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Sunday 17 April 2016

Day two, Porthleven Food Festival in full swing!


Welcome to Porthleven Food Festival!...


and the first thing to greet you is the smell of summer...


with fish not far away as befitting a festival celebrating food by the sea like Thyme & Tide...


there's a whole range of tastes to taste to suit all tastes like New Dawn rum from New Dawn Traders - who ship their rum from the Caribean by sailboat...


and it's not just the food being celebrated...



but traditional crafts skills like boatbuilder Ben Harris...


and more contemporary celebration of marine life from Elementum...


from the town that loves to shout about its love of food...


from the most classic of combinations, oysters and champagne...


fish in print...


a huge kitchen demonstration marquee featuring many illustrious local chefs...


a food hall packed with producers...


full of surprises, like edible insects

Plenty more to see, taste and enjoy on Sunday including loads of music.


Friday 15 April 2016

Superb new weather app and display!


Here is an excellent new weather app and tool - pick your place, pick your weather and pick your day! You can also download an Android version as a free app.

This has now been added to the Through the Gaps weather page - click here and bookmark it now!

#FishyFriday heralds the food festival weekend in Porthleven


Don't forget it is Porthleven Food Festival this weekend






Your boats landing fish today are...


so who was it wrote the book, 'Fell off a Cliff'?...



maybe, it was Eileen Dover...



lemon soles also have fat lips like Dovers...



a batch of beautiful #fishyFriday red mullet also from the Elisabeth Veronique...



the mighty monk...



from the stars of last night's Newsnight on BBC - watch the piece about Newlyn from 18:40 in...



just checking prices with base...



just a few of the John Dory now beginning to show in landings...



monk tails don't come much bigger than this...



a serious case of the spots...



the last thing you want to see alongside you when swimming at sea...



6 plus kilo hake, they don't get bigger!...



courtesy of the netter Joy of Ladram who landed this morning...



along with the Ajax....



another trip of #FishyFriday MSC Certified hake...



all making their way out the market doors...



happy in his work as ever...



the belly of  the beast that is the tub gurnard...



a bag o' scollies...



the most cracking of whiting you are likely to see grace a fishmongers counter



there are red and redder mullet...




the crabbers are back in action...



and for some, there is yet more work to do on the trawl...



be on your guard, the Admiral is back in town...



another Islander...



the weather will keep the inshore boats in berth today...



which will have young Nigel champing at the bit...



some look good from behind, some just functional...



looking better by the day...



wooden history...



and soon to be history as the old Jewson building awaits the demolition team to maake way for the new Lidl supermarket...



a little fresh this morning...



ensuring the prom gets a good soaking...



this miner's portrait must have a name?


Thursday 14 April 2016

Ex-Fisheries minister Ben Bradshaw responds to George Eustice's claims that we would claim back fishing rights up to 200 miles offshore

Exeter Labour MP Ben Bradshaw has accused fisheries minister George Eustice of making "wild claims" over the benefits of leaving the EU.

The Camborne and Redruth MP had claimed on a visit to Newlyn that British fishermen would be better off outside the EU.

It was the second setback for Mr Eustice, after his department said earlier that his claim that support for farmers would be maintained if the UK left the EU was his own view and not the government's.

Earlier this month Mr Eustice, the Defra minister and Vote Leave supporter, told the WMN: "If we were to leave the EU, we would re-establish control of our waters out to 200 nautical miles, and this would give us a starting point to renegotiate quota allocations for the UK."

In a letter today, Mr Bradshaw said: "George Eustice blithely asserts Britain could unilaterally impose a 200-mile fishing limit and that our fishermen would get bigger quotas if we left the European Union.

"Any sensible person considering these wild claims would understand them to be complete nonsense.

"The idea that if we voted to leave the EU, our neighbours Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and others would simply fall over and allow us to impose a 200-mile limit is for the birds."

Mr Bradshaw said new agreements on fishing would have to be negotiated.

"Their generosity would be tempered by the turmoil a British vote to leave would cause. It is also hopelessly optimistic to assume a UK Government would prioritise fishing – given its sadly reduced importance to our economy as a whole – in the fraught and complex renegotiation of our relationship with the rest of Europe that would follow a vote to leave.

