Welcome to Through the Gaps, the UK fishing industry's most comprehensive information and image resource. Newlyn is England's largest fish market and where over 50 species are regularly landed from handline, trawl, net, ring net and pot vessels including #MSC Certified #Hake, #Cornish Sardine, handlined bass, pollack and mackerel. Art work, graphics and digital fishing industry images available from stock or on commission.
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is conducting a programme to assess vessel monitoring systems to identify devices that meet its technical specifications for reporting of location, heading and speed by under 12m fishing vessels.
Vessels under 12m long will be legally required to report positional data from an approved device to the MMO operations room during fishing trips. This data will enable a better understanding of the scale, location and seasonality of fishing activity.
To support fishers in obtaining an I-VMS device that meets this forthcoming legal requirement and is suitable for their vessel, the MMO’s ‘type approval’ process is intended to bring as many suppliers into the marketplace as possible so that there’s a broad choice of devices at a range of prices for fishers to choose from.
In the under-12m fishing fleet, the range of specifications for vessels - for example, in terms of powering and housing the devices – is diverse. Vessel owners are best placed, with the right support from suppliers, to decide which device and service package suits them.
Key Dates
Interested suppliers will have from the opening of the programme on 24 August 2021 until it’s close on 1 October 2021, to submit their evidence and documentation for review.
There will be an opportunity for MMO and suppliers to clarify issues until 26 October 2021.
A formal announcement listing the devices approved is then expected to take place before the end of the year and will be published on this website along with information regarding each device’s service offerings and supplier/product website details.
Update 31/08/21
We will allow an extended period of until the 28th of October for suppliers to submit all the required certifications. This has been granted as some certifications may take a period of time to obtain.
In order to be eligible to receive the certificate extension, suppliers must provide evidence to the MMO at IVMS@marinemanagement.org.uk that they are in the process of obtaining their certifications by the 1st of October.
Few fishing industry players in the history of Newlyn have provoked as much conversation in the pubs, down the quays in wheelhouses and on decks as that of Billy Stevenson, patriarch of the Stevenson fishing company who passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 93. One of his daughters, Elizabeth, remains in the family business which began back in the early 19th century with forebear John Stevenson arriving in Newlyn from Whitby.
From those humble beginnings the fishing family have seen Newlyn take advantage of its proximity to rich fishing grounds and expand from being one of the smallest harbours in Cornwall with little protection from passing storms through continual quay building projects to becoming the largest fishing port in England. By the end of the 1970s the family presided over the largest privately owned fishing fleet in Europe with over 30 trawlers, netters and beam trawlers.
Billy began his career in the family business at the end of the second world war at a time when their fleet, managed by his father, Billy Stevenson, expanded rapidly and took on a number of 60ft plus ex-Admiralty MFVs from Brixham. The Jacqueline PZ192 was the first of many such vessels when long-lining and trawling was the preferred method of fishing for these boats.
For many years these ex-Admiralty vessels were the mainstay of the family fleet until the late 1970s when three ex-Dutch beam trawlers and three steel 'Sputnik' class trawlers arrived to expand the fleet further. These relatively modern vessels drove the family fortunes ahead as they took advantage of expanding European markets for a plentiful supply of quality flatfish species like Dover, megrim and lemon soles and monkfish. In those days over 90%of the fish auctioned on the market ended up on mainly French and Spanish plates.
Filmed just after the Second World War aboard the Newlyn sidewinder Jacqueline. The boat was an ex-Admiralty MFV (motorised fishing vessel) built in 1943 and bought by Stevenson and Sons to trawl from Newlyn. She was only broken up a few years ago after a lifetime spent sidewinding off the Cornish coast. Stevenson's longest serving engineer spent most of his working life aboard the Jacqueline.
She was one of five wooden ex-MFVs that worked from the port for over 40 years...
seen in this photo from around 1978...
aboard the Jacqueline bringing the trawl in over the side aided by the roll of the boat...
gutting the haul on deck...
running repairs to the more modern steel doors...
