Anchovies top the headlines for all the wrong reasons

Two boats and two decent hauls of anchovies off the Devon coast earlier this week prompts an immediate frenzy of mis-reporting in the national press - global warming and an imminent Franco-Spanish fishing invasion to cite just two examples of the need to create rather than report the news. The fish are found well inside any fishing limits and there are records going back years of anchovy being caught around the coast of the UK.

Daily Mail

Time online

Daily Telegraph

and more xenophobia from the Daily Express

and somewhere along the way the fish suddenly become Cornish!

On ice

late Friday evening and a couple of smaller netters get their fish ashore.....
along with the Britannia IV landing to a lorry.

MPA day at the Resource Centre

Date check for the Finding Sanctuary MPA day at the Cornwall Fisheries Resource Centre - it is on Wednesday the 4th November and not Monday as previously indicated here!

October's final Friday finds fresh fish fogbound.

Dull and dismal with nothing visible beyond the quay looking towards St Michael's Mount this morning.....

but indoors, in the bright and more cheerful surroundings of Newlyn Harbour Cafe a bunch of 'Mission rejects' as dubbed by cafe regular Jake, take early morning tea and discuss the state of the nation, tea and toast topics included anchovies and scad......
along the road and past the ice works, Keel Alley reflects a change in season.......
at the market, the netters CKS and Ben My Chree.......
in the market, a couple of unusually large bream keep a lonely red mullet company.....
and, at close on 57cm (if Sam from CEFAS had stretched him a little), this has to be one of the biggest dover soles on the market for some time......
caught by the Catherine Anne from Cadgwith and weighing in at close on 3kgs -bought by Smarts Prime Fish and possibly headed off to Kenny Everett (yes, he's alive and well and still stuffing fish in Truro), or possibly for a fine family feast for four.....
hake, not so benign in either looks or disposition, (hence the term 'hakers', used by Newlyn men when referring to their north-coast cousins from St Ives), examples of some of the most predatory fish in home waters......
and a couple of porbeagles to keep them company.......
peering above the ice, the bright green eye of a spur dog, much loved by London fish and chip shops and sold as rock salmon - an early form of marketing for an otherwise unsavoury sounding fish......
Lisa, unlike her namesake unable to play the saxophone, long time workhorse for the Stevenson fleet, gets her annual paint job..

MPA day at the Fisheries Resource Centre in Newlyn next Monday

Knowledge is power so the saying goes, if that's the case then a visit to the Cornwall Fisheries Resource Centre next Wednesday will provide an opportunity to find out more about Marine Protected Areas (MPA).

If you have any questions, local ex-fisherman, Spike Searle from Finding Sanctuary (sounds more like a tree-hugger's retreat than an organisation dedicated to the well-being of marine life and not to be confused with findingsanctuary ) will be available between 11am and 8pm to discuss their mission to create a network of MPAs in the seas around South West England.

Landing at night and Timmy's not a happy bunny.

Just what the boats don't need after days at sea on arriving to land their fish on a deserted quayside in the dark - searching the length and breadth of the fish market the boys from the Gary M eventually found just enough palettes on which to put their fish into the cold store......
when landing at low water, and with hundreds of pounds of fish per box, care needs to be taken to see that the boxes do not tip back into the harbour.....
skipper Timmy Boyle watches from the deck as the boxes are stacked carefully......
and pulled out of the darkness into a brightly lit market hall.....
the cold store is choked with the fish from other landings tonight......
under plenty of floodlights over on the slip, work continues well into the night on the classic sail boat Ruth where several sheets of copper sheathing have been removed to allow the shipwrights to caulk the hull......
her huge bowsprit points upwards from the slip.

BBC TV's Inside Inside Out does Newlyn and the proposed new fishmarket.

One for the diary or your Sky+ - next Monday, 2nd November on BBC1 at 7.30pm - the regional current affairs programme Inside Out has a piece on the proposed new fish market in Newlyn which explores some events leading to the current position and looks at the key issues and players behind the proposal. Should make for interesting viewing - it is likely that this previou posts, provides some of the context of this programme.

