Episode 1 The Fisherman's Apprentice with Monty Halls

For hundreds of years, small fishing boats have set sail

to bring home the riches of our coastal waters.

He's got one, he's caught a monkfish, yes!

But fishing has changed.

Deep-sea trawlers now catch most of the fish we eat.

Stocks are in decline.

And fishermen are getting a bad name.

Hour after hour, day after day,

I've lowered fish through that hatch.

You know, can that level of fishing be sustained

long-term into the future?

Rising costs and stringent regulations have left our fishermen

in crisis.

Can they survive the threats to their future?

None of us really know what's around the corner.

Everything's up in the air. It's a worrying time.

Marine biologist Monty Halls is going to explore the challenges

facing our fishing industry,

but from the inside.

For the next eight months,

he will live and work as a Cornish fisherman.

It's a very different thing from anything I've done before.

He'll experience the physical demands

of the most dangerous job in the UK.

You get that cold shock and the cold shock's a killer.

Monty follows his catch from the sea to the plate.

And he travels overseas to find out if there is a better way to support our fishermen.

I take pride in the fish I land.

-This fish will be right to the consumer by this afternoon.

-Right.

What will happen if we lose our traditional fishermen?

If you took the fishing boats away,

the pack of cards would fall very, very rapidly.

It is a fishing village.

There's no point in it existing if it isn't a fishing village.

It's spring.

Cornwall is in full bloom and the fishing season is getting under way.

Monty is heading down to Cadgwith Cove in the far south of the county.

For me, this is where the love affair with the sea really started.

I used to come down here on holiday with my folks.

But my relationship with the sea, I think, is fundamentally different

to the relationship that the people I'm about to meet have to the sea.

I'm a conservationist

and the guys I'm off to work with are fishermen,

and part of me thinks those two worlds very much collide.

I've almost been the opposition, in a way, because they're taking things from the sea

and I'm all about trying to conserve things within the sea.

So, this is going to be a very interesting experience for me.

It's almost going over to the other side, in a way.

From fish and chips to crab sandwiches,

seafood is a big part of the British diet.

But at what cost?

By working as a fisherman, Monty wants to find out

what's really involved in getting fish onto our plates.

Just 20 miles from Land's End,

the Lizard Peninsula is the most southerly point

on the British mainland.

Tucked away on its eastern coast is Cadgwith,

one of the last traditional fishing coves left in Britain.

Arriving in the village is like stepping into the past.

Fewer than 100 houses, many of them thatched,

are crammed into a steep-sided valley.

Monty will live here for the next eight months.

He hopes that his time in Cadgwith will help him to understand

the economic and environmental issues facing the fishing industry.

Eight small boats work off the beach

as they have done since medieval times.

And the skipper of one has agreed to take Monty on as his apprentice.

Hello, Nigel.

-Hello, how are you?

-I'm very well. Yourself?

-You made it, then?

-Just about.

-An emotional trip. Nice to meet you.

-And you.

-How's it going?

You're looking big and strong, just what I'm looking for.

Don't be fooled, don't be fooled.

Nigel Legge has fished here for more than four decades.

He's just turned 60, and is starting to wind down,

so he's got a bit of time to show Monty the ropes.

If he can prove himself worthy,

Nigel will let Monty take charge of Razorbill on his own.

Ultimately, the idea is you're going to trust Razorbill to me.

-Well, if you've got a big enough insurance policy, yeah!

-Oh, it's huge.

It's served me very, very well.

She looks really stout and strong.

-And she's sort of... sort of quite pretty, still.

-Yeah.

-I mean, I'm sure some of the other boats, they're bigger, faster.

-Yeah.

Some of them will even do 20 knots.

I'd rather take my time and go round things quietly, really.

Exactly, exactly.

The UK fishing fleet is still predominantly a small one.

Almost 80% of boats are less than 33 feet or 10 metres in length.

Many of their skippers are hereditary fishermen

who have followed their fathers and grandfathers out onto the sea.

But, every year, more and more are going out of business.

Monty wants to find out why.

At 18 foot, Razorbill is one of the smallest fishing boats in the UK.

But there's still a lot to understand

if Monty is going to work her safely and productively.

Nigel wants to get him out on the water

and learning his new trade right away.

This is basically the Lizard.

Am I looking at the Lizard or is that the Lizard?

-Lizard's down there.

-Right.

That's Innis Point, that's Kennack Sands,

and back out around there

-is the Manacles and then Falmouth.

-Oh, yeah.

The Lizard Peninsula's rugged, rocky coast is full of marine life.

Cadgwith Cove is perfectly placed

to exploit some of the richest fishing grounds in British waters.

Nigel's fished for all sorts of species over the years,

with both net and line.

Look at that! Monster!

But now he's semi-retired, he's focusing on pots,

going for lobsters and crabs.