Billy Stevenson continued his fathers' belief in refurbishing secondhand vessels and when pressed on tis would say, "see, new boats don't catch any more fish". To this day the firm has never commissioned a new build to add to their fleet, many of which are named after family members, the Billy Rowney, Elizabeth Caroline, Elizabeth Anne Webster, William Stevenson, the Bryan D Stevenson, Marie Claire, Anthony Stevenson, Karen, ABS, Jacqueline, Lisa Jacqueline, Sara Shaun, Roseland...
here, skipper David Hichens is sat in the completely refurbished galley of the Elizabeth Anne Webster shorlty before he took her to sea for the first time...
and then, of course, there was William Sampson Stevenson PZ191 which starred in the BBC TV series The Skipper featuring a certain Roger Nowell who skippered the boat which he referred to as, "my little tiger". Roger like many skippers had an enduring relationship with Billy whose main responsibility within the family firm was to oversee the skippers, crews, boats, engineers and every other trade required to keep a large fishing fleet at sea.
Managing around 30 skippers and their crews, all of whom by the very nature of their work and sensibilities erred on the side of headstrong adventuring types was, to say the least a challenge. Inevitably, there were times when Billy's relationship with the skippers was tested to the limit and, when things weren't going his way (and given that as share fishermen there is absolutely nothing by way of any contract between the skipper, crew and vessel owner) such truculence occasionally resulted in an on-the-spot quayside sacking. Infamously, in what became known as, the 'Good Friday sacking', not one but five sippers were duly sacked for refusing to sail that day owing to what they considered to be inclement weather.
One of the boats, the Sara Shaun was immediately put up on the slip - the skipper having once 'availed himself of' the boat after being sacked in a previous incident and fished a trip to make his point - but that's a story for another day. However, as had happened in the past, Billy relented and the skippers (bar one) were duly reinstated on Easter Monday and able to sail again. Though rumour has it they were all pretty pleased with themselves as the outcome was that they got to spend Easter ashore!
The yarns and incidents surrounding Billy's reign over the fleet are the stuff of local legend and would no doubt fill a book, or two. The are few people in the wider fishing community who don't have a favourite story which all depend at some stage in the telling on the inclusion of Billy's actual words, and you know when one of these quotes is coming as they are inevitably proceeded by the word, "see" and a short pause.
My personal experience to exemplify such tales harks back to the time when I skippered the converted wooden ex-Admiralty MFV Trewarveneth, built in Rye in 1946 and after a lifetime trawling converted to netting in 1990.
he date is a crucial element as it is a key in contextualising Billy's attitude, his way of working and his sense of humour. In the early 1990s while fishing the Pistola Bank south of Ireland many miles from the nearest land I was forced to dodge overnight as a severe gale tore through the area. Keeping the boat head to wind as the odd sea tumbled over the ancient boat's bow and down the shelteredeck, I spent much of the time consoling the youngest member of the crew who found the experience was not to his liking, not helped by the fact that over the VHF radio we were listening to a Mayday situation some 20 miles north of us as an SAR helicopter was preparing to take off the crew of a sinking coaster. Concerned that as a result of the constant battering from the growing seas and the age of the wooden vessel that she might be taking water I had the fishroom checked on a regular basis to see that she was not taking water any faster than normal. In the end, all was well and we picked up our nets again from the afternoon onwards and completed the trip a few days later.
Back in port, landed and the fish sold on the morning auction I headed up the steps to the office to collect the settling for the trip - in those days this was in cash. Mindful of the experience and the stress that the boat had been put through I felt I ought to convey some concern for the lack some precautionary safety arrangements aboard the 'Trewar'. While it might seem a little odd today, at the time there was no bilge alarm fitted in the fishroom, just the engine room. Billy spotted me from behind the counter and enquired as to how we had found the trip given the poor weather we had fished through. I took that as an opportunity to raise my concern over the lack of a warning system in the fishroom considering her age and said, "By the way Billy, there's no bilge alarm in the fishroom", to which he immediately replied, "See, she never had one when she was built!". To be fair, by the time we sailed one had been duly fitted.
Billy lived and breathed harbour life, his fleet of boats and every other boat that entered his domain were all subject to his eternal concern. His white Triumph Dolomite gave away his presence every time...
as can be seen here as he watches a Breton trawler head for the gaps in a severe storm. Also in the car would be his trusty camera ever by his side and from which a collection of photos stretching back decades exosts, a large number of which are available online in the Billy Stevenson Collection at Cornish Memory.
