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 My dad was a fishermen and his family had been fishermen for
many generations. I started helping out with my brother Alec with the landing
when I was five year old, going to sea when around the age of nine and so as a
natural progression I couldn’t wait to leave school and become a proper
fisherman.
Dad bought the boat that we have now, the Crystal Sea, just before I left school and I went to work aboard the
boat from the age of 15 and I started been taken out at sea when I was about
19. I work the boat full time with my brother fishing anywhere around the coast
from Lundy to Brixham.
The Crystal
Sea is a trawler and out
target species, from March to October are mainly John Dory, Squid and Lemon
Sole. We target species which are not precious stock species which makes life a
litter bit easier for us with the quota situation.
We go chasing John Dory which is affected by the tide so
there always a bit of a hunt when we go out; we know where it should be and if
we don’t get it right it’s the Dory’s fault for not knowing where it should be!
Most of the fish we catch is exported with the squid going
to Italy
although people are becoming more aware if the indigenous and sometime better
tasting species which are caught locally thanks to the work of chefs and organisations
like Seafood Cornwall which are linking up what the fishermen are catching to
consumer’s awareness.
Newlyn port, geographically, is in the perfect position to
serve the fishing industry; yet it has fallen behind compared to other ports
due to lack of investment. The present regeneration scheme has overwhelming
support from the fishermen and local community and a new market and a forward
thinking management team is going to take Newlyn in to the future.
21 Different species are landed in Newlyn; vessels come back
with top quality sole fish, megrim and monk fish which you don’t get anywhere
else. The stock is rebalancing it self due to everyone fishing within the law
and we are seeing a slow steady rise of around six percent each year and even
ten percent for some species. Fishing down here is looking a lot healthier now
then it did a few years ago and we have gone through a lot of pain in order to
achieve this. We have invested in quotas through the Cornish Fish Producers
Organisation and the Duchy Fish Quota Company which kept things within the
community.
There is going to be a big change in the way the nation
looks at the sea; it’s going to be more community based. It’s up to the
fishermen to engage with the public and show them the true story with example
of good practice within the industry. The public should support the local
fishing industry and a way to do that by buying locally and support schemes
like the Duchy Fish Company Quota which are there to enable fishermen to be
here long term, buy quotas and bring new fishermen in to the industry.
The Fishermen Mission does an extremely good service and it’s
like having your parents in the background watching over you, it’s there for
you when you need it when you have an accident or bereavement; they came to see
me when I crashed my leg badly and offered help which was greatly appreciated.
Newlyn would be a poorer place without it.
Fishing makes you feel very alive and part of something; it
also makes you feel very small because you are in an environment you have no
control of ; you take your chances and sometime you win sometime you loose.
There is a fine line to this and you never take risks which could result in
disaster, you have to balance it. When you wake up every day is a different
day, you can get a sunny day with the sea like a mirror and you can wake up the
next day and it could be gale force wind rolling over the boat making it
difficult to stand up; still that’s part of the job and there is something in
you which says – I’ll get there what ever it takes, make a living out of a week
work.
We go out for three to four days landing the fish fresh
every Monday and Friday for the weekend market. When we come inland we turn the
boat around and in a couple of hours we are gone again. We work in crew
rotation with twelve days on and four days off.
I get a great sense of freedom when I am out there bobbing
around in the boat, I wouldn’t change if for anything.
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