We got the #FishyFriday blues.

Looks like fish market boss Lionel is telling TV naturalist and explorer Steve Backshall all about the one that got away...

who's wife Helen Glover memorably won her first Olympic gold medal, a feat celebrated and no expense spared on the lavish window dressing of Jelberts, her father's famous Newlyn ice cream shop...

along with her very own gold post box...

however, husband Steve is here in Newlyn not to chase gold or to see fish like the voracious predator that is hake...

he's on the hunt for sharks...

but he's not chasing small fry like...

the spurdog...

he's looking for blues...

the Jaws of the Western approaches...

though they are no match for local fishermen like the wily Wiffer...

so keep your eyes posted come Autumn for his Backshall's next TV series and find out if he managed to get to meet live blues face-to-face while swimming the shark infested waters off Cornwall..

back to the fish auction and there are still a few late season spiders to be had...

name this fish...

the netter Ygraine landed a top trip of MSC Certified hake...

along with some superb haddock...

big blondes are everywhere it seems...

two good landings from the Harvest Reaper...

and the Imogen...

helped fill the market with the finest inshore fay-boat fish...

the quality of the Ygraine's red gurnard speak for themselves...

a moody end to the week...

with the iconic St Michaels Mount barely visible in the early morning low cloud...

Border Patrol vessel Seeker at rest...

as the Jen T heads for the iceworks...

fish lorries look evermore attractive these days...

while up on the slip...

the Sapphire II is about to receive a new coat of paint and a new name...

the sooner she gets back to sea, "where the fish are" and the money is, the better for her live-aboard crew...

the sardine fleet at rest...

not every day you see a boat parked up...

yacht Maybe at anchor in Gwavas Lake.

 

Last chance to complete the Seafood industry survey to help shape the future of Seafish.

We are asking the seafood industry about our functions and funding as part of our strategic review. Find out how to take part and have your say. Individual, businesses and organisations are invited to tell us how we can best serve the seafood sector in the UK and how we can be funded. An online survey is open from 12 July until 20 August.

Follow the link below to take the survey (opens in new window).

Take the Seafish strategic review survey online

Seafish was set up in its current form in 1981. We have adapted our work over the last 40 years to respond to the needs of the seafood sector but the levy system was last updated in 1999.

The survey questions ask:

What work should Seafish do more of or less of to help the industry to thrive?

What changes can be made to the levy to ensure it is equitable for the industry and ensures Seafish is funded to help it deliver for the industry in the future?

Our CEO Marcus Coleman explains why we're doing a strategic review, what we're asking and how to take part. As a public body, we must carry out strategic reviews from time to time. The review started with the four fisheries administrations in late 2020. We recently held a series of workshops with key representatives from across the seafood supply chain in the UK to discuss the same questions in the survey.

The responses from all three parts of the consultation will be drawn together and a report with recommendations submitted to the Government by the Seafish board at the end of the year.

With Brexit and the pandemic, we have been called upon by the industry and government to support the seafood sector more than ever.

“This strategic review is about trying to strengthen our offering and ensure we are doing what the industry need us to do. However, we are working within a levy system from the last century which doesn’t reflect the seafood industry today. If the industry and government want us to do more then we need to look at how we make that happen. 

Marcus Coleman, Seafish CEO 

A Strategic Review Steering Group, including us and all four government administrations, is overseeing the process and ensuring the strategic review fulfils the Government’s needs for a review of a public body.

The survey is run by White Space Strategy and all responses are confidential. The survey is hosted on the White Space Strategy website at the following link Seafish Strategic Review

Follow this link to find out more about our strategic review.

We have recently published our 2021-2022 Annual Plan with details on our current work programme. Follow the link below to download a copy of the current annual plan.

French Justice Rules Against Bluefin Tuna Quota Allocation Decision

 Long awaited court victory for French and European small-scale fishermen.

After a seemingly endless wait of more than four years, French justice has finally ruled in favour of the Union of Small-Scale Fishers from the Occitan Region (Syndicat professionnel des pêcheurs petits métiers d’Occitanie (SPMO)). 

A class action was brought by the SPMO and three other stakeholders¹ (CDPMEM du Var, Prud’homie de la Ciotat and Plate-forme de la petite pêche artisanale française). The LIFE platform (Low Impact Fishers of Europe) gave financial and moral support to this procedure to ensure that the concerns of other EU small-scale low impact fishers were represented, facing as they do similar difficulties of access to fishing rights.

The case is important because the judge’s ruling from the hearing at the Administrative Court of Montpellier has implications for how fishing quotas are allocated not only in France, but in the wider EU. A key issue highlighted by the judge is that the Bluefin tuna quota allocation mechanism falls short of requisite European standards, is neither transparent nor objective, and fails to take proper account of Article 17.

