Mid week market in Newlyn.

First light sees the punts head for a mackerel mark off Battery Rocks...

Vesta, the latest sardine is being made ready...

skipper Peter hopes to set the port on fire with her landings...

the newest Tegen Mor is back in action...

the gulls know its first light...

as they wheel over the harbour...

looking for an easy breakfast...

as the big spring tide drops away the netters queue to take ice...

with lines at the ready...

to heave ashore...

under the watchful eyes of the skipper...

looks like rain say some...

while the boys on the Ajax begin to take on a fresh set of boxes for their hake...

Matt takes control up for'ard...

just the one boat landed on the market this morning, the AA had a part trip with half of it being cuttles...

while the doors are open...

there are always one or two lazy birds...

with an eye on an easy breakfast...

before the boxes of fish are whisked away...

leaving Lionel to do his pressure-washer thing...

though his years as a pool player seem to lend style to his work...

the handliners seem to be getting good shots of mackerel in...

the latest book from the Newlyn Archive has just been published - Through the Gaps will be posting a review shortly...

at least one half of the market is sporting a new roof...

while out in the bay yet another heavy shower passes.

A case of Cod and the Trawlermen's Rash.

Back in the 1950s and '60s thousands of deepsea fishermen sailed from Grimsby, Hull, Fleetwood, and Aberdeen - three weeks at sea and two nights ashore for men who on top boats earned film-star sized wages nicknamed 'three day millionaires' - their working life lived in extremis as they manhandled heavy trawls in often in both stormy and icy conditions elements of the distant water grounds off Iceland and the Barents Sea - the absolute harshness of the work and the phlegmatic approach they took to it living on the edge probably summed up most appropriately by terms coined like, 'he's suffering from trawlermen's rash' - which actually meant a losing a finger, or or two...

even on modern trawlers and in addition to the sometimes sleepless days at sea, the unstable platform and the frequent interruptions to normal operations from passing ships, ground and fishing gear problems there are umpteen opportunities for fingers, hands, heads and bodies to get in the way of gear weighing tons when hauling and shooting huge trawls on a heaving deck...

while on a small inshore boat, although there are not such extreme physical dangers from deck gear - apart from getting 'hooked up' or trapping a hand there is still one major adversity that afflicts fishermen the world over and often determines more than the abundance of fish or any other factor in them making a living - the weather - so for one day last week a truly momentous occasion was recorded for posterity as Steven 'Cod' Astley, seen here heading his boat Butts for Newlyn after a day on the bass, was caught on camera...

by fellow but 'rival' bass fishermen, Andrew Pascoe on the Cynthia - momentous because 18 months ago Andrew was in hospital by Cod's bedside as he fought to stave off a devastating attack of sepsis which took both legs below the knee and some of his fingertips -along with a huge toll on his immune system - Cod's reaction to his life and career threatening condition was simply to treat it as a case of 'trawlermen's rash' and just deal with it, "After seeing him in hospital I never thought I would ever see him alongside me at sea ever again. There’s men and there’s Cod" said Andrew.

Just some of Cod's bass on the market this morning

If you talk to Cod you can't help but be struck by his lack of regard for the enormity of what he has achieved. He simply smiles, gently shrugs his shoulders and even looks slightly perplexed if you even begin to hint at what he has achieved as being anything other than normal - he got his licence back and was back behind the wheel of his car many months ago too. His major concern (outside of making a living wage again of course) is that his story will ensure that others are now much more aware of sepsis and just how easily it can take hold of the body, often with devastating debilitating and sometimes fatal results.

Much of Cod's recovery was down to the support afforded him by the Seafarer's Society that helped set up his intensive physiotherapy.

Monday morning in Newlyn

Boxes everywhere for the buyers busy bidding on this morning's market in Newlyn...

who missed yet another sunning display of natural pyrotechnics post Guy Fawkes night...

with the morning light bringing much of the harbour into sharp silhouette...

as light began to creep across the bay...

and with no wind in the harbour...

the still waters provided mirror-like reflections...

and surreal scenes...

under a heavy sky giving portent of a change in the weather by tonight...

some places use parking cones...

an old saying says that there are three things totally useless on a fishing boat, a watering can, a soldier and a step ladder - however this is no ordinary boat...

but the Butts skippered by the best in the bass business...

for a change the ILB is lagging behind big brother...

work has begun on the whaleback of the port's next inshore crabber...

more ice needed!..

stuff of nightmares should they ever decide to move ashore...

the cuttles are certainly leaving their mark on the fish market floor...

the auction caught on camera again...

just a handful of the 1800kg of haddock put ashore by young Roger Nowell - if there was a realistic quota for haddock in Areas VII E & F then this sort landing would be an everyday scene on the market - one of the main hopes for fishermen in the SW is a significant change in the quota allocation for haddock - which for many boats will be THE choke species that could potentially render the livelihoods of some vessels useless.. 

that man on the Butts has been doing his stuff again - this time giving the father of the port, Dennis Pascoe, a run for his money...

after her little encounter with a pile of rocks the Algrie is back in action, though the amount of plaice landed by her and the other beamers is dropping steadily...

the flat underbelly of the tub gurnard, built to keep as close to the seabed as possible to allow the fish to forage...

each of the buyers, Seabourne Fish, bidding on fish like these MSC Certified hake has their own fish sale's tally...

along with Marisco Fish...

Kelynack Fish...

the Newlyn Fish Company...

Falfish...

the eponymous local merchant James...

Ocean Fish...

Hayle based Wild Harbour...

P.J. Tonkin...

Fish for Thought...

Trelawney...

Iceberg Ltd...

Wing of St Mawes...

and Stevensons of course...

all busy bidding...

with space at a premium the cuttles were stacked two high...

big beamers catch big fish like these big butt...

while the Butts catches the best big bass...

all the inshore trawlers landed good shots of haddock...

while Roger managed to bag a good shot of John Dory at the end of the season...

along with almost two tons of haddock...

a dew days after the Hunter's moon the harbour makes a fine setting first thing.