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Breathing New Life into Newlyn’s Old Harbour The first stage of restoring Newlyn’s historic Old Harbour has been successfully completed, wi...

Tuesday, 24 June 2014

Day Two of Food, Fisheries and Tourism: New Opportunities for Sustainable Development #tourfish

Tuesday - Conference Day Two - St Mary in the Castle
08:00 - 09:30
Registration - (For those delegates that are attending Day Two only) 
09:30
Introduction to Day Two 
09:35
Fish, Food and Festivals: Responsible tourism and fishing-led community regeneration - led by  Sidmouth Trawlers, Hastings Fishermen's Protection Society and University of Brighton
Join us as we share lessons learnt about the hard won successes of two very different fishing communities using their heritage and contemporary fishing fleet identity to act as a catalyst for community led regeneration. Common to both of these remarkable stories is the use of the cultural traditions tied into their landscape and livelihoods by the fishers and the communities around them to forge a unique responsible tourism offer around fish, food and festivals.
Learn about their different routes to industry empowerment and activism and the creative ways in which their stories, knowledge and skills are being re-connected and so re-valued by a new generation of visitors and residents. We want to showcase to you how through adopting approaches proudly grounded in the fishing community the link between an emerging responsible tourism market and community led regeneration can help to protect the livelihoods, unique place based identity, social cohesion, sense of purpose and traditions of our coastal communities.
The session will involve an introduction to each case study by a panel of community stakeholders and will be followed by what we know will be a lively and insightful Q&A session where we will invite you to be part of the audience wide discussion around how these models might apply to your industry and contribute to your community.

This session is particularly valuable for:
  • Fishers, farmers and agri-food producers to learn about how responsible tourism can be part of your community strategy to secure your livelihood.
  • Tourism and marketing professionals will learn about how they might work with community led regeneration projects to develop the emerging responsible tourism market and so achieve sustainable economic renewal.
  • NGOs and civil society groups will have valuable experience of achieving societal change through bottom up local community models that share many of the principles of this approach to community led regeneration and responsible tourism, thus creating the opportunity for mutual exchange of lessons learnt.
  • Social and economic policy practitioners can see first hand how fisheries inspired responsible tourism can be a catalyst for social and economic regeneration. 
10:35
Morning Break 
11:00
Education, fish and food: Raising awareness of food, sustainability and responsible tourism - led by University of Brighton, Hastings Fishermen's Protection Society, Flanders House of Food and Nausicaa
Experience first-hand innovative models of fisher/farmer/agri-food industry led alternative education provision with examples from England, Belgium and France. These models of education can deliver valuable learner experiences underpinned by the sharing of fisher/farmer/industry knowledge and their participation in enabling an understanding of sustainable food industry practices and values. They highlight a commitment to demonstrating how fishing and farming contribute to the unique identity of where you live and visit and trigger questions about how learners can be part of building a more sustainable future:
  • through their informed consumer and business choices around locally sourced seasonal food
  • through sharing the knowledge they acquire in these lessons on sustainable foods
  • through seeking to gain employment in the industry 
The session will involve an introduction to these models and why they were developed. You will experience this exciting alternative education provision, and learn about the crucial role this type of education can play in securing a viable economic future for sustainable fishing and agri-foods. Finally, we will invite you to be part of the audience wide discussion around how these models might apply to your industry and contribute to your locality.
This session is particularly valuable for:
  • Fishers, farmers and agri-food producers to learn about how alternative education provision can help support their future livelihood.
  • Education practitioners will have much to contribute to this debate as they reflect upon how this model engages students in a meaningful way around the themes of sustainability and how this can be part of the resources available for area-based curriculum.
  • Tourism and marketing practitioners will learn how these models can contribute to the emerging knowledge based responsible tourism market and how education feeds into associated regional branding. 
  • NGOs and civil society groups will have valuable experience of achieving societal change through bottom up local community models that share many of the principles of this education provision, thus creating the opportunity for mutual exchange of lessons learnt. 
  • Social policy practitioners can see first hand how alternative education provision is a catalyst for sustainability in relation to the food chain, with ideas shared around: food security, ecosystem conservation, intra-inter generational cultural exchange and economic renewal. 
12:00
Lunch Break 
13:00
Keynote Speech: Sustainable Food - Making the Connection from Spade to Spoon
Clare Devereux, Policy Director of Food Matters
13:30
From Catch to Plate & Plough to Plate: Sustainable seafood and local land products for today and tomorrow - led by Nausicaa and Taste South East 
Today, 77% of fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited or exhausted. The growing demand for fish, linked both to increases in world population and an ever growing interest by consumers in the nutritional and dietetic qualities of fish, places considerable pressure on this resource. But how can we make a difference?
Associations, aquariums and institutes are working to increasingly raise the awareness of their consumers and to encourage them, through concrete daily actions, to become responsible consumers of seafood products, at home and away.

The mobilising of economic players, from fishermen to distributors, has become essential. However, this can only become effective and sustainable if consumers themselves also become active players through their unique and determining purchasing power, at the end of the supply chain, via selective and educated consumerism.

In this final session you can learn more about two exciting and successful "Catch to Plate" initiatives in the Interreg 2 Seas zone, as well as other responsible tourism initiatives featuring local food and seafood. We will also be joined by a restaurant chef who will tell us about the barriers to and opportunities of sourcing local food. 
  • Local Catch: A web-based information hub to educate consumers and chefs about local species, where to find local fishermen, fishmongers and wholesalers who catch and sell locally caught seafood. The platform also gives information about seasonality, minimum size of the fish and its rating on the UK's sustainable fish list. It shows consumers and chefs how to cook and prepare local species and provides recipe ideas. This is a growing network developed by the industry. Find out how we use Local Catch to the benefit of the industry, encourage responsible tourism, and develop new supply chains as well as our plans for the future. 
  • Mr.Goodfish which is a programme initiated by the World Ocean Network and developed by Nausicaa in France.  Its aim is to inform and educate general public, and  tourists about sustainable seafood consumption by enabling  them to choose responsibly thereby preserving the sea’s resources for the future generations. Positive recommendations are published quarterly, in the form of a list, made available on the internet and communicated to all contributing members, including fishmongers and restauranteurs.           
How can you get involved? With this session, you will learn how to make more responsible choices and find key advice to choose and promote sustainable seafood for today and tomorrow. Testimonies of chefs using and selling locally produced food and locally caught seafood, will show you what is possible to do in the real life to be a more sustainable business.         

The strategic target of this session comprises of all the component parts of the sector:
  • Fishermen, farmers and local producers
  • Wholesalers, processors, restaurant-owners and distributor
  • NGOs and other associations
  • Teachers 
  • Politicians
  • Public authorities
  • The media
  • Consumers and potential consumers of produce from the sea and land
14:30
Concluding Session 
15:00
End of Conference 

#tourfish Food, Fisheries and Tourism: New Opportunities for Sustainable Development

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

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.

The power behind Brixham



A quick tour of the wheelhouse and the man at the helm with nearly 1000hp under his feet...



Brixham Trawler Race highlight - great to see the big beamers powering their way round the course!