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

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Cornish sardines come ashore

Skipper Dan has to contend with a night of poor weather but still manages to put ashore a landing of Cornish sardines to keep those BBQs well supplied with this summer's fish of choice!

Elliott Dale and Chris 'Darby' Walters row across the North Atlantic Ocean from New York to the Isles of Scilly in #record time!

Photos courtesy of Andy Hargreaves at @ScillyToday

More information and donations gratefully received here:

Precious Lives Atlantic Challenge set off from New York on the 7th June hoping to follow in the footsteps of the historic rowing pair, George Harbo and Frank Samuelson who crossed the Atlantic in just 55 days back in 1896. The route from New York to the Isles of Scilly is considered to be the hardest route to cross the Atlantic, and Chris and Elliott will be only the second pair in the world ever to have achieved this incredible row. Now Chris and Elliott are headed for dry land. And although indications show that they will not beat the 55 day historic ocean rowing record (which would mean returning late on 1st August), they will, on arrival to St Mary’s Harbour, Isles of Scilly, row into the ocean rowing record books by setting the fastest time for a pair of rowers from New York to the Scilly Isles in an open class rowing boat!

If weather conditions allow, the intrepid rowers hope to reach the Isles of Scilly, near Cornwall early on the 5th August. One person who can relate to their experience is Brian Fletcher, project manager of the Precious Lives Atlantic Challenge. A seasoned ocean rower himself having taken part in the Talisker Atlantic Challenge – the toughest rowing race in the world – Brian is in constant contact with the rowers and said: ‘They have crossed the half way mark but this is when the challenge really starts to tell on them. You are physically exhausted, missing home and having been continually damp for over a month with no skin left on your hands, it’s hard to remain motivated.

Chris and Elliott are demonstrating a remarkable courage and determination to succeed despite all that the elements have decided to throw at them. As there are just two of them it makes it not just harder physically, but also mentally too. As they spend no time together – as one sleeps, the other one rows – they cannot support one another and it can be an extremely lonely time. I admire their courage wholeheartedly and you cannot help but be in awe of this incredible feat.’

Check out how they rowed en route here:

Sun's up!

Just about the break of day...

the sun makes her way over the Bay...

and streams in Through the Gaps...

as the yachts..

make their way out to sea...

while on the slip...

Emma gets a good makeover...

firing up the wee engine...

as the Pride of Cornwall heads back in...

after a night spent chasing sardines proved taxing...

with just a couple...

of tubs to show for a night's efforts...

probably the most expensive mor ki ever - £5 for one fish bid by Mousehole Fish for charity this morning...

signs of a few mackerel again...

should keep the buyers happy...

this guy has seen a few tides over the years, maybe he was hatched in the 1960s...

more of those elsive cod we hear so much about!

Tuesday 5 August 2014

Know someone who needs a job? - #Newlyn Mission is shortstaffed!

Can you help? Newlyn's famous fishermen's mission is short staffed!

Fishermen’s Mission
Ship Institute
North Pier
Newlyn
Penzance,
Cornwall TR18 5JB
Telephone: 01736 363499
Fax: 01736 350094
Mobile: 07884 188616
Email: NewlynCentreCM@fishermensmission.org.uk

Monday 4 August 2014

Gurnard and chips, please: warmer seas change UK fish stock as cod head north - more scaremongering! #eamorefish #biased

How do the papers manage to come up with these stories?!!!!! Looks like fishermen are the bad boys yet again!

"Gurnard and chips, please: warmer seas change UK fish stock as cod head north "

"Marine experts say we will soon have to get used to eating hake, mullet and other species as coastal waters heat up - according to Robin McKie, science editor The Observer."

Here is the full story courtesy of Saturday's Guardian:

"Cod and chips could soon become a dish of the past, as Britain's waters become ever warmer. Marine experts have warned that rising sea temperatures are transforming the makeup of fish stocks in our coastal waters. Where cod and haddock once thrived, sea bass, hake, red mullet and anchovies are now being caught in rising numbers.

If Britain wants sustainable fisheries round its shores, it will have to turn to these for the fish suppers of the future, they add. "We are going to have to be much more flexible about the fish we eat as our coastal waters continue to warm," said Professor Richard Lampitt of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. "The idea that the cod is the only fish worth eating is part of a mindset that we can no longer support."

Well now we know why, it's out old friend Dr Callum Robert from York being quoted again!

