The Future of Fishing:
An Interview with 'Distant Shores Seafood
19th November 2024
Alongside the project 'Our Sustainable Shores' I was able to speak to James, a fisherman from 'Distant Shores Seafood, who works with 'The Whitby Lobster Hatchery' alongside other local fishermen to release juvenile lobsters back into the sea. In this interview we discuss how they currently work with The Hatchery, the current challenges facing fishermen, and the future of the fishing industry.
Q: What do you do and how long have you been doing it for?
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A: I’m a commercial fisherman. We generally focus on lobsters and crabs. Got a small boat that we fish out of Hartlepool at the moment and have been doing so, me personally, for the last 6 years but it’s sort of been in my family since the early 50’s really, from when my grandad used to fish for a living. So, yeah been doing it and it’s been part of my family and my life for as long as I can remember.
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Q: I feel like a lot of the fishing industry is family based. Is it a bit more difficult to get into it without family ties to it?
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A: Yeah absolutely, so we’re actually doing a bit of work currently, there's some workshops going on about the decline of the inshore fishing industry and the decline of the inshore fleet, and it is a problem. So generally speaking it’s a family thing, so it’s more difficult for the new starters to get into the industry unless they’ve got those family connections.
Q: Are you looking to pass this onto the next generation?
A: Absolutely, so I’ve got two young boys and hopefully at one point they’ll find an interest in it. Generally speaking, for the majority of fishermen it’s a family thing and it’s passed down to their sons.
Q: This project started with The Whitby lobster Hatchery. How do you work for them and how did you get into working with them?
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A: So, firstly I’m a supporter of the hatchery, I think due to the fact that in years to come, its supporting fisherman’s futures. I don’t know the actual figure off the top of my head but I know it’s a very low survival rate for a juvenile lobster in the wild, so the work that the hatchery does is just increasing the chances of getting juvenile lobsters to adulthood, so that’s why I support it. I think it’s a fantastic thing for safeguarding the future of the stocks, so personally, what I do with the lobsters at The Hatchery when Joe needs some lobsters releasing, we’ll come down, it's not just me there's plenty of other boats, we’ll come down with the juvenile lobsters in the trays and we go out and release them on local grounds.
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Q: Why do you think not many people, well certainly me, know about lobsters around the Northeast coast?
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A: Quite a lot of our lobsters and quite a lot of our seafood in general around the British Isles are exported to Europe and I think it’s that lack of knowledge of what our coastline has to offer really, and I think the lack of appetite for shellfish and seafood in general in the UK. The food that we do eat from the fish and chip shops, that’s generally all imported from Norway, Russia and places like that. We’ve got such a fantastic product here ourselves, but it generally gets exported because there isn’t a huge appetite for it.
Q: I didn’t know that fish and chips were imported. I always assumed, especially locations on the coast, would have more local produce. Is it because it’s cheaper to import food from abroad?
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A: Absolutely, I suppose when you specifically ask for cod and chips, the likelihood is it probably isn't cod. It’s probably the likes of haddock or pollock and things like that are cheaper.
Q: What’s the industry like now factoring in things like climate change, pollution, and things like that. Is it any harder to catch fish?
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A: I think that the industry in general, it’s a hard industry and it always has been, but I think that also goes back to the fact that you wouldn’t necessarily join the industry unless you had those family ties because it’s such a labour intensive job and it can be a lot of hours for little reward. We’ve experienced hardships over the last couple of years that has made it difficult but as far as I'm concerned, in what we’re seeing in the catches, things are getting back to normal and things are improving. There’s a lot of signs of life for the future as far as the crab stocks go, crabs have been decimated and we’re not seeing a great deal of crab but that could be due to a plethora of things, like overfishing on the outer grounds or whether it be pollution or whether it be climate change. Unfortunately, I don’t know those answers, all I know is that we are experiencing difficulty at the moment.
Q: That is surprising since crabs are quite popular. You see them in a lot of fish shops, don’t you?
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A: A lot of people do go to Whitby for a dressed crab don’t they, but I suppose for us financially wise, we don’t get paid as much for crabs as we do for lobsters. That’s why we generally target lobsters.
Q: So, if projects like Whitby Lobster Hatchery feature crabs in the future it would possibly benefit their population growth too.
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A: I mean I’ve spoken to Joe (founder of Whitby Lobster Hatchery) about doing sort of what he does for lobsters for crabs, but I think because of the financial side of things, because crabs aren’t as lucrative, it’s harder to get the funding to do so.
Q: Do you see a future for the historic fishing industry? Could there be a balance between sustaining the fish along with the business side of things or is there more that can be done to help?
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A: I think there is always more that can be done. I believe personally that there is a future otherwise I wouldn’t be investing in the way that I am. I think there is always a future if you are willing to put hard work and effort into it, you will get the rewards. As far as sort of the industry on a larger scale, I think we’re struggling to get young people into the industry and that in itself could potentially be the overall demise of it, if there's no one to crew the boats and no one to go catch anything, then there's not going to be the industry. I think there's certain things that need to be addressed, like better stock management. So, at the moment, shellfish populations are unregulated as far as quota goes, someone could go and buy, I know it’s ridiculous, but a million pots if they wanted to and they could go catch and catch and catch and it’s not regulated. We’ve spoken about pot limitations, so boats will be capped at a certain number of pots to reduce the overall catch, things like that need to be put in place or continued to be put in place and reviewed regularly so that it can be dynamically changed if something again happens as far as the stock levels drop. That's got to be managed in order to ensure the longevity of the industry.
Realistically as we are, well historically, we’ve always walked a tight rope of ‘it could topple over at any point’ because it’s so unstable. I always think of it as the closest you can get to gambling. You go and you put your stuff out, but you don’t know what you’re going to catch, you don’t know what you're going to earn and at any point you could have a fantastic day, or you could have an absolutely terrible day. It’s that gamble of trying to manage and plan for the season and make sure you catch enough or have enough income to sustain you for the year, but you don’t really know because it is that gamble of you don't know what you’re going to catch. I think management of stocks and maybe a little more opportunity to diversify into different species, because all the boats round here are generally just shellfish, just lobsters and crabs but if we could diversify into different species, that could reduce pressure off the shellfish stocks. So, more management I think at grassroots level really and the fact that fishermen need to be consulted on the best way to manage, because at the end of the day it’s our playground where we work every day, the politicians that make these decisions, probably haven’t stepped on a boat in their lives. I think more engagement with the industry and engagement with actual people who do it for a living would benefit long term and the longevity of the future of the industry.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A: My biggest want for the industry, is that visibility and getting younger people into it at some point in the not-so-distant future. I believe we’re really going to struggle because there’s not that young desire to come on and do the job. The reason I agree to speak to people like yourself is to try and make the fishing industry more visible and more as a viable career path for people leaving school or people leaving college, because it can be a fantastic career and it can be a well-paid job. The opportunities are there but I don’t think people are aware of it, like we spoke at the start of this, people aren’t aware that you could catch lobsters and crabs here. I want to educate people on what we’ve got and how lucky we are, especially on the Northeast coast. We've got fantastic fishing grounds and people can make a fantastic living if they are willing to put the work in and the opportunity was there for them, but people don’t necessarily know that yet, that's my final part, just get people into the industry.