At home, a pair of glasses was a permanent feature by a rear window. Even after he retired, the home which he shared with wife Enid afforded him a ringside seat and allowed him to continue to monitor the constant comings and goings in the port...
seen here giving two of his shore staff the benefit of a lifetime's experience in running the fleet.
From the first day he had a VHF fitted at home, every skipper just knew that sooner or later they would hear is dulcet tones calling them up as they headed for the gaps on the way in.
His love of his boats extended to sending the Excellent when in her sidewinding days to the huge classic boat festival in Brest...
and, not to be outdone by the Mount's Bay Lugger Society's Happy Return, he had the Children's Friend restored as a lugger.
Every year, Billy would see to it that one of the fleet would be put up on the slip and suitably decorated for the Christmas period, in this instance, the Elizabeth Caroline.
Billy has now joined many of those that worked on and in his fleet of boats, his legacy will remain in the collection of boat memorabilia and his huge photo collection that will surely find a home in the heritage centre planned for the port. Likewise, in the Swordfish and Star, pubs which almost owe their very existence to his fleet of boats even though he never crossed their thresholds, yarns about him will no doubt be handed down to further generations of fishermen, many of them preceded by that single word. As one oilskin-clad wag suggested, perhaps his headstone should carry the epithet,
Not a breath of wind at first light this morning in Newlyn...
this "Johnny Dory" will put a smile on young Mr Cleave's face later this morning when it arrives in Port Isaac...
the market was brimming with gillnet fish this morning...
with plenty of hake form the Stelissa...
and Silver Dawn...
along with a handful of blues...
and spurdog landed under licence...
and a good selection of haddock...
while the beam netter Ocean Pride filled the second chillroom...
with her huge landing of pollack...
along with the beam trawler, Billy Rowney's megrims...
red mullet...
monk tails...
and plaice...
quickly palleted ready for despatch to individual buyers...
one grandaddy squid...
and a decent sized turbot...
added to the trip of lemons...
and ray...
these two company's vessels supply Newlyn with the bulk of the fish landed...
over in the fridge the handliners's fish includes mackerel from Cap'n Cod, happy to give the local bass a break for a day...
the odd pristine red mullet...
while some bass still found its way ashore...
all set to land, the Ygraine...
and an aerial view of her immaculate working deck...
just some of the fishing and nav lights these vessels must carry...
what was once a stony beach, Keel Alley now hosts grass decorated with autumnal leaves...
up for some repairs, the Mordros which is Cornish for 'sound of the sea'...
these pots have been lost for many many months if not years...
once the replacement vessel arrives for the Nicola of Ladram the two boats will share around 5,000 pots between them - being able to manage so many pots these big new crabbers now fish over a considerable area...
if all those pots were shot in a single string, set 15 fathoms apart, from just north of Lands End they would reach Lundy Island...
it is not often the Mary Williams pier is devoid of boats , this morning jut the one crabber landing and one between trips...
We are always being told to "read the terms and conditions' - many in the fishing industry may feel DEFRA have shown dereliction in their duty to do so on their behalf.
As Article 25 says:
(1) When distributing catch quotas and effort quotas for use by fishing boats, the national fisheries authorities must use criteria that—
(a)are transparent and objective, and
(b)include criteria relating to environmental, social and economic factors.
(2) The criteria may in particular relate to—
(a)the impact of fishing on the environment;
(b)the history of compliance with regulatory requirements relating to fishing
(c)the contribution of fishing to the local economy;
(d)historic catch levels.
(3) When distributing catch quotas and effort quotas for use by fishing boats, the national fisheries authorities must seek to incentivise—
(a)the use of selective fishing gear, and
(b)the use of fishing techniques that have a reduced impact on the environment (for example that use less energy or cause less damage to habitats).
Today WikiLeaks publishes over 30,000 documents (the first of two batches) it has obtained from a whistleblower within SAMHERJI, a multinational fishing company based in Iceland. They expose corrupt schemes by the company in Namibia to gain access to rich fishing grounds off the African country’s shores.
