BFI - Falmouth Scallop Dredgers 1978

BRITAIN ON FILM The British Film Institute presents the BFI National Archive.

Falmouth Scallop Dredgers 1978 South West Film and Television Archive

Click on the image to see the film.  What the accompanying text doesn't explain is exactly what is happening in the film clip. A few of the inshore scallopers that worked in Falmouth Bay in the 70s are seen returning to port with their scallop dredges full - but close up shots of the dredges reveal they are full of dead mackerel - not scallops.  This was a common occurrence for inshore trawlers during the winter months in both Falmouth and Mount's Bay when dozens of East coast freezer trawlers and Scottish pursers lost huge catches of mackerel for various reasons.

Tons of rotting mackerel on the deck of the trawler Girl Freda, skipper Bobby Cairns taken while fishing in Mount's Bay, winter 1979.

The Marine Conservation Society encourages the use of hand diving for fresh scallops and shellfish whereas fishermen fear less commercial methods would impact on jobs in the sector. The dredging itself is non-selective and consists of a heavy metal frame with spring-loaded teeth attached to a metal mesh net being pulled along the sea bed. Bottom-dwelling species such as scallops, oysters, clams and crabs are collected but the sea bed is damaged and takes years to recover. Ed note - currently, hand-dived scallops represent less than 10% of the scallops landed.

The practice is regulated as a local coastal fishery by the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act of 1975 and the Cornwall Sea Fisheries Committee operates up to 6 nautical miles offshore from Falmouth and beyond the 6-mile coastal fishery the MFA operate. The Cornwall River Board & Sea Fisheries Byelaws of 1896, the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act of 1966 and SAFFA all apply to the Falmouth coastal fishery. The laws include no fixed nets, no trawling, no scallop dredging and a minimum length 37.5cm for sea bass. The Common Fisheries’ Policy or CFP regulates fishing in the EU and has done much to make fishing sustainable following the collapse of certain fisheries.

The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is the regional film archive for the South West of England. Established in 1993, SWFTA's core collection comprises of the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and TSW (Television South West). The archive also cares for a significant number of donated film collections, both amateur and professional, dating back to the early 1900s.

Gull's eye view of the Silver Dawn heading Through the Gaps in Newlyn.

Awesome #drone video of the Newlyn netter, Silver Dawn as she makes her way back to Newlyn - would very day be as calm as this! 

Best appreciated when you watch in High Res (1080p) - Filming courtesy of Tim Richardson.

Mid-week market in Newlyn.

From these boats landing today we have......

Cornish hake, best in the West...

Cefas tales of monk tails...

you can always rely on Mr Curtiss to put ashore a few boxes of these little fellas...

and a few lemons as well of course...

whereas the Jacqueline Anne went for a few boxes of 'addock...

and 'ake...

and pollack...

the prawn trawler, Bracoden took a fair few boxes of hake from the grounds this week...

along with a good box of the megrim's cousin, the witch...

surprisingly, there are still a handful of big cuttles on the ground...

in between trips...

the New Dawn slipped ...

on a rather dull day...

not that that will impede the survey work...

a reminder from the lifeboat boys...

so that both the boats stay exactly where they are right now!

Filling up!

After months of work Jubilee Pool is filling up with sea water for the first time...

another Scottish prawn trawler takes ice in Newlyn...

as the Ygraine gets an outing.

USV Thomas sets sail for the Scillys.

Blue Thunder escorts the USV Thomas away from Newlyn tracked on VesselTracker's AIS.

A pioneering marine robot begins a two-week mission to capture images and data to record ocean life in a ‘biodiversity hotspot’ off the Cornish coast this week.

The unmanned, British-built surface vehicle, known as ‘Thomas’, is part powered by wind and solar energy and controlled remotely by satellite. Part of a new partnership between WWF and the National Oceanography Centre, Thomas will give scientists a better understanding of what lies beneath our oceans, helping improve conservation and marine management.

Thomas was designed and built by Portchester based ASV. Throughout the mission Thomas will be operated from ASV’s Control Centre in Portchester.