Whoa, big lobster in there!

When he's cleared them of crab and lobster,

Nigel will return the string of four pots to the seabed.

And he wants Monty to help out.

When I get in the right place,

-I'll just tell you to throw that over the side.

-Yeah.

And then you stand there and let the rope go away.

-And that's one of the more dangerous parts of it?

-It is, really, yeah.

-Cos this must weigh, what... Probably 40 kilo.

-40 kilo, yeah.

Basically, the pot goes over to start the string,

drags the other pots over, or the other pots are thrown over as well,

and that's the dangerous part -

imagine doing this and it's tossing and turning, got a bit of tide running,

two or three knots a tide, that's going to whip over the side.

If it goes around your ankle, that's it and there's, very sadly,

many a fisherman who's been dragged over by a pot, or a string of pots.

-Just say when.

-Yeah, go on.

-OK, you can chuck the first pot when you want, now.

-Here we go!

Monty does the first three pots without a problem.

But then his mind wanders and he forgets about the last one.

If it's not thrown over the side, it will be dragged over,

and it could easily take Monty with it.

-You going to throw the pot over, Mont?

-Yeah.

-Like, today.

-Sorry, got it, got it!

I actually purposely left you in Cuckoo Land then,

because you actually got...

When you're doing the pots,

you've got to be focused on what's coming next

-and I let you go because you was dreaming about something.

-Yes, I was, you're right.

So, the whole lot's gone over the side now in a massive mess.

This is the first of many lessons Nigel will teach Monty over the coming weeks.

He must concentrate on the job in hand.

Fishing is by far the most dangerous civilian occupation in the UK.

Making a mistake at sea could be fatal.

There are hundreds of small fishing ports dotted around along our coast.

But most have harbour walls to protect their boats.

Cadgwith is one of the last fishing coves left in the UK.

The beach and its fleet are exposed to the full force of the sea.

At the end of the day,

the boats are safely hauled up above the tide line.

In the morning, a tractor pushes them back out into the water.

The Cadgwith skippers share costs and labour.

If one or two of them were to go out of business,

the rest of the fleet would struggle to survive.

As Nigel's apprentice, Monty needs to pull his weight.

The first task is learning how to work the winch.

-So, in gear is just flipping it over...?

-Yeah, just keep pressing until the dog clutch engage.

-Yeah.

That's the break, that's for when they're pulling the wire down the beach.

If it's over-running, just put the break on a little bit.

And now, just go ahead.

That's all it is.

And then we go reverse.

-Simple as that.

-Smashing.

-As simple as that.

-It's got speed control on it if you wanted.

-Yeah.

Only a fool can get it wrong.

One of the fleet is coming in after a morning at sea.

Nigel has just grabbed me and said, right, this is my debut pull.

So, OK, off we go.

Thank you for entrusting me with your boat.

Nice to meet you, by the way, I'm Monty. Nice to meet you, yeah.

The boat's skipper, Martin Mitchell, is polite but not overly friendly.

Monty will have to prove himself before he is accepted here.

As well as Nigel and Martin,

there are five other full-time skippers working off the beach.

Mark Murphy, John Trewin and Jonathan Tonkin are crabbers,

setting out long strings of pots like Nigel.

Louis Mitchell also works pots, but goes exclusively for lobsters.

Danny Phillips is the cove's only full-time netsman.

Right now, he's targeting monkfish.

Behind the scenes are net maker Luke Stephens

and fishmonger Jonathan Fletcher.

Monty hopes that by getting to know these men,

he'll gain some insight into the problems facing all the small-boat fishermen in the UK.

But as an outsider, he's got a lot to learn.

I think the word you're looking for is a fish out of water.

He looked like some celebrity who wasn't going to get his hands dirty,

or weren't going to do much out the ordinary.

Like, "I'm a celebrity and you're going to work around me".

We don't see a lot of newcomers here.

Most of the guys come from the village.

I suppose it's very much like walking into the dragon's lair.

The only way Monty will win the fishermen over is by working hard on the beach.

As well as winching the boats in, he'll have to launch them too,

so he needs to master the tractor.

How would it go down if I ruined the tractor?

Well, I think you would ruin your day and mine.

-I think we'd have to disappear.

-We'd have to leave Cadgwith for ever.

A long time, I think, yeah.

While Monty is learning his trade,

he's going to be staying in a converted net loft,

just around the corner from the beach.

As I'm sure you can probably tell, it's day one

and a good thing is I don't stand out as the new boy at all.

Today, he's going to learn about safety at sea.

And it starts with the kit.

There's a reason it's bright yellow.

And it's bright yellow because if you fall in, you can be seen

and it's incredibly robust and thick.

This has basically got to last my fishing season.

-Nigel, good morning.

-Oh, my God!