"Marine scientists have found that the seas round the UK have risen in temperature by a remarkable 1.6C since 1980, a jump that is almost four times the global average rise for ocean temperatures. Britain's position on the relatively shallow continental shelf of Europe, and the enclosed nature of our seas – the North and Irish seas and the Channel – have intensified the impact of global warming. As a result, our waters are now attracting more and more unexpected visitors, including dolphins and a pair of humpback whales – a rarity for UK waters – that were seen in the Irish Sea last month. Other changes have been even more profound. "Over the last 35 years, 15 of the 36 species surveyed in the North Sea have shifted latitudes," said oceanographer Professor Callum Roberts of York University. "The average shift was 300km north."

Cold-loving fish have moved north towards Iceland and the Faroe Isles while warm-water fish have moved up from the south to take their place, added Roberts. Cod is now hardly found in our waters, for example, while the John Dory, a narrow-bodied fish with a long, thin jaw that was once found only near the south-west tip of England, has colonised the North Sea as far as Scotland. "The trouble is that our national appetite for fish is still monopolised by the 'big five': cod, haddock, tuna, prawns and salmon," said Professor Stephen Simpson of Exeter University. "But very few of these are caught in our waters. So we have to import them – cod from Iceland, tuna from the tropics, for example – or they are grown on fish farms, like the salmon. Only haddock survives in some northern UK waters." At the same time, however, stocks of gurnard, sea bass, John Dory, ling, hake, sardines and other fish are spreading from the south into British coastal waters. "Unfortunately, UK fishermen who are bringing them in cannot find any market for their catches in the UK. "As a result they having to sell them to Spain and other European countries," said Simpson. "We should be eating these fish. They come from our waters today and if we ate them instead of cod we would no longer have to import so much fish.

But we won't do that until we change our attitudes to the fish we eat in Britain. We are out of date. It is as simple as that." Next month, a conference, Sustainable Fisheries in 2050, is to be held in London. Scientists, fishing industry representatives, supermarket executives, consumer groups and conservationists will discuss ways to market Britain's new generation of fish stocks, to try to make them as popular as cod and haddock were in the past. "It is a tricky task but I am optimistic we can do that," said Simpson. Problems lie ahead, however, an example being provided by the mackerel. Until recently, it was rated one of the sustainably caught fish in the North Sea with quotas having been agreed and established by the EU and Norway. Then the mackerel started to move north as seas warmed and stocks reached Iceland and the Faroe Isles. Their fleets started fishing the mackerel in vast numbers.

The result was a major dispute with the EU and Norway: the so-called mackerel wars, which have yet to be resolved and which have seen UK ports blockaded so that Faroese and Icelandic fishing boats could not land there. "There will be lots more cases like this as the sea warms," said Roberts. In addition, the impact of warming waters is hitting stocks and environments already battered by overfishing."

And, yet again, we have the kind of language used guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of those without much grip on the reality of just how harsh the real world is!

"For decades, trawlermen have dragged vast, 30-tonne nets with metal doors and chains over much of Britain's coastal waters, in an attempt to catch every cod and haddock they could find."

What??????!!!!! - it's called making a living from the sea.

"Seabeds in places such as the Firth of Clyde have been ripped up and left utterly barren. "Three-dimensional, complex habitats rich in coral, sponge and sea fan have been turned into endless monotonous expanses of shifting gravel, sand and mud," said Roberts. "Species that are now shifting their ranges north into these impoverished ecosystems will find very little to sustain them."

GOODBYE COD, HELLO HERRING Cod is one of the big five seafood dishes that dominate our diet in the UK, along with tuna, prawns, haddock and salmon. Most are either imported or farmed or both. If Britain is to maintain sustainable fisheries in its own coastal waters and avoid importing foreign fish then we need to stop eating these forms of seafood, say experts. The herring is one of the winners in the change in UK seas. It is common, rich in healthy oils and has a lifestyle that lends itself to sustainable fishing. The red gurnard is also thriving, spreading northwards into waters once dominated by the cod, while the Cornish sardine is also making a comeback. All three are recommended by researchers."

Right, so now Cornish Sardines are making a comeback? - given that a huge part of the Cornish economy was reliant on catching Cornish Sardines - nee Pilchards - over the last few hundred years - and even then the fishery was cyclical!

While fishermen may well agree that there has been a change in fishing patterns it is well understood that much of this has to do with climate change - not overfishing!

Given that 30% or more of the food consumed globally comes from the sea - the real issue is an exponential growth in the population of the world that is the biggest problem - a truth that would appear far more unpalatable to consider?