First Sussex trial run to restaurants
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Norman's Bay March gill netting NN114 Halcyon
Log – Fishing vessel NN114 Halcyon. Registered length 9.8 m, 7.03 tonnes, engine power 86 kW, 86 VCU, built 2001, fibreglass hull. Skipper Graham Doswell, crewed by Martin Wiltshire.
Conditions & Location – Left Sovereign Harbour outer lock gates at 8.05 GMT, March 2008. Conditions cold, bright, stiff northerly. Location was Norman’s Bay, between Eastbourne and Hastings off the Sussex coast. ICES area VIId.
Gear – Trammel net with 120 mm mesh nets. Nets set the previous day. 8 x 400 yards (2.9 km total) Catch iced.
Catch - predominantly plaice (one full box) and sole (half a box). Other species – bass, lobster, dab, flounder, cod.
Returned to outer lock at 14.10 GMT.
The same bass in the hands of Chef Peter Weeden at Paternoster Chophouse next morning.
March 19th was a red-letter day, the first trial run of Pisces–RFR fish up from the Hasting’s beach launched fleet, while we joined the Eastbourne-based Halcyon, to follow their fish up to the City of London Paternoster Chophouse, by St. Pauls, with both consignments due to arrive the following morning.
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Following the early closure of the winter cod fishery, the 100 kg/month quota having been rapidly exhausted, Graham Doswell, skipper of the NN114 Halcyon, had switched to whelk potting, even though he could have, perfectly legally, fished for highly valuable sole while discarding all of the cod that came with it.
Now they were trying to judge the moment when cod, having finished spawning, left the inshore waters. This happens quite rapidly, allowing flatfish fishing to resume without catching the cod. The only practical way of finding out was to set nets, which had been done the previous afternoon, and were gathered this morning without incident.
The haul included one box (perhaps 5 stone, 30 kg) of plaice, half a box of sole (perhaps 50 fish), one huge bass and four smaller individuals, one flounder and a number of dabs, three good sized lobsters (along with soft-shelled individuals which had just moulted, and were returned) and four cuttlefish. The curiosities included a couple of topknot, one lumpfish (all returned alive) and one large shad, which was dead. However they were still catching too many cod (around 50 cm, as expected for a mesh of 120 mm), for Graham to be happy with, as the quota regulations requires these to be discarded.
As a result, the Halcyon was able to dispatch one trial 10 kg box up to Moshi Moshi, consisting of cuttlefish, plaice, the flounder and the dabs, and one trial box of sea bass and sole to Paternoster Chophouse. Delivery was organised by Melissa Love of Brighton-based We Love Local, which was already running local farm produce up to London restaurants, so this was potentially a good way of keeping carbon emissions down. We were also very grateful for the weighing and packing facilities offered by Bob Page of Southern Head Fishing