MONTY LAUGHS

I knew you'd laugh.

I should go...go north a minute.

-Sorry?

-Steer north.

-Steer north?

-Yeah, steer north.

-You want me to steer north, right now?

-Yeah.

OK, north. So, north would be...

Cadgwith is there...

I'll be going straight...that way, isn't it?

That way? That way.

Go on, keep going.

HE LAUGHS That way?

Monty has a lot to learn, and not just about navigation.

Nigel makes him aware of the dangers of the job.

Last week, I done the most stupid thing.

I was clambering over a load of pots

to get back here to move them in the boat, to get to the controls there,

and clambered over the top of the pots, the boat rolled

and I was now balanced like a seesaw on the pot

and I thought...

-I've been doing this a long time.

-Slid into the water.

It's always waiting to happen, you just don't know, you know.

Nets and pots flying around on deck

and fast-moving machinery are major hazards.

Every fisherman has their own story.

We was 18 mile off the Lizard

and we had hydraulic slave at that time,

like a pot winch always whizzing round,

and I put my hand, like that, to look over the side of the boat

and my fingers went on the rope

and it just went round like that and snapped it off, snapped me arm here.

I had 50 stitches on me arm...

..two pins, two plates,

14 screws to put it all back together again.

Not a very nice thing to have doing to you,

but I did get a ride in the lifeboat.

HE LAUGHS

Every year I'd end up with a rope around my foot

somewhere along the line.

It's just cos I suppose I'm doing it SO often

I get a bit blase over it, possibly.

Often I feel the wind from a floater

comes over the hauler a bit fast go past me face.

Almost a third of all fatal fishing accidents

involve crew going overboard.

The first few seconds of initial shock are by far the most dangerous.

So if you do go over the side, which is very unlikely,

but if you do go over the side, it'll be cold

and you will take a big deep breath first of all,

but after a second or two, just compose yourself

and think about what you're going to do next.

When you go in, how long have you got?

The water will actually take your life away

26 times faster than air of the same temperature,

so without any of this equipment on

you're talking about...an hour.

Discussing going overboard is one thing.

Nigel wants Monty to experience it for himself.

I've got this little camera which will give a real fish-eye view

of what happens when I actually go into the water.

And here's the crew.

Here we are, all warm dry

and thoroughly looking forward to me going in!

-All right, Nige.

-All right.

-It's been a pleasure!

-Good luck.

Right, well, off we go.

The initial sensation...

is the gasping

cos one minute you're warm and you're in control,

and the next minute

you get that cold shock, and the cold shock's a killer

cos you take a breath, it's an involuntary breath as you jump in,

and that involuntary breath can be a mouthful of water.

And I can feel...

the heat leaching away from my body and the cold seeping in.

So, yeah, pretty unpleasant, really.

Nigel has told Monty to pull his arms and legs into a foetal position

to minimise heat loss.

So, what I've got to do now is just curl up in this position.

It's called the HELP position,

and it stops heat escaping from your body

and just let that layer of water sort of heat...

let my skin heat that layer of water

and just try and control my breathing.

Like many small-boat fishermen, Monty will be working alone.

If he went overboard, the engine would keep running

and he'd be left helpless.

And there's the boat heading off, the crew,

and that's what I'd be looking at. It would be a sickening sensation.

You'd feel very, very alone.

The boat coming back - what a great sight, you know?

-All right, Nige!

-I'M fine!

HE GRUNTS

Phew!

-All right, Nige?

-You're strong and big.

-Yeah.

I could see you were struggling to get to this boat.

-I really was struggling.

-And you weren't playing, you was struggling.

I tell you what, there'd be two or three goes of that

and that would be that - if you didn't make it in, you'd be stuffed.

I'm just interested to know, what was it like when you first went in the water?

Definite shock, you know? I think that the big difference for me

and someone REALLY falling overboard is I was expecting it.

I was braced for it. But that initial shock, breathlessness...

Monty gets out of his wet clothes

and puts on his oilskins to keep warm.

Then it's back to the shore as quickly as possible.

Just as Nige said, you are not going to stay afloat

wearing that for any length of time without a life jacket -

just forget it.

In the last six years, there were almost 1,800 serious accidents

on UK fishing boats.

122 vessels were lost at sea.

And 69 fishermen were killed.

Yes, I've lost a few people I've known, here in the cove.

We've lost two or three who we've known and grown up with,

and we really don't know what happened exactly,

but the whole place, the whole cove was in total shock.

If you've been fishing for long enough

you will unfortunately lose people you know, yep.

And if you go to any...fisherman

who's been in the job for lots of years...

..they will tell you friends they've lost.

In fishing villages like Cadgwith,

everyone has lost someone to the sea.

A friend. A brother.

A husband. A father.

The shared grief binds everyone together.

