It’s that nostalgia thing again, you see. I distinctly remember my Godfather telling me “You’ll be just the same in years to come, it’s unavoidable.” as I doubtless, rolled my eyes and gazed heaven-wards, as he and my Father embarked on yet another wartime eulogy of misty-eyed proportions. Of course now, I yearn for those words… Read More Anyone for a Bloater?

It’s 3.30am on a dismal and sea fog-swirling morning, as I plunge into the gloom of a Cornish fret. As I head towards the A30 and Bodmin, familiar and mystical names wreathed in local folklore loom up out of the murk. Altarnun, Dozmary Pool and St Neot all pass by, their tales now steeped in… Read More A “Dreckly” Morning 

I’ve always found that there’s something inherently appealing about eating wild seafood within sight or earshot from whence it came. Whether eating freshly-peeled Brown Shrimp sandwiches, as a boy, in our Suffolk beach hut, delighting in a sumptuous Breton Bouillabaisse, as Atlantic rollers cream their way towards your table, or savouring the sweetest Corfiot prawns… Read More The Tonks Effect

It might sound like a cliché for me, but in all my time and association with the fishing industry, I have longed to go afloat on a trawler under steam. One day, perhaps, I might aspire to a trip offshore, (if a benevolent skipper will have me), but I won’t hold my breath! Of all… Read More Not Your Average Boat Race 

I think I can honestly say that I’ve held a genuine obsession for lobsters for the whole of my life. I first handled a live one, probably aged about 5, hunted for them at low-tide with my Father (at not a lot older), and constructed my first homemade pot a few years later, having been… Read More An Old Favourite

The commercial fisheries of the EU stretch for thousands of square miles, from the inhospitable seas of the Arctic North, to the warmer and more favourable climes of the Southern Mediterranean. These communal waters harbour a plethora of commercial species of fish and shellfish, the landings of which form an integral part of the economies… Read More iFish, We Fish

During my quest for unearthing more knowledge about the current state of our local fisheries, one subject seems to have been flagged up by different individuals on several occasions. It’s a highly emotive and contentious issue and one, which considering the socio-economic pressures affecting our U10m fleet around our coastlines, I felt duty-bound to explore. A couple… Read More Who Let the Dogs Out?

It’s that time of year again. Another month and yet another seasonal, seafood delicacy has arrived crawling its way into the pots and nets of the South West Under 10 metre boats that ply their trade along the coasts of Devon & Cornwall. Social media has been abuzz recently with fishermen eagerly delivering pots onto… Read More A Seasonal Risotto of Spider Crab

Heading North, alongside the Aberdeenshire coastline, the weather casts a predictably “Dreich” and “Dour” picture. Swollen, cumbersome, leaden clouds balloon grotesquely and seamlessly downwards into a stark slate-grey sheet, occasionally picked out in white, as crests rise and fall in the seemingly, boundless expanse that is the Northern North Sea. Thirty miles further on from… Read More Fishing for the Future

When Guy Dorrell made contact with me and suggested we met over a pint to discuss his Community Supported Fishery in Wandsworth, SW18, I couldn’t help but conjure up an image of a few brightly painted day boats tied up on a sparkling Thames by Wandsworth Bridge, unloading their gleaming catch amidst a cloud of… Read More An Urban Fishery