Tag Archives: Cornwall

A New Chapter In Newlyn’s Fishing Legacy: Formalising The Fish Auction Agreement

In a significant development for the Port of Newlyn, the Newlyn Pier & Harbour Commissioners (NP&HC) and W Stevenson & Sons Limited (WS&S) have finalised a landmark agreement, poised to redefine the UK’s leading quality fish auction from 1st April 2024. This formalization solidifies a longstanding and productive relationship, setting the stage for a modernised partnership aimed at bolstering the facilities and services for the Cornish fleet and the wider UK fishing industry. With the agreement set to activate on the 1st of April, WS&S will assume exclusive auctioneering rights at Newlyn Fish Market for a duration of seven years. more, >>click to read<< 10:31

Heartbreak for young fisherman after lad’s boat found dashed on rocks

Tragedy struck for a young Cornish fisherman after his boat was found dashed to pieces on rocks after drifting away on high tide. Antony Newcombe, 13 and from Cawsand, began selling fresh fish and crabs he had caught “with no carbon foot print on Cawsand beach”. The young fisherman had hoped to sell enough to upgrade to a bigger vessel this year. At high tide a few days ago, Anthony’s boat, along with another vessel, reportedly floated off during high-tide, according to a digital fundraiser. “After a search for a few days his boat was finally found; sadly smashed into many pieces on the local rocks. Of course, this didn’t just leave Antony’s boat devastated but him too,” the GoFundMe page reads. more, >>click to read<< 11:38

Uncharted Waters: The Hunkin Family’s Fight for Their Ancestral Fishing Trade

For 14 generations, the Hunkin family has braved the unpredictable waters off the Cornish coast, weaving their lives into the rhythm of the sea. But now, a sudden shift in government regulations has forced this storied fishing family to abandon their ancestral trade. As of January 1, 2024, the pollack catch quota has been set to zero, save for a minuscule by-catch allowance, leaving the Hunkins – and many like them – grappling with an uncertain future. Daniel Hunkin, the latest in a long line of seafarers, laments the lack of notice and communication from the government. “We relied on pollack for more than half our annual income,” he says, “We’ve had to sell our boats and face an uncertain future.” more, >>click to read<< 07:07

Cornwall family put boat up for sale after 300 years at sea

A family that has been fishing off the coast of Cornwall for 14 generations said they have quit the industry due to new government regulations. The Hunkin family, from Mevagissey, have been fishing for about 300 years, since the reign of King George I. However, on 1 January 2024 the pollack catch quota was set to zero, apart from a small by-catch allowance, in order to preserve stocks. Daniel Hunkin said he and others had since put their boats up for sale. More, He said the crew relied on pollack for more than half their annual income and he was worried for the industry as a whole. more, >>click to read<< 08:06

Cornwall revealed as UK’s flagship for seafood economy

New figures have revealed Cornwall is home to more seafood restaurants than anywhere else in the country outside of London. According to an independent research report titled the True Value of Seafood to Cornwall, 16% of Cornwall’s table-service restaurants, not including fish and chip shops, specialise in seafood, which is the highest concentration in the UK outside the capital. Around 8,000 people in Cornwall work in seafood, according to the report, which means for every Cornish fisherman at sea there are 15 more jobs on shore, five of those are also linked to tourism. more, >>click to read<< 07:33

Fishing vessel left to rot in Cornwall harbour at centre of debate

A fishing boat that has used a Cornish harbour for more than 20 years and been left to rot was at the centre of a debate around abandoned vessels. Cornwall Council said it was seeking to remove “live-aboard” vessel Karina Olsen from Penzance Harbour. It said the vessel was among a number of abandoned boats which need to be sold or demolished in Cornish ports. Maritime manager Chris Jones disputed one councillor’s claim they were “powerless” to pursue boat owners. more, >>click to read<< 09:22

