by Llucia Mascorda Cabre
Devon Marine Team
Cream teas, ancient ruins, and white beaches with surfers dotted along the horizon- these are most people’s impressions of Devon.
But beyond the breath-taking coastline and out to sea, three areas of the ocean are being considered for designation as Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs).
We are keen to get a better understanding of how fishing operations work in and around MCZs, so spending time alongside key stakeholders is really important and valuable.
So I contacted the owners of a small fleet of fishing boats from Ilfracombe, and arranged for my colleague Chris and I to spend a day collecting whelks on their potting vessel.
The ‘Lady of Lundy’ is a beautiful potting vessel owned by Paul and Scott Wharton. She’s skippered by Ben, with fishermen Kevin and Gavin joining him to work the pots. Pots are left in the ocean and baited, and then hopefully when you go back they are full of tasty whelks!
We were wowed by just how slick and efficient the potting process is. The men clearly work extremely well together.
We discovered that they all came to this work from very different backgrounds with varied experiences. They now spend 10 to 12 hours a day together, working extremely hard in all sorts of weather conditions, usually for six days a week.
Sometimes they even stay out for 24 hours, as Ilfracombe harbour is only accessible on certain states of the tide.
The ‘Lady of Lundy’ catches a range of species including whelks, crabs and lobsters, which are then sold locally in Paul and Scott’s fishmongers or transported elsewhere. We learnt that the whelks we were collecting are actually sold to the Korean market!
It was fascinating to watch the pots being collected and we were pleased to see that any undersized whelks were filtered out and returned to the sea, along with any other non-target species such as starfish or crabs.
During the summer season, the fishermen collect an average of 30 bags per day. We must have brought them some luck as we landed 33 bags! This can rise to 50 bags a day in winter, but it depends on sea conditions- sometimes they cannot get out to sea for days. Fishing can be a tough business- we learnt that 50% of the money from the day’s catch was needed to cover the cost of the vessel going out to sea.
We left them unloading the boat in Ilfracombe, leaving the vessel spotlessly clean and ready for another day out on the sea.
With essential help from Heather Duncan, we were able to tweet about our day in North Devon’s waters. Our tweets of the day can be seen by searching #NEMarine.
We’d like to thank Paul and Scott for giving us the opportunity to become fisherwomen for a day, and especially the Lady of Lundy’s crew for being so friendly, helpful and enthusiastic.
We wish them the best of luck for the future working in this very exciting but extremely demanding environment!