"The simple truth is fish are a shared and mobile resource. Good fisheries management which conserves stocks and ensures there are sustainable fisheries for our industry to catch requires us to work constructively with our near neighbours in waters that historically we have always shared.

"The alternative is conflict (remember the cod wars) a free-for-all, stock depletion and the resulting economic and environmental harm."

Read more: http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/George-Eustice-fisheries-claim-birds/story-29097973-detail/story.html#ixzz45o3YQPbG 

This story followed on from MEP Julie Girlings response a few days ago:

Fishermen will not automatically sail into boom times if Britain votes to leave the EU in June, a new report says.


Leaving the European Union would not give UK fishermen and seafood companies any more autonomy than they already have, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has warned.

South West MEP Julie Girling welcomed the report after the industry publication Undercurrent reported that "Brexit" would not necessarily free up UK fishing quotas or mean autonomy for the British fleet.

Instead quotas would still need to be negotiated between the UK, the EU and any other member state involved, including Norway or Iceland, the MCS said.

Mrs Girling, Conservative MEP for the South West and Gibraltar, said: "I know that many blame the EU's Common Fisheries Policy for all the industry's ills, and historically they may have a point.

"But the CFP has been comprehensively reformed in recent years. While still not perfect, it is considerably better than it was. "And people in the industry might well consider it far better than the uncertainty, antagonism and wasted energy that would be involved in renegotiating from scratch our place in the fishing seascape. "This report explodes the myth that leaving the EU would somehow solve all fishing's problems at a stroke and give the industry overnight autonomy."

Debbie Crockard, senior fisheries policies advocate for the MSC, said fishermen shouldn't be under any impression that leaving the EU would automatically improve their fortunes.

Since December the UK has been free to apply for a share of £243million from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to help businesses adapt to the reformed CFP, including the distribution of EC funds for the development of innovative gear for more selective gear.

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Debbie Crockard told Undercurrent News: "We would still be committed to international agreements to sustainable fishing.

"Leaving the EU would not change this, and additionally it is unlikely that 'foreign' fishing fleets would be excluded from UK waters due to them having acquired historic rights to fish in UK waters, with some stretching back as far as the Middle Ages."

Simon Collins, executive officer of the Shetland Fishermen's Association, told the trade publication Undercurrent News: "There is plenty of cause for bitterness there, particularly regarding the Common Fisheries Policy, which could sway a 'leave' vote. "With regards to the UK leaving the EU in relation to fisheries, this would not simply be a case of the UK leaving the EU and suddenly having access to all the quota that may exist in the UK exclusive economic zone. "The quotas will still need to be negotiated between the UK, the EU and any other member state involved, including Norway or Iceland."

Jim Portus from the South West Fish Producers Organisation said: "I don't think we're expecting an early bonus.

"I don't think anybody in the fishing industry has ever said it would be a quick fix. "There will be a period of renegotiation with our neighbours." He said the claim that fishermen now found the CFP more acceptable "depends on which end of the telescope you're looking from. Tell that to fishermen who have lost their jobs and fishing communities ripped apart by CFP."

Read more: http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Fishermen-automatically-net-windfall-Brexit/story-29089400-detail/story.html#ixzz45o4FznWX 

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Wednesday evening in Newlyn.


All that is left of a landmark, a new patch of concrete where the harbour crane once stood...


there might only be a few metres difference in length between these two, but modern fishing boats are very different in hull design than boats from twenty years ago even...


many modern vessels certainly lack the graceful, sweeping lines of a classic sailboat like the trading ketch Irene, but then she didn't need to accommodate an engineroom, boxing at sea, refrigeration and a safe working environment enjoyed by boats like the Replenish...


work continues on the Will i am...


not even the plinth remains, just a few footprints in the sand...


refit time for the St Georges...


waiting for the tide...


a little piece of historic Newlyn...


maybe just a little too big for supper.

Newlyn bound!


Looks like the next Sottish prawn boat, the Maracestina is heading south for Newlyn. She is one of a number of prawn trawlers that fished west of the Scillys last summer. One of the fleet, the Kairos was sunk after being hit by a freak wave during a summer gale as she hauled her gear on the Northwest Bank.