Bomb found on Looe trawler moved and blown up safely

The alarm was raised in a Cornish harbour on Thursday after a suspected bomb was found on a fishing trawler, the Coastguard said. The Coastguard, police and the Royal Navy’s explosive ordnance disposal team were all called to Looe Harbour at about 12:45 GMT. It was taken out to sea to a location south of the Plymouth Breakwater. The navy said it was then made safe in a controlled underwater explosion. A team of Royal Navy divers from HMNB Devonport carried out the explosion on Friday afternoon. more, >>click to read<< 12:38

Boat engineer, 20, died after toxic spray release

A dense white cloud of spray was released from the fire-extinguishing system

A 20-year-old apprentice engineer died after inhaling toxic fire extinguisher spray in the engine room of a fishing boat in Cornwall, an investigation has found. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said Conor Moseley was on board as the fire-extinguishing system was being installed on the Resurgam, a scallop dredger, in Newlyn Harbour. The FirePro system was designed to suppress fire, but it also generated a spray which was hazardous to health when inhaled in significant quantities, a MAIB report said. The system was accidentally activated in the engine room as it was being installed. FirePro said it welcomed the MAIB report. more, >>click to read<< 08:36

Cornish fishing industry’s fears for the future over ‘zero catch’ limit

Fishing industry leaders in Cornwall say government plans to effectively ban them from catching certain species would be ‘devastating’.The quota for pollack for the next 12 months could be set at zero – presenting a major challenge for fishers in our coastal communities. Chris Ranford, chief executive of the Cornish Fish Producers Association, said: “We have a really unique situation this year, the pollack stock in the South West has been advised as a zero catch for next year. Video, >>click to read<< 06:25

New tech designed with Cornish fishermen to transform bycatch monitoring

An innovative new tool being developed with fishermen in Cornwall aims to radically transform how by-catch is documented on board fishing vessels and, ultimately, prevent it happening. In a UK-first, Insight360 combines voice recognition and video information to deliver real-time insight and create a 360-degree view of what’s happening at sea during a by-catch event, that continuously improves over time. Refined with fishermen, the technology removes the need to manually review and add notes to footage, offering instead a way for skippers and crews to train a monitoring system to automatically recognise and record bycatch events as they happen. >>click to read<< 08:19

Cornish fishermen lead on national policy change

Two years ago, the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation went above national regulation and pioneered a voluntary measure to protect crawfish stocks. Since then, Cornish fishermen have been calling for the government to bring in a higher minimum size for catching crawfish as national policy. Earlier this week, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) revealed their decision to introduce the measure.  Aiden Mcclary, 23-year-old fisherman from St Ives, doesn’t mind taking the economic hit if it sustains the stock of Crawfish   He said: “We don’t want history repeating itself. Years ago, back when my dad was fishing, there was a massive crawfish stock but it was wiped out because of a lack of management in place. >>click to read<< 09:55

Cornish Gem vessel master ‘disregarded the law’ while fishing scallops illegally

The master and owner of a vessel has been fined for illegal scallop fishing in Cornish waters. The actions of Mark Manning and Sarah-Jane Fishing Ltd “disregarded the law in the interests of their short term gain”, said Cornwall Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority (IFCA). On November 2, at Truro Magistrates’ Court, Cornwall IFCA successfully prosecuted Mark Manning, 59, from Plymouth and Sarah-Jane Fishing Ltd, the respective master and owner of the fishing vessel Cornish Gem PH 819, which appears to be based out of Falmouth. Manning had previously entered guilty pleas to the court in respect of three counts of using a dredge to remove scallops from the Cornwall IFCA district at a prohibited time of day in December 2022 and in February 2023. >>click to read<< 10:11

