Through the Gaps! - Newlyn Fishing News Cornwall UK fish commercial fishing fish cooking and art

Tuesday 24 June 2014

So you want to be a skipper?

Message form the current skipper, Peter Buckland: -

Skipper & crew wanted for ring netter/netter with chance of bigger vessel in near future well proven vessel I'm stepping up to be 46 this year so I'm looking for skipper to take the helm sharing good if your interested pm me for more details

The resolute is a bases on a Gary Mitchell designed Buccaneer 33 hull from Cornwall..

capable of carrying well over 10 tonnes of sardine...

she is equipped with seawater tanks to keep the catch in top condition

seen here landing sardines in Newlyn where she is currently based.

Monday 23 June 2014

Good news for mackerel - though the amount being caught in Mount's Bay would suggest nobody has told them yet!

Following the latest survey on improved mackerel stocks from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), Seafish has issued the following statement for industry and consumers:

Bill Lart, Sustainability Data Advisor at Seafish: "This is a welcome piece of good news on stock levels and fisheries management and it is testament to the good work and collaboration of fishermen, scientists and the wider industry. The information we now have on mackerel stocks, such as catch figures and spawning biomass, has improved massively since 2000 and we are seeing the results of what commitment and investment to research can achieve with this latest recommendation of allowing the catch to double in 2014.
"There is still some way to go until an international TAC has been agreed and the ongoing management plan for the mackerel fishery must ensure that any major increase in catch levels ensures the stock remains sustainable for future generations to enjoy.

"However, we are delighted to see the work of the North East Atlantic fisheries recognised and shows that UK is at the forefront of sustainability."

The news has also been welcomed as a boost to the health of the nation.

Karen Galloway, Head of Marketing at Seafish: "Mackerel is great value and it's so versatile, lending itself to salads, sandwich fillings and pates, but it's often overlooked by consumers. In fact, it's one of the most substantial sources of Omega 3 which is particularly important for cardio-vascular health and foetal development. The high Vitamin D content also makes it a good choice for boosting Vitamin D levels, especially in young children.

"Recent studies and our own research suggest that UK consumers are still not eating the recommended amount of oily fish each week, despite its proven health benefits. Today's news that we will be able to enjoy even more mackerel on our menus is a fantastic opportunity to champion mackerel as a sustainable, affordable and healthy staple in the British diet.

"The Fish is the Dish website is filled with heaps of great mackerel recipes and handy cooking tips to ensure there is a range of great ways to enjoy it."

Tweets from the 2nd Marine and Coastal Policy Forum 2014 Plymouth University, 18-20 June 2014

View the story "The 2nd Marine and Coastal Policy Forum 2014 Plymouth University, 18-20 June 2014" on Storify

Drifters - John Grierson

One for film students and fishermen alike!

Film synopsis:
Men leave their fishing village and walk down to the harbour. We see a number of trawlers in the harbour and then focus on one ship as it leaves the harbour, interspersed with a number of views from the ship and shots of gulls circling the sea. The men eventually anchor down and cast herring nets. We see them work on board and then go down and sleep. More shots of the sea at night are shown, intercut with some fish chewing into a net in the sea.

The next day the men pull in the nets while a storm rises. We see them battle against the elements as they catch a number of fish. They then journey back to the harbour, where a number of people are selling fish on the market. We see the fish gutted, then packed and eventually shipped. At the end, a ship delivering the fish is seen to leave the harbour, delivering the locally caught fish to an international market.

John Grierson was extremely interested in modernist art, which he thought expressed the energies of a new age. He was attracted to 'city symphony' films - such as Manhatta (USA, d. Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, 1921) and Berlin: Symphony of a City (Germany, d. Walther Ruttman, 1926) - because of the way they portrayed the modern city in a poetic manner. He was most interested in Soviet films, however, particularly those of Sergei Eisenstein.

Drifters premiered at the Film Society on November 10, 1929, on the same bill as The Battleship Potemkin (USSR, d. Sergei Eisenstein, 1925), which was receiving its British premiere. Grierson had previously helped to title Eisenstein's film for an American showing and its influence is clearly revealed in Drifters. Like Potemkin, Drifters employs montage in an expressive manner, creating dramatic tension in the absence of any psychological characterisation. Both films also use 'types' (non-professional actors) instead of actors in order to create a more 'authentic' reality, and both films make use of extensive location shooting. Grierson, nevertheless, always stressed that he was keen to make a film with distinctively 'British' characteristics, which he saw as moderation and a sense of human importance. Drifters is, therefore, slower paced than Potemkin, and focuses on more mundane, less inherently dramatic events.

The focus on a modern, industrialised Britain is also a feature of Drifters and, in the absence of a strong cause-and-effect narrative, one of the central themes is the tension between tradition and modernity. Thus, at the beginning of the film, titles read: 'The Herring fishing industry has changed. Its story was once an idyll of brown sails and village harbours - its story now is an epic of steel and steam. Fishermen still have their homes in the old time village - But they go down for each season to the labour of a modern industry'. This link is also implied at the end of the film, as the catch is delivered to a modern, international market.

Grierson clearly sides with modernity, hence his constant focus on the machine parts of the trawler's engine. However, the focus on natural elements (sea, birds, fish), and the rather perfunctory attention given to the marketing of the fish at the end of the film, imply that his feelings about modernity are ambivalent. While the film celebrates industrialism as an evolutionary stage in history, it also respects the links between man and nature.

Courtesy of BFI Screenonline.