Moody Monday morning start to the week in Newlyn.

 

The light changes dramatically...

within minutes as the sun comes up...

in this morning's market there are some boxes of top quality fish to tempt the buyers, like these superb bream from the trawls of the Spirited Lady III...

line caught bass...

and more from the Huers...

red mullet seem to be everywhere at the moment, these beauties came form the Irish boat Unity back landing in Newlyn after a short break fishing closer to home south of Dunmore...

while the beam trawler Twilight III also picked up some and landed them in excellent condition...

nothing quite beats the look of red mullet landed by an inshore boat though as these crackers testify...

monk in quantity at this time of year are the domain f the beam trawl fleet...

while fine weather meant that most of the inshore trawlers are making the most of this extended run of fine weather and returning with top quality fish like this big turbot...

though two boxes of bass is exceptional at any time of the year, could be down to the more finessed touch of a new female crew aboard Richard's Still Waters...

and yet more bream from the Millennia...

there was hake a-plenty from the Silver Dawn, the last netter to land at the end of this neap tide...

and a few boxes of big ling, once the mainstay of the long-lining fleet that made up the bulk of the port's larger vessels during the 60s and 70s until more efficient and effective gill-netting took over...

a dozen boxes of cuttles, a far cry from previous years when cuttlefish landings could be measured in tons...

the boys on the big Irish boat Unity keep their twin trawls in tip-top condition, the nets are run off down the quay for repairs between trips...

in years to come it is likely that there will be a number of wind farms around these shores and boats like this will be based here permanently - in which case the plans to double the size of the port by developing Sandy Cove to accommodate shore services and the possibility of extra freight traffic will be justified as the way to further expand, just like Newlyn's forebears did over 100 years ago...

work continues aboard the Voyager fitting out her net pounds and shelter...

a brace of crabbers...

get the once over from the harbour's resident seal standing to underwater attention...

before spending a few minutes resting on the bottom...

 and before surfacing again showing off a fine set of bristles.

UK-EU Trade Fisheries on Fisheries - what's to learn?

 

Below, is the UK-EU Trade Agreement for Fisheries published in March of this year:

Full on fish for #FishyFriday in Newlyn.

Not the brightest start to the day in Newlyn...

but there's plenty of top quality fish on the morning auction, even three large cod...

and a few boxes of those rock and wreck-loving congers...

at this time of year John Dory landings are just a trickle...

while young Tom on the Harvest Reaper always seems to pick up a few decent bass every trip...

to go with his ray...

reds and cuttles...

while Brackan's red mullet are absolutely top-notch quality as you would expect from a small trawler hauling after shorter tows - the Breton boats that work these waters reckon on hauling every two and a half hours, sometimes three during daylight in order to keep the quality as high as possible - fish swirling around in the cod-end begin to lose their scales after a while and while that doesn't affect earing quality it does affect how the fish appear...

just the one bream this morning...

while the big beam trawlers put ashore good landings of monk tails...

haddock...

big megrim soles...

and plaice...

leaving the Imogen to weigh in with a good shot of lemons...

in the fridge, the handline fish included a good few boxes of mullet...

and bass...

and you can tell from the glistening-golden skin of these pollack that they were all hooked aboard...

just a handful of silver darlings to end the week...

while mackerel continued to be landed in quantity...

it was the sardine fleet whose long night looking for fish eventually paid off with fish from the Charlotte Clare...

and the Pelagic Marksman

and the crabber Harriet Eve made for a busy scene alongside the fish market...

which kept the local gull population in something of a feeding frenzy for much of the time...

the netters are now waiting for the next neap tide...

it is just possible that this rudder became detached form a casualty of WW2 as there are many wrecks in the Western Approaches left oveer from the concentrated efforts of German submarines...

judging by the wear, this riveted rudder looks as though it was towed  for a full watch 

by the ports biggest beam trawler Enterprise...

unlike the beginning of the week the Mary Williams pier is now full of boats between tides...

including the two latest additions to the fleet, both drawing around 5m when laden with gear, ice and fuel...

the ex-Sapphire III looks smart as ever...

the stealthy lines of the St Piran,  IFCA's powerful patrol vessel...

the Cornishman's decks are ready for action again...

flowers surround a small plaque acknowledging...

young Conor who sadly lost his life doing what he loved best, servicing the same boats of...

Stevenson's beam trawl fleet that his father skippers.

 

I-VMS type approval programme (MMO) is conducting a programme to assess vessel monitoring systems

 

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is conducting a programme to assess vessel monitoring systems to identify devices that meet its technical specifications for reporting of location, heading and speed by under 12m fishing vessels. 

