Busy weekend in Newlyn.

Yet another Devonian visitor, this time Dan has brought in the Olivia Belle from Bideford...

and the huge Scottish prawner, Achieve joins the fleet over the weekend...

Brackan from the Spirited Lady III catches up on the gossip with fellow skipper Dan aboard the Our Olivia...

a set of Baboushka-like inshore trawlers...

the trawl deck...

business end of the Apollo...

looking aft over the trawl deck of the Achieve...

 a clue as to the origins of this boat...

some take 'Fishing for Litter' to extremes...

Phil offers Nigel some advice on how best to knock the pin out of the link...

yet another lengthened prawner...

Newlyn's largest trawler, Crystal Sea is in for the weekend...

side-by-side, two of the most modern trawlers in the south west...

the long arm of the power block enables the fishing line and footrope to be mended in-situ...

towing off bridles to be checked for length....

as Zander brings the Vision III into berth...

for running repairs to her gear and nets...

while retired skipper David Stevens senior acquaints anthropology student Lamorna Ash with the boat...

that she is about to spend 8 days aboard - he, and maybe she, is hoping that the severe easterly gale 8-9s forecast for Friday don't materialise...

more litter coming ashore...

a piece of very old telephone cable trawled up by the Crystal Sea - with eight different component parts - starting from the outside - a heavy coat of pitch then the protective steel wire outer case, oakum, wound cotton tape, wound brass tape, hard rubber sheath over the solid half-inch copper core...

the Excellent is due to be broken up starting tomorrow morning...

as the demolition crew unload their gear...

the local seal enjoys breakfast...

while the crusher that will break up the boat disembarks...

and the tools are put in place...

the scene is set...

as a protective boom is pulled into the harbour to surround the vessel...

 big ships carry big fuel tanks and need big fuel tankers...

the narrow streets of Newlyn stood still for a few minutes while the transport moved out of the quay.

LIVE! - Scottish Inshore Fisheries Conference 2017

Take part in the opening debate at the Scottish Inshore Fisheries Conference 2017 from 9:00am this morning.

RIP Cathryn

Cathryn - a name synonymous with Cathryn Stevenson, one time matriarch of the fishing family and for many years...

the inshore trawler that bore her name in the port - until yesterday, when she was carefully lifted out of the water for the final time...

as far as we know, the man in the red boiler suit did survive the move...

here is the Cathryn some ten years ago...

landing to the market late one afternoon, her skipper for many years was one of Newlyn's fishing characters, a certain Edwin Madron, seen here hooking up a basket from his day's fishing...

for a small boat she had plenty of deck space owing mainly to her compact winch...

as a day boat she would leave the harbour early in the morning...

and return later - back in the day she often worked with one or two hands...

while in later years the hugely experienced ex-lifeboat Penlee lifeboat crew Edwin...

fished many trips single-handed, seemingly at times having to wrestle with the 'old girl' as he called her...

many years before the Cathryn, Edwin skippered the Nicola Marie before enjoying an extended break across the water in and around Dumnore East...

we can thank Tony Cuthbertson for capturing a little of the character that was Edwin on film - it would be a tough call to know who had the greater number of stories to tell, the Cathryn built in 1955 or Edwin!

Full of fish for #FishyFriday in Newlyn.

Almost a full house on the landings board this morning...

as Elka and Gary from Cefas sample otoliths and length measurements from some of the fish landed...

like these Dover soles...

langoustine are very much in vogue this week, another of Stevenson's beamers lands a few boxes...

along with these flat fish, not megrims but?...

the big tub gurnards came in 3s...

while the megs...

pollack...

and John Dory two by two...

big landing of megrims from the Sapphire II...

the otolith box...

eight tentacles are no good out of water...

these reds are just dying to end up on a charcoal grill...

big bass for the top end of the market, probably Chelsea bound...

as the buyers ponder the price...

of even bigger white fish like these cod from the prawn boats...

boxes of pristine whiting from visiting inshore trawler, Angelina...

looks like the end of an area, just a day after the ports second oldest fishing boat is taken away it looks like the port's oldest, the Excellent is about to be broken up and taken off the historic ship's register, a sad day indeed and a blow for the artists for whom the hull made an excellent study to capture on canvas...

the Lisa's nets get a good airing Dutch style...

as the latest prawn trawler comes in through the gaps...

more steel work ready for being fitted aboard the Filadelfia...

Guy, a true fishermen's friend and hero of all in inclement weather...

high water and the quay is full...

the Harriet is all but ready to sail...

close up of two different kinds of footrope...

showing how short lengths of chain links are used to wrestle bottom hugging fish like Dover sole and megrim form the sea bed...

as soon as the boat hit the quay the crew were hard at work scrubbing down after a week's worth of seagull deposits decorated the boat...

time to cut in the waterline later today...

five of the bigger prawn boats that draw so much water they dry out in all but the deepest berths...

Sarah, the ex-lifeboat...

twin-rig prawn trawlers stern on.