Pirrip Press Fish Festival prints 2015

The Fish Shop

@PirripPress have been producing limited edition prints for the Newlyn Fish Festival for the past three years. This year, we have a fresh pair of designs to commemorate the festival for just £10 each!

The Fish Shop print is a two colour shop front showing a lavish display of the sea's bounty. Spot Plaice, Cod, Prawns, Crabs and more. (And a whisker-licking onlooker).

The posters are silkscreen printed by hand, in two colours, and they are in a limited edition of just 100 each. £2 from each print sold goes to the Festival committee, to distribute to charity - so you'll be donating to a good cause, and getting something handsome to hang on your wall. The prints measure 34x 24 cm, just right for a 30x40 frame, and each one is hand numbered.

We'll be selling the prints on the North Pier come festival day (August 31st), so if you want to reserve and pay for yours now, to collect from us on the day, then choose that option from the menu below. (We'll send you a confirmation email to let you know we've put your print aside). If you can't make it, then choose the '+delivery' option below and buy one with the delivery price included.

You can also order prints online here:

Yacht Inn Newlyn to Penzance Macmillan Cancer Charity swim 2015

Watched by half the town, over 350 hundred swimmers head for the open waters of Mount's Bay in the annual Yacht Inn Macmillan Cancer Support charity swim...

it's like lemmings heading for the sea..

Tom is keeping an eye on the start line...

as the swimmers get their orders from the starter...

and they are off!...

just as the Scillonina III  makes her way back to Penance...

the ILB gets in some inshore practice...

11 minutes later there are three in close contention for the race...

as the eventual winner, Neil Eddy heads for the finishing line in 15 minutes and 51 seconds...

and gets a few photos from family and fans...

what it's all about...

the swimmers are stretched over most of the course...

some are looking forward to a well earned pint coming in 84th after 22 minutes and 12 seconds of hard swimming in choppy conditions, of water maybe...

this year's Tshirt.

Now watch the start!

Cornish Fishermen Leading the Way to Change Nonsensical EU Spurdog Management

There have been an increasing number of sporadic but significant hauls of spurdog (Squalus acanthias) encountered by Cornish fishermen in recent months. Just last week a Newlyn based trawler accidentally caught over 10 tonnes of spurdog while fishing for John Dory around the Isles of Scilly.

Ten tons of dogfish filled the entire trawl

The trawler Fern with 8 tons of dogs in 1982.

Gluts - The Mary Williams quay with 10 stone (63Kg) piles of dogfish in 1984

This meant damaged fishing gear, lost fishing time and a great deal of frustration for the skipper involved. To make it even worse under current EU fishing rules not one of the spurdog could be landed for human consumption or sold.

Cornish fishermen are no longer able to land spurdog because of stock status fears that led to a zero Total Allowable Catch (TAC) being introduced in 2010, since when no landings of spurdog have been allowed by the European Union (EU).

It would be logical to think that a zero TAC for spurdog means a zero take or zero fishing mortality on the stock, but as spurdog are widespread and locally abundant throughout the Western Approaches and other areas of the North East Atlantic this is simply not the case.


The reality is that there are accidental by-catches of spurdog in many mixed-fisheries not just in Cornwall but around the UK, this inevitably leads to a level of fishing mortality of spurdog. Under the current EU management regime these perfectly good fish must be discarded whether they are dead or alive. There is no real benefit for the stock, fishermen or wider society under the current regime of discarding dead spurdog. This is a waste of a perfectly good food resource and is clearly not in line with the principles of the recently reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and in particular the much heralded Landings Obligation (“discard ban”).


In an effort to end this madness Cornish fishermen have been at the forefront of working in partnership with scientists from CEFAS and policy makers from DEFRA since 2010 in a genuine effort to assist scientists, managers and policy makers to better understand that the current management measures for spurdog are not in tune with what they encounter on a daily basis at sea, as well as giving a valuable insight into spurdog behaviour and interactions with fishing gears in the South West.

At the heart of this ongoing working relationship is a desire to improve genuine, rather than cosmetic, management of spurdog whilst providing legitimate flexibility within the future landings obligation to account for unpredictable and unavoidable spurdog catches, i.e. allowing the landing of dead spurdog.


