Final week of fish sales in Newlyn.

With the ig spring tide coming to an end, landings of hake in quantity came courtesy of the netters Silver Dawn...

and Stelissa...

along with a few boxes of that London chippy's delight, 'rock salmon' aka spurdogs...

shots of mackerel are now approaching the kind of landings not seen since the 1970s when it wasn't uncommon for a four-handed boat to land 1000st - that's 6,350 kilos in new money...

line caught with gurdys like the one in this photo looking towards the rest of the handline fleet in Mounts Bay circa 1979...

bass too seem to be moving over the ground, this nice line-caught haul from Mr Pascoe...

these from the Phoenix...

while the netters topped off the year and landed a full months quota of big haddock...

red mullet...

plaice...

Dover soles...

and monk came via the beam trawlers Billy Rowney and the St Georges...

another big haul of mackerel from one boat...

plus more bass...

and shades of Christmases past with a few cuttles making an appearance in the cod ends...

netters like the Amanda of Ladram won't be landing until the new year now...

so it's time for some festive spirit and a chance to decorate the boat, yes, that is a Christmas tree in the wheelhouse window...

while the Ocean Pride went large!

 

Salty tales in time for Christmas .

When someone has spent a lifetime working on, living near or hanging over the sea writes about the experience you know that you too are going to feel the spray on your face as you too become immersed and share in their world.

Des Hannigan may have retired from fishing years ago but this seaman's chest of stories and poems wrought from a life lived on and at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean have an immediacy of place running through them - just as the Zawns he has climbed so often scar their way from the sea to the cliff tops. In this sometimes stormy sometimes calm trilogy recounting a lifetime lived in both sea and climbing boots, Des deftly knits together salty yarns, observations on life in prose and poetry. Inspired not only by the most powerful entity on earth, the sea, but by the people with whom he has worked, played climbed and met along the way.

As a folk-singing Scotsman his Celtic roots no doubt helped secure a home in the tiny hamlet of Trevhowan, near Morvah but he can also lay claim to fame having played his part in developing what was to become Piper's Folk club at the Count House in Botallack - his talents not quite matching those of others who raised the rafters there including the mighty Mike Chapman and Ralph McTell and others too numerous to mention. Such is the diversity of observations that make this a genuine chronicle of Cornish life in the west of Penwith at far and remotest end of Cornwall.

The power of an ocean runs deep. Feeding off this force, the poetry and prose within the covers of the Atlantic Cornwall Trilogy captures both times past and time immemorial and can be found at the Edge of the World bookshop in Penzance and the St Ives Bookseller. Go grab yourself (or someone else) a copy or all three for Christmas!

Newlyn's final #FishyFriday 2021 market.

No hunting for the Lyonesse  last night...

but Friday's market with awash with top quality fish from the netter...

Ygraine like hake...

haddock...

tip-top tub gurnard...

and monk tails...

while the Ajax...

finished up the year with a big landing of hake...

and a quota-busting shot of dogs...

Brackan on the Spirited Lady III landed the usual quality mix of fish including a few bass...

Ryan on the Stelissa scored with a few scad...

and pollack...

it was up to the Imogen to round up a few John Dory...

with the Ocean Pride filling her boots with pollack...

a few boxes of red mullet found their way into the beam trawl landings...

but were totally outshone by this big bass haul, seldom seen on this scale for a beam trawler......

megrims were everywhere as usual...

and even more bass...

and some seasonal squid at last...

the handliners are continuing to enjoy mackerel galore in all the the local bays...

and the odd big bass.

 

September1930 - 'Thoniers dans la tempête'.

Almost 300 sailing tuna vessels are fishing in the Celtic Sea off the coast of Ireland.

September 17, late afternoon ...

The wind is getting stronger.

Sailors are starting to worry ...

Days and nights in hell begin ...

Unheard-of winds and huge waves will overwhelm the tuna boats!

This film was produced by Alain Pichon (University of Évry Paris Saclay) and many partners to commemorate the storm of September 17 to 20, 1930, which caused the loss of 27 dundées (working sailing boats engaged in fishing tuna) and the deaths of 207 sailors caught in the turmoil off Ireland.

It is the result of collaboration between university research, museums, history associations, municipalities, heritage services.

La Rochelle, Les Sables-d'Olonne, Ile d'Yeu, Etel, Plouhinec, Port-Louis, Groix, Concarneau, Douarnenez, all the territories have mobilized to commemorate the tragedy and pay tribute to the missing sailors.

Archivist, amateur and experienced historians, engineers and academics, sailors, painters, illustrators, musicians pooled their resources and talents to make a film about the event.

Mild Monday morning in Newlyn.

Tasty looking box of shells from the netter Stelissa...

to go with her trip of pollack...

while the ground fish from the big beam trawler Enterprise included these conger eels...

ray...

turbot...

though no-one spotted the interloper in this box of octopus...

ling...

and coley came from the wreck-netter Annie May...

while the Enterprise landed monk tails...

megrim soles...

plaice...

lemon...

and Dover sole...

with a few red mullet...

and haddock thrown in for good measure...

plenty of pollack from the Annie May...

and even more bass from the Cadgwith boys for whom Christmas came early it seems, though prices for these fantastic line caught fish were well below what they should be at this time of year for such hard-won fish...

bait by the box for the crab fleet...

and for the first time this season some really good shots of mackerel from the handliners...

who also picked away a few squid...

and these delightfully tasty...

herring...

yet more mackerel from Mr Smith...

the boats are all lit up...

as are the harbour lights...

 while it now seems to be very dark in the Harbourmaster's office.