Crystal suffers twice out to sea - what we miss in the port!

Biggest and most successful of local trawlers, Crystal Sea II has suffered this week at sea. First off one of the crew managed to lose the tops of his fingers after getting them crushed (traditionally known as 'trawlermen's rash') - the helicopter airlifted the casualty ashore to hospital. Then, after making the decision to carry on fishing the boat ended up with a rope in the prop and had to be towed in to St Marys in the Scillies. However, the harbourmaster was concerned that she drew too much to risk going alongside the quay which made the diver's job of releasing the melted rope from around her prop an arduous and time-consuming task.

You can read all about these incidents and more from a third party's perspective on a survey vessel working on the Jones' Bank, west of the islands. The bank is a favourite haunt of Breton prawn trawlers so expect there to be plenty of sightings for them! As it was, the survey vessel RRS James Cook was involved in both incidents. The Crystal Sea II has been commissioned to fish within a designated area alongside the James Cook so that the scientists aboard can identify the species of fish they have been recording on their fish-meters and sonar equipent..