Hiya. How you doing?

It's Thursday evening.

People gather on the beach for a fishing competition.

So far, Monty has found it difficult

to integrate himself into the community.

This is a good opportunity to get to know some of the villagers.

Every other week, Cadgwith's anglers head out to sea

after a different designated species.

It's all a bit of fun,

but whoever gets the biggest fish takes home a cash prize.

I've been here, you know, a really short period

and this is the first time I've seen the village turn out for stuff.

And what I'm hoping, over the course of time,

is I can get a lot more involved in this sort of thing

cos that's what Cadgwith's all about,

that's what binds it together, is that sense of community,

based around the boats, everything around the boats, you know?

And how many communities can there be left that are like that in the UK?

The community in Cadgwith is like a tightknit community, I think.

Everybody looks after everybody

because you're all almost as in one family.

The whole thing is sort of focused on this beach

and the surrounding areas, and every family knows somebody who's fishing

or has something to do with the beach.

One of those little pockets

that have sort of been forgotten by time, I think.

HE LAUGHS

You'd struggle to find somewhere

the same as this place is...now. Years ago, you would have done,

but we're like one of the last remaining...communities,

I suppose you could say, you know? Beach community.

After a few hours, the boats return with their catch.

This week, everyone's been after cuckoo wrasse.

You show people this fish

and they think it's a tropical fish, you know? So beautiful.

This is a male. The colouration is absolutely gorgeous,

hence the name cuckoo wrasse.

Really, really beautiful fish.

This is Danny. Apparently he is "the man".

Danny Philips may fish all day for a living,

but that doesn't stop him doing it for fun in his spare time.

If you're a junior and you've got a cuckoo wrasse, can you bring them to the scales?

The master of ceremonies is another of the Cadgwith skippers, John Trewin.

We go onto the seniors event. Very well attended, I might add.

Excellent, pretty good turn out.

In first place,

with his rather large cuckoo wrasse of 12.75 ounces...

-Danny Philips.

-APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Though he's enjoyed watching the proceedings,

Monty hopes to play a much more active role

in the next competition in a couple of weeks' time.

Monty and Nigel are heading out to check the pots

to see what's been caught over the past few days.

One of Monty's priorities is to find out how sustainable fishing is.

Today he wants to see how Nigel's operation measures up.

Whoa, that's a big old crab! Monster!

-Well, that's only about 4lb. You can get bigger than that sometimes.

-Cor!

-That's a female...hen crab.

-Right.

Nige has obviously just got the eye

and he can see straight away whether it's of a size. I can't.

So, one thing I certainly don't want to do is be taking undersized crabs.

-He's too small.

-He's too small, thank you!

Unlike many fish species,

there are currently no quotas

or catch limits for crab and lobster.

-So, that one there is well under.

-Well under.

But there are controls on what size of animal you can land.

Anything too small, and therefore too young to have reproduced,

goes back in the sea, as do egg-bearing females.

-Spider crab. That's a female, so that can go back.

-Go back.

-That one's just big enough, look.

-Unlucky, fella.

It's definitely one of the things

that attracts me to this style of fishing...

is that the vast... Ow!

..is that the vast majority of what you catch -

even if it doesn't appreciate it - goes back in.

And of course, this is the stock of the future, you know? Ow!

-Better get you a pair of gloves!

-Yeah, I think so.

For spider crabs in particular!

And the good thing about chucking these animals back

is they're not damaged when they go back.

The only thing that's being damaged here is me!

Monty is a marine biologist,

more used to studying life in the sea than trying to catch it.

He's finding it difficult

to come to terms with his new role as a fisherman.

I really did struggle initially,

when I was hauling up animals that otherwise I would be looking at,

I'd be taking photographs of, I'd be enjoying on a dive,

I'd be showing to people on a dive.

'But now...I think, as long as I buy seafood and eat fish

'then I need to understand what's going on out there in the fishing,

'the harsh reality of it.'

And the more I see, the more at ease I am

with what goes on here in Cadgwith in terms of the fleet.

Potting for crabs and lobsters from such a small boat

will have a minimal impact on the environment.

It's the perfect start before Monty moves on

to investigate other, less sustainable, forms of fishing.

The last pot they're going to haul today is a very valuable one.

This is the bank, basically.

This is where I keep them alive until I sell them. Two or three days.

So, you can put those in the store pod if you want.

We tend to treat lobsters quietly instead of just dropping them in...

-Oh, right.

-..cos they will shoot their claws off if they're upset.

-I see, I see.

-And you can see the shape of them, look.

See the shape of the lobster?

-It's probably better putting them in that way round.

-Got you. Yeah.

And this, what you've got in there, Nige,

how much cash would that get you and then after your costs are taken out?

Probably 30 pounds of lobster there,

that's 180 quid's worth of lobster, possibly.

