Welcome to Through the Gaps, the UK fishing industry's most comprehensive information and image resource. Newlyn is England's largest fish market and where over 50 species are regularly landed from handline, trawl, net, ring net and pot vessels including #MSC Certified #Hake, #Cornish Sardine, handlined bass, pollack and mackerel. Art work, graphics and digital fishing industry images available from stock or on commission.
The hospital ship Esperanza del Mar on April 8, 2020, has medivaced a crew member of the Ribel Tercero with coronavirus symptoms 1000 miles off the coast of Vigo. The rest of the ship's crew will also be tested when it had docks in the city on April 11. The hospital ship that was heading to provide health care to Galician vessels fishing in the North Atlantic, deviated its course after receiving the alert message from the Ribel Tercero near the Azores. The fishing vessel contacted the Navy Social Institute, which deals with the health situation of Spanish sailors, to indicate that the ship's captain had fever and other symptoms that could coincide with COVID-19. The Esperanza del Mar, which was nearby, picked up the captain late at night and transferred him to Vigo, where he was dropped off in the morning of April 10. He was transferred him to the Álvaro Cunqueiro hospital to undergo the relevant tests. The rest of the crew will also undergo a quick test as soon as they have returned to their home port. The Esperanza del Mar has been disinfected so that it can restart its voyage and provide sanitary support to the Galleg fleet. The Ribel Tercero returned to the port of Vigo in a hasty way in the morning of April 10 after confirming the first positive COVID 19 test on board, a sailor who was evacuated by the hospital ship Esperanza del Mar. Once in port, the nine crew members, accompanied by the shipowner, remained waiting for the preventive protocol to be deployed, after having shared space for more than 15 days with an infected person. The shipowner managed the transfer of his crew in vehicles, who now must pass the mandatory quarantine period in their homes. The shipowner's own organization and the longline organization of A Guarda then began the efforts so that all the crew could be tested quickly within the next few hours, but which should have been carried out just at their arrival at port. A contradiction: The Guardesa organization, along the lines of what the sector has repeatedly stated, points out the "contradiction" that they be recognized as an essential activity by the Government to guarantee the population the food supply, in the face of "helplessness" to know that they have to carry out their work "without the appropriate security measures". Orpagu demands that all the sailors be tested before boarding to avoid situations like the one experienced on board the Ribel Tercero, with the risk, given the limited space of a ship, of contagion among the workers. Today the ship will be disinfected by an approved company.
The purpose of this research project is to establish whether different groups of people have different attitudes to seafood consumption. This research project is being conducted by Courtney Livesey at the University of York, and is supervised by Dr Bryce Stewart. This online survey will approximately take 10 minutes. Your response will be anonymous and confidential and used to help het a better understanding of attitudes to eating fish in the UK.
The survey questions will be about your personal seafood consumption habits, and your views/previous knowledge of the impacts of commercial fishing. If you have any questions about the research study, please contact Courtney Livesey by email at cll554@york.ac.uk . Thank you.
Paul wrote a letter to Secretary of State George Eustice and all Cornish MPs yesterday, asking for a specific support package from DEFRA for fishermen suffering financially as a result of Covid-19. See the letter below. “As an MP who has shown active support for the fishing industry, I’m writing to bring a critical issue to your attention at this extremely challenging time for our sector – here in Cornwall, and UK-wide. Attached is a briefing from the National federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), which the CFPO has been instrumental in drafting. The key message for us is simple: England is being left behind in terms of bespoke support for fishermen. Support packages have been provided by all of the Devolved Administrations (DAs) for their respective fishing fleets – offering much-needed security for fishermen in Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales. DEFRA is behind the curve, leaving English – and our Cornish – fishermen facing the economic onslaught of Coronavirus without a safety net. When will this be addressed? The UK Government’s generous, but generic, support packages for the employed and self-employed thus far fail to recognise the unique conditions of many of our fishermen. With the DAs acknowledging this and acting swiftly, fishermen across England are losing confidence in the Government as they await similar recognition. The very real short-term pain of coronavirus impacts on the Cornish fishing industry must not be allowed to erode our ability to reap the rewards of our withdrawal from the EU – support to bolster the industry through this time will be critical in positioning us to maximise benefits to fishing communities once the pandemic is over. As UK consumers look for new avenues to fresh, healthy food – there is an