Consultation amid low crab and lobster numbers

Members of the fishing industry are being asked for their views to inform a plan to ensure crab and lobster are caught sustainably.  It comes amid concerns crab and lobster populations could be “vulnerable” to over-fishing. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) is running a public consultation on the issue. The consultation is part of the post-Brexit management of sustainable fishing stocks. Padstow inshore fisherman Johnny Murt said he was concerned about the impact of industrial fishing. He said he welcomed more regulation around lobster and crab fishing in Cornwall. Mr. Murt said inshore fishermen in Padstow had been forced to increase their gear in recent years to catch “an increasingly lower number of lobster and crab”. >>click to read<< 14:50

Illegal Cornwall clam fishermen put public health and honest fishermen’s livelihood at risk for greed

A group of fishermen who illegally fished for high value razor clams by electrocuting them have put the livelihood of honest fishermen at risk, damaged the environment and endangered consumers’ health for greed, a judge said. Luke Anderson, 44, of St. Margarets–at-Cliffe in Kent, Steven Corcoran, 46, from Motherwell in Scotland, Marc Drew, 50, from Mousehole, Graeme Etheridge, 61, of Paul in Cornwall, Jake Richardson, 26, of Bedminster in Dorset, David Thomasson, 52, from Bodmin, Ross Waters, 47, of St Buryan, and Simon Tester, 52, from Canterbury in Kent, were all employed by boat owner David Turner (from Kent) – who is to be sentenced for illegal fishing offences in September. >click to read< 14:40

Cornwall fishing father and son illegally caught pregnant lobsters

Officials said Andrew, 30, and 54-year-old Leslie Burt may have even scrubbed the shellfish to remove their eggs so it was not apparent they had been carrying them. Pleading guilty to seven charges relating to catching lobsters and poor record keeping, the pair were sentenced at Truro Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday for also retaining and landing lobsters with mutilated tails in their boat Isabelle. On December 19, 2022, the fishing vessel Isabelle PW64 returned to the port of Padstow after a six-day fishing trip both inside and outside the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) district. Cornwall IFCA officers conducted a routine inspection of the catch of crabs and lobsters and discovered 28 berried female lobsters and two lobsters with damage to their tails. >click to read< 08:40

Teenage fisherman from Looe livid after crab pot thefts

Will Jaycock has his own 10-metre Fowey-registered fishing boat which he uses in Looe Bay to catch crab and lobsters. However, the 18-year-old discovered that some of his pots had been cut and raided for their content, annihilating days of work and hard toil in the process. He said it was impossible to prove who had done it but insisted it was unlikely to be other fishermen in the town.  “It seems opportunistic perhaps from people on day boats or in their own little pleasure boats or kayaks or divers out spearfishing. It’s not other fishermen. It’s people with recreational boats.” >click to read< 10:10

‘A’ is for Algrie, end of a fishing era.

A piece of fishing history left through the gaps this week on her way to be scrapped in Ghent, Belgium – the Algrie was the very first trawler purchased by the Stevenson family fishing firm to enter the harbour in 1976 and start was to become the the largest privately owned beam trawl fishing fleet in Europe. In 1982, the 70ft Algrie found her beam trawls attached to the nuclear attack sub HMS Spartan in the waters off Land’s End in 1982 and towed her for quite some time before the sub surfaced. Legend has it that, at first, the Navy via the coastguard, denied there was a submarine in the area! Video, Lots of photos, >click to read< 12:48

Three in one week.

They say a week is a long time in politics, or if you wait ages for a bus, three come along at once – in just one week Newlyn has just seen the loss of three members of its fishing community. First to make his way to the deck of the big fishing boat in the sky was Mr PCCM himself, son of a coastguard, Dick Harvey. Dick epitomised ‘old school’. Talking of HMRC and tax, fish buyer Geoff Davies, seen here with early-days mobile phone hitched to is belt, was a tax inspector in a previous life – that was before he came to fish from Newlyn and then, subsequently went ashore and worked for leading fish merchant Nick Howell when his premises were behind Waghorns. Fishing runs deep in the Stevens family, generations have fished from the port of St Ives. Ernest Stevens, David Stevens father had the second and much larger Rose of Sharon built in 1969 by Forbes of Sandhaven, the first built them back in 1964. Lots of photos, >click to read< 09:45

The hard life of a fisherman who wouldn’t change it for the world

Mark Ainsworth travels over 200 miles from Staffordshire to Plymouth’s Fish Quay, when he’s needed, to fish off the coast of Devon and Cornwall with experienced local skipper, Steven Walker. “Going to sea is a hard life, there are no ifs and buts,” said experienced long-term skipper, Steven Walker. Steve is used to early starts and is often accompanied by relatively new fisherman, Mark Ainsworth – helping him settle into the fishing life. Mark took up fishing just six months ago and he travels over 200 miles from Staffordshire to Plymouth’s Fish Quay, when he’s needed, to fish off the coast of Devon and Cornwall. Mark completed a Seafish course and joined Steven’s fishing boat just two months ago. >click to read< 08:18

Not for the pot: how ‘V-notching’ lobsters may help save them

Cornishman Ned Bailey has caught and returned ‘notched’ lobsters for years as part of a broader effort to preserve stocks. But many fishers do not. He tosses out stray crabs, several starfish and a squirming conger eel. Every so often he pulls out a lobster: if the carapace is over 90mm (3.5in) long, he keeps it; if not, it’s thrown back into the sea, in line with regulations. But today, one lobster, the underside of its tail bursting with clusters of inky-black eggs, is kept aside. This is a berried hen, a pregnant female, carrying about 20,000 eggs.  Bailey cuts a small “V” into its dappled royal-blue and yellow tail before gently laying the lobster back in the water. Now she is marked as illegal for others to land – and with any luck her reproductive potential is secured for a few more years. >click to read< 09:39

Valentine’s Day drama at sea as trawler sinks off coast of Cornwall

A Royal Navy helicopter on a training flight stood ready to act as a trawler crew abandoned their sinking boat off the coast of Cornwall yesterday evening. Sennen Cove Lifeboat ultimately rescued the crew-of-four as their Belgian fishing boat rapidly sank beneath the waves south of Land’s End. The alarm was raised at around 6pm by the trawler’s skipper. Sennen’s RNLI volunteer were scrambled by Falmouth Coastguard following a mayday call from the 24-metre fishing vessel taking on water approximately two miles south of Porthgwarra. >click to read< 13:20

Full on fish landings this #FishyFriday in Newlyn.

Good Morning from Newlyn! 22 photos and a nice video! >click to review< 09:47

Falmouth low tide reveals wreck of Scottish trawler Ben Asdale that was swept onto rocks 44 years ago

Cornwall’s coastline is strewn with shipwrecks. More than 3,000 are recorded around our shores, with most hidden below the surface of the sea, or buried under the sands of time on our beaches. However, there are a few shipwrecks in Cornwall that can be seen at low tide – those more recent wrecks that remain where they met their peril on the rocks. Here, they slowly rust, bend and disintegrate into their surroundings – broken down by years of gentle tides and raging storms. The skeletal remains of one such wreck can still be seen at low tide below cliffs near Falmouth. Just around the corner from Maenporth Beach, below Newporth Head, lies the wreck of Scottish trawler Ben Asdale, where it was swept upon the rocks one fateful night, 44 years ago. 24 photos, >click to read< 09:36

Remembering four fishermen who died near Penzance in Vierge Marie tragedy

Four fishermen who tragically lost their lives when their boat floundered onto rocks off Cornwall have been remembered by the descendants of those who tried to save them. The four fishermen from Ostend in Belgium were part of a crew of six when the motor trawler Vierge Marie hit the rocks in heavy seas, strong winds and thick fog conditions. The incident was reported at 7.40am on January 11, 1937 by a local police officer who alerted the crew of the W&S lifeboat who launched the lifeboat from Penlee Point at 8am and steamed down the coast to the site of the wreck. >click to read< 09:55

Cornish family business Rowse Fishing Ltd fined for illegal lobster fishing

A Cornish family business supplying crab and lobster to local and international markets and a vessel master have been fined big for illegal lobster fishing. On Wednesday (January 11) at Truro Magistrates’ Court, Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) successfully prosecuted Rowse Fishing Limited and Ben Rowse, 26, of Penzance, the respective owner and master of the vivier potting vessel Emma Louise TO60. Rowse Fishing Ltd and Ben Rowse pleaded guilty to the offences of fishing for berried, v-notched or mutilated lobsters. Magistrates sentenced the company to a fine of £20,000 and the payment of prosecution costs amounting to £6,309.90. The master was fined £2,338 plus a victim surcharge of £190. >click to read< 20:30

Fishing vessel sinks off Lizard Point

A fishing vessel sank off the coast of Lizard Point yesterday (Saturday, October 12) – and two people had to be rescued. On social media, the Lizard Lifeboat reported the request to launch was called-in at 12:33PM after hearing distress calls from the “Crig A Tana” fishing boat. At the scene, there was no sign of the stricken “Crig A Tana” vessel, but the crew were safe, despite having been forced to abandon the vessel after it started to suddenly sink. The two people who were rescued are also members of the lifeboat crew themselves. >click to read< 08:45

Offshore wind could blow us out of the water say Cornish fishermen

As the fishing boat motors gently out of Newlyn’s harbour, the sky is clear and the sea is millpond-flat. Below the surface, the clear waters are teeming with life; Newlyn, in south-west Cornwall, is home to one of Britain’s largest trawler fleets, with more than 100 boats regularly landing catches. However, miles out to sea, a storm is brewing. The boats’ fishing ground could end up being squeezed by floating windfarms planned for the Celtic Sea, an area of the Atlantic bordered by Cornwall, south-west Wales, southern Ireland and the north-western edge of France. >click to read< 15:32

RIP Pussen, the feral harbour cat.

For those who have lived and worked on the harbour in Newlyn over the past 10 years, the sight of a black and white feral cat hunting for rats in the rocks by the RNLI boathouse wouldn’t have been a strange sight. She had a great bounty there which kept her fit. But as for her main food supply she depended on the many pigeons that housed in the wall face on the way to the net sheds opposite Trelawney fish shop. It was in this location that I was lucky enough to see her engage in what she did best. I rigged gillnets in the end shed which gave me a front seat to the act. I called her to me almost daily after that but she showed no interest until I saw her pass one day and offered her some fresh ham from my lunch. This she accepted from a distance,,, photos, Freddie Bates, adopted cat companion.  >click to read< 10:23

Rising diesel fuel prices see Cornish fisherman tie up their boats

A Cornish Fisherman says rocketing fuel prices are forcing some boat owners to tie up their vessels. Peter Green, who fishes out of St Mawes on Cornwall’s Roseland Peninsula, says the rising cost of red diesel is making it uneconomic to go to sea. He said: “It means the end of the road. How can we keep going? “Fishing vessels are expensive boats to run and maintain – the costs are continuous. If you are not keeping enough back at the end of the day, you’re going to end up in trouble financially.” The effects of price rises are being felt in ports around the UK. Fish Producers Association the SWFPA has called for more action on fuel prices to support the industry. Video, >click to view and read< 16:45

Cornwall ice cream man and fisherman devastated by fuel price crisis

Record-high fuel prices are deeply affecting businesses across Cornwall. Reaching almost £2 in multiple stations, various business owners have shared the impact it has taken on their businesses. Fisherman Peter, from St Mawes, said he can no longer afford to go to sea as the price of fuel has risen from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of his daily expenditure, which has reached as high as £270 a day for diesel. He said that it is not possible for his catch to cover such a rise, forcing him to give up his livelihood and security. “I have no income, full stop,” he said. “Fear is if you’re at sea for 14 hours a day, and everyone who knows boats knows they’re expensive to run. If you have a breakdown and have to replace parts on a winch then suddenly it’s a step back before you know it. >click to read< 12:01