The action was bought by the small-scale low impact fishers to challenge the way the allocation of national quota is done in France, and to replace it with a more equitable system. Such a system should ensure a wider distribution of quota to benefit the small-scale fishers who exert the least fishing effort but who receive a minimal allocation or are excluded altogether. At the preliminary hearing on 17 June 2021, the Clerk of the Tribunal made particularly strong and substantiated submissions in favour of the Applicants (the small-scale fishers). His analysis clearly informed the decision of the judges, who confirmed, on 15 July 2021, the annulment of the 2017 order allocating the bluefin tuna quota.

What are the consequences of this judgment?

Firstly, it creates an unprecedented body of case law at national level which small scale fishers can use to advocate changes to the allocation mechanism for the bluefin tuna quota. The principles adopted could also be applied to other allocation mechanisms in force for different species under quota.

Secondly, it constitutes a legal precedent of major interest at European level because the Court’s analysis is based on provisions derived from European law (the Common Fisheries Policy). This will enable other professional representatives to use it in similar national situations where there is non-compliance with EU rules.

Thirdly, this judgment provides a substantive analysis that is decisive in the interpretation and application of European law by France. The central element included by the judges is the failure to take account Article 17 of EU Regulation 1380/2013 on the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The latter requires States to use transparent and objective criteria to allocate fishing opportunities, including of an environmental, social and economic nature. While the French State is free to adopt its own allocation method, it must do so in accordance with European standards. In this case, the Court noted that the environmental criterion was neither defined nor integrated into the bluefin tuna quota allocation system. Furthermore, the method used was found to be non-transparent and non-objective, justifying the annulment of the contested order – i.e. the rejection of the Bluefin tuna quota allocation mechanism.

Fourthly, this judgment encourages reconsideration of the French quota distribution system across the board – for all species. The Court recalls that France may use its own allocation criteria² in an unequal and non-hierarchical manner. However, in the interests of the fishery and its participants, this unequal allocation framework must not be disproportionately so. During the hearing, this point was given priority attention by the Public Prosecutor, who considered that the principle of proportionality was infringed by the almost exclusive use of the criterion of track records for the distribution of the quota (more than 90%). The analysis was based in particular on the evolution of the French quota between 2012 and 2017. This finding should result in a rebalancing of the system in order to use all the criteria to achieve a fairer outcome.

This historic step marks a new avenue for the small-scale fishers, who must now prepare to meet the future deadlines for the allocation of the bluefin tuna quota. They must capitalise on the decision and formulate concrete, realistic and constructive proposals. This builds on their commitment to achieve, on the one hand, a fairer allocation system, and on the other hand, to allow access to bluefin tuna for new small-scale fishermen.

The SPMO and its partners invite all interested fishermen to join them in their struggle to obtain a fairer allocation of fishing quotas, based on Article 17.

The signatories :

– Syndicat Professionnel des Pêcheurs Petits Métiers d’Occitanie (SPMO)

– Platform of the French small-scale fishing industry

– LIFE “Low Impact Fishers of Europe”

– Comité départemental des pêches maritimes et des élevages marins du Var 

– Prud’homie des pêcheurs de la Ciotat (Bouches du Rhône)

¹In April 2017, the CRPMEM PACA had also voted in Council to participate in the appeal as a voluntary intervener and co-financer. However, its President, Mr Molinero, knowingly refused to commit his Committee and to proceed with the necessary formalities with the lawyers in charge of the procedure. This illegal attitude has been denounced by several members of its Board. It shows a clear lack of respect by Mr Molinero for his mandate and for all small-scale fishermen in the PACA region. The “legal advisers” of the CRPMEM PACA had also considered, with great pertinence, that such an appeal had no chance of success.

²There are three existing criteria: track record, socio-economic balance and market orientation, to which the environmental criterion should now be added.

Friday night to Monday morning.

Boats sailing from Newlyn over the last few days.

Friday evening and a fresh load of fish boxes go back aboard the Enterprise to be store down the fishroom...

from where Juicy appears, must be cold down there...

top sardine boat heads back to a berth after a long night's fishing...

definitely not a weekend's only fine weather yellow-welly yacht...

the little orange crabber wants to be like the big blue one when it grows up...

on Monday morning's market there's plenty of top quality inshore fish like these John Dory...

and brill...

there's no way 8 scallops would have made it to market on any of the boats I worked on #quicksnack...

more JDs...

and monk tails...

the flat bottomed red gurnard...

the big beam trawler t georges put ashore plenty of megrim soles...

while mackerel are still proving hard to find in this part of the world...

delicious Dovers...

early morning market action...

more bass than mackerel this morning...

though thankfully sardines are plentiful...

all hands to cutting up bait aboard the Nazarene...

sailing time for the Girl Pamela off for another day on the crabs...

name these fish...

young Mr Ashworth in action aboard the crabber...

for one company the future is now no longer orange but turquoise it seems...

classic lines of a classic yacht.

