Work in progress

A few days in Swanage mean the chance to work on the Cornish sardines painting.

Cork Fisherman Calls For Seal Cull - YoughalOnline.com

Fisherman Barry Clohessy from Youghal, Co Cork, Ireland is outraged with the Department of Marine for ignoring the seal damage to his livelihood. Seals are a protected species in this country but the damage they are doing to nets and the living of the local fishermen is shocking.

Since 2007 Salmon fishing has been banned in these parts because stocks were down. Now the seals that used to feed on the salmon in the nets are now moving inshore and attacking the monkfish caught in the nets.

"The seals are ruining inshore fishing," says Barry "they are feeding on monkfish, pollack and any kind of whitefish because of the ban on salmon fishing. The seals used to feed on the salmon in the nets but it wasn't so bad then, as there were other fish in the sea, so to speak."

With a lot of the fish being eaten by seals these days, most fishermen are left with no choice but to fish for lobsters, which has lead to the drop in prices where at one time they were getting €17 a kilo now they are only getting €10!" Barry adds "I reckon they should be a cull on the seals, like they do in other countries, in my mind that is the only solution. If I were a farmer and a dog attacked my herd I would have a right to shoot the dog but we are not allowed to touch the seals as they are protected. How is a man to feed his family?"

Out of the 51 monkfish that Barry caught that day, only 7 were whole while the remaining had only their heads left because of the seals that ravaged their bodies.

Video: Michael Hussey

Tuesday's market full of fine fish #eatmorefish

Ene-to-end with fish this morning...

great shot of ray from the Shiralee, nice one Plugger :-)...

just a few of the 1000kg of turbot from the Stelissa...

all putting smiles on the faces of the buyers, Ryan in charge of selling...

it's Dory time...

ring-a-ding ling...

and best bass from the Cynthia...

cracking start to the day as the boats queue for ice...

not such a common site, Spanish longline picked up by a beamer...

aftermath of the Pirates on the Prom...

looks like the Cider took a hamering!

Today's @piratesonprom means 14,154 gold coins to the boys who go down to the sea in lifeboats AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!

Never mind the weather as long as we're together - click the image to see some of the 14000+ #piratesonprom who braved the heavy skies - including Johnny Depp at least once.

Ooooohh Aaaargh - not quite 14,231 @PiratesonProm - there were 77 short!!!!!

Let us not forget that at the end of the day the real winners are the RNLI - every scurvy pirate who made it to the prom gave a gold £1 coin in entrance money so after today's world record attempt the Penlee lifeboat's chest is £14000 to the good - well done to all the pirates who braved the slightly inclement weather - see you next time!

It's a shellfish kind of day in Newlyn

Good to see the Intuition back in action feeding the nation with the best brown crab...

 

while the Emma lands to the waiting lorry...

 its all in the timing getting those bongos to swing into the lorry...

it's scalloping time of the year...

this is what the deck of a modern scalloper looks like rigged ready for action.

Picture puzzle

Who looks out of this wheelhouse window and on which boat?