Tag Archives: Cornwall and Devon

Want to start eating Scottish fish? Here are the best places to start

If Scotland really does have such fabulous seafood, why do ordinary citizens find it so hard to tap into this much eulogised catch? The problem has been that subsequent governments have fixated on international exports, not food for citizens.  Farmed salmon has been the apple of their eye, even though its production has proved, to my mind, to be an environmental catastrophe for our west coast. Premium shellfish, brown crab to China, scallops to Italy, langoustines to Spain, has also been despatched abroad as soon as it was landed.,,, Enter coronavirus. Restaurant orders stopped overnight, export chains broke down. But instead of tying up boats and facing financial ruin, some determined fishermen, operating smaller boats closer to shore, have started exploring local markets,,, >click to read< 12:10

Government intervention – Recruitment to the Fishing Industry.

Right now the biggest issue facing many skippers and boat owners is that of crewing. Many larger vessels, once jammed with local men, are now totally reliant on crews from other countries like the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Fine in the short term, but where are the local skippers, mates and engineers of the future going to come from?,,, The situation in Cornwall and Devon is mixed. Many of the new netters employ crew from the Philippines while the fleet of big crabbers in Newlyn rely mainly on Latvian men to crew and skipper the boats. Currently, there is an all-party Parliamentary Fisheries group researching the situation. >click to read<16:12