The Cornish Fish Producer’s Organisation (CFPO) is now taking part in an important part of the ongoing work. In conjunction with CEFAS and DEFRA it is developing a pilot project using a real time reporting system, similar to that used for the cod recovery programme in the North Sea. The project will be carried out in the Western Approaches/Celtic Sea (ICES Divisions VIIe-j). Fishermen are asked to report any spurdog catches within pre-defined reporting grids and that information can then be fed back to other skippers.


It is envisaged that the project will assist skippers by giving them up-to-date information on spurdog movements and allow skippers to make informed decisions about potential interactions. This will hopefully reduce the occurrence of significant spurdog catch events and contribute to the perceived stock improvement being witnessed by fishermen. It will not result in a complete avoidance of spurdog catches. The CFPO is therefore calling for an ability to land a marketable dead spurdog bycatch with a nominal landing allowance that does not incentivise targeting of the stock.

This proposed solution allows for the ongoing recovery of spurdog in the North East Atlantic by reducing fishing induced mortality, further improving scientific understanding of spurdog and its interactions with fishermen, whilst allowing incidental dead spurdog by-catch to be landed and marketed. This would appear be the most logical option for a way forward and of course would be in the interests of fishermen, scientists, managers and conservation.


International support for this initiative was clearly given at the most recent North Western Waters Advisory Council (NWW AC) in July, with backing from all present at the meeting and a willingness from other member states to be actively involved. For the project to work effectively, there needs to be a high level of industry-science collaboration and cooperation.

Paul Trebilcock Chief Executive of the CFPO said “Progress has been frustratingly slow on this issue. But credit must go to the skippers and crews who have remained engaged and continue to work with scientists and policy makers. There is no question in my mind that spurdog populations are increasing throughout the Western Approaches and beyond. This perception is being echoed by fishermen across Europe.

I genuinely believe that DEFRA and CEFAS understand that the current EU management regime for spurdog isn’t compatible with the Landing Obligation and are committed to changing it. George Eustice and his DEFRA team have clearly stated that the UK position will be to seek a landing allowance to stop the unnecessary waste of dead by-caught spurdog as part of the pilot project we are involved in.”

Fish Festival #FishyFriday is here!

Roll on monday when the quays will be thronging...

with people passionate about fish like Sue and Duncan Lucas, creators of the centrepiece fish display and members of the Mission team for whom the fantastic festival of fish is held...

along with the team that makes it happen...

all to celebrate what makes Newlyn the special place it is...

come and listen to fishy tales...

and get the inside story...

on the ports prime fish like these magnifique monk...

and beautiful bass...

all sold on the market by the port's top auction team...

with fish like the MSC Hake Certified netter, Karen of Ladram.

Gone fishing, good fishing.

The grader glistens after a hard night's work...

sorting some good trips of big white fish from the netters Ajax...

who because of the increased mesh size they use these days are now very selective retaining only the bigger fish each trip for quota species like these pollack...

while the inshore netter new Harmony put ashore a cracking trip if monk tails and other prime white fish...

both these fish like to swim in shoals, both have good appetites, both have big flaky white flesh wehn cooked...

but which fish are they?...

not blackjacks (coley) that's for sure...

the unmistakable green glisten of a cod's tail over seen by Ian the auctioneer...

that's Newlyn Fish concentrating hard on the price to pay as hake makes good money this morning 

the Rowse crabber Emma-Louise can always be tracked at sea on the AIS map...

makes a good landing of crab this morning...

here's hoping the sun will pervade over the cloud today.

Help guys! - Fish Festival Fish needed!

With the weather not helping supplies - this is a shout out to all the fishermen of Newlyn and beyond! 

#eatmorefish

Donations of fish for the Mission Fish Festival Auction central fish display that Sue and Duncan Lucas so kindly travel all the way down from London to put together are urgently needed.

Don't forget ANY fish and anything interesting you haul up can be used to help make the fish display the focus of the festival that visitors expect to see!

Seaweed and stars, whelks and miller's thumbs are all welcome!

