Keel Alley floods for the first time in years

Desperately, the sun barely breaks through the heavy cloud cover in the Bay, the glassy sky forebodes another wet day ahead.....
and for those boats at sea it can't be too comfortable as a heavy swell scours the stone beach along the prom......
up for Christmas for the first time in years, but will she be decked out in festive lights? - only time will tell......
who says men can't multi-task?, landing cuttles from the Chloe T and taking a call all in one subtle movement.....
a quick tow job to the market for WH 578.......
ahead of the Amanda who has run in before the weather and put her fish ashore......
all hands to the firs, as Michael Williams drops off this year's Newlyn harbour Lights Christmas trees......
contemplative mood in the Mission this morning complete with mystery hands......
shades of past times with Keel Alley flooded once again, a measure of just how sodden the ground is after the last few weeks of heavy downpours.....
only in Newlyn, it appears Christmas is for sale!

When science and sense prevail - CEFAS and Brixham fishermen work togther

Continuing to build a strong working partnership with the fishing fraternity - CEFAS have just published a paper on the '50%" discards trial. Working closely with beam trawlers from the Brixham fleet, CEFAS scientists and the fishermen have exceeded the 50% target and reduced discards in their trial by 62%!
The full report is available her as a pdf file, and makes fascinating reading; a chance to see just what can be achieved when scientists and fisherman get to work as a team in determining the nature of the fishing research.
CEFAS staff can often be found on the market at Newlyn, here Sam samples otoliths from plaice last year.

Of interest to the sardine boys perhaps?

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has just given notice of a 30 day consultation period for the Southern Brittany Sarine purse seine fishery. For all the details check out the page on the MSC web site.

New on the web site - AIS goes live - track Newlyn fishing boats

As of today, using the new ship plotter tracking page, you can track those fishing vessels fitted with AIS who work around the Land's End area - or anywhere around the UK.

Relatively inexpensive and simple to install, AIS has greatly increased awareness of traffic at sea - even small yachts fitted with AIS can accurately track and identify any vessels in their vicinity - whether they have them in sight or not - potentially very useful in poor visibility or fog.

Locally, boats like the netter Silver Dawn and Responsible Fishing Scheme crabber, Emma Louise are some of a growing number of local vessels fitted with AIS.

Access to the new AIS page is from a link on the Newlyn Harbour home page.

Follow that boat!

With the advent of AIS tracking it is easy to follow live the progress of individual ships as they ply their trade off Land's End. This also includes those fishing vessels fitted with the AIS system, like the French trawler above. On this tracking site it is possible to click on each arrow which shows the speed of the vessel at the time. In this instance the boat concerned was making 10 knots untill she shot and altered course to tow up past the Wolf and off towards Pendeen.

Further up the channel the Dutch freezer trawler Oceaan VII has weaved an interesting course today.

Finally, fish from four fine fishermen and their crew

A little Christmas spirit by way of illumination in Pete Tonkin's fine fish emporium brighten's up an overcast morning opposite the market.....
where Iceberg's fish wagon reverses to a loading bay.....
pile 'em high! - the first run of mackerel for weeks hits the market floor......
young Roger Nowell on the Imogen managed to get a few good hauls in and has provided the market with a welcome selction of whitefish from the Bay......
Marisco just couldn't resist the macs.....
still pretty devoid of fish but at least the buyers had something to bid for.....
including a landing from the Sardia Louise.

Newlyn starrs in short documentary film competetion

Newlyn Harbour documentary:

A Newlyn harbour, a short documentary film made by Saeed Taji Farouky

The film Synopsis:

Newlyn Harbour is a short experimental documentary exploring the southern village of Newlyn, the UK's largest fishing harbour. With the fishing industry in a crisis, Newlyn is struggling to survive in its current state. Local organisations have responded with plans for major commercialisation and modernisation. But what if the project to save Newlyn ends up killing the very thing it set out to protect? Newlyn Harbour reflects director Saeed Taji Farouky's outsider impressions of the experiences.

The competition for young film makers is sponsored by the CoOperative - closing date for entires was November 30th 2009. We wish Saeed luck!

Does discarding fish conserve stocks?

Coming up to the annual quota carve up in Brussels - perhaps representatives from each country should watch this clip of a Lerwick registered boat forced to dump tons of fish in the name of 'conservation' - fish quotas do not take into account the inability of fish to decide for themselves in which nets they should or should not get caught.

Brixham market opens with fish from an Angel.

Brixham market opened the bidding in its new market last Friday with fish from the beamer Angel Emiel. The fish made near record prices as a the dearth of fish continues thanks to one of the longest spells of prolonged gales for many years. Dover soles made £21 per kilo - thats over £120 a stone in 'old money' - almost £8 a pound on the market!

Also available on the BTA website is this very useful page that lets boat owners and merchants see at a glance what boats and fish are due for auction - a feature 'Through the gaps' is looking at introducing here.

It would seem illogical for a port like Brixham to have spent over £17 million on a new fish market to serive their fleet while in Cornwall there is talk of doing away with such a facility for the sake of a centralised depot somewhere on the A30. Newlyn's proposed market cost is less than a third of Brixham for a greater annual turnover.

Week four, the poorest run of weather for many years.

The lights are on but no one is at home, once again Monday's market was almost devoid of fish....
with the biggest landing coming from the Padstow netter Charisma who along with the Berlewen had managed to get away on Wednesday last week to work in the Channel......
in and out over the weekend, both the Crystal Sea and the Tranquility are back in Newlyn......
full steam ahead!

Antarctic heads south

Spotted on the AIS, the big Irish mid-water tank boat Antarctic headed south.