What can octopus and squid brains teach us about intelligence?

 

One of the incredible things about octopus's is that not only do they have an advanced intelligence that lets them camouflage themselves, use tools and manipulate their environments and act as really clever hunters in their ecosystems, they do this with a brain that evolved essentially from something like a slug in the oceans hundreds of millions of years ago. 

Our brains share virtually nothing in common with theirs. The question for scientists is what can studying a creature with a completely different brain from our own, teach us about the common principles of what makes a brain, what makes intelligence? What does it mean for this creature to have an intelligence that is something like our own? 

To learn more, we spoke this week with Ernie Hwaun and Matt McCoy, two interdisciplinary postdoctoral scholars at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford who study cephalopod intelligence from completely different angles.

Making Waves in 1983 by Blanchmange.

Newlyn was the port but the Mousehole boat, Renovelle is the real star of this music video shot in the early 1980s. Like many 50 footers in the fleet the boat was longlining - mainly for ling, pollack, ray and skate. On deck you can see mainly fibreglass tubs that by then had largely replaced the traditional withy baskets and the latest Spencer Carter line hauler. The eagle-eyed amongst you will no doubt spot the Ocean Pride passing the Renovelle as they pass in the gaps, she is also loaded with baskets of lines. Each basket or tub contained around 120 hooks which were baited by hand, usually with mackere as the line was shot away.

It was February 6th, 1983, when the band Blanchmange released the single Waves,

Waves remains a timeless, sublime classic that has a heart as big as the ocean; a track that radiates warmth and arguably one of the prettiest electro-ballads ever written. 

Interviewed in 1983, Neil Arthur commented on the song, "Our new single — and this isn't to say, Oh, yes folks we've got a new single — but 'Waves' was written quite a while back, and the original version was done in quite a serious way. It had slightly different lyrics in it and I used to take it quite seriously. Now I just laugh at it because of the line in it, 'All these waves coming over me, it must be my destiny'.” "It's the most obvious thing; you listen to any Abba record. People are going to hate that line, but I think it's great to put it in. So corny." “

A good song to play in the morning when you can't be bothered getting out of bed,” wrote Sharon Owen in her novel ‘The Ballroom on Magnolia Street. “Waves by Blancmange From the Happy Families album. I love male singers with deep voices and Neil Arthur's was so rich and distinctive. A real anthem for lost youth, this one, with all the synthesizers and drumbeats that were typical of the 1980s. Strangely erotic too.”

The truth of the false on the weight of the maritime district of Guilvinec

 

The key figures of the Guilvinec maritime district.

What does the Guilvinec maritime district really amount to? 

As the post-Brexit fleet exit plan approaches, we have put this port place under the microscope. We disentangle the true from the false. The port of Guilvinec is the first Cornish port. TRUE On the scale of Cornouaille (*), Le Guilvinec remains the stronghold. It represents nearly 41% of the volumes sold at auction in 2022 (out of 32,702 t in all). 13,617 t were landed at Guilvinec last year (- 4% compared to 2021) for a turnover of €61.70 million (- 2%), which places it second French port in value behind Lorient (15,984 t sold at auction for a turnover of €63.60 million). Bigouden port is far ahead of Douarnenez (6,991 t landed for €5.80 M in turnover at auction in 2022), Concarneau (3,715 t for €27.60 M), Saint-Guénolé-Penmarc'h (4,456 t for €17 million), Loctudy (2,766 t for €13.50 million) or Audierne (1,156 t for €11 million). Unlike Guilvinec, some ports like Douarnenez boost their volumes with non-auction sales (8,991 t) but these movements generate less direct added value.

Twenty-six Bigouden trawlers eligible for the scrapping plan The number of ships is constantly decreasing. Fake

For decades, the flotilla in the maritime district of Guilvinec (Le Guilvinec, Lesconil, Loctudy, Saint-Guénolé) has been declining. It even melts. In 1965, there were 740 ships compared to 216 in 2018. But in recent years, this figure has been rising slightly. In 2021, there were 225 boats in the district, nine more than in 2018. This growth is mainly linked to the development of small-scale fishing (141 boats in 2021) such as trolling. Coastal fishing has 30 boats and offshore fishing (more than 96 hours at sea), 54 units. On the other hand, the number of sailors on board continues to decrease. In 1965, there were more than 3,000 against only 677 in 2021!

The post-Brexit fleet exit plan has no precedent. Fake The post-Brexit individual support plan (PAI) currently under negotiation concerns around twenty boats in the Guilvinec district. This is not the first fleet exit plan (commonly known as a "junk plan"). In 1991, the "Mellick plan" (named after the Minister of Fisheries at the time) imposed the reduction of fleets by 2002. Result: in the Guilvinec district, 93 boats left the workforce between 1991 and 1995. than 400 units at departmental level! In 2008, again, the "Barnier plan" was decided after the strikes of November 2007. Nine boats will leave the port of Guilvinec, 21 (out of 31 registered) in the entire maritime district, the most heavily affected in Brittany.