The documents are dated from 2010 to 2016, the period during which the company gained its foothold in Namibia. SAMHERJI has now become the biggest single recipient of fishing quotas in the country. The documents (which include e-mails, internal reports, spreadsheets, presentations and photos) expose how the company spent millions of dollars in pay-offs to senior Namibian officials and politicians in order to ensure growing and continued access to the country's resources.
It also exposes that lofty promises by SAMHERJI, to build infrastructure in the country and create jobs, were never fulfilled. On the contrary, the company used its international corporate structure to transfer proceeds from the operations straight out of the country. This was done through intermediaries it controls in Cyprus and in the tax-haven of Mauritius.
Today’s released files also demonstrate how these same tools were used to transfer funds to a secret account, set up by SAMHERJI in Dubai, for the sole purpose of transferring kick-backs to the corrupt entities in Namibia.
SAMHERJI currently has operations in Iceland, Germany, Poland, U.K., the Faroe Islands, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal as well as Namibia. The company has been fast-growing in the last two decades and has a turnover in the excess of $700 million.
The documents were provided by Mr. Jóhannes Stefánsson, the former Managing Director of SAMHERJI´s operations in Namibia. He has decided to come forward as a whistleblower and testify about the activities of the company. Mr. Stefánsson is also cooperating with anti-corruption authorities and police in Namibia, who have been investigating the case for close to a year. The Namibian authorities have sought assistance with the investigation from their counterparts in Dubai, Mauritius, Cyprus, Norway and Iceland. The reason for Norway’s involvement is that some of the Cyprus-based companies belonging to SAMHERJI used Norwegian bank accounts to transfer funds.
The first part of the release is published by WikiLeaks in conjunction with reporting by both WikiLeaks and its media partners, Kveikur, the investigative unit of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV), the Icelandic newspaper Stundin, and the Namibian daily The Namibian. The second part of the release is expected in 2-3 weeks when Al-Jazeera and other media partners will publish their findings.
Today WikiLeaks releases documents pertaining to the Fishrot case that have come to light as a result of investigation into bribes, money laundering and tax evasion. These investigations have been launched by several institutions across Norway, Iceland and Namibia as a result of WikiLeaks' Fishrot publication earlier this month.
The first document details internal exchanges between staff at DNB, Norway’s largest bank, from April 2018 to 2019, discussing how to respond to AML flagging (anti-money laundering) from Bank of New York Mellon. Specifically it relates to payments from the international fishing company Samherji to JPC Ship Management (Cyprus), a crew management company supplying services to Samherji.
The second document outlines how DNB (the Norwegian bank) carried out a detailed assessment in 2017 of JPC Ship Management in accordance with KYC principles (Know Your Customer) and did not seem to find anything wrong, despite being classified as a high-risk customer. Another company associated with Samherji financial transactions, Cape Cod FS (Marshall Islands), however was evaluated using the very same principles and its accounts were closed as the bank could not determine who the owner was.
The third document shows how DNB finally decided to terminate its accounts with JPC Ship Management only after receiving AML flagging from Bank of New York Mellon:
“Conclusion: The client is not in need of Norwegian account or within LCI strategy. The client does not have AML Policy and there is considerable risk related to transactions to Russia and Ukraine. The necessary resources to manage the sanction risk will be too high and the client has already disrespected instruction regarding resend once. Our recommendation is offboarding the client. “
Also published today is a spreadsheet overview of transactions to and from various bank accounts of companies owned by and linked to the fishing company Samherji. They include Cape Cod FS (a Marshall Island company), JPC Ship Management (a Cypriot company) and Tundavala (a firm in Dubai set up primarily for Namibian entities to receive bribes from Samherji). The Tundavala payments continued at least until January 2019. This spreadsheet is not an original, however it is derived from the original spreadsheet which cannot be published for reasons of source protection. The original spreadsheet has been verified by WikiLeaks and investigative journalists of their media partners.
Fishrot Files - Part 3 will be released soon with the addition to the searchable database.
Al-Jazeera Investigates will air its film “Anatomy of a Bribe” based on the Fishrot Files on December 1st.