Thomas will begin the mission of discovery from Newlyn on 22 May, from where the support vessel ‘Blue Thunder’ will accompany him to an area near the Isles of Scilly, where an oceanic front dividing different water masses can be found. Ocean fronts – regarded by scientists as biodiversity hotspots and an important focus for marine research and conservation – attract high abundances of plankton, which in turn attract fish and top predators including basking sharks, seabirds, dolphins, porpoises and whales.

Thomas will carry sensors to detect marine life and simultaneously monitor the surrounding environment, including temperature and salinity of the water and weather conditions at the sea surface. He will be carrying GoPro cameras to capture images of seabirds and marine macro-litter, and passive acoustic monitors to detect clicks and whistles from echo-locating marine mammals such as harbour porpoise and common dolphin. He will be assisted in this task of by a sub-surface glider known as Drake, who will use a similar array of sensors to search up to 100 m below the surface.



Real-time snapshots of data collected by Thomas and Drake will be transmitted via satellite back to mission control at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, allowing scientists to adapt mission plans depending on what they see. Next month the vehicles will return to base laden with all their pictures and data, which are expected to reveal the extraordinary richness of these waters. These could help policymakers and scientists assess what additional measures might be needed to protect them.

Dr Lyndsey Dodds, Head of Marine Policy at WWF-UK, said:

“UK seas are a national treasure and contain more wildlife – from sharks to sunfish – than many people think. But they are under pressure from climate change, pollution and the marine industries that use our seas, and need careful protection. Thomas will help us learn about the life that is out of our sight and to safeguard our seas for future generations.”

The vessel is named Thomas after the father of Roland J Rogers of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), the latest in a line of five generations of seafarers. Thomas, and many of the innovative sensors he is carrying, was developed by small British coastal tech companies, highlighting the growing strength of the rural maritime economy.

NOC’s Prof Russell Wynn, who is co-ordinating the research for WWF, said:

“Marine robotic technologies give us the opportunity to have a persistent presence in the ocean, and are changing the way in which we conduct science in the marine environment. The two vehicles on this latest mission are bristling with novel sensors that will act as our eyes and ears in the water, observing and detecting seabirds and marine mammals. The partnership between NOC, WWF and British platform and sensor developers allows us to demonstrate the potential of this clean, green technology to marine scientists, conservationists and policy-makers.”

Lack of data about the marine environment can present difficulties in carrying out effective marine conservation and management, such as designation of Marine Protected Areas. Autonomous vehicles or ‘robots’ can help solve this problem, as they present a low-cost alternative to large research ships as a means of gathering data. In the long term, developing countries in particular could benefit from the use of these vessels to carry out marine monitoring in some of the least-studied areas of the ocean, enabling them to develop more effective conservation and management plans.

Monday's market in Newlyn.

Dull and overcast this morning...

with just the one beam and two inshore trawl trips...

offering plaice from the Resurgam...

and Dory from the Millenia...

along with small shots of big ray from a few inshore boats who were out over the weekend...

the not so common or abundant, 'butterfly'squid...

when is a megrim not a megrim? when its a... 

filling the other end of the market, the netter Ajax topped off her trip with some big pollack...

and the more familiar MSC Certified Cornish hake...

with a good run of the 3-4 kilo grade...

and showing signs of strong recruitment, 1-2 and 2-3 kilo grades...

big turbot, big fish, big flavour...

down the quay, ever bigger visiting boats - the Achieve...

no prizes for guessing her country of origin - interesting to surmise what would happen if the UK voted to leave the EU and Scotland then voted to exit the UK and stay in - how would that work out for Scottish boats fishing for langoustine in 'our' waters?...

the Sapphire  girls together...

the business end of the Achieve, he deck layout boasts a wheelhouse above shelterdeck level with three net drums on her foredeck, her twin trawls are then hauled the length of the shelterdeck...

the Old Man of the Sea waits for the next tide...

almost ready to go back in the water...

all set for the next tide, the Ajax takes ice...

ever bigger boats line the quay this morning...

the Achieve is another of the prawn trawlers that freezes her catch at sea...

down the North quay the local beam trawler AA lands her fish.

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