In a small hut next to Newlyn Harbour at the bottom of Cornwall, the next generation of fishermen are quite literally learning the ropes.
Around a dozen students are on the eighth day of a two-week intensive course to become commercial fishers.
From knot and ropework to chart plotting, navigation to sea survival, by the end of the course they’ll be qualified to take a berth on a vessel.
While many are following in the footsteps of their fathers, others are here to try an entirely different career.
Elliot Fairbairn, 28, is originally from London and has been working as a groundworker.
“I’m not from a fishing family – I just like a challenge,” he says.
He’s put his current job on hold to see how fishing works out.
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“It makes you feel good doing a hard job. I think that’s what’s getting lost these days, people want an easy job, easy money and they don’t understand what it takes to be successful. Sometimes you’ve got to put that in the work.”
Elliot already has a job lined up for next week on a ring-netter boat.
“I’m ecstatic – I’m very pumped!” he tells me.
Also on the course is 17-year-old Oscar Ashby. He’s doing his A-Levels at Truro College and training to be a healthcare worker at the main hospital in Cornwall.
“I’m part of the staff bank so can work whatever hours I want – which would fit quite well if I wanted to do a week’s fishing,” he says.
It’s his love of being outside that has drawn him to get qualified.
“It’s hands-on, it’s not a bad way to make money. It’s one of the last jobs that is like being a hunter-gatherer really – everything else is really industrialised, ” Oscar says.
The course was over-subscribed.
The charity that runs it – Seafood Cornwall Training – could only offer places to half those who applied.
‘A foot in the door’
“The range of knowledge they’re gathering is everything from how to tie a few knots all the way on how to register with HMRC to pay and manage their tax because they’d be self-employed fishermen,” manager Clare Leverton tells me.
“What we’re trying to do with this course is give them a foot in the door.
“By meeting our tutors, skippers on the quay, vessel managers, they start to understand who they’re going to have to talk to to get jobs.”
Getting fresh blood into the industry is vital.
Over the last 30 years, the number of fishermen in the UK has nearly halved – from around 20,000 to 10,000.
The average age of a fisherman in the UK is 55.
Aging workforce
“I think we’re seeing the effects of having an aging workforce,” says Mike Cohen, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO).
“Fishing is a traditional occupation in most places around the country. A lot of family businesses, and as people are getting older, they’re starting to retire out of the industry.”
The decline comes at a time of frustration and anger in the industry too.
Many feel the prime minister’s post-Brexit deal with the EU back in May sold fishing out by guaranteeing another 12 years of access to EU boats to fish in UK waters, rather than allowing it to be negotiated annually.
“A large part of the effort the EU exerts in UK waters is within our territorial waters, so within 12 miles of the shore. And that’s the area that’s most pressured,” adds Mr Cohen.
“For new people getting into the industry it’s the area that they can reach in the sort of small boats that new starters tend to work in. They’re increasingly pressured in that space and by keeping all of those European boats having access to it for free, for nothing, that puts them under even more pressure.”
The government says it will always back “our great British fishing industry” and insists the EU deal protects Britain’s fishing access.
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‘A brilliant career’
To further promote getting young people into commercial fishing, the Cornwall Fish Producers Organisation has helped set up the Young Fishermen Network.
Skipper Tom Lambourne, 29, helped set up the group.
“There’s not enough young people coming into it and getting involved in it,” he says.
“It’s actually a brilliant career. It’s a hard career – you do have to sacrifice a lot to get a lot out of fishing – your time is one of them. But the pros of that certainly outweigh it and it’s a really good job.”
Tom says the network supports new fishers by holding social events and helping them find jobs: “There’s never been a collective for young fishermen.
“For a youngster getting into the fishing industry to be sort of part of that – knowing there’s other youngsters coming in in the same position – they can chat to one another, it’s pretty cool really.”
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In 2021, UK fishing contributed around 0.03% to GDP – with an economic output of £483m.
Economically, it is not a big player.
However, studies suggest that each fisherman creates 15 other jobs in the seafood trade on land.
It’s also a huge part of the fabric of the UK’s identity and landscape – and one that the next generation will have to fight to keep alive.
