Figurehead

 Not many boats can boast a living figurehead......

but this Cornish Lass can while she's getting the paint treatment......

bet it was a good one!

Poles apart!

 All hands turn to taking tuna poles up the quay.....

 as this year's short-lived tuna season comes to an abrupt end for the Nova Spero - with the fast moving fish hard to find in thousands of square miles of North East Atlantic ocean, Skipper Shaun has decided to play safe and not subject him and his crew to endless days of searching for the elusive fish - the French and Spanish boats have the advantage of numbers on their side and share catch information within the fleets.......

 sea trials continue for the Hollie Mae - a better chance to see her classic lines taken from Bristol pilot and Falmouth working boats.......

118118, just like on TV.

The Daily Mirror asks, "How fresh is your fish?"

In order to answer the question, Steve Myall was despatched for the Daily Mirror to Newlyn and Sam Lambourn's Lyonnese for a night's fishing. The boat was purpose built to fish small shoals of pelagic fish like sardines - and that, for a Newlyn boat, means not just any old sardines but MSC accredited Cornish Sardines! 

The article gives a good description of a night's fishing aboard the boat as they chase the elusive early season shoals and then goes on to follow the supply chain via processors Falfish and eventually the some of the catch end up on a wet fish counter of a Morrison's branch in Kidderminster.

An increasing number of photojournalists are using the HD video features of their digital SLR cameras - sadly not the case in this story!

Ajax does battle.

 A suitable subject for Daisy or a watercolourist.......

 the Holly Mae is now full rigged and is ready to go......

 maybe not as far as this cat, the Burnout, though.......

 the latest punt to join the fleet......

 tuna maestro is back from his latest trip......

 worth a look, put it in your diary.......

 just what you don't need, being mopped up by someone else's lost trawl netting......

 how to keep a big boat heeled in against the quayside.......

 she must have towed into the poor weather and left gutting the last haul till being in the calmer waters of the harbour......

 well over 300 boxes from the Ajax, a big trip by any standards.....

 a big blue, keeping an eye on things

 a whirlwind trip off Land's End produced 8 boxes of bass for the Cyclone.......

 Mr Meg this morning......

 plenty of exercise for the buyers hauling fish across the market......

 a full house of beamer fish.......

 another notch on the tally board.......

for the orange team.

A voyage into the unknown for some!

 Shrouded in mist, the Scillonian III presents an air of mystery for those about to brave the crossing to the Isles of Scilly.......

 in Newlyn, the chartered Silver Star is preparing her gear trials......

 for the Cornish Sardine fishery......

 with a full set of deck gear......

 and the net pound astern......

 hopefully the fish separator won't damage the delicate sardines.....

she's big in the stern department.......

time to put the tailshaft back in the Feasible........

it's not just a rumour then!

Action from the net loft.

Mark, man of many meshes......

 Ivan Ellen cox Patch Harvey concludes his piece to camera recounting the previous nights call out to the aid of a coaster in danger of running aground on the Lizard - shades of a repeat of the Union Star were thankfully avoided when the MCA's Anglian Princess took the boat, less than a mile off shore, in tow to Falmouth.......

 still making the headlines, key players and skippers of the local Cornish Sardine fleet pose for soem PR shots.......

 only just half way through the year and at this rate it will be a record number of shouts for both boats......

 Dr Dave has left his mark......

 latest lunchtime menu on offer from the Mission.......

that's one big plaice the Dr bought!

The real story behind Cornish Sardines.

Local paper, The Cornishman ran a story this week on the successful re-branding of the humble pilchard as the Cornish Sardine and subsequent MSC status achieved by the Sardine Management Association - all much documented on the posts of this blog. The article goes on to describe how ring-netting was brought over from France a few years ago - which is not quite how the revival of ring-netting began - as can be seen from the following dramatic story that made the headlines in the December of 1999:


Skipper and owner, Martin Ellis had rigged his boat the Samantha Rose with a ring-net from the Mousehole boat, Renovelle in 1996 to target pilchards for salting for the Newlyn company, British Cured Pilchards.  On the night in question, now fishing with the boat Penrose, he was so successful he filled the boat to the gunwale's! The weather then freshened making it difficult to maintain sufficient freeboard to keep her afloat - with the inevitable consequences - and she sank leaving three men safely aboard the life raft!  A few years later, local filmmaker Jed Trewin captured the whole episode in a short documentary that won many accolades and was shortlisted for a prize in the Celtic Film Festival of that year. The fishery continued to grow when Newlyn skipper, Stefan Glinski launched the Highlander in 2000 fishing with his own gear rigged as ring nets. She was the first new boat built especially for Cornish Sardines.

There were a few false starts before Nutty Noah's escapades of course - the then Whitefish Industry Authority (Seafish's predecessor) sponsored trials with drift nets and some of the Mevagissey fleet and Newlyn, or more correctly, Mousehole's very own Edwin Madron used the Sarah M to chase the silver shoals in Mount's Bay.

As a side-note, little did he know at the time, but one of Martin's crew aboard the sinking boat was one Patch Harvey - later to become cox of the very lifeboat that rescued him that fateful night.