Monday morning in Mont's Bay and Newlyn's busy fish market comes alive.

Newlyn at dawn, the kind of mood captured so often by artist and ex-fisherman Robert Jones...

the fish seasonal clock is ticking, it's John Dory time...

and who else but Mr Nowell is bang on time...

two beam trawlers and plenty of inshore fish this morning...

with the usual supply of big cod still around...

this one with a huge crystalised otolith which makes ageing the fish impossible...

the big red tub gurnards always look good...

over the spring tide the netting fleet are all in port...

down with the old, the ice works is going under the cosh...

transport links for fresh fish are second to none these days...

the Karen is up on the slip...

while the Emma Louise is now back in action shooting back new pots...

clean and tidy decks with the new fish handing gear keeping things fiddy...

running repairs on one of the trawls of the Crystal Sea II...

keep the mending needles busy... 

while the trawl full of dead fish attracts a crowd of gulls...

hell bent on getting an easy breakfast...

one of the smaller visiting scallopers...

hails from another Celtic nation...

two netters and a small inshore trawler.

Watersports and Custom House Quay - always fun in Falmouth

Classic lines in a classic port...

like the Eve of St Mawes...

Falmouth boats the Maritime Museum...

new food...

and plenty of options for travel on the water...

the Leviathan was named after a kraken like experience by the original owner form Porthleven...

Custom House Quay always bring back memories for those involved in the mackerel bonanza of the late 1970s...

when so many nights ended up in the Chain Locker...

plenty of RNLI support in the town... 

walking the wire across the gaps, the latest craze for those with a good sense of balance...

when hunger strikes...

follow the fish for a fishy feast!

It's not just the first Friday of the month it's also #FishyFriday !

Three beam trawlers, one netter and four inshore trawlers along with a hundred boxes of fish from punts all round the Penwith coast line from coves like Penberth and Sennen make up today's landings...

here the buyers get busy on fish from the beamer Resurgam...

don't mess with a thorn back ray...

some, but not many mackerel make up the market fayre this morning...

while the buyers keep a close eye on some quality hake from the netter Govenek of Ladram...

there's not so much haddock on the inshore grounds at the moment...

can ray fly?...

shark are full of tricks, like balancing a blackboard on their olfactory organs - btw, no animals were hurt in the making of this picture...

but, as turbot are often referred to by fishermen...

hopefully, a Chain of Custody for Cornish hake will be in place for a significant amount of the fish sold off the market in Newlyn...

with the weather warming and the BBQs being fired up let's hop more of these spectacular fish will find there way to the market floor.

Hake, turbot and monk bound for the markets.

Not all fish makes the fish auction in Newlyn - some of the netters who fish for hake try and reduce the pressure on local buyers and send their fish to Brixham..

keeping the gear in order keeps the crew busy at sea and when the boat is in port...

especially on beam trawlers where the chain mat and trawl have to be inspected and repaired constantly to prevent the loss of fish and damage...

as the seasons change during the course of a year trawlers work different types of trawl - and for some this means changing the kind of trawl door they user...

here the Elisabeth Veronique lifts off the port side door...

on to the quay...

KoL back in port...

does her bit for keeping the North Atlantic liter-free...

while she fishes for hake, turbot and monk - skipper Simon Porter and his son Jamie, head chef at the St Moritz Hotel are seen here holding the coveted MSC Cornish Hake certification they and fourteen other local boats have just been awarded...  

no doubt we will be seeing more of this dynamic duo in the future from a real fishy family - Jamie's sister is a fishmonger in a well-know wet fish shop in Padstow...

next in is the Ajax making her way to the market after her latest hake trip.

Why join the Responsible Fishing Scheme?

The Responsible Fishing Scheme has been developed to raise standards in the catching sector, enabling those within the seafood supply chain to demonstrate their commitment to the responsible sourcing of seafood. The aim is that, over time, accreditation will become a condition of supply.

The independently audited scheme demonstrates that a vessel and its skipper are operating to best practice in 5 core areas:

(1) Safety, health and welfare
(2) Training and professional development
(3) The vessel and its mission
(4) Care of the catch
(5) Care for the environment

Established in 2006, the scheme is open to all types of fishing vessels and fisheries. The RFS was developed by Seafish to enable the skippers of RFS certified vessels to demonstrate their compliance with industry best practice and thus enable the supply chain to demonstrate its commitment to responsible sourcing by buying from such vessels.

More information on RFS: http://www.seafish.org/rfs/

Hake prices hit a twenty five year low!

Last year £1.6 million worth of #hake was landed on the fish market in 95% of it coming from the net boats...

in 199 the landings of hake were worth £430,000...

in 1980 large medium hake (2-3Kg) on the market in Newlyn (weighed in stones) was the equivalent per kilo of £1.24 per stone

in 1992 the price per Kg was £2.24 for the same size fish...

on Plymouth market around the same time hake was £2.58 for fish less than 0.6 Kg ...

using the current EU fish grade system...

 while on Newlyn the same year medium - approx 2-3Kg fish were £4 per kilo...

so it comes as a real blow to skippers. crew and owners to see hake prices on the market this week AVERAGE £1.50 per kilo - 

let's hope that the recent good news - MSC hake certification - makes a real difference to the overall consumption of hake in the UK and in the future prevents such drastic falls in the price of this fish - the boats fully understand that the price will drop when there is a surplus of fish - but to see the price today at a similar level expected on the fish market twenty years ago is hard to understand.

It's not just hake of course, today big turbot made around £7 a kilo - as compared to £12.50 last Friday - a good time to eat turbot maybe.