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

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Tons of top quality inshore fish up for auction toady.

View from the fish market out on to the big wide world...

while inside top-drawer fish like these bass and red mullet were landed by the inshore boats...

like these haddock from the Inisfallen...

and these lemons from the Shiralee...

made up a market with just the one beam trawl trip from the Resurgam on the market...

keenly contested by the local buyers like Seabourne Fish...

the omnipresent red gurnards keep an eye on things...

fifty'ish shades of yellow...

a tale of two sterns...

one of the inshore boats that landed this morning...

while the biggest boat in the fleet under skipper Bill Worth...

is set to sail as soon as she is iced and grubbed up...

just some of the back ropes for the crab fleet...

while they wait in tier...

the Mount is barely visible this morning...

the angle of the light, someone wasn't looking...

looks like it's going to be one of those dull days again...

as Spring tries to make its presence felt...

with the sea looking slightly ruffled this morning...

under Tom's watchful gaze...

at Wherry Town Plaza two skateboarders go head-to-head...

taking advantage of a dry spell...

to get in some early morning action...

say no more...

not the worst of seas to hit the prom.,,

as work continues on the prom.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

1940s Cornwall - Fishing free of any incumbrance save the natural world and the vagaries of the human spirit.

Starting in the tiny cove of Penberth, a snapshot of life in and around Mousehole during the Second World War - evidenced by the poster on the side of the fish market door in Nelwyn that warns of the cost of 'loose talk'!

Maybe some of the characters featured in the film can be named?

The film follows the daily routine for the fishing community in the village, potting from punts and then following the pilchard drifters that sail in the evening and land their fish in Newlyn. There is an interesting animation depicting the seasonal nature of fishing - though a few hands might wonder where the herring mentioned then are today?

Even today, coastal villages like Mousehole are the very yarn that binds the county together and gives Cornwall its unique fishing heritage that brings tourists from all over the world. A heritage now very much in danger of being consigned to visual records on film like this if the draconian and disproportionate legislation being applied to inshore fishermen is allowed to continue.

This film has been made available courtesy the British Council Film Collection. http://film.britishcouncil.org.

The British Council Film Collection consists of 120 short documentaries made by the British Council during the 1940s designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played.

Monday 9 March 2015

Guess the year?

Once upon a time that most illustrious of trade papers, the Fishing News published both the top landings from around the major ports and the average price for the previous week.

To which year do these prices refer?

Fasands of fish on Newlyn fish market!

Falfish's latest livery...

basks in the powerful stern lights of the French trawler Nominoe with one of her crew mending a footrope in the stern of the boat under her triple net drums - these French trawlers have the galley and other compartments offset to port and starboard so that the entire middle of the boat is open deck right up to the bow - this enables them to easily spread out their trawls should they need to mend them at sea - which is an everyday occurence for trawlers ...

taking ice...

several big trips of hake and white fish form the Ajax and Karen of Ladram on the market this morning...

all whisked away...

at speed by the shore hands...

some blue, some green for the cuttles...

even the bothicks get the data treatment...

there's a few small haddock about on the grounds...

and off in the deep water a bigger run for the netters...

and even bigger goggle-eyed ling keeping tabs...

almost a boxfull- but which big flat fish is this?...

could be a relic from times of old - a great eating fish and especially good as a centrepiece on the table served whole...

alien remains on the quay...

almost like Piccadilly in the rush hour with so much fish on the market...

greasing the hanging blocks and sheeves on the heads of the derrick...

as the Intuition makes her way...

past two of the biggest rear ends in the port.

Nominoe takes ice in Newlyn

This morning saw two 23m French trawlers from St Brieuc call into Newlyn for ice. The Ecume des Jours and the Nominoe - seen her using a spring to push her bow away from the quay before leaving for the rest of her trip.

Saturday 7 March 2015

Cornish #hake heading for home

Fifty mile done, only another 109 to go - the Newlyn netter Ajax is heading for home with well over 200 boxes of hake for the fish markets in Newlyn and Brixham.