadsworth, Hannah Woodman, Maggie O'Brien and Andrew Tozer. There are some places left so why not explore Cornwall's amazing coastline this summer? Find out more

The train's a comin'... Trains are now running normally between London Paddington and Penzance direct without any rail replacement. Please visit the First Great Western website for up-to-date train times. Find out more