First, and slightly foggy #FishyFriday in May.

Apparently, there's a bit of a do this weekend...

but this morning the market is full of #FishyFriday fish, plenty of scallops...

brill...

even congers...

John Dory, turbot...

and red mullet from the trio of beam trawlers to have their fish sold...

even they are now catching Mediterranean octopus, unheard of before now...

more usual, are the catches of megrim sole...

monk tails...

and Dover sole...

small quantities of cuttles...

plenty more bags of scallops from the visiting scallopers...

along with the white fish from the visiting Scottish prawn boat, Orion which landed yesterday and went straight back to sea fishing west of the Scillys...

having just steamed down from Scotland a few days ago...

among the landing were dory...

and head-on monk...

Border Force are out and about...

as another scalloper gets underway...

from the visiting fleet...

life aboard the Jen-T, it's not only the boat that gets a wash down!

 

Admiral Gordon enters Newlyn in a fresh sou'easterly blow.

 

Almost a full gale of wind and the end of the neap tide means that Newlyn filled with boats today...

last in was the Admiral Gordon making light of the at the entrance to the gaps...

alongside the fish market was the St Georges...

landed by that deadly duo...

young Nicky Lappin...

and the darling of the fleet, young Don...

the sight on not one...

but three office-wallahs from Stevos landing the St Georges can only mean one thing, there is plenty of fish to be sorted!..

all under control an not even breaking sweat...

the Ygraine one of the last of the netters to land - its going to be a busy market in the morning!

First May market in Newlyn

The times they are a changing, weather more like it this morning...

as the blazing sun pierced an open fish market door...

and the packed auction floor...

hake...

and pollack from the netter Britannia V....

monk tails for the Annie May...

now being hauled away...

cod...

and more hake from the Ygraine...

superb looking fish...

like Dover soles...

piled high...

inshore fish...

included crab claws...

whole monk...

every box tells a story...

the fine weather meant that inshore boats were able to fish well...

for bass...

and line caught pollack...

from all round the coast...

inshore trawl fish of all kinds...

including turbot...

and John Dory...

early morning fishermen...

well worth a read is Rose George's, "90% of Everything" - how most of what we own travels by shipping container, mostly from China...

electrolysis, where pipework is eaten from the inside out in pipework carrying seawater, the bane of every boat and why anodes are fitted to the outside of hulls to reduce the inherent danger...

more sardine net repairs...

three very different inshore boats.

 

Fish of the week 23 - John Dory

 

The mighty John Dory - a sure sign of summer in full swing when landings of JDs are at their peak. This extravagant looking fish is a great favourite with chefs as it produces boneless and meaty fillets with a skin thats crisps up beautifully when cooked just right. All the best fish restaurants in Cornwall put this fish on their menus whenever they get the chance. Check out any cook book from the likes of Floyd, Stein and Outlaw and John Dory feature as a firm favourite!

They are a strange looking, but delicious fish a, John Dory's bizarre shape and long fins make it look from another planet. It has a large mouth which is used to suck in very large prey items such as fish and shrimps. It has a black spot on each side of the body which is said to be the thumb print of St Peter - the only other fish to do so is the haddock. It has a fantastic scientific name being named after Zeus, king of the Greek gods.

Most John Dory landed in Newlyn are caught by the inshore trawlers, netters, the visiting prawn boats also catch them in number at certain times. In recent years a number of huge Dutch seine netters have landed trips that John Dory - caught in much deeper water. A trend of great concern for the future if these boats became a regular feature of the south west fishing effort. The unusual shape of them make it difficult to escape form any sort of net they come into contact with and they are not subject to any from of quota. 

In 2020 a total of 148 tonnes of John dory were landed to Cornish ports with a value of £649k (MMO data).