 

NFFO takes stock eight months after the Trade and Cooperation Agreement

 

The NFFO has hit out at the UK Government for the betrayal of the fishing industry in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement

The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations has hit out at the UK Government for the betrayal of the fishing industry during the Brexit negotiations.

Eight months on from the signing of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on Christmas Eve 2020, and British fishing has not found the ‘Utopia’ that Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised.

On their website the NFFO write:

There are some in the fishing industry whose trust in the Government has been irrevocably shattered. The fishing industry was given assurances from the top of government – the Prime Minister, senior cabinet ministers and Chief Negotiator himself, Lord Frost – that our industry would not be sold out in negotiations with Europe, as it had been by Edward Heath in 1973.

There was always a risk. Even when the fishing industry was used as the poster-child for Brexit, the NFFO paid for and distributed thousands of flags bearing the message: 

Fishing: No Sell-out.

In the event, on Christmas Eve 2020, another date that live in history for its infamy, fishing was sacrificed to secure a trade deal. The bald economic calculations laid waste to all the promises, assurances and commitments on fishing.

A few concessions on quota shares were made by the EU but these were miles away from what any self-respecting coastal state would consider fair, or consistent with its status under international law.

Under the terms of the TCA the UK didn’t even secure an exclusive 12-mile limit, something that most coastal states would automatically consider theirs by right, and essential for the sustainable management of their inshore fisheries. And is there anybody who truly believes that it will all be all right in 5 years’ time when the TCA access arrangements expire?

There is regulatory autonomy. This should allow us, over time, to diverge from the body of retained EU fisheries law – the CFP – and apply our own rules for operating in U.K. waters. These will apply to all fishing vessels irrespective of nationality. That is worth having and has the potential to be very significant over time.

The issue now is whether fishing, having lost our status as Brexit poster-child, has become a national embarrassment for the Government – a living symbol of failure to negotiate what is the UK’s by right and by international law of the sea. Will the government try to make amends for the way we have been treated, or seek to edge us off centre stage? The £100 million commitment made in the immediate aftermath of the TCA agreement suggests the former. The Government’s policy approach and insouciance towards the potential for displacement from marine protected areas and the expansion of offshore wind, suggest the latter.

Cooperation

The new Fisheries Act provides a framework for a new kind of fisheries policy – one in which the fishing industry is centrally involved in the design and implementation of fisheries management plans. Work is already under way, especially in the shellfish sector, where some of the elements of co-management can be seen at work in the Shellfish Industry Advisory Group and it’s important sub-groups covering crab/lobster, whelks and scallops. But will that cooperation survive if there is large scale displacement from customary fishing grounds with all the social and economic dislocation and unintended knock-on effects that implies?

This is another trust issue for the Government. Will fishing be treated fairly, carefully, and with respect, as an important component in this country’s food supply and for its export earnings and support for coastal communities? Or will there be further betrayals?

And then there is devolution; another sphere in which government concessions could come at our cost.

Annual fisheries agreements with Norway and Faeroes are a further area in which post-Brexit turbulence is manifest and where new equilibriums have yet to emerge.

We are about to enter negotiations for 2022, when all of these factors will be in play, along with the mother of all headaches on how to manage non-quota species. The Specialised Committee for Fisheries and annual negotiations will be of central importance, but we have yet to see how this will function in practice.

Political Landscape This then is the broad political landscape for fishing after 8 months under the TCA. Through it all runs the core question of trust. As an industry we have little option but to make the best of it. The importance of working with our eyes open to the political currents and counter-currents has never been higher.

Full story courtesy of the NFFO website.

Fine, flat calm #FishyFriday in Newlyn.

Fine stat to the final day of the week and with a big spring tide the netting fleet are all in port waiting for the next neap to begin...

two beam trawlers, the Billy Rowney...

and the Enterprise provided most of the flat fish for sale on the auction...

while the inshore boats had their say with smaller runs of fish like these John Dory...

and blonde ray...

greater weavers seem to be a thing at the moment with a box per trip the norm...

mullet are a fish that shoal- so they are seldom caught in ones and twos...

there were plenty of Cornish sole...

plaice...

and monk from the port's largest boat...

top quality line caught pollack heading for a restaurant near you...

the galleon wind vane atyop the old Mission building catches early morning sun-rays...

the lockdown created a swathe of opportunities for fishermen to sell their catch direct to the public - head ver to the Joy of Ladram's website and pick up some top quality net caught fish including MSC Certified Cornish hake...

there's plenty of fun to be had for youngsters...

on Newlyn Green next to the art gallery...

here's hoping the cloud will lift...

Tom looks out over Mounts bay and watches all points of the compass...

flying the harbour flag...

a few days work below the waterline on the Orion...

from the starship Enterprise...

to this little chap...
 

one of a handful currently having a nose around the harbour.