#FishyFriday in Newlyn.

"To begin at the beginning: It is autmun, moonless night in the small town, starless  and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows' weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now."

but not so on Newlyn fish market this fine #FishyFriday morning...

where the netter Govenek of Ladram's hake is up for auction...

along with a inshore trawl fish from boats like the Harvest reaper...

and the beam trawler William Sampson Stevenson...

with her trip of turbot...

and bream...

a few handliners braved yesterday's uncomfortable seas to land a few boxes of mackerel...

as the inshore boats harvested a handful of late season John Dory...

and ray...

more than enough to put smiles on the faces of some buyers...

as others like Sam from Iceberg makes another morning call back to the office to check on prices and weights...,

before joining the bidding war for the best quality flatfish like Dover soles...

plaice...

lemon sole...

monk tails...

and Dory...

outside the market it looks like the freshening weather has forced the Godfather of mackerel handling to knock it on the head early and share a few words of frustration with a younger protegé and market boss young Mr Cripps...

who will be glad to see the back of these red mullet...

big red tub gurnards...

and stacked flats with floor space at a premium yet again this morning...

thanks to all the inshore trawlers like the Elisabeth Veronique making a landing...

forklifts whisk fish away past the yet-to-land netter, Karen of Ladram...

as the Rowse crabber takes a drying out berth for a tide (that's 12 hours to a landlubber)...

looking out between potters and netters...

you can see why Dennis decided not to venture out through the gaps in his 16' punt this morning - one of those days when it's "better to be in looking out than out looking in" as the old saying goes.

GOVE LAUNCHES FISHERIES BILL TO TAKE BACK CONTROL OF UK WATERS

GOVE LAUNCHES FISHERIES BILL TO TAKE BACK CONTROL OF UK WATERS

Camborne (Cornwall) MP for Fishing, George Eustice spoke on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning before the Fisheries Bill was published.




Whatever Defra or the Government says, of all UK fisherman, it is the inshore Under 10m fishermen (who make up over 80% of the workforce) who will most likely to feel the consequences of Brexit and the new Fisheries Bill - and yet, even their collectively fishing effort, which was mostly never taken into account, has little consequence on the overall state of NE Atlantic ICES areas fish stocks.


Defra posted this summary of the Bill:

• The Fisheries Bill is a major milestone in delivering our promise to take back control of our waters, so that we decide who may fish in our waters and on what terms
• It creates the powers to build a sustainable and profitable fishing industry, in the best interests of the whole UK and future generations
• The Bill delivers a Green Brexit by extending powers to protect and enhance our precious marine environment
• Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland to get more decision powers than ever before

Legislation creating the powers the UK needs to operate as an independent coastal state after leaving the EU is being introduced into Parliament today (25 October 2018).

For the first time since 1973, the Fisheries Bill will enable the UK to control who may fish in our waters and on what terms.

The Bill also gives the UK the power to implement new deals negotiated with the EU and with other coastal States and manage fisheries more effectively and sustainably in future.

At its heart the Bill delivers on the UK government’s commitment to sustainable fishing and marine conservation as set out in the 25-Year Environment Plan by:

• Controlling access – by ending current automatic rights for EU vessels to fish in UK waters. In future, access to fish in UK waters will be a matter for the UK to negotiate and we will decide on the terms – foreign vessels would have to follow our rules. These negotiations with the EU are continuing and the Bill will provide us with the powers to implement the agreement
• Setting fishing opportunities – by proposing powers to ensure that the UK can set its own fishing quota and days at sea, which it will negotiate as an independent coastal State. As now, the UK government will consult the Devolved Administrations.
• Protecting the marine environment – by ensuring fisheries management decisions are taken strategically for the benefit of the whole marine environment. The Bill extends powers to the Marine Management Organisation and the Devolved Administrations to protect our seas.

The new legislation also proposes ways in which the UK government and the Devolved Administrations will work together to adopt common approaches to fisheries management in certain areas - including preserving UK vessels’ right to fish across the four zones of UK waters and creating a consistent approach to managing access of foreign vessels. The four fisheries Administrations will set out in a joint statement how they will work together to achieve the Bill’s sustainability objectives.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

“This new Fisheries Bill will allow us to create a sustainable, profitable fishing industry for all of the UK. It will regenerate coastal communities, take back control of our waters and, through better conservation measures, allow our precious marine environment to thrive.

“The Common Fisheries Policy has damaged the UK’s fishing industry and our precious fish stocks. The Bill will deliver a sustainable fishing industry, with healthy seas and a fair deal for UK fishermen.”

The Bill also provides powers to reform fisheries rules. To ensure legal continuity, the EU (Withdrawal) Act transferred CFP rules into UK law. This Bill allows government to amend fisheries legislation to respond to scientific advice and innovation quickly - something the CFP failed to do - and to meet our international obligations.

In addition, the Fisheries Bill introduces powers to create new schemes in England to help seize the opportunities of Brexit. These include:

• a new scheme to help the fishing industry comply with the landing obligation to end the wasteful discarding of fish, and
• powers to tender additional English quota

Forthcoming CFPO video series - meet skippers!

Time to #MeetTheMembers of the @Cornishfpo. Delighted to share this second teaser for our latest creative project - a series of stories fresh from the Cornish coast, exploring what #fish & #fishing mean to this beautiful region.

Stay tuned, the full film series launches from the 29th of October.

