Sunny Swanage by the Sea

Maybe not so sunny on this farm...

first job in the morning for the deck chair attendant is to tempt the trippers into hiring deck chairs...

very popular with the motorcycle and scooter clubs especially from London...

and a mecca for diving in very clear water...

while some take the easy option, bare feet and a good book on Swanage Pier.

Launching Swanage style

With strong easterly winds piling seaweed up in Swanage Bay in previous days most of the boats were pulled up the slipway out of the water. To get the boat back requires a long rope, a single pulley block and a land rover in 4 -wheel drive mode.

#FishyFriday in Newlyn

Demonstrating its position as the provider of more variety of fish than any other UK port...

lovely langostine...

controversial conger...(see the stamps debacle)...

hooray for the ray...

best banging bass...

even lobster...

always popular with the media...

not forgetting the 'ansum 'ake...

even more rays of sunshine...

delicious Dory...

pristine blondes...

magnifique megrims...

caught by these guys...

not forgetting the even more controversial cod of course...

getting the measuring treatment...

last but not least the mini-monk tails...

and at last the Council have set the diggers at work to restore Newlyn Green!

#FishyFriday Fishy facts indeed - to use a well worn cliche #eatmorefish

"Andrew Hammond, a Royal Mail spokesperson, added: “With the majority of the world’s fish stocks currently fully-exploited or over-exploited this is a key issue of concern. We hope this stamp issue goes some way to helping people make informed choices about sustainability and contribute to the discussion about the conservation of UK fish stocks.”

 Alongside the new stamps, Royal Mail will be releasing the findings from research to understand the attitudes and gauge the knowledge of sustainable fishing amongst the British public."

Quite how the Royal Mail thinks a set of stamps will inform - as in 'educate' - a largely ignorant public (of the true nature of fish stocks and fish stocks assessment) must be beyond the ken of most fishermen in the UK. In the minds of most people, stamps are primarily used to indicate that the correct revenue has been paid in order for the Royal Mail to deliver items for postage - not to reliably indicate whether or not that fish supper they were just about to purchase is from sustainable stocks or not - and since when did anyone in the UK shop for sturgeon or wolffish? Neither Tesco, Morrisons, Lidl, Sainsburys, Asda, M&S or the good old Co-operative offer either of these fish on their fish counters within easy reach of Newlyn - the port that lands the widest variety of fish in the UK on a regular basis bar none!

Barrie Deas, @NFFO_UK chief exec of the National Fishermen's Federation was incensed by the stamp issue - and rightly so as the organisation was not even contacted by the Royal mail or the group tasked with coming up with selecting and designing the stamps - good to see the 'Royal' warrant applied so vigorously in support of our British fishing industry - sadly, even more ironic given their role on this historic day 60 years on from D-Day.

The newly privatised company said the stamps were issued to celebrate, “the beauty of marine fish as well as providing guidance and encouragement to consumers on how to conserve UK fisheries”

The dreary dab

Let's hope the stamps achieve great value as collectors items rather than finding their way into the public conscience as educational tools - though quite how the dab ever met the designer's brief for a displaying the 'beauty' of fish will only leave fishermen doubly perplexed - for dab read drab - probably the drabbest fish in the sea!

Royal Mail fish stamp set issue - but who is more threatened - the fish or the fishermen?

Three of the fishy stamps that went on sale yesterday to the public are worthy of further discussion on how helpful or unhelpful the stamps are in informing the public as to the state of fish stocks in UK waters - if that was the intention?

Skate along with spurdogs were taken off the catch register a while back - "The Commission has proposed setting total allowable catch (TAC) for spiny dogfish (or "spurdog") and porbeagle sharks at zero and prohibiting fishermen from keeping angel sharks, common skates, undulate rays or white skates."

In the mixed fisheries of the waters off Cornwall these fish and others currently banned will soon gain prominence when the 'nil discards' rules are introduced and boats are forced to keep them on board and land them.

Several Newlyn boats including the Govenek of Ladram have been involved in stock assessment for skate - the results are a long time in making their way to the quota discussion table however...

Conger eel are a case in point - landings in the UK are almost non-existent with good reason - the price fetched by these fish in the UK is very low despite its great eating qualities - and for that reason boats do not fish specifically for conger eel - they are caught and landed on the market in Newlyn mainly by beam trawlers fishing near to wrecks and patches of hard ground - the preferred habitat of these boisterous fish - there are now no boats that specifically fish for conger at any time during the year as there once were - hard to see how eating onger caught off Cornwall is in any way a threat!

#RNLI lifeboat Ivan Ellen tows in the Emma Louise after she loses her steering

Penlee lifeboat Ivan Ellen was called out at 5.15 am this morning after the Emma Louise lost her steering...

necessitating assistance from the AWB...

here the crew shorten up the long tow rope...

so the lifeboat has more control...

and greater manoeuvrability when coming in through the gaps...

not easy even in these calm conditions, here the crew prepare with big fenders over the bow as a precaution...

before passing close to the end of the quay...

which then gives the lifeboat crew the time to put short ends aboard and guide the crabber to a quayside berth...

the AIS from VesselTracker shows just how quickly the lifeboat was able to locate and escort the crabber safely back to port - nice work Patch and the boys!

#FishyFriday - Ajax hake gets the Fish on Friday treatment

"Many people think of hake as a Spanish speciality, but it’s now so plentiful in our waters that it was recently dubbed Britain’s most sustainable fish. So we take our tour west to Newlyn to meet Ajax skipper Alan Dwan, a master at catching it, and serve up some delicious ideas for cooking it by Mitch Tonks, hake ambassador at large."

FishonFriday.org trains its fishy eye on the biggest fish story in the south west this year - the rise of the mighty meaty hake! Local skippers like Alan Dwan on the Ajax, Phil Mitchell on the Govenek of Ladram and Simon Porter on the Sparkling Line have all been instrumental in working with the likes of Cefas to ratify the sustainability of Cornish hake - chefs like Nathan Outlaw and Mitch Tonks have added their support wading in with a range of tasty dishes to experiment with.

Read the full story and check out a range of hake recipes here: