Newlyn Fish Festival countdown!

You can't have too many loos at a festival...

chalk marker, site map and a tape measure, all you need to prepare the site...

Truro Marquees have their work cut out...

a man on a mission, there's some seriois thought gone int the construction of the Swordy's raft...

progress, donkeys pulled fish off the boats 100 years ago....

painting the Sapphire II...

more than a few hours work on the Cornishman...

with both sides to re-build...

its a scaffolding job for the big blue boat...

amazing how rain water deteriorates a deck so quick when a boat is laid up...

more gear for the trawls going aboard the Cornishman...

mackerel boats inbound and outbound...

some had a good day...

and it's time to get the fish ashore quickly...

with the annual Newlyn Raft Race less than 24 hours away work here's a sneak preview of one competitor...

and their top secret oar design...

looks like the Swordy's sea trial were a success, Mr Ashworth will be pleased...

at this time of year the visiting yachts tend to be fit for longer passages...

en passage...

didn't see that coming...

the Snowdrop is looking good after her fall...

Gary M on the way in to land...

as Ed gets the bowline ashore...

these guys are happy to be part of the MSC Certified Cornish Hake... 

and looking to develop a bigger market for this prime fish...

a generous donation for the Gary M, this box of hake will be part of the big fish display at Monday's festival...

a good trip for the boys over two days in big tides...

the central festival site is taking shape...

not often there are three Tyne class lifeboats in the port...

Monday will see this quay thronging with fish fans...

away in the Bay the Iris gets a mainsail up...

nearly landed.

Pirrip Press Fish Festival prints 2015

The Fish Shop

@PirripPress have been producing limited edition prints for the Newlyn Fish Festival for the past three years. This year, we have a fresh pair of designs to commemorate the festival for just £10 each!

The Fish Shop print is a two colour shop front showing a lavish display of the sea's bounty. Spot Plaice, Cod, Prawns, Crabs and more. (And a whisker-licking onlooker).

The posters are silkscreen printed by hand, in two colours, and they are in a limited edition of just 100 each. £2 from each print sold goes to the Festival committee, to distribute to charity - so you'll be donating to a good cause, and getting something handsome to hang on your wall. The prints measure 34x 24 cm, just right for a 30x40 frame, and each one is hand numbered.

We'll be selling the prints on the North Pier come festival day (August 31st), so if you want to reserve and pay for yours now, to collect from us on the day, then choose that option from the menu below. (We'll send you a confirmation email to let you know we've put your print aside). If you can't make it, then choose the '+delivery' option below and buy one with the delivery price included.

You can also order prints online here:

Yacht Inn Newlyn to Penzance Macmillan Cancer Charity swim 2015

Watched by half the town, over 350 hundred swimmers head for the open waters of Mount's Bay in the annual Yacht Inn Macmillan Cancer Support charity swim...

it's like lemmings heading for the sea..

Tom is keeping an eye on the start line...

as the swimmers get their orders from the starter...

and they are off!...

just as the Scillonina III  makes her way back to Penance...

the ILB gets in some inshore practice...

11 minutes later there are three in close contention for the race...

as the eventual winner, Neil Eddy heads for the finishing line in 15 minutes and 51 seconds...

and gets a few photos from family and fans...

what it's all about...

the swimmers are stretched over most of the course...

some are looking forward to a well earned pint coming in 84th after 22 minutes and 12 seconds of hard swimming in choppy conditions, of water maybe...

this year's Tshirt.

Now watch the start!

Cornish Fishermen Leading the Way to Change Nonsensical EU Spurdog Management

There have been an increasing number of sporadic but significant hauls of spurdog (Squalus acanthias) encountered by Cornish fishermen in recent months. Just last week a Newlyn based trawler accidentally caught over 10 tonnes of spurdog while fishing for John Dory around the Isles of Scilly.

Ten tons of dogfish filled the entire trawl

The trawler Fern with 8 tons of dogs in 1982.

Gluts - The Mary Williams quay with 10 stone (63Kg) piles of dogfish in 1984

This meant damaged fishing gear, lost fishing time and a great deal of frustration for the skipper involved. To make it even worse under current EU fishing rules not one of the spurdog could be landed for human consumption or sold.

Cornish fishermen are no longer able to land spurdog because of stock status fears that led to a zero Total Allowable Catch (TAC) being introduced in 2010, since when no landings of spurdog have been allowed by the European Union (EU).

It would be logical to think that a zero TAC for spurdog means a zero take or zero fishing mortality on the stock, but as spurdog are widespread and locally abundant throughout the Western Approaches and other areas of the North East Atlantic this is simply not the case.


The reality is that there are accidental by-catches of spurdog in many mixed-fisheries not just in Cornwall but around the UK, this inevitably leads to a level of fishing mortality of spurdog. Under the current EU management regime these perfectly good fish must be discarded whether they are dead or alive. There is no real benefit for the stock, fishermen or wider society under the current regime of discarding dead spurdog. This is a waste of a perfectly good food resource and is clearly not in line with the principles of the recently reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and in particular the much heralded Landings Obligation (“discard ban”).


In an effort to end this madness Cornish fishermen have been at the forefront of working in partnership with scientists from CEFAS and policy makers from DEFRA since 2010 in a genuine effort to assist scientists, managers and policy makers to better understand that the current management measures for spurdog are not in tune with what they encounter on a daily basis at sea, as well as giving a valuable insight into spurdog behaviour and interactions with fishing gears in the South West.

At the heart of this ongoing working relationship is a desire to improve genuine, rather than cosmetic, management of spurdog whilst providing legitimate flexibility within the future landings obligation to account for unpredictable and unavoidable spurdog catches, i.e. allowing the landing of dead spurdog.


The Cornish Fish Producer’s Organisation (CFPO) is now taking part in an important part of the ongoing work. In conjunction with CEFAS and DEFRA it is developing a pilot project using a real time reporting system, similar to that used for the cod recovery programme in the North Sea. The project will be carried out in the Western Approaches/Celtic Sea (ICES Divisions VIIe-j). Fishermen are asked to report any spurdog catches within pre-defined reporting grids and that information can then be fed back to other skippers.


It is envisaged that the project will assist skippers by giving them up-to-date information on spurdog movements and allow skippers to make informed decisions about potential interactions. This will hopefully reduce the occurrence of significant spurdog catch events and contribute to the perceived stock improvement being witnessed by fishermen. It will not result in a complete avoidance of spurdog catches. The CFPO is therefore calling for an ability to land a marketable dead spurdog bycatch with a nominal landing allowance that does not incentivise targeting of the stock.

This proposed solution allows for the ongoing recovery of spurdog in the North East Atlantic by reducing fishing induced mortality, further improving scientific understanding of spurdog and its interactions with fishermen, whilst allowing incidental dead spurdog by-catch to be landed and marketed. This would appear be the most logical option for a way forward and of course would be in the interests of fishermen, scientists, managers and conservation.


International support for this initiative was clearly given at the most recent North Western Waters Advisory Council (NWW AC) in July, with backing from all present at the meeting and a willingness from other member states to be actively involved. For the project to work effectively, there needs to be a high level of industry-science collaboration and cooperation.

Paul Trebilcock Chief Executive of the CFPO said “Progress has been frustratingly slow on this issue. But credit must go to the skippers and crews who have remained engaged and continue to work with scientists and policy makers. There is no question in my mind that spurdog populations are increasing throughout the Western Approaches and beyond. This perception is being echoed by fishermen across Europe.

I genuinely believe that DEFRA and CEFAS understand that the current EU management regime for spurdog isn’t compatible with the Landing Obligation and are committed to changing it. George Eustice and his DEFRA team have clearly stated that the UK position will be to seek a landing allowance to stop the unnecessary waste of dead by-caught spurdog as part of the pilot project we are involved in.”

Fish Festival #FishyFriday is here!

Roll on monday when the quays will be thronging...

with people passionate about fish like Sue and Duncan Lucas, creators of the centrepiece fish display and members of the Mission team for whom the fantastic festival of fish is held...

along with the team that makes it happen...

all to celebrate what makes Newlyn the special place it is...

come and listen to fishy tales...

and get the inside story...

on the ports prime fish like these magnifique monk...

and beautiful bass...

all sold on the market by the port's top auction team...

with fish like the MSC Hake Certified netter, Karen of Ladram.

Gone fishing, good fishing.

The grader glistens after a hard night's work...

sorting some good trips of big white fish from the netters Ajax...

who because of the increased mesh size they use these days are now very selective retaining only the bigger fish each trip for quota species like these pollack...

while the inshore netter new Harmony put ashore a cracking trip if monk tails and other prime white fish...

both these fish like to swim in shoals, both have good appetites, both have big flaky white flesh wehn cooked...

but which fish are they?...

not blackjacks (coley) that's for sure...

the unmistakable green glisten of a cod's tail over seen by Ian the auctioneer...

that's Newlyn Fish concentrating hard on the price to pay as hake makes good money this morning 

the Rowse crabber Emma-Louise can always be tracked at sea on the AIS map...

makes a good landing of crab this morning...

here's hoping the sun will pervade over the cloud today.