Breton fishermen fear the worst - Brexit

The Brexit deadline is approaching and the fishermen are still in the fog. This Saturday, in Quimper, the meeting of the fishing and aquaculture sector in Brittany was an opportunity to recall the major risks expected next year for Breton fleets deprived of access to British waters.

"A hard Brexit is looming. How to anticipate it, what consequences? ". The first dossier debated this Saturday at the BreizhMer conference by the fishing and aquaculture sector in Brittany did not allow to know more about the negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the consequences of the recovery of their exclusive economic maritime zone by the British, which could be catastrophic for the Breton fishing industry, were illustrated. It is no coincidence that 92% of anglers across the Channel voted for Brexit (according to academic Mark Wise, quoted on Sunday by France Inter). They consider that the interests of British fishermen were originally sold to facilitate entry into the European Union.

"A vital issue"

It is Jacques Pichon, director of the armament La Houle de Saint-Guénolé (120 employees), which was the most concrete. "50% of the activity of our eleven offshore trawlers is in British waters. In Saint-Guénolé, we are the last armament present, we make live the activities of landing, mareyage, mechanical workshops. The stakes are therefore vital. If there is a failure of negotiations, the first thing we will do to save our business will be to postpone it to other fishing areas. Then there will be the problem of allocation of fishing rights. There will be boat stops, a drop in the supply by auction, job losses "(*).


Uncertainty

The worst, a "hard" Brexit, is not yet sure. Philippe de Lambert des Granges, Brexit project director at the Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, emphasized that we were heading towards a "negotiated Brexit" before the deadline of 30 March 2019.

This would mean that a "withdrawal agreement" from the UK would be worked on for a transitional period of two years until 2021, when a treaty of relationship between the two entities would be signed. Currently, this "negotiated Brexit" is still bogging down on the issue of Northern Ireland.

Shellfish growers too

"At the Breton level, there were 170 boats that at least fished a kilo of fish in British waters," said Philippe de Lambert des Granges. At the national level, they are 520. Of the seven European Union countries concerned by British waters, this activity represents nearly one billion turnover. A closure of these waters would therefore have a very important economic impact with less input (26,000 tonnes at stake estimated at the French level), less trading, trading and ultimately employment ". And not only for the fishing industry. "We have a lot of exchanges with Northern Ireland and Scotland, mainly on oysters," said Philippe Le Gal, chairman of the regional committee for shellfish farming in southern Brittany.


Loser in all cases

The challenge is to limit the damage for the Breton sectors. "Even with a negotiated Brexit, there will be a renegotiation of European quotas, says Jacques Pichon. This will involve new losses for French fishermen, while there is already a shortage of some stocks. This loss of quota will also affect the inshore fishery.

The coming years are therefore very dangerous for the Breton fishermen. No wonder the Bigouden Ambroise Guellec, former secretary of state for the sea under Jacques Chirac from 1986 to 1988, one of the great witnesses invited, wondered about the real political consideration in France of the dangers of Brexit for fishing.

(*) It is estimated that 120 Breton boats, which frequent the waters of the south of England and around Wales, will be impacted by the Brexit (90 deep-sea and about thirty coastal). That's about 50,000 tonnes of fish, which is one-third of the tonnage at auction.


Full story courtesy of Le Telegramme:

From Wednesday evening into #FishyFriday morning in Newlyn

Blue moons notwithstanding, it's late on Wednesday evening as skipper Shane Liddicoat steers the IFCA Fisheries Patrol boat St Piran in through the gaps...

to her berth for the night...

a few hours later and the Scillys ferry, Scillonian III is bathed in yet another dose of glorious morning sunlight...

later that evening Newlyn's resident fat seal...

chows down on a whole fresh hake for supper...

as one of the trawl doors on the Shiralee...

gets a gentle massage with a chisel and lump hammer courtesy of trawlerman Jeff Page...

astern of her the Karen of Ladram has just landed several hundred boxes of hake...

and the film crew captures footage of the Ajax taking ice after landing...

and director/cameraman Luke wields his hefty Canon...

and tries to muster the boys around their skipper...

in order to frame the traditional skipper+crew+wheelhouse name shot...

as the ice flows aboard....

and their 230 hundred box trip of fish waits in the fridge for the night staff to come on shift to sort, grade, weigh and present the fish for Friday morning's market...

which has an unusual collection of shellfish up for auction this morning including these large sea urchins

whelks...

and crab claws...

the odd big blonde...

there was hake form four netters all told including a huge trip of white fish from the Stelissa...

caught on camera...

before being whisked away...

the buyer's tallies just kept coming...

for hake from the Karen of Ladram...

a double dose of black bream from an inshore boat...

with the odd hake keeping an eye on things...

with row after row of stacked boxes...

that filled both the grader chill room ...

and the main auction hall...

with four beam trawlers making up the biggest market for weeks with big trips from the Billy Rowney...

William Sampson...

Twilight III...

with lemon soles

monk tails...

and haddock...

the odd red mullet...

and a big shot of spur dogs from the Ajax, one of only a handful of boats licensed to retain these now abundant fish on board...

along with his shot of hake...

more than enough to keep auctioneer Ryan busy...

on such a crowded market...

with fish boxes covering most of the floor...

not that that deters the buyers from making the most of the moment...

as more hake comes up for auction...

PZ810, almost ready to go back to sea...

as the William Sampson takes on a few thousand litres of fuel before sun-up.