Vessels under 12m long will be legally required to report positional data from an approved device to the MMO operations room during fishing trips. This data will enable a better understanding of the scale, location and seasonality of fishing activity. To support fishers in obtaining an I-VMS device that meets this forthcoming legal requirement and is suitable for their vessel, the MMO’s ‘type approval’ process is intended to bring as many suppliers into the marketplace as possible so that there’s a broad choice of devices at a range of prices for fishers to choose from. 

In the under-12m fishing fleet, the range of specifications for vessels - for example, in terms of powering and housing the devices – is diverse. Vessel owners are best placed, with the right support from suppliers, to decide which device and service package suits them. 

Key Dates Interested suppliers will have from the opening of the programme on 24 August 2021 until it’s close on 1 October 2021, to submit their evidence and documentation for review. There will be an opportunity for MMO and suppliers to clarify issues until 26 October 2021. A formal announcement listing the devices approved is then expected to take place before the end of the year and will be published on this website along with information regarding each device’s service offerings and supplier/product website details. Update 31/08/21 

We will allow an extended period of until the 28th of October for suppliers to submit all the required certifications. This has been granted as some certifications may take a period of time to obtain. In order to be eligible to receive the certificate extension, suppliers must provide evidence to the MMO at IVMS@marinemanagement.org.uk that they are in the process of obtaining their certifications by the 1st of October. 

Detailed Process Timetable 

For a full outline of what is expected from prospective suppliers, please consult the MMO’s Conditions of Participation page.

Fishing patriarch Billy Stevenson 1928 - 2021

Few fishing industry players in the history of Newlyn have provoked as much conversation in the pubs, down the quays in wheelhouses and on decks as that of Billy Stevenson, patriarch of the Stevenson fishing company who passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 93. One of his daughters, Elizabeth, remains in the family business which began back in the early 19th century with forebear John Stevenson arriving in Newlyn from Whitby. 

From those humble beginnings the fishing family have seen Newlyn take advantage of its proximity to rich fishing grounds and expand from being one of the smallest harbours in Cornwall with little protection from passing storms through continual quay building projects to becoming the largest fishing port in England. By the end of the 1970s the family presided over the largest privately owned fishing fleet in Europe with over 30 trawlers, netters and beam trawlers.

Billy began his career in the family business at the end of the second world war at a time when their fleet, managed by his father, Billy Stevenson, expanded rapidly and took on a number of 60ft plus ex-Admiralty MFVs from Brixham. The Jacqueline PZ192 was the first of many such vessels when long-lining and trawling was the preferred method of fishing for these boats.

For many years these ex-Admiralty vessels were the mainstay of the family fleet until the late 1970s when three ex-Dutch beam trawlers and three steel 'Sputnik' class trawlers arrived to expand the fleet further. These relatively modern vessels drove the family fortunes ahead as they took advantage of expanding European markets for a plentiful supply of quality flatfish species like Dover, megrim and lemon soles and monkfish. In those days over 90%of the fish auctioned on the market ended up on mainly French and Spanish plates. 

This British Pathé film made in the 1950s captured a trip aboard the Jacqueline which continued to provide the firm with fish until she was scrapped in the 1990s. 

Filmed just after the Second World War aboard the Newlyn sidewinder Jacqueline. The boat was an ex-Admiralty MFV (motorised fishing vessel) built in 1943 and bought by Stevenson and Sons to trawl from Newlyn. She was only broken up a few years ago after a lifetime spent sidewinding off the Cornish coast. Stevenson's longest serving engineer spent most of his working life aboard the Jacqueline.

She was one of five wooden ex-MFVs that worked from the port for over 40 years...

seen in this photo from around 1978...

aboard the Jacqueline bringing the trawl in over the side aided by the roll of the boat...

gutting the haul on deck...

running repairs to the more modern steel doors...

Billy Stevenson continued his fathers' belief in refurbishing secondhand vessels and when pressed on tis would say, "see, new boats don't catch any more fish". To this day the firm has never commissioned a new build to add to their fleet, many of which are named after family members, the Billy Rowney, Elizabeth Caroline, Elizabeth Anne Webster, William Stevenson, the Bryan D Stevenson, Marie Claire, Anthony Stevenson, Karen, ABS, Jacqueline, Lisa Jacqueline, Sara Shaun, Roseland...

here, skipper David Hichens is sat in the completely refurbished galley of the Elizabeth Anne Webster shorlty before he took her to sea for the first time...

and then, of course, there was William Sampson Stevenson PZ191 which starred in the BBC TV series The Skipper featuring a certain Roger Nowell who skippered the boat which he referred to as, "my little tiger". Roger like many skippers had an enduring relationship with Billy whose main responsibility within the family firm was to oversee the skippers, crews, boats, engineers and every other trade required to keep a large fishing fleet at sea. 