Not so funny is the strange case of the shrinking nets

Of great cause for concern amongst the trawler fleet is the case of the shrinking nets. Since the introduction of the new Omega digital net measuring apparatus many boats are fishing that their net mesh sizes are shrinking in a way that was not apparent before. BBC Cornwall has the full story.

Marine reserves update

Phil McMullen, BBC science corespondent amplifies the debate surrounding the possible introduction of more marine reserves. Under the heading 'food security', a term which perhaps more than anything best describes how the need to protect the world's global food resources, the article provides a broader view of the pressures under which fishing operates today. Thinking about how the next, and successive, generations of fishermen might want to operate should help galvanise thoughts and minds over planning for the future.



What will always irk fishermen however, is if these discussions result in more legislation, rules and controls that are inequitable in allocation - for example, where Spanish or French boats might be given access to and larger quotas for particular species in an area from which local boats operate with greatly reduced quotas and tighter controls. Consequently, the poor, but improving relationship between the scientists who carry out the research and produce the data from which these measures are introduced and the fishermen needs to be given a makeover so that the catchers feel their knowledge of fish and fishing grounds is taken into account somewhere in the equation.



Locally, the work of CEFAS does excellent work in developing a working two-way relationship with the boats, something that should be commended by all parties and used as an example of good practice.

Lazy legwork from Lelant Saltings to St Ives

St Ives rowing lifeboat now on its winter mooring......
along with the Petti Fox......
showing her superb pilot cutter lines...
which are very different to the Dolly Pentreath, (currently up for sale contact 07712 386162) a 1992 replica of the St Ives lugger Godrevey......
with her very different hull lines built to take the beach in St Ives.......
one of these days the branch line from St Erth to St Ives will play host to steam engines......
with an incoming tide the shove;ls are out on the beach under the Carbis Bay Hotel.....
all the restaurants make good use of local produce as does the Porthminster Beach Cafe.....

want to try some CelebrationFood and you won't go wrong with the delights of a 'Winter Chill' burger at Blas in St Ives (about as far removed from the BigM variety as you can imagine)......
plenty of contemporary art galleries to browse while in the town......

including this huge chapel that now houses the St Ives Society of Artists' work......

out in the harbour the fleet are tied up and dried out.

Tuesday morning

A few gulls wait for the sun to appear......
in a fresh southerly breeze......
there's many hours work on this trawl before it can be joined to the footrope.....
was MAFF, was DEFRA, now the MFA and continuing their work gathering catch data.....
Mr Quality himself, Scorpio skipper Danny Phillips tops of the landing with a final layer of ice just before these superb red mullet, brilliant red gurnard and pollack go for auction.....
maybe someone can help the kids out at Pendeen School withe their request for an old boat.....
one set of nets with heavily weeded ends that must have been in the water for some time.....
young Mr Hicks passes another one of life's milestones, bet Mum tucked him in again......
a contemporary take on the traditional three flying ducks on a wall might just make an ideal Christmas present.....
or even a gannet, courtesy of Badcock's Gallery currently showing some of Jessica Cooper's work.....
shut for the week, the Mission is only open between 10-12 while a some new showers are installed and the foyer re-built......
just to the right of the Red Lion pub is the original Fishermen's Mission.

Marine reserves - is one coming your way soon?

As the winter nights draw in thanks to the clock going back this weekend more time might be spent on catching up with what is happening in the maritime world. Sure to make the headlines in the coming months is news that more marine reserves like the no-take zone around Lundy Island are in the offing - read this, one of many stories that have appeared or found air time in the media this week.

The recently published final report for the Fisher Map makes an interesting read and also provides an invaluable insight as to how organisations work in partnership with other agencies and the fishing industry. A look at the Finding Sanctuary web site reveals a few familiar faces in the team.

Sunday sights

The decks of the Marie Clare are given a dose of running sea water.......
just checking the catch before......
landing beam trawl fish to the walk-in fridge on the market.....
an unusual hull shape on the Catherine-Anne.......
it'll be mayhem in the office tonight if Ben has his way.....

relief boat Beth Sell speeds off on exercise towards Mousehole.