And you've obviously got the wear and tear of the pots,

the boat, you've got diesel which is expensive,

although this boat really doesn't burn a lot of diesel.

Yeah, there's bait and everything else,

so you know, if I come away with 100 quid then I'm doing quite well, really.

After covering their costs,

many small-boat fishermen are lucky to earn £15,000 a year.

This is very little return for such hard, dangerous work.

It's clear that Cadgwith men go fishing for other reasons.

The excitement, anticipation.

When I wake up in the morning to go and get the pots,

I aren't actually waking up and wondering

how much money I'm going to get at the end of the day.

I'm excited, still, after all these years,

to see what are in the pots that I put down a couple of days before,

and I actually can't really wait to get there to see what's in them.

It's a way of life more than just a job.

Um...

I'd probably say it's a way of life first and a job second.

It's a way of life that may be coming to an end.

Over the last 18 years,

almost 40% of small British fishing boats went out of business.

If we lose our inshore fleet, we lose our most sustainable fishermen.

Nigel has dealt with the financial pressures of the job

by diversifying.

In summer, he takes tourists out on Razorbill.

In winter, he retires to his shed.

He's one of the last people in Britain

to make traditional lobster pots.

And he paints pictures of boats at sea.

The money he makes selling these crafts has kept him going through lean times.

If you sort of notice, they all point the right way,

to me they're always coming home.

It's just nice that everything gets home

and everyone's in the harbour... and everyone's safe and sound.

-That's quite atmospheric, isn't it?

-That's a very early one.

And the gun metal skies and... as you say, heading home.

And just one more thing, you got any money on you?

I think I've got some loose change.

-Just something small, really.

-Credit card?

-There we go, 50p.

-50p, brilliant. Here's a little present for you.

-Mate, thank you.

-It's a tradition, you've got to put some silver

in somebody's hand if you give them a present of a knife.

It's a superstitious thing - if you don't it will break your friendship.

-Oh, really?

-So, provided we're going to be mates for a good while...

Yeah, that's really kind.

As well as being the most dangerous job in the UK,

fishing is also the most superstitious.

It is a big thing in the fishing world, people do take it seriously,

and one of the first ones, which is probably fairly unlikely, if you see

a man of the cloth or a vicar in the morning,

you don't go to sea on that day.

Of course, the famous one of the sort of underground racehorses...

-Right.

-..with the long ears... You just don't mention...

Even actually taking a pasty to sea is bad luck.

With underground racehorses, basically you're talking about...

-rabbits.

-Oh, my God!

You've got most of it right, just don't mention that word again

while you're with me.

Oh, my God.

Monty is up early,

and for once he makes it down to the beach before Nigel.

It's 6:28 in the morning and it's the calm before the storm, really.

It's just a little bit rougher than it's been previously.

It's just kind of kicked up, hasn't it?

It's all right here. It's when you get out there.

Perhaps we'll go and see what we can do

and if we've got to abandon, we will until tomorrow.

When they get out to sea, it's much worse than it looked from the shore.

Mont, we're looking for a football, or two footballs.

Two footballs, no worries.

Uh...yellow and blue.

Nigel is going to teach Monty how to catch spider crabs

with a tangle net.

Basically the nets acted as a curtain across the sea floor

and the spider crabs, particularly at this time of year,

move across in quite substantial numbers

and they just get tangled in the net.

So many different factors, as ever, involved with all this...

Time, tide, are the crabs moving, the strata that it's laid on,

loads of loads of stuff going on here.

There's a lot more to it than just chucking down a net and a bunch of crabs walk into it.

Look at that - big, beautiful male spider crab.

And it's not a species we eat in this country, it's crazy.

Very, very abundant, they're not threatened

and they're absolutely delicious.

Almost all the spider crabs landed in the UK

are shipped to the Continent.

The British public has yet to develop a taste

for this plentiful species.

Quite interesting working... You know, obviously the boat's

rocking and rolling and you're looking down all the time.

They do say the best way to avoid seasickness is go and sit under a tree.

-You've never been seasick?

-No, never been seasick.

You're so lucky.

Monty has suffered from seasickness in the past.

So far, he's OK, but it could be a problem

when the weather gets rougher.

The wind's picking up,

so Nigel decides to head in and finish the job tomorrow.

It isn't very nice here, so... I mean, it isn't horrendous weather,

-but it's poor enough for a small boat, really.

-Yeah.

This kind of fishing may have minimal impact on marine life,

but you're totally at the mercy of the weather.

Stormy seas mean no work... and no pay.

Rough weather has little effect on the biggest fishing boats -

the super-trawlers.

Big boats make up less than 10% of the UK's fishing fleet,

but they're responsible for almost 80% of the seafood landed on our shores.

