Through the gaps! - Newlyn Fishing News: 24/05/09

Race night

two different dinghy classes go head-to-head, Penzance Sailing Club's Thursday night is race night......

maybe walking helps......

passing the isolated danger.....

as the dinghys now head in the same direction with a little help from the oars....

and fight over the same patch of wind.....

back in Newlyn, there's mackerel to be landed.

Customs about

Its open house! - dozens of artists and creative studios are currently open to the public - this includes many artsist's private homes or studios as can be visited at Sally Bassett's in Mousehole.....

while it may not be beach weather for the Whitsun break, as ever, the Mount puts on its spooky mood especially for the visitors.....

there's copper in them there rocks.....

lurking in the mist, the Customs cutter heads out to sea.....

and for the first time ina while there's lights aboard the Lisa.

Splicing in the past

While herring gulls may have just joined the 'red list' of Britain's most threatened birds the omni-present blackbacks continue to plunder anything that looks vaguely edible in the harbour, quite what this one sees in cardboard packaging is anybody's guess.....

all 18 starboard-side dredges on display aboard the Olivia Jean.....

a handful of new inshore pots wait for their first trip....

the two biggest trawlers currently working from Newlyn, St Ives registered Crystal Sea II with the visiting Banff registered Tranquility laying outside her land to a waiting lorry...

seems that some considerate person has heeded the harbour's call for boxes and is in the process of making a collection.....

many hands make light work - the Tranquility's fish is transferred across shelterdecks to the lorry.....

another visiting scalloper TN37 Philomena from TN Trawlers moves back into tier after the Brixham beamer Barentszee leaves for the grounds.....

these days crews no longer have the job of splicing heavy wire stays and rigging, the hard eyes come ready crimped.

And they called it conservation - have discards died a death?

A meeting of European fisheries ministers in Brussels concluded with a consensus for a new Common Fisheries Policy to be radically decentralised.

Ever since fish and sheep were swapped by the Heath government for EEC entrance tokens back in the 70s - the introduction of the Common Fisheries Policy has grown into a huge carbuncle on the back of the UK's fishing industry while it tried to match catches to quotas - in every sense an amoral means of conservation - the CFP has caused thousands of tons and millions of pounds worth of fish to be dumped dead needlessly in the name of conservation - an impossible goal in any mixed fishery. At last it seems that the grossly simplistic policy, at best designed to create accord and appease EU member states at various times, is in the process of being written out of existence which should see the end of prosecutions all round the UK for landing black fish.

Next week, the latest victims of these prosecutions are due to be fined at Plymouth Crown Court according to their gain from selling 'over quota' fish - the future will hopefully see something different - a more regionalised fisheries management process brought into being where responsibility for fish stocks is devolved down to those whom think they know best - the fishermen involved from each member state - should be interesting to see what form and how this is implemented! Hopefully industry excesses of the past will, with the benefit of hindsight, serve as a reminder what happens when there are no controls - think herring and cod or, for local examples, crayfish, ling and skate.

The EU has called on all for thoughts and ideas - now anyone can have their say it seems.

Listen to the SFA's spokesperson, Bertie Armstrong here:

Bigger boats mean bigger headaches all round

Suggestions for a caption for the photo below.....

With the huge visiting scalloper, TN35 Olivia Jean (ex BM181 Sasha Emiel) having a deep draught and wanting to go on the hard at high water, harbourmaster Andrew has plenty to scratch his head about.....

especially while the crew aboard the scalloper, which tows 18 dredges a side, still have plenty of rigging to rig and spares to take on board......

some of the deckhands heave damaged stays on to the quay.....

as another visitor, the Brixham registered Barentszee built in 1984 in Belgium, lands to a waiting lorry.....

training crew aboard the gig Porthereas head in past a bevvy of anglers as they touch on a few strings of mackerel in the gaps.....

at last, Andrew gets to escort the Olivia Jean to a berth alongside the old harbour office.....

one of the bigger tides of the year, as can be seen at the end of the quay......

giving the Olivia Jean a helping nudge into her berth......

shortly after, the Barentszee heads into the iceworks berth to top up her ice stores.....

the Elizabeth N now has a freshly ant-fouled hull plus a new set of anodes fitted and is ready to go back down the slipway.

Anyone seen our boxes?

With a big run of small and medium mackerel prices dipped as low as 10p and 50p respectively prompting one handliner to suggest that it would have been better if all hands had taken some time off over the Bank Holiday weekend instead of catching every day and filling the cold store with fish....

No doubt about the pedigree of this beautiful varnished yacht on one of the pontoon berths over the weekend, read more about the Zaleda on the British Classic Yacht Club's website.......

after the Bank Holiday weekend brough fine weather and plenty of tourists the market was laden with quality fish this Tuesday morning.....

with the Cornishman back in the red mullet again........

time for the store pots to be picked up and landed from the My Lass......

with a good mixture of shellfish including lobster.......

crab, a sample of which is being measured for compliance with the minimum landing size (MLS) required for crab and recorded by MFA staff......

though these huge cock crabs will see the measuring gauge stretched to its limit.....

while Craig sorts the last box of hens........

the big fella has a big smile to go with his morning's work......

another stone brought ashore after coming up in the gear, that's one less for the inshore trawler fleet to worry about.....

for those up early enough, there's a steady stream of punts to be seem heading back along the shore between Newlyn and Mousehole after the morning mackerel session....

some with enough boxes of fish caught to be seen from the shore......

and put the stern down in the water in the slightly choppy conditions.....

the Anglian Princess is still on standby......

while the punts head in one of the bigger toshers under Cap'n Harvey heads out....

output from the current, 'Newlyn School' of art extends well beyond the four walls of the Orion Gallery and other officially sanctified sites, here an unsigned seascape, thought possibly attributable to one Ben Gunn.....

and further along the shore some graffitti records the day the Grimsby stern trawler Conqueror ran aground in 1977........

a contemplative Mark Payne heads for the market, in no rush, as it appears there is a dire shortgae of red harbour boxes, seems the fish merchants have been hoarding them again as they were reminded in a plea from harbourmaster Andrew Munson on Radio Cornwall's breakfast show........

despite the diminishing number of local inshore trawlers there are an increasing number of visitors working from the harbour, recently joined is the CO365 Celtic Pride alongsider the Exeter registered Girl Debra.....