Non-slip slip, Penlee lifeobat to the rescue.

 

For a while it looked like the Terramare might become the Terrafirma after the cradle refused to budge and she became stuck on the slip but then, after several attempts, and thanks to harbour staff, engineers, the harbour tug Danmark and the Penlee lifeboat she was successfully towed down the slip and off the cradle. 

Boats using the slip in Newlyn rely on entering and leaving the slipway cradle on or near high water depending on the vessel's draught and some boats can only do so on a big spring tide.

As the fishing fleet modernises and boats become deeper drafted an increasing number of Newlyn vessels are forced to travel hundreds, some more thsan 1000 miles as far as Scotland or Holland to be serviced. 

This greatly highlights the justification for some serious modernisation of the harbour's infrastructure to cater for the growing demands made by fishing and work boats in the South West - where we know the likes of wind-farms and similar marine projects are already in the pipeline. 

You can read more about the concept plans for Newlyn on the Advisory Board pages of the Harbour website here.

Demonstration of fishermen in Finistère:

 "It's as if we were closing a large factory", warns the president of Pays bigouden sud About 650 people demonstrated on Saturday February 25 in Pont-L'Abbé, in Finistère, to challenge the government on the impact of the fleet exit plan on fishing in the Bigouden region.

650 people gathered on Saturday February 25 in Pont-L'Abbé, at the call of the elected officials of the Bigouden country. (MARY SEBIRE / HANS LUCAS) 

"It's as if we were closing a big factory" , warns Stéphane Le Doare, president of Pays bigouden sud and mayor of Pont-L'abbé, on franceinfo. 650 fishermen demonstrated on Saturday February 25 in this town located in the south of Finistère, reports France Bleu Breizh Izel .

The demonstration was organized at the call of the elected officials of the Bigouden country to ask the government to defend the fishing industry. After Brexit and the announcement of the limitation of fishing licenses, 26 boats will be scrapped at the port of Guilvinec. "The maritime sector represents 2,000 jobs in the Bigouden country alone, from shipbuilding to transport with, in the middle of all this, of course, the sailors-fishermen. A job at sea is five jobs on land", underlines the chosen one. If we lose 120 to 150 sailors, behind that we have 600 to 700 jobs threatened very directly."

We need "a new economic model" For Stéphane Le Doare, "it's like closing a big factory, except that it's full of small businesses" . Several local elected officials have therefore decided to mobilize because "when a factory of 600 employees closes, it makes a lot of noise but there, it is two, three or ten people here or there".

The president of Pays bigouden sud is "convinced that there is a future for fishing" even if it is necessary to "rewrite a new economic model" . However, he says he is "well aware that the good years are behind us, that the model must be renewed" . The city councilor affirms, with the other local elected officials, wanting to "be force of proposals" in the hope that the government will retain some of them and that "announcements will be made in the coming weeks to save this sector which feeds France" .

Aid for fishermen extended until October Emmanuel Macron spoke the same day with fishermen at the agricultural show. The President of the Republic notably announced the extension of the financial aid granted to fishermen to deal with the rise in fuel prices. This aid, of 20 cents excluding tax per liter of diesel, was due to expire in mid-May, and will finally be extended until October. But "it's still short ," says Stéphane Le Doare. Because this does not allow fishermen "to have a serene visibility by the end of the year" .

The elected official believes that there are two other "emergency measures" to be taken. One concerns licenses and quotas: “We have the licenses which are attached to the boats which are going to be deconstructed and which we wish to see return to our maritime district to be able to install new sailors who leave with new units at sea. As for the quotas, "we must recover the lost tonnages. We have more efficient and more modern boats which have fishing capacities but we do not give them the quotas to fish", he regrets .

Then, according to him, there is "an extremely strategic point which is going a little under silence for the moment, it is this European desire to prohibit trawling and dredging fishing in marine protected areas . However, opposite Back home, we only fish in marine protected areas".

'Tiz a cool Monday morning in Newlyn.

Those cool blue hues mirror the ambient air temperature of 0˚ this morning which was lower than inside the fish market...

as the Billy Rowney made her way at high water to land her trip at the market...

inside there were both inshore ands offshore trips of fish like these big beam trawl brill...

and haddock...

and inshore brill...

and Dovers from young Mr Curtis' trawler, Lady Lynne......

the beam trawl catches included these good looking tub gurnards...

and a splash of Mediterranean octopus and red mullet...

and a couple of incongruous conger...

lovely lemons...

and for those in the know, there's roe...

and more rouge mullet to tickle the taste buds...

and evidence the Dover sole season is hotting up...

changes to the regulations for the catching and landing of spurdog have changed this year...

somewhere amongst all those mainly mackerel stacks...

is the box of fish the Wiffer was looking for...

ray, the fish that just keeps on giving...