Just mark the fish or a box with Fish Fest!

Did you know Newlyn boats regularly land over 40 different species in a week on the market?

Timely showing - First episode of The Catch goes out on the night of the Fish Festival at 8pm on Channel 4.

Here's a timely new TV documentary in the light of the changes to the way the Mission operates out of Newlyn - come and meet Phil Mitchell, skipper of the gill netter Govenek of Ladram as she plies the Western Approaches in her quest for hake, turbot and monk - in the kind of conditions that make most people thankful they are watching from the comfort of their sofa!

"In this new series Channel 4 have taken the fixed-rig camera to one of the most extreme destinations yet. Deep-sea fishing is the one of the most dangerous jobs in Britain, by some margin, and The Catch gives us unprecedented insight into the reality of life at sea.

The Govenek of Ladram in 'Through the Gaps' of Newlyn harbour.

Every day off the coast of England dozens of deep sea fishing crews are battling rough seas in order to hunt out the most valuable fish. But life at sea is often about so much more than fish. Miles out at sea the six-man crews only have each other to rely on, eating, sleeping and working together a matter of metres apart at all times – the work is tough, tensions are high and sleep is limited, how will these men learn to co-exist? Living in an environment like this is intense, and the fixed-rig shows fishermen like you’ve never seen them before – the on-board pranks, arguments at the dinner table, seasickness and the knowledge that a single haul can turn around the fate of a boat.
Though there's plenty of risk, the rewards can be high. After years of bad news stories and EU quota battles, the word is there is still money to be made at sea. Peak season for high-value fish is October to April – coinciding with the worst weather of the year. To succeed they have to pit themselves against dangerous weather conditions such as gale-force winds, 40-foot swells, and endless, driving rain.

Whilst the crew are out at sea, their partners and children are at home holding the fort. Constantly checking the weather and praying for a safe return some are parenting single-handedly, coping with the threat of bankruptcy, organising weddings and giving birth – life continues on land while the men are away at sea.

With a shortage of young men who have grown up in traditional fishing communities wanting to follow in their fathers' footsteps – recruiters are having to find new fishermen from further and further afield. This combined with rumours of big pay cheques has resulted in a new generation of landlubbers looking for work at sea, luring lads with no background in fishing to England’s busiest ports. The series follows these rookies as they join the tight-knit crews on board and see if they can hack it.

Episode 1 - Meet the realPhil Mitchell - skipper of the Govenek of Ladram

In the first episode of the series we meet Phil, the skipper of a large Gill netter called the ‘Govenek of Ladram’. Phil runs a tight ship, wanting his crew to work hard, eat together as a team and even makes sure that they dress up for meals without any fish guts on their clothes. Phil’s crew, Stan, Stevie, Sean, Bricktop and Simon, have been with him for years and are a well-oiled machine. But fishing can be a young man’s game and his crew isn’t getting any younger, Phil needs to bring in new blood and train them up before his most experienced deckhands move to an easier boat, or retire altogether.

Louis is a lost 21-year-old on the dole who has struggled in the past to feel part of a group and make friends. He lives at home with his mum and has never been to sea before. He has signed up for a deckie training course in the hope that he will be able to find a career, and a crew that will accept him as one of their own. But Louis has a rough ride ahead of him, to fit in he doesn’t just have to show that he can graft on deck but that he understands the rules of boat etiquette.

The Govenek fishes mainly for hake,

But life on board isn’t only difficult for the rookies, all the pressure and big decisions fall into the hands of skipper Phil. On a fishing boat there are no set wages, the crew earn a percentage of the profits – so if the haul is bad, the fish prices drop or a storm sets in they are the ones with the big decisions to make. Phil decides to steam 197 miles through a gale force 10 storm in the hunt for a good catch. But will his gamble of £7000 of diesel fuel steaming through 40 foot swells pay off and ensure that his crew comes away with a paycheck after a week at sea?

Behind the scenes: Just some of the camera cabling used to film aboard the Govenek...

and the kit going ashore after the last trip filming was completed.

See the story behind the new series on Channel 4 here:

And the full video trailer here: