Copyright: Folk Films We’re in Mevagissey on Cornwall’s south coast. Fishing is in the blood here - for more than 250 years the men of Meva have followed their fathers to sea, eager to honour the family traditions. Now the next generation of ambitious young skippers are ready to make a go of it.

The Galwady Mor is owned by one of Mevagissey’s most successful fishing families, The Blameys. 27-year-old Chris is the fourth generation to go to sea. This year he will take over the responsibility of skippering the Galwady from his father. The passing down of a lifetime’s knowledge is priceless, but Chris knows he’ll face different challenges to his father. Whilst fish stocks are returning to Meva, there’s not the abundance there once was.

Mevagissey is a village built on fish, pilchards in particular. Once, everyone was after them, but now tourism is the main industry. This has impacted on fishing crews, with local housing pricing young men out, and a steady income required - not something associated with fishing.

Copyright: Folk Films For centuries pilchards were a staple of the Cornish fishing industry. Demand has since waned and the drift net fishery, once the mainstay of the Cornish fleet, faded away in the 1960s. In recent years, the humble pilchard has been rebranded as the Cornish Sardine and the hundreds of drift netters have been replaced by just fifteen, hi-tech ring-netters. The sardine is once more a highly-prized and lucrative catch.

Sardine fishing is unlike anything else. In the summer months the sardines migrate into Cornish waters and instead of setting static nets or trawling, the sardine boats use a special technique called purse-seining. The crews fish through the night, quietly hunting their prey under the cover of darkness.

Eight boats work out of Newlyn, Cornwall’s biggest fishing port. Ocean fish are the biggest player in the game. They’re both fish processors and owners of four orange boats. Veteran Pete Buckland is skipper aboard one of their biggest, the Mayflower. Pete has done ten sardine seasons, five as skipper, but all that experience doesn’t make the sardines easy to find. So it’s going to a big year for first time skipper James Roberts. He’s stepping up from deckhand to take the helm of Ocean Fish’s oldest and smallest boat, The Resolute. Now he’s responsible not only for the boat, but also the livelihoods of his crew. With a young family and a big mortgage to pay, it is going to be a challenging season for James.

Copyright: Folk Films As change comes to a quiet corner of Cornwall, can brother and sister Jason and Nicky (pictured right) adapt to survive? In the creeks and rivers of the Fal estuary on Cornwall’s south coast, an ancient way of life clings on. Under power of sail, wooden boats fishing for oysters; the last stocks of native flat oysters to be fished in this way, anywhere in the world.

Veteran Oystermen Jason has been fishing for 20 years. Now he’s been joined for the first time by his sister, Nicky, the first woman to ever complete a whole season.

In the fisheries’ heyday, there were a hundred boats working the Fal. But volatile markets and inconsistent oyster stocks have taken their toll. Jason and Nicky’s boat is one of only fifteen boats remaining. Now, with the two of them to support, income from oysters alone, is no longer enough. Jason’s bought a new boat, a small trawler called the Fair Morn. For five years, every spare hour and spare penny has gone into her. Now she’s finally ready to go to sea.

Copyright: Folk Films The smallest boats in the Cornish fleet take to the seas. Often worked single handedly, these boats can still be found fishing all over Cornwall. They work out of the biggest ports as well as the most picturesque creeks, hidden coves and sandy beaches. But despite making up 80% of the British fleet, this sustainable method of fishing and way of life is under threat. The industrialisation of fishing has reduced the value of their catch, making it increasingly difficult for smaller boats to make ends meet. The stocks of fish that they’ve traditionally relied upon, such as mackerel, are no longer arriving in their fishing grounds as expected.

It’s a challenge that Ben George of Sennen Cove knows all too well. He and his young family rent a house in a modern estate outside the cove and are saving up to buy a home. To cover the rent, Ben splits his time between potting for high-value lobsters or hand-lining for fish. It’s a sustainable way to fish and his catch attracts a premium, but it can be hard work.

In Penberth there are just four boats left in the harbour now. Three of the fishermen who work them are aged between 65 and 80. The fourth is James Batten, a 27-year-old who fishes with his 80-year-old father, Michael (pictured right). James wants Penberth to remain an active fishing cove, but the odds are stacked against him. It’s a difficult place to work; the fishermen depend on each other to safely launch and return their boats. Without fellow fishermen to help, when the others retire, James won’t be able to continue fishing here alone. So to supplement his income, James has taken on a second job as a shipwright, but like his father before him, fishing is where his heart is. James is determined to make a go of it.

Copyright: Folk films The port of Newlyn is home to giant netters and trawlers up to a hundred feet long. These boats can fish hundreds of miles out and stay at sea for over a week at a time. It’s a tough life and finding men to crew the boats gets harder every year. The average age of skippers here is nudging 60.

Aboard beam trawler the Billy Rowney, 28-year-old engineer and deckhand Danny Fisher (pictured right) has spent the last ten years learning the ropes. Now he’s aiming for the top job and has been training for his skipper’s ticket. He’s under the watchful eye of experienced skipper Steve Mosely who has seen first-hand the decline in Newlyn’s fleet and its fishermen.

The Billy Rowney is preparing for what could be a rough week at sea, as she heads out around seventy miles south-west. It could be up to eight days before she returns turn to port. As a storm blows in, they face gale force winds and huge waves but fishing through the weather could pay off for Steve and his crew.

Newlyn is Cornwall’s biggest fishing port but Brexit is coming and as the town prepares to navigate these uncharted waters , there is one man at the helm, harbour master Rob Parsons. He’s been in post for five years, but is still regarded as the new harbour master. The harbour is managed by Rob and a board of commissioners on behalf of the stakeholders, mainly fishermen and related industries. He’s already overseen a £1.3 million redevelopment of the town’s fish market, but with Britain about to leave the European Union, Rob wants to make sure the harbour is ready to take advantage of any opportunity Brexit may bring and he’s using EU money to help him do so.

The market is only the first step in his vision for a new Newlyn, but change doesn’t always come easy. Not everyone is happy about the proposed changes and many fishermen are angry at the way they have been handled, feeling they’ve not been consulted on the future of their harbour. As tensions begin to rise, Rob finds himself facing some difficult conversations.

While rumours spread and tensions rise in Newlyn, the whole of the UK is in the midst of Brexit turmoil. Many fishermen think Brexit will bring a brighter future for their industry and now they want MPs to deliver on the promises made during the referendum, to take back control over British waters and quotas. As the deadline draws closer and negotiations intensify, fishermen fear that their industry may be sacrificed, but Newlyn men continue to make their voices heard. 

Copyright: Frank Films Looe once boasted the second largest fishing fleet in Cornwall. For decades it held a reputation for landing some of the freshest and highest quality fish in the country. At one time the Looe fleet were landing twenty tons of fish each day straight from the boat into the town’s bustling fish market. There’s now just half a dozen full time trawlers, and in 2019 its fish market closed. 

A few hundred metres inland, the tidal river offers the fleet some protection, but also shapes the way fishing is done here. Looe trawlers can only put to sea around high tide, or risk running aground.  Out at sea they are working the same grounds are much larger trawlers, too big for harbours like Looe, capable of working in all weathers for a week at a time. The Looe boats have turned being small to their advantage. Landing the same day, they command top prices for the freshest catch.

Plymouth is just 22 miles from Looe, and one of the world’s largest deep-water harbours. Since the 1980s, Looe skippers wanting bigger boats left their tidal home waters for Plymouth’s safe embrace. Looe’s loss became Plymouth’s gain, and the town’s fleet diminished.

One local family - The Toms, are fighting to resist the changes by resurrecting the last boat built in Looe and investing in the future, with three generations throwing themselves into the fray. But even with hundreds of years of fishing pedigree, the Tom’s are finding themselves on the outside of the modern fishing business, where catching the fish is only one of the challenges facing them. They’ve got a few months of borrowed quota and need to get their old boat fixed up to get to sea and start using it. The Toms’ journey to get the boat fishing takes them through the challenges of Britain’s broken quota system, a system where just five families own nearly a third of the country’s entire fish quota.

Aiding the Tom’s in the fight back is new kid on the quay, fish merchant Sam Chapman. He wants to build a business based on Looe’s best-known commodity - its day-boat fresh fish - but when the fleet left for Plymouth, they took the fish with them. Sam is gambling his whole business to try and change business as normal. He’s cutting out the middleman, buying everything the Toms can land, and is determined and forge a future for himself and fishing in Looe.

As the Toms plough ever more money into fixing the old boat, rumours swirl that the old fish market is set to reopen, and a most unlikely ally emerges. Can one family and one boat revive the hopes of Looe’s once proud fishing fleet?