Bigouden shipowners refuse to be stigmatized One job at sea generates three to four jobs on land. TRUE A fisherman at sea is (at least) four jobs on land within the fishing industry: fish trading, processing plants, transport, fittings, mechanics, construction and repair, painting, mass distribution, fishmongers. Not to mention refuelling (equipment, diesel, ice), the agents of the CCIMBO Quimper which manages the fishing ports of Cornouaille or the maritime school of Guilvinec. As far as Pont-l'Abbé, capital of the Bigouden region, by runoff, traders profit from the income from fishing. On the scale of the maritime district, it is estimated that fishing generates 2,280 direct and indirect jobs, more than 5,000 on the scale of Cornwall. The sector still weighs heavily in the local economy.

In Pays bigouden, the fishing industry in anguish Steven Lecornu Posted by Steven Lecornu on February 06, 2023 at 06:30 In the maritime district of Guilvinec, there are 2,280 direct and indirect jobs related to the sea. In the maritime district of Guilvinec, there are 2,280 direct and indirect jobs related to the sea. (Telegram / François Destoc) In the maritime district of Guilvinec, the extent of the post-Brexit fleet exit plan (*) will soon be unveiled. We interviewed the players in the fishing industry, all of whom were very worried. Gaël Guillemin (Gléhen shipyard): “We lack prospects”

“With around 30 fewer boats in our ports, we could lose between 30 and 50% of our activity dedicated to maintenance and repair. Overnight and without any compensation, it's brutal, explains Gaël Guillemin, general manager of the Gléhen shipyard , it's an entire economic ecosystem that will be destabilised. This fleet exit plans badly behaved. At the same time, an investment plan should have been proposed. Today, we lack prospects. The prohibition to build a boat in the following five years is a double penalty. The future of auctions, wholesalers and many related trades is on hold. This is why we are asking for investments in the careening areas, such as the arrival of a new lift in Douarnenez. Indispensable to conquer markets”.

Full story courtesy of Steve Lecournu writing for Le Télégramme. (Use Google to translate)

Fish of the Day - week 14 - the delicate dab.

 

Dabs, a member of the plaice and flounder family do not feature weight-wise in terms of landings on the market at Newlyn. Boats fishing 'up-channel' (that's the Bristol Channel) deep off Pendeen are more likely to have a bog haul of dabs than anywhere else.

When it comes to eating dabs provide small, delicate fillets that can be used in any recipe that suggest you use plaice or other flats. the fillets cook in almost seconds, gently fired in a shallow pan, steamed or if you have the gear, deep fried, whole on the bone. They are also generally a much cheaper option than other more well known flats so one to keep your eyes open for if you are feeding the masses!

Dab are a relatively abundant species of flatfish which provide a more sustainable alternative to more vulnerable, longer-lived and overfished species of flatfish such as plaice. They are mostly taken as bycatch in trawl fisheries and often discarded because of its low market value. Stock levels of dab are poorly understood in our the south-west (though fishermen have all the evidence to say exactly where and when they can be caught)  but there is little evidence that the stocks are unhealthy. They can be bought on the auction for an average price of £1.50 per kilo.

Catches of dab landed in Cornwall have fluctuated between five and twenty tonnes per year since the 1990's. In 2019 a total of 5 tonnes of dab were landed to Cornish ports with a value of £3.5k (MMO data). As of July 2019.

Artist and fisher chronicles life on one of the last southern New England trap fishing boats

 

Cory Wheeler Forrest says she is in a line of work that lends itself to photography. Corey Wheeler Forrest is a third-generation fisherwoman. Her family owns the last trap-fishing business in southern New England. Forrest loves the work, and quite often is taken aback by the beauty she sees out in the open water.

Several years ago, she started taking pictures of her surroundings, her family, and the tools of her trade, and posting them on Instagram. Now 30 of those pictures are included in the new exhibition "Fish & Forrest: Through the Lens of a Commercial Fishermom”, now on view at Mystic Seaport’s Meeting House.

During fishing season, Forrest, along with her brother, 76 year-old father, and quite often her daughter get up early, load up their boats and head out to one of several traps in nearby waters. Their way of life was the subject of a 2019 documentary by Hudson Lines called “The Last Trap Family.”

Forrest said there is something about her line of work that lends itself to photography.

“Because all of the elements are there” explains Forrest. “The early morning golden light, the salty characters I work with, we have the nets, rust, all of the colors just come together.”