Managing around 30 skippers and their crews, all of whom by the very nature of their work and sensibilities erred on the side of headstrong adventuring types was, to say the least a challenge. Inevitably, there were times when Billy's relationship with the skippers was tested to the limit and, when things weren't going his way (and given that as share fishermen there is absolutely nothing by way of any contract between the skipper, crew and vessel owner) such truculence occasionally resulted in an on-the-spot quayside sacking. Infamously, in what became known as, the 'Good Friday sacking', not one but five sippers were duly sacked for refusing to sail that day owing to what they considered to be inclement weather. 

One of the boats, the Sara Shaun was immediately put up on the slip - the skipper having once 'availed himself of' the boat after being sacked in a previous incident and fished a trip to make his point - but that's a story for another day. However, as had happened in the past, Billy relented and the skippers (bar one) were duly reinstated on Easter Monday and able to sail again. Though rumour has it they were all pretty pleased with themselves as the outcome was that they got to spend Easter ashore!

The yarns and incidents surrounding Billy's reign over the fleet are the stuff of local legend and would no doubt fill a book, or two. The are few people in the wider fishing community who don't have a favourite story which all depend at some stage in the telling on the inclusion of Billy's actual words, and you know when one of these quotes is coming as they are inevitably proceeded by the word, "see" and a short pause. 

My personal experience to exemplify such tales harks back to the time when I skippered the converted wooden ex-Admiralty MFV Trewarveneth, built in Rye in 1946 and after a lifetime trawling converted to netting in 1990. 

he date is a crucial element as it is a key in contextualising Billy's attitude, his way of working and his sense of humour. In the early 1990s while fishing the Pistola Bank south of Ireland many miles from the nearest land I was forced to dodge overnight as a severe gale tore through the area. Keeping the boat head to wind as the odd sea tumbled over the ancient boat's bow and down the shelteredeck, I spent much of the time consoling the youngest member of the crew who found the experience was not to his liking, not helped by the fact that over the VHF radio we were listening to a Mayday situation some 20 miles north of us as an SAR helicopter was preparing to take off the crew of a sinking coaster. Concerned that as a result of the constant battering from the growing seas and the age of the wooden vessel that she might be taking water I had the fishroom checked on a regular basis to see that she was not taking water any faster than normal. In the end, all was well and we picked up our nets again from the afternoon onwards and completed the trip a few days later. 

Back in port, landed and the fish sold on the morning auction I headed up the steps to the office to collect the settling for the trip - in those days this was in cash. Mindful of the experience and the stress that the boat had been put through I felt I ought to convey some concern for the lack some precautionary safety arrangements aboard the 'Trewar'. While it might seem a little odd today, at the time there was no bilge alarm fitted in the fishroom, just the engine room. Billy spotted me from behind the counter and enquired as to how we had found the trip given the poor weather we had fished through. I took that as an opportunity to raise my concern over the lack of a warning system in the fishroom considering her age and said, "By the way Billy, there's no bilge alarm in the fishroom", to which he immediately replied, "See, she never had one when she was built!". To be fair, by the time we sailed one had been duly fitted.

Billy lived and breathed harbour life, his fleet of boats and every other boat that entered his domain were all subject to his eternal concern. His white Triumph Dolomite gave away his presence every time...

as can be seen here as he watches a Breton trawler head for the gaps in a severe storm. Also in the car would be his trusty camera ever by his side and from which a collection of photos stretching back decades exosts, a large number of which are available online in the Billy Stevenson Collection at Cornish Memory. 

At home, a pair of glasses was a permanent feature by a rear window. Even after he retired, the home which he shared with wife Enid afforded him a ringside seat and allowed him to continue to monitor the constant comings and goings in the port...

seen here giving two of his shore staff the benefit of a lifetime's experience in running the fleet.

From the first day he had a VHF fitted at home, every skipper just knew that sooner or later they would hear is dulcet tones calling them up as they headed for the gaps on the way in.

His love of his boats extended to sending the Excellent when in her sidewinding days to the huge classic boat festival in Brest...

and, not to be outdone by the Mount's Bay Lugger Society's Happy Return, he had the Children's Friend restored as a lugger.

Every year, Billy would see to it that one of the fleet would be put up on the slip and suitably decorated for the Christmas period, in this instance, the Elizabeth Caroline.

Billy has now joined many of those that worked on and in his fleet of boats, his legacy will remain in the collection of boat memorabilia and his huge photo collection that will surely find a home in the heritage centre planned for the port. Likewise, in the Swordfish and Star, pubs which almost owe their very existence to his fleet of boats even though he never crossed their thresholds, yarns about him will no doubt be handed down to further generations of fishermen, many of them preceded by that single word. As one oilskin-clad wag suggested, perhaps his headstone should carry the epithet,

"See, you're fired!"