Welcome to Through the Gaps, the UK fishing industry's most comprehensive information and image resource. Newlyn is England's largest fish market and where over 50 species are regularly landed from handline, trawl, net, ring net and pot vessels including #MSC Certified #Hake, #Cornish Sardine, handlined bass, pollack and mackerel. Art work, graphics and digital fishing industry images available from stock or on commission.
The old Newlyn netter Ajax is now making her way up North to her new home in Eyemouth where she will be back trawling again. When she first arrived in Newlyn as an Arbroath registered boat she was trawling with skipper/owner Barney Thomas from St Ives. Like many of the 50-60 ft boats she converted to gill netting for hake in the mid to late 1980s.
A little common sense is creeping into Brussels its seems - the first step towards ending the Discards Landing Obligation fiasco! The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee has voted to weaken parts of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) during a meeting which was to vote on the technical details of the new fisheries law.
The fisheries committee decided to:
(1) Re-introduce a 50kg minimum threshold amount of catch for reporting purposes, meaning that in aggregate huge amounts of unmonitored fish can be removed from the sea across the EU without being covered by logbook reporting requirements. This was not envisioned in the reformed CFP, and will have serious impacts on scientific advice for fisheries management (including quotas) in the coming years.
(2) Provide a two year window for not complying with the landing obligation. This effectively means that fishers who have received subsidies under the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) but do not comply with the landing obligation will not be required to pay these amounts back.
(3) Limit the application of this regulation to 2015 only, meaning that another proposal will be needed next year. This will negatively impact the long-term planning of fishers, including investments and planning security.
The amendments passed with 20 in favour, four against and one abstention.
Although the EU Parliament agreed on a sustainable fishing reform earlier in the year, this vote undermines key elements of the CFP such as the discard ban and ending overfishing. Courtesy of The Skipper
Greenpeace volunteers and Cornish fishermen will be meeting George Eustice on Saturday morning at his constituency office to express their concern over the "unfair fishing quota system". They are handing in a petition from over 2,000 people from or near his constituency of Camborne, Redruth and Hale.
The petition signatures were gathered over three weekends on Camborne High Street. The petition is calling on George Eustice, who is also the Fisheries Minister, to overhaul the fishing quota system. The signatories are demanding that George Eustice changes the way that quota is allocated so that more is given to local, sustainable fishermen, who "protect the marine environment and make a real contribution to the Cornish economy".
George Eustice will be met by a constituent and Cornish fishermen who are struggling to make a living because they are not given enough fishing quota.
After the meeting, they will present the signatures gathered from his constituents in two ‘captain’s log’ books surrounded by a colourful banner, fishy figures and sea shanties will be sung by a local band.
Nina Schrank, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace said: “There is new European fisheries legislation that is designed to reward sustainable fishermen; it’s a golden opportunity that the government must not miss. If implemented properly, it will boost fish stocks, bolster home-grown sustainable fishing and breathe new life into our coastal communities up and down the country.
"It’s time stop destructive, foreign owned vessels hoovering up fish stocks while lining their pockets with the sale of fish caught from our shores. The reform of this legislation was not won easily, now it’s up to the government to turn it into a reality here in Cornwall and along the UK’s coasts.”
Greenpeace's new campaign, ‘Our Net Gain’, which launched a month ago, is urging the government to reclaim fishing quota for local, low impact fishermen in the UK. Greenpeace carried out an investigation revealing that 43% of England’s fishing quota is held by foreign controlled, fishing businesses.[
It also exposed the high concentration of quota in the hands of a few industrial fishing companies:
• Five largest foreign controlled vessels hold 32 per cent of the English quota
• One Dutch-controlled vessel holds 23 per cent of the English quota
• The small scale fleet in England has just 6 per cent of the UK’s quota[ii] Full story courtesy of the Falmouth Packet:
