Hake at the #TurksHead, Penzance

From the Specials Board at the Turk's Head, Chapel Street - blackened hake with a light creamy chowder sauce - great dish using the best in Newlyn hake. The pheasant was excellent as well - all served with a huge smile thanks to Maria.

Haddock or Cod?

The unmistakable thumbprint associated with haddock...

and the speckled skin of a cod - perhaps hybrid of some sort - caddock or hod?

Cefas Endeavour at work

After steaming down formn the English Channel the Cefas Endeavour has taken up station off Land's End...

though it's not the best place to be carrying out survey work...

as she transits both the South and North bound lanes of the Traffic Separation Scheme!

Sole searching

Saturday afternoon and it looked like a mini Dutch invasion force are on the way to 'the channel' - which is how Newlyn fishermen refer to the Bristol Channel of course.

First Monday market of 2015 and there's plenty of fish for all.

The new arrivals and departures board for the boats that spend more than a day at sea is getting busier...

netted monk from the New Harmony on the market...

with a solitary JD in a box...

there's plenty of monk on the ground these days...

and even the megrims are showing up well in the catch logs for the beam trawlers working the deeper water...

filling the market...

not sure what kind of frog though...

but these bass are as fresh as they come - check out those reddest of red gills...

contrasted with the blackest of black cuttlefish...

a huge shot of codling...

the marks left by gillnet on a fish...

the Ajax's hake keep an eye on the price as the auction starts...

with the buyers paying over £4 a kilo for the bigger sizes...

outside the sun has yet to stir itself...

as the Billy Rowney comes alongside the quay...

with a 300 box trip on board.

Sunday, and off to a good start.

On reflection before the sun gets up...

Barry the bass, the fisherman who stars on the cover of the Salt of the Earth, sales of which have now made over £21,000 before the New Year!...

gets to grips with the new electricity supply down the pontoon  berths...

bow study...

the hands of a man who has spent a lifetime at sea cutting up bait for his pots, wrasse make great bait for lobsters which is just as well because rumour has it W Harveys have been paying £25 a kilo - which means there must be very few lobsters about!..

bait now split open and ready for the pot...

then it is time to head off and haul the pots before the weather breaks again..

inshore trawlers are always pushed for clear working deck space...

powerhouse of the smaller under 10m fleet...

like the Sowenna make use of net drums to help keep the working deck clear of gear...

whereas this small cat from St Ives has taken a novel approach to keeping shellfish live aboard the boat by having a vivier built into the hull without encroaching on any working deck space...

the Mayflower has been putting ashore good trips of sardines since she started fishing just before Christmas...

as can be seen from the 'tide' marks on her bulbous bow...

double indemnity on the Bonnie Grace...

lets hope they keep it this way for good while yet, stay safe at sea...

and keep the lifeboats in their berths...

dredging operations in the entrance to Penzance harbour continue into the new year...

with the spoil being dumped several miles offshore....

having fished over the New Year, the Ajax has made her first landing of the year and now heads off to Penzance dock for a short break over the coming spring tide...

there's plenty of mackerel for some during the daylight hours...

and a good run of fish too...

 almost stripped to the hull.

Huge 51,000 ton car transporter Hoegh Osaka runs aground on the Brambles off the Isle of Wight after leaving Southampton dock.

The AIS shows two lifeboats helping to evacuate the 28 crew from the stricken transporter...

while exactly what happened remains a mystery as the vessel's AIS track shows her continuing to make a port turn after leaving the channel from Southampton.

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