But Forrest said photography and commercial fishing are often in conflict. She guesses because of her work on the boat, she misses more chances to take a great picture than she makes.

“Fishing can be a grind, it can feel like “Groundhog Day” every day, but then again it’s also so different,” Forrest said. “We’ve gotten caught out there in lightning storms, and gales come through with hurricane-force winds, and then it’s over 5 minutes later and there’s a rainbow. It’s just beautiful. It’s magical.”

"Fish & Forrest: Through the Lens of a Commercial Fishermom” is on view at Mystic Seaport’s Meeting House through the summer.

Belgian beam trawlwer sinks near Lands End

The 24m Belgian beam trawler Sylvia Mary Z525 has sunk off Gwennap Head...

while steaming from her home port of Zeebrugge she called in to Oostende...

after hitting the Runnelstone Reef, a notorious rocky reef...

there's a bit of a break in her AIS after she passed the Lizard until the point of contact with the reef...

the extent of which can be added which can seen on the nautical chart...

marked by the Runnelstone Buoy...

as she was steaming to the Dover sole fishing grounds in the Bristol Channel...

from her home port of Zeebrugge...

The 24-metre fishing vessel struck rocks about off Porthgwarra but the four crew onboard has been safely rescued from a liferaft the Sennan Cove RNLI Lifeboat brought them to dryland at Newlyn. Two other Belgian beam-trawlers, the Albert Bos Z-41 and the Grietje Z-187 were in the vicinity at the time of the incident.

In a statement, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said:

 “Four crew from a fishing vessel which struck rocks at Lands’ End have just been rescued and are on a lifeboat on their way back to shore. The crew made a mayday broadcast and abandoned their vessel earlier this evening, taking to their liferaft from which they were rescued by lifeboat just a short time later. The Sennen all-weather RNLI lifeboat was requested to launch by HM Coastguard and a Coastguard and a Royal Navy helicopter also assisted at the scene. “All crew have been accounted for and are safe and well. The fishing vessel remains on scene.”

'Spatial squeeze', what's it all about - the latest Fathom podcast.

 

The Fathom podcast has partnered with The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO) to produce a series of informative and highly topical episodes, focusing on the challenges and opportunities facing UK fishermen in the post-Brexit landscape.

In our fifth and final episode of the series, NFFO CEO Barrie Deas and CFPO CEO Chris Ranford are joined by a series-record number of guests who include: Nathan de Rozarieux, a fisheries consultant and fisherman operating out of Cornwall, Merlin Jackson, a former inshore fisherman operating from the Thames estuary and currently a fishing liaison to the offshore wind industry and Colin Warwick, retired fisherman and chair of Far and Large Offshore Wind (FLOW). Our panel were on hand to help us explore the issue of spatial squeeze, giving an insight into how marine space has been swallowed up over the past twenty years, the concerning reality of future competition for space and what can be done now to ensure fishing grounds are protected.

“Spatial squeeze” is a concept that has become more prevalent in marine terminology over the past couple of decades. It refers to the increasing competition for space in the seas around our coasts, acknowledging the effect that new infrastructure such as offshore wind farms and marine protected areas are having on ever-shrinking fishing grounds.

The episode was timed with the release of a report by the NFFO. The report sought to reconcile local and regional snapshots of marine projects to date, and show predictions of further developments to create a national picture of spatial squeeze from past to present and how impending plans will see future space used. Barrie kicks things off with the report’s daunting prediction that in the best-case scenario, we will lose a third of our fishing grounds and in the worst, up to a half.

We then hear from Merlin and Colin who provide an overview of how we got here, with Merlin suggesting that the planning and licensing process was set up so that by the time fishing communities received an opportunity to contribute their thoughts or concerns on new offshore wind farms, it was too late to do anything about it. Similarly Colin argues that there isn’t a level playing field with the absence of any statutory requirement to consult fisheries in the same way as other statutory consultees on new marine developments.

Nathan gives us some insights on a project he worked on with energy developers and the Crown Estate, who own virtually all of the seabed in UK waters. This virtual planning exercise sought to explore how coexistence between offshore wind and fishing could work. Nathan’s conclusion was that there was a chasm between what was theoretically and practically possible in terms of fishing inside an offshore wind farm, and the practical difficulties were not being taken into account in the planning process.

The final part of the discussion centred on what the fishing community needed to do to ensure the survival and growth of the industry into the future. Here, there was broad agreement on exerting pressure on the government, the MMO and the Crown Estate to make both a cultural and statutory shift that would give fishermen a seat around the table in marine spatial planning. To do this, our panel agreed that there needed to be a concerted effort from the community to garner support from the public to the same degree as the Brexit campaign, and to build a recognition that food security needed to be taken as seriously as energy security.

Catch up on other Fathom Podcasts here.