Through the Gaps! - Fishing News Cornwall UK fish commercial fishing fish cooking and art

Monday, 31 July 2023

Muggy, misty, mizzly Monday morning in New;yn.

It seems flaming June did not turn into inferno July...

not that the fish take any notice, plenty of top quality hake from the Ygraine on this morning's market...

to go with a few boxes of scad...

dinner plate sized turbot are still being caught by the boxful...

as are every netter's nightmare, spurdogs...

top fish for flavour and delicate flesh are brill...

at the opposite end of the scale are BBQ favourites blue shark...

and for those who love something different to cook, John Dory from the Britannia V...

and the less well know small eyed ray - difficult to spot when just the wings are landed...

beam trawl favourites included Dovers...

and monk tails...

all of which need careful tallying up...

also from the Britannia V, a handful of boxes of blacljacks or saithe...

which bream is this?...

red mullet...

mackerel...

and bass will no doubt be on sale across the country tomorrow...

those eyes really are small...

and that back really is thorny...

turbot a-plenty...

while crawfish keep coming...

as do hake for the net boats...

which is what Cito, long serving crewman aboard the Karen of Ladram smiling as he overends another tier of hake gear.

Saturday, 29 July 2023

Cornish fishermen, Lottie needs your help!

My name is Lottie - I am doing research on how there is less and less space for fishing boats because of other activities like marine renewable energy and marine protected areas (MPAs). I want to hear from fishermen about how this affects them.

If you would like to take part, I will interview you for about 40-60 minutes. We can meet in the harbour, a cafe, or online, whichever you prefer. I want to hear about your experiences and how these things are affecting you, and how it is affecting your community.

Your participation is completely anonymous and you can opt out at any time. Your answers will help me understand how activities other than fishing are affecting some Cornish fishermen, which is an important issue that is often overlooked.

Thank you for your time.

Contact Information

If you would like to participate or have any further queries, please contact Lottie Pearson at: cp752@exeter.ac.uk

Warming seas in North East Atlantic could harm key fish stocks - MSC report.

The combined impact of the record-breaking marine heat wave in the North Atlantic on top of warming seas linked to accelerated climate change could have a significant impact on iconic pelagic fish species in the North East Atlantic, warns the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the NGO that sets a global standard for sustainable fishing.

Mackerel, Atlanto-scandian herring, and blue whiting rely on the cooler waters of the North Atlantic to reproduce and maintain healthy populations. However, warming seas could limit their ability to spawn, leading to declines in the numbers of fish and significantly affecting seafood supplies and ocean ecosystems.[1]

Warming seas can also influence a northward movement of fish towards cooler temperatures, making it important that governments work together across national boundaries to ensure effective monitoring and management of shared fish stocks.

These species are already being overexploited because key fishing nations such as the UK, Norway, EU, Iceland, Faroes, Greenland and Russia are unable to agree on total fishing quotas in line with scientific advice. This political impasse coupled with warming seas pushing fish further north and changing their distribution patterns, are creating a perfect storm putting the future health of these important fish stocks at risk.

As seas become warmer and marine heat waves more frequent [2] governments must prioritise managing these stocks sustainably to help ensure they are resilient to climate change impacts.

If they cannot agree on climate-smart fishery management strategies, the consequences on fish populations will be even more severe, with research finding that warming seas, including marine heat waves, have reduced some Atlanto-scandian herring populations by 40% between 2005 and 2015. [3]

Dr Olav Sigurd Kjesbu, Principal scientist, Institute of Marine Research, Norway, said:

“We know these pelagic fish stocks are sensitive to temperature changes. We have already seen that climate affects their distribution, their ability to spawn and mortality rates. Rapid warming of the seas could accelerate these changes. They could also have a significant impact on the ability of herring and blue whiting to reproduce based on recent analyses."

Scientists are concerned that if the current North Atlantic marine heat wave continues it could repeat the impact of similar marine heat waves around the globe. Both the 2011 Western Australia [4] and 2014-2016 US West Coast [5] marine heat waves reduced fish populations to such an extent that fisheries closed for more than three years to help rebuild fish stocks.

Dr Christopher Free, Marine Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, said:

"In the last decade, marine heatwaves have disrupted fisheries all around the world. If conditions in the North Atlantic stay hot, similar catastrophes may be on the horizon."

The El Niño phenomenon, predicted to cause 50% of oceans to develop heat waves by September, [6] has already caused the world’s largest pelagic fishery, the Peruvian Anchoveta fishery, to cancel this year’s fishing season.[7]

Erin Priddle, the MSC’s Regional Director for Europe, said:

“Policy makers must find a way to incorporate stock shift changes, such as changing distributions of the North East Atlantic pelagics, into long-term and robust fisheries management plans. Without joined up and effective planning, our fisheries resources could be put at risk of overexploitation, overfishing, and even stock collapse. Take the example of Atlanto-scandian herring in the 1960s[8], where overfishing and mismanagement of the stock led to huge economic and social consequences, with many fisheries and herring processors going bankrupt and thousands of jobs lost. With even greater political and environmental change ahead, we must learn from the past and ensure that fisheries management is climate-ready, resilient and adaptive to change.”

Friday, 28 July 2023

Fish of the week 32 - Spotted Ray

Blonde and spotted - two very common types of ray landed pretty much every day on the market in Newlyn - but which one is the spotted one?

It's the one on the right - where the spots don't extend to the edge of the wings and are generally less well defined. Spotted ray also don't grow to the size that blondes can.

Spotted rays are a small to medium sized, inshore and coastal shelf species attaining a maximum length of 80cm and weight of 4kg. Males mature at a length of about 54cm and females at about 57cm (both between 3 to 8 years old). The species has a maximum recorded age of 14 years. Mature females produce between 20 and 70 eggs per year. Its small body size and relatively high recruitment rate means that it is less vulnerable to fishing pressure than many. All skates and rays are managed by a mixed quota system in EU waters.

Ray and skate are a bit of a marmite fish it seems - though once tried are a firm favourite. An added bonus is that they are good fish to introduce to the small ones in the house as there are no bones to speak of - only cartilage from which the flesh is very easily separated.

Local fish-meister, Ben Tunnicliffe at the Tolcarne Inn is a big fan of ray cooking as can be seen from his demonstration some years back at the Jubilee Pool restaurant. There is hardly a fish cook book from the likes of Nathan Outlaw, Mitch Tonks, Gordon Blackiston, Rick Stein all have great ray recipes in their armoury.