Thousands of litres of fuel are burnt on every trip and, for every tonne of fish brought to market,

it's estimated that as many as three tonnes are

thrown back into the sea.

The contrast between our small, inshore boats

and our large, deep-sea ones couldn't be more stark.

As well as being a more sustainable way of fishing,

our inshore fleet is also a link to our past.

Fishermen have been launching off Cadgwith Beach for 700 years or more.

The walls of the village pub are covered with old photographs,

a testament to the cove's ancient fishing traditions.

When you was brought up in a place like this,

and remember, life was different then, there was no transport,

you was just sort of expected to join the navy or go fishing.

What else are you going to do?

I mean, do you want to have them all stacking shelves somewhere or all on the dole?

It was just something that you knew you was going to do,

so when we'd all get on the school bus to go to school, sometimes we'd hide behind the bus shelter

and the bus would drive off without us and then we'd whizz down the hill and go fishing for the day

and come home with smelly clothes on and pretend we'd been to school,

but I think Mother and Father knew where I'd been really, but...

In recent decades, the fabric of Cadgwith has changed

as more and more outsiders have settled here.

How do you feel about that, sort of people moving in from outside and...

Well, I'm sort of quite pleased, to be quite honest,

because it's just nice to have different views on things.

The one thing Cadgwith done that lots of places didn't do,

we actually absorbed youngsters coming in.

-Lots of places haven't and they've gone, finished.

-Yeah.

-And they're a great bonus to the community.

I mean, without that young influx of people, especially with children,

lots of things wouldn't continue and wouldn't happen, you know,

so no, it's brilliant, really. Love it.

Nigel and Monty head out to finish hauling the tangle net.

Monty hopes that by learning how to fish

he'll gain a better understanding of the wider industry.

But at the moment he's struggling to master

even the simplest of tasks, like pulling spider crabs from the net.

It's this...this inefficiency that's going to be a problem for me later on.

See, Nige, you know, he's working so quickly there

and I'm working as quick as I can, but...

just nothing like as efficiently,

and surely that will have an impact

on how many I can effectively catch later on.

It's been a kind of five, six hours of good solid hard work.

How much do you think all that work has brought in, or would bring in?

How much is that worth? 130, 140 quid?

130, 140 quid, right, right.

-Less diesel, less nets, less bait.

-Yeah, so probably more like 80, 90.

Yeah, probably. But then, you know, next week, who knows,

I could be out here, fine weather, four or five bins, couple of turbot, monk.

You just don't know, really. That is the bit that keeps you going, really.

Monty has been reassured by how environmentally friendly

small-boat fishing is.

But is it viable as a business?

As well as low returns, inshore fishermen have to deal with

more and more government restrictions.

This is going to be a tough year for the Cadgwith skippers.

Bit of a worrying time, to be honest.

It is, because it's very much... everything's up in the air.

None of us really know what's around the corner.

I don't think the legislators

really know which way it's going to go. They don't...

This is very glib, but they don't seem to have a clue about any of it.

I don't think they understand the way that fishermen are.

We're all waiting with bated breath, to be honest,

for the government's next announcement.

Coping with what is going on is overwhelming, quite literally,

for somebody who just wants to go fishing.

Well, I'd never even heard of a quota when we used to go fishing.

You'd just fish away, catch as much as you like. Yep.

So, in that respect, it's changed dramatically.

The old men wouldn't have this. They wouldn't like this at all.

It's a tricky time,

and it's going to be for another few more years yet.

Monty hopes to be running Razorbill himself in a week or so.

But he won't be totally on his own.

Nigel will be looking out for him,

as he does for all the other fishermen in the cove.

You know, right now Danny and John are out to sea,

I know they're out to sea.

It's always in your mind that they're out to sea

and if I'm at home I'll put the walkie-talkie radio on

and I'll often give Danny a shout,

cos he's quite late sometimes coming in with his red mullet nets and that,

and I just say, "Just give me a shout when you're going into the cove, Dan, I'll turn this off,"

and he'll just quickly say, "All right, Nige, just going into the cove, see you tomorrow." Cos I...

It's got to be like that.

I probably do fuss around a bit after them,

but, you know, that's just the way it is, really.

All the fishermen are ready to help one another at a moment's notice.

This is one of the reasons why Cadgwith has such a strong sense of identity.

Fishing is more than just a job here.

It's the village's heart and soul.

Can we afford to lose these communities?

Once they're gone, they'll never come back again.

These places, even for the holiday trade, are just priceless.

-Yeah.

-It's what people come for.

The amount of people who say to me when I'm doing boat trips,

"Nige, you know, just do one thing - don't ever change it,

"keep it as it is. You don't realise what you've got."

Life in Cornwall is not as idyllic as it looks.

The decline of the fishing and mining industries

have left it the poorest county in England.

As people move away from Cornwall to find work,

second-homers and tourists are taking their place.

Half of the houses in the cove

are only occupied for a few months of the year.

If the fishing boats were to go, Cadgwith could become

little more than a theme park, busy in summer, deserted in winter.

Monty is more than two weeks into his apprenticeship.

If he's going to take Razorbill out alone,

he'll need to know where all the hazards are in the fishing grounds.

Nearly low water now, it's the worst time for rocks.

You'll see there, look.

Look at that hidden hazard there. Just another foot of water

and you ain't going to see that at all.

Nige is consulting this...this chart that he has in his head,

having worked this coastline, you know, for decades and decades,

and I've just got to try and mentally note where all this stuff is.

Certainly full of something. Oh, not a bad lobster.

Bang on.

Go on, let her go.

Once again, he's inches away from getting snagged in the rope.

This is one of the areas I'm concerned about.

I can Riverdance my way out of trouble only so often, you know.

Going overboard with one of these attached to your ankle

is no laughing matter.

One of the pots contains a good-sized lobster...

but this one will be going back.

That's a berried hen lobster.

That is the future of the business.

Female lobsters can carry as many as 40,000 eggs under their tail.

To protect future stocks, landing such animals has been made illegal.

The fishermen have come up with an additional conservation measure.

Berried hens are notched,

and they can't be landed until the mark grows out in three years' time,

giving them plenty of time to flood the sea with their eggs.

There. So, back she goes. Good luck, young lady.

A large fish has swum into one of the pots.

And it's not happy.

-What's this, Mont?

-Dogfish! Bull huss, big one as well.

They're one of the few sharks that can bite their own tail.

Look at that, the power! Good grief.

-And you don't keep these, do you, Nige?

-No, I don't keep them.

Look at that, amazing! Let's get her back.

Beautiful.

Go on, then, fella, back you go!

-It's just a scratch!

-A mere flesh wound!

A mere flesh wound.

There is that real sense as you haul the pot up,

until it lands on the side, you don't know what's going to be in it.

And that's something quite basic in you, I think,

the sort of hunting side of you.

And we've all got it, in some shape or form.

It's Saturday. No-one is going fishing.

But Monty's come out on the water.

He's going to dive on a string of Nigel's pots.

He hopes that seeing what's happening on the seabed

will help him be a better fisherman on the surface.

Nigel's never seen his pots underwater

so he's going to watch the dive as it happens from a live link-up to the surface.

The first pot of the string is on sandy floor,

which is good for crabs,

which come onto soft ground to dig for crustaceans and molluscs.

Mind your fingers cos they're in the water now,

that's where they actually live, so they might nip you.

He's looking big from here.

-What do you think?

-Yeah, go on, Mont, let him go.

Late spring is the beginning of the crab and lobster season

in southern Cornwall. As inshore waters warm,

these cold-blooded animals become more active.

To harvest them, Monty needs to make sure he puts his pots

and nets in the right places.

Monty follows the long string, from sand to a kelp-covered reef.

The rocky seabed is perfect lobster habitat.

During the day, they hide in crevices,

emerging at night to feed on starfish, urchins and crustaceans,

sometimes roaming six miles or more from their burrows.

The overriding impression is that despite being fished for hundreds of years,

this is a very healthy marine environment.

It is living proof of the low-impact fishing carried out by Nigel

and the rest of the Cadgwith fleet.

-How did it look, Nige?

-Brilliant.

-Really?

-Yeah, brilliant.

Don't expect this all the time, though!

On shore, it's Monty's responsibility

to keep Razorbill shipshape.

And today, Nigel's also asked him to clean out the cold room,

where fish and ice are stored.

This is by far the most menial job in the cove.

In I go, through the curtains of stench.

Whew!

One of the things about doing jobs like this -

I realise I'm bottom of the food chain in Cadgwith,

of course, I'm the new boy, the apprentice.

And being bottom of the food chain means that

people are teaching me all the time out there.

And I'm seeing a whole new face of the sea,

and a whole new face of men of the sea, fishermen.

And it's great, you know.

And if I've got to do the odd job like this, it's not a problem

because I'm getting some real gems out there, picking up some real gems.

Monty's coming to the end of his apprenticeship,

but there's still so much to learn, like what to do if the engine fails.

So, what are we going to do now?

First thing, stick the anchor down, probably.

-That's what we do. You stick the anchor down.

-Right.

Just sort of quick as you can, Mont.

Imagine doing this when the boat's rocking and that rock is getting closer

and all you can hear is the snarling and crackling of the waves! My God, you'd move.

And Nigel teaches him how to navigate, even in the densest fog.

You would tell me if I look ridiculous?

-I will tell you before we hit the rocks as well.

-Right.

His steering skills are tested in the tightest of spots.

He learns the tricks of the trade. Use old, smelly bait for lobsters,

fresh bait for crabs, and how the tide affects both prey species.

It's the next round of the Cadgwith angling competition.

Monty has been invited onto Danny Philip's boat.

A minor breakthrough in his efforts to get to know the other fishermen.

The target species is plaice,

and Monty has invested in some state of the art gear.

I wish you'd stop following us!

Do you enjoy this, Danny, the old angling as opposed to fishing?

Yeah, I love it. I never used to, but I'm getting into it now.

Rumour has it you get very excited if you catch a big one.

Now and again. I have been known to get excited.

I believe the expression "dancing a jig" was used.

Do you feel like, is the honour of the boat at stake,

or is it just a bit of fun?

Just a bit of fun, yeah, yeah.

That's the way to catch them.

They're good-sized mackerel, aren't they?

DANNY CHUCKLES

They catch mackerel, dogfish, gurnard, but still no plaice.

There we go, it's all over.

We've given up and we're going home, basically.

John Trewin takes centre stage to announce the results.

And in fourth place... no pun intended!

It's been a great evening, I've really enjoyed it.

I'm constantly amazed at the turnout for these events in Cadgwith.

-This week's winner, Jeff Lee!

-APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

For me personally tonight, it's really nice.

Last time two weeks ago, I stood on this beach

and I watched the fleet disappear and I felt a bit shy,

I didn't want to ask one of the fishermen if I could join them.

Here we are two weeks later

and Danny said, "Right, you're on my boat, fella."

That's great, it's really nice to gradually feel

that you're becoming part of Cadgwith and part of something a bit special.

But Monty has a long way to go before he's fully accepted.

If he wants to be respected here,

he needs to take a fishing boat out to sea on his own.

Monty has been Nigel's apprentice for almost a month.

Now he's going to be put to the test.

He's going to run the boat and haul all the gear

while Nigel assesses his performance.

At first, Monty struggles.

It's a lot harder without someone else to steer and to lend a hand.

This time, this time.

I didn't realise, Nige, how much you're doing this when you do them,

and I'm like, I've got to switch that off

and then I've got to go over here, and I've got to cower back here!

But he hauls all the pots without incident, and Nigel seems pleased.

One of the other skippers from the cove, Dominic, comes alongside.

Hiya, Dom. Ha! I know!

-I'm going to go and haul nets with Dominic now.

-Right.

So, lobster's got to go in the store pot.

-No problem.

-Tie the lid up properly,

put the bait away, and look after it.

Suddenly Razorbill feels like a big empty space.

It seems that Monty has passed the test.

Nigel is confident he can run the boat single-handed.

From now on, he's on his own.

Here we are.

This is a whole new world, it really is.

'I felt really keen, actually, to get out there on my own

'and give it a crack, but I think the confidence

'that I had all came from Nige.

'It was a person of immense knowledge and immense experience

'turning to you and saying, "You're ready now,

'"I trust you're going to be OK out there,"

'then I knew I'd be all right.'

I've never seen her out there with not me in it before,

so it is very strange!

He's bound to have a tangle or two,

happens to everybody, it's just one of these things.

Monty has been given one simple job,

to put the lobsters in the store pot.

-But first, he hauls up someone else's pot.

-Buffoon, not this one.

-In you go, old fella.

-And then after getting the right pot,

he leaves it in the water with its lines tangled.

The football's just under the surface, so I'll nip round

and just recover her, and try and untangle that line.

Nigel would have real problems finding it again,

and could lose a lot of money.

That was lucky, wasn't it? Just managed to get hold of it.

There we are, just got a bit tangled there.

That's the very first thing I've done on my own in this boat,

and I nearly messed it up.

Nigel's lessons are over.

Now it's up to Monty to learn from his own mistakes.

Before he can start fishing on his own,

Monty has got to pick up his pots from a supplier on the north coast.

I'm here for one reason, and that's to understand fishing

and fishermen and the impact that has on the ocean.

And I've had an amazing month with Nige, I've learnt so much,

but the real acid test comes in the next month

when I try to do it myself.

And I can use that as a launch point

to go off and find out more about the industry,

I can use it as a reference, the stuff I've done at Cadgwith,

to see the bigger picture, and that was the whole idea when I turned up in the first place.

Monty's learnt a lot over the past month,

and not just about working at sea.

He's seen how small boats can fish sustainably.

But now he wants to find out more about the pressures

facing our inshore fleet.

Why are so many skippers struggling?

And can anything be done to help them?

Next time, Monty experiences some of the harsh realities

of life as a fisherman.

You know, very sobering about how much I've still got to learn.

I'm working incredibly hard, but I'm knackered, I'm not even close.

And his mission is put in serious doubt by some rough weather,

and a weak stomach.

HE RETCHES

Try not to spew over the fish.