Neap tides and Newlyn netters queue for ice

Turquoise to go......
delivered by forklift, the Tranquility's heavy doors as required for twin-rig trawling......
round in his second home, Traz has the Dignity on a pontoon berth as apposed to riding out the heavy swells in St Ives harbour where she is based for the rest of the year.....
with a forar'd wheelhouse the Emerald Star no doubt needs the clearview window at times......
Crystal Sea II, one of the boats that is looking forward to the day when she can land her fish to a computerised, temperature controlled fish auction at Newlyn, takes ice before landing to a waiting lorry......
Harvest Reaper under scrutiny from the quay, as the neap tide approach, the netters make their way to the ice works in readiness for their next trip......
she joins the queue headed up by the Nova Spero, no doubt top tuna skipper Sean Edwards is champing at the bit as he prepares to make his first netting trip for a good while.....
some of the resident gull population wait for the boxes of bait to appear on the Emma......
in between the showers which gives the harbour a decidedly fresh look as the sun re-appears.....
on the tug Doris K, the port side fairlead has now been repaired.......
it seems that chain is now designed for specific countries, maybe this drum should have gone north of the border?

Hibernating the Scillonian III

Visiting Irish scalloper Emerald Star......
has plenty of room up in the bow to store tooth bars.......
she works 8 dredges a side......
up goes the scaffolding on the Resurgan......
a beast of a night and not to be missed in the Swordfish.....
Breton trawler bound away......
over in Penzance wet dock the Scillonian has been brought in for her winter lay-up.....
closely monitored by harbourmaster Neil on the ropes.....
the Danmark with Jeremy at the helm eases the luxury steel super yacht Vega to be into her new berth alongside the Scillonian - a tricky move with the strong wind blowing across the dock.

The debate continues apace

In case you have missed the debate - over on the Newlyn.info web site there is an open and frank discussion developing with regard to plans to develop the new fish market. The site has now registered over 4.500 hits which is a measure of the interest being generated in the plans since the televising of BBC1's Inside Out's investigation on Monday evening.

Two things are becoming clear.

First, there is increasing awareness that the running of the harbour has failed to meet the requirements of a modern fishing industry where many boats have invested heavily in improvements like refrigerated, insulated fishrooms, boxing at sea and improved working practices to increase the quality of their catches.

Second, what is important is that what happens next is of benefit to all concerned in order to secure a future for the port (remember, it is still the largest by turnover in England, not just Cornwall) and the community on which it not only depends but thrives.

Follow the debate as it unfolds!

Latest figures from MFA for Newlyn, Plymouth and Brixham - where both Brixham and Plymouth receive fish from far and wide (especially the £2 million plus from Newlyn boats for which PTA's Dave Pessel is extremely grateful, as he said on the TV programme!)


Total all species from Jan to Jul 2009 inclusive.

Newlyn - £10,007,735
Brixham - £9,084,795
Plymouth - £6,789,432

Latest figures for Brixham, (BTA) show over £13 million with the best of the cuttle season to come.

Demersal species from Jan to Jul inclusive.

Newlyn - £7,866,615
Brixham - £5,093,629
Plymouth - £1,991,377

Pelagic species from Jan to Jul inclusive.

Newlyn - £436,488
Brixham - £157,528
Plymouth - £2,709,280

All shellfish from Jan to Jul inclusive.

Newlyn - £1,704,632
Brixham - £3,833,638
Plymouth - £2,088,775

Newlyn in the late 1960s captured on film

This is the first of three short videos shot on cine film around 1967. Pat Pilkerton's father narrates. A big thank you to the family for allowing this fascinating film to be seen again!

In the first clip towards the end the sight of huge crayfish will surely provoke some comment and, for those who were around at the time, there are plenty of familiar faces to spot and name!

Part II

Shots of girls picking crab in Harvey's, mending trawl net, making up new baskets of longlines and putting fuel and ice aboard the Girl Patricia.

Part III

Full moon blows hard

Dark, broody, menacing moonlit skies hang over a harbour full of boats........
including the solitary Alf from les Sables - a sign of the times in that not so many years ago there would have been up to twenty similar Breton boats sheltering in Newlyn during and extended blow.

Inside Out - asks, what next?

Dave Pessel explains the computer auction system at Plymouth Trawler Agents (courtesy of BBC's Inside Out - South West)

Last night, BBC1's regional current affairs programme Inside Out investigated a situation that has developed over plans for a new fish market in Newlyn. Currently, the harbour commissioners, chaired by Billy Stevenson from the local family fishing firm, have put out and accepted a tender for a proposed new fish market building and auction operator. This has cost around £1 million in consultancy and other fees over a period of nine years during which time all the interested parties have had their chance to be involved.

By the end of the programme viewers may have sensed that the problems are intractable and left wondering where Newlyn is headed next. The next move will be down to the harbour commissioners when they initiate the new Harbour Revision Order and do what is best for the future of the port.

In the meantime, skippers like Phil Mitchell on the netter Carol H continue to use the computerised auction systems and services at Plymouth citing better prices, more efficient and hygienic fish handling in line with current working regulations as the main reasons why they land their fish away from Newlyn. Proposals to install a remote computer auction system were first made fifteen years ago and not acted on; at the time this would have seen Newlyn ahead of the competition with the first such system installed in any UK port.

More comments have been added to the Newlyn.info web site on the same subject.

If you missed the programme you can watch it again (or download it for 30 days)by using BBC's iPlayer.

BBC1 regional programme Inside Out tonight at 7.30pm - compulsory viewing

No doubt there will be much interest and some strong local viewing figures when the BBC1 programme, Inside Out, does Newlyn's new fish market this evening at 7.30pm. The MFA have now said that they are happy for things to progress (regarding the proposed new fish market) with the news that the harbour commissioners will soon be adopting a new constitution that will see the number of commissioners increased to ten.

Making the unmissable unmissable, BBC iPlayer will give anyone the chance to see the show from outisde the region.

Monday market

In complete contrast to Sunday morning, Monday's skies are almost full of light and almost no wind......

a few boxes of skate are up for auction.....

along with some good looking plaice......

and a good run of winter mackerel making an appearance.....

snapped up by South Coast Fisheries are these tasty scad......

top quality shot from the Tracy Claire includes a good run of monk tails, cod, ray and a few turbot and brill.....

weighing in at over half a stone the Storm Petrol will be looking for a top-dollar price for this beautiful bass.....

the western end of the market played host to a couple of netter trips that arrived over the weekend......

with these monster 6+ kilo hakes......

an early fuel stop for some.

First winter gale sets in

No chance of confusing ownership of these net bins.....
with the weather a tad inclement outside the gaps a few hardened anglers take shelter angling from the comfort of a pontoon berth.....
out in the Bay, the gale force winds have veered west nor'westerly almost obscuring the Anglian Princess on station.....
the result of strong onshore wind on a southerly facing shore - plenty of weed.