RNLI relief boat Volunteer Spirit at rest...

early signs of Spring are when the sardine boats begin to put their huge nets ashore for end-of-sardine-season overhaul...

that's where we like to see the Penlee lifeboat, at her mooring...

sun up and it's time to take fuel.

Creating a catch record for under 10m vessels

Below is the Catch Record guide recently introduced by the MMO.  Comments on ease of use and suitability welcome:

Where can I find more information?

Guidance has been published to demonstrate how to record catches using the app, even without a mobile signal:

• GOV.UK guidance
• Catch Recording blog post
• Video: How to register
• Video: Recording your catch

Further advice is available here.

Creating a catch record for under 10m vessels 

This guide has been created to detail how to submit a catch record. Introduction

Under 10m vessels not in a Producer Organisation (PO) are required to record details of all trips where fish is caught.

Options for submission of catch recording data includes the use of a mobile phone app (available for iPhone and Android), web service or by telephone (digital assisted). When landing any quota species, or any species subject to catch limits*, submit catch records no later than on completion of landing and prior to your catch being transported away from the place of landing. This means, you can weigh your fish on landing and use the weights to complete and submit your catch record before your catch is transported for sale or storage.

*This does not apply to catch limits in place under the shellfish entitlement, such as the 5 lobster/25 crabs When landing only non-quota species or species not subject to catch limits, submit catch records within 24 hours of landing.

If you fish in different ICES areas during a single fishing trip, you should create and submit a catch record for each ICES area.

How to register

Owners of all commercially licenced fishing vessels of under 10m in length will receive an invitation via email to register for the catch recording service. 

Contact your local MMO office if you haven’t received an invitation.

MCS 'Good Fish Guide' ratings

Transparency and credibility are important to the Good Fish Guide. After we’ve researched and drafted a set of ratings updates, we put them out to consultation. Ratings consultations are open twice per year, in February and August. We welcome feedback from anyone with technical insight and information that could contribute to the comprehensiveness and quality of our ratings.

After they have closed, we consider and respond to all feedback, which is kept anonymous. We then finalise and publish our new and updated ratings on all the Good Fish Guide platforms.

There are two ratings launches each year, in October and April.

Please contact ratings@mcsuk.org to be added to the Ratings Consultation mailing list to be notified when consultations open.

Winter Ratings Review 

Click here to download.

The Winter 22/23 ratings consultation is live from Monday 6th February - Friday 3rd March. To comment, please download the Good Fish Guide Ratings Review below, and complete the indicated column for ratings of interest.

Please send your completed sheets back to ratings@mcsuk.org along with any supporting information.

We welcome feedback until 5pm Friday 3rd March 2023.

Monthly Provisional UK Sea Fisheries Statistics January 2023

 

Below is a National Statistics publication. This notice provides an overview of the reported weight and value of landings by UK vessels into the UK and abroad, and by foreign vessels into the UK. Data are used to provide analysis and evidence to researchers and the media and to respond to ad-hoc requests from fishers, other fishing organisations and the general public. They are also used to formulate and monitor fishing policy for fisheries administrations. 

This data is provisional and represents the best available data the MMO holds on fishing activity by the UK fleet and into the UK. Data will be revised each month and lags will be reviewed following protocol documented here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fishing-activity-and-landings-data-collection-and-processing. 

Please note, the monthly data in these reports for tables 1 to 7 represent a 'snapshot' at the time of release, therefore the totals may not align with the latest published 'underlying dataset', which is downloaded from our 'live' database and presented alongside the monthly reports. 

The raw data that feeds into this publication is equivalent to the data used to produce our regular national statistics and is processed and collected as outlined above.

 

Fish of the Day - week 15 - the Dragonet

 

Dragonets are not a common sight on the fish market - as yet they are not landed in sufficient quantity. They are one of those fish that goes out of their way to protect themselves by virtue of a number of sharp spines that protect their gill plates. Unwary handling can result in a swollen digit if the skin is broken in response to the venom released - which gave rise to their local name of 'miller's thumb'.

The female dragonet as seen above is far less colourful than the male which are almost tropical with bright yellow and iridescent blue streaks on the dorsal fin. They prefer a sand or gravel seabed up to 25 fathoms in which they lay partially buried while waiting for lunch to pass - any small form of shellfish or worm will do.