opportunity to stimulate some demand in the domestic market through direct sales to households (see the excellent work of Seafood Cornwall #FishToYourDoor campaign). As a foothold in securing a taste at home for UK-caught, local fish species, this is not to be ignored. The industry must be shored up in order to capitalise on this in future, as we leave the EU. Your support and assistance would be very much appreciated. Please feel free to contact me to talk trough any of the issues raised and challenges facing Cornish fishermen. I am available via email paul@cfpo.org.uk. Kind regards, Paul Paul Trebilcock Chief Executive Cornish Fish Producers Organisation 09/04/20 UPDATE FROM TOM MCCORMACK, CEO OF THE MMO 03/04/20 Covid-19 – 3rd update from the MMO As we approach the second of full week of the current medical emergency, I want to continue to check in with you to wish you and yours’ good health, and to also keep you updated and engaged about MMO’s focus on informing and supporting our customers and stakeholders. MMO continues to be available to support our customers, stakeholders and partners. I want to assure you that we are here to listen and to help where we can. The challenges across the whole economy continue to develop. MMO continues to work with Government to help to support and respond to the most immediate impacts. Some examples of our actions are described below. Marine Planning: Following requests from stakeholders, we have extended the consultation period for our four new Marine Plans for England. Whilst all required face to face engagement was completed before the outbreak, our consultation deadline has now been moved to April 20, giving stakeholders three more weeks to comment. Marine Licensing: We have temporarily suspended customer invoicing for two weeks while we consider options of how to support customers where needed, and will be letting you know more about this soon. Please contact us if you want to discuss anything with us. Fisheries: The Maritime and Fisheries Fund, which MMO administers, has been exceptionally busy. Grants totalling more than £2m were made in March, and our MMO team continues to process applications for fishing gear replacement, health & safety, training and processing initiatives. To support fishermen to sell more of their catch direct, following the closure of export markets and reduced hospitality trade, we have published guidance on the regulations for selling fish direct to the public. Members of the public are allowed to purchase up to 30kg of fish each from a licensed fishing vessel. Some fishermen are also keen to donate catch to charities and social welfare organisations and we will help any charity to register quickly in order to be able to benefit from this. We have also enhanced our fishing vessel licensing application process so that applications can now made digitally, on-line, removing the need for paperwork. Paper licences will be issued again, once the outbreak is over. We have further updated our guide to the wide range of financial support currently available from Government, and included links to the welfare and wellbeing services available from the charity sector. We are ready to hear of any further improvements we might take to further support business and industry in these challenging times. Our various contact details are to be found here. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you need our support or advice. With best regards Tom
Despite the health crisis and the economic slowdown, the “fishing” activity continues its course at the port in this Easter week. About 20 inshore fishers, three-quarters of the local fleet, set sail on Wednesday, April 8, 2020.
Despite the health crisis and the economic slowdown, the “fishing” activity continues its course at the port in this Easter week. About 20 inshore fishers, three-quarters of the local fleet, took to the water on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, to which are added a dozen of deep-sea craftsmen who left for tides of three to four days.
Even if the volumes remain low (20 to 25% of the activity), the products are completely sold at correct prices because the quantity corresponds perfectly to the demand of local buyers but also outside due to the reopening of the markets in particular. On the fish side, we mainly find monkfish, skate and mackerel. 1.5 tons of Norway lobster found takers in auction on Wednesday, on all the twenty or so inshore fishers in operation, at around €11 per kilo for the small and at €16-17 for the large. Prices which, as Easter approaches, should go up over the next few days. Small volumes but activity also continues in Loctudy, where all the inshore and punts are at sea. Note a deep-sea boat which will be on sale Thursday or Friday. Full story from Ouest France here:
Great to see the inshore guys like the Still Waters still prepared to put in the sea time...
along with Tom n the Harvest Reaper...
between them landing good shots of tyop quality lemons...
haddock...
john Dory...
and Dovers...
with just a handful of buyers practicing social distancing its a small miracle that the fresh fish auction at Newlyn continues in the COVID19 crisis...
recognise that face?..
well, there's not too many mackerel being landed despite the stunning weather.
Checking out the AIS list of Newlyn boats this morning it seems the beam trawler Algrie PZ199 has an answer to that age-old question, just where is the Promised Land...
turns out it is some 60 miles south west of Newlyn!
