Episode 5 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! He has!

But fishing is changing.

In recent years, many of our inshore skippers have gone out of business.

Can they survive the threats to their future?

It's a tricky time and it's going to be for another few more years yet.

Marine biologist Monty Halls is going to explore

the challenges facing our fishing industry.

But from the inside.

Monty's seen the problems fishermen face.

Now he wants to look for solutions.

He learns how trawlermen are minimising THEIR impact

on the environment.

Although, when the bag comes aboard, it doesn't look like much,

but cos there's nothing to go back over the side,

it's better than what you think, generally.

Monty sees how fishermen can turn waste into profit.

That will be in a Japanese restaurant tomorrow morning

in thin slices.

And he heads overseas, where he discovers

a revolutionary way of supporting our traditional fishermen.

I take pride in the fish I land.

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

Right, in and out, no messing about, fresh fish.

The fishermen of Cadgwith Cove try to be out at sea

before 7:30am.

It's October,

so they're loading up and launching in the dark.

For the past six months,

Monty Halls been experiencing life as a small-boat fisherman.

His mentor, Nigel Legge, has fished here for more than four decades.

And he knows there are tough times ahead.

OK, the weather's different now than it was in the summer.

If it's like this it's OK, but, you know, any time now,

it's nothing to have a month or six weeks off solid.

-Where you can't fish?

-Where even the bigger ones can't go.

-Right.

-So, you go to London,

and say to somebody who's got a full-time, permanent job

and say, "I'm taking six weeks of your wages", and that's what it is.

There's no magic about it, that is what it is.

The lobsters that Nigel targets in summer months also sense

bad weather is on the horizon, and they're beginning to move offshore.

So Nigel's changing tactics -

he's set nets for bass, hoping they are now moving into shallow waters.

There we are, there's one. We've caught A bass.

We're going to need more than one.

-We've got dinner.

-We have, we have.

Don't pay the bills, but we've got dinner.

-Well, I'VE got dinner.

-Yeah!

Good grief, what a beast.

Though he's targeted bass, Nigel's also catching wrasse, mackerel...

and the odd shark.

A mature tope like this could be more than 40 years old.

Look at that, that's fantastic.

It's beautiful, you know,

that's a proper shark, that.

It's a female, full of eggs.

And Nigel's going to give it a second chance.

Sharks are kind of in trouble at the moment -

100 million a year taken out the sea

and Nige, being the magnanimous fella he is,

has said we can put this fella back, which is great.

I don't like killing them, I really don't.

It's not worth much per kilogram,

but such a large tope is by far the most valuable thing

Nigel's caught today.

I mean, you've just stuck that shark back,

you have, in essence, chucked 40 quid overboard.

People think fishermen just catch and kill everything.

That isn't the case, it isn't like that at all.

Apart from two bass and some mackerel,

few of the other fish are worth selling.

We've actually got a fair few fish here.

You know, it's interesting that, of these fish,

there's probably only three or four in here that have commercial value.

Obviously, you've got the bass.

We've also got a lot of wrasse and this, I think,

is one of the snags we have in terms of the way we consume fish

in this country, is that that really doesn't have any commercial value.

You'll use these as bait, won't you?

We do use them as bait. You can eat them,

there's nothing wrong with them whatsoever,

it's just that we've never been brought up to eat them.

If Nigel could sell abundant fish like wrasse,

his income would improve significantly.

instead of selling four fish for, say, 15 or 20 quid a day,

which I know is nonsense, really, you know, that box of fish

-possibly could be 50 quid.

-Yeah.

-That's slightly different.

-Yeah.

Cornish fishermen catch more than a hundred different fish species.

But in the current market,

only a few are sold in any significant quantity.

The rest, known as by-catch, are thrown back into the sea.

That is a beautiful firm-bodied fish.

-It is, full of meat there, look.

-Full of meat. Yeah.

That's no different to that. Different colour.

Yeah, and that's... You know, if Nigel wasn't using for bait,

it'd just go straight back over the side.

It's a tragedy, that - it's protein,

there's a massive protein shortage in the world

and we're chucking things like that away

just because we're not used to eating it.

Maybe a lot of the fault with by-catch lies very much with us,

and not with the fishermen.

If we want to support our fishermen and protect the marine environment,

we need to start eating more of the fish that are caught off our coast.

The nets that Nigel and the other Cadgwith skippers use

are called static gear -

they do not move in the water.

But most of the fish landed in the UK are caught

using mobile gear, such as the nets towed behind trawlers.

A few weeks ago, Monty worked on a beam trawler

and caught lots of unwanted species.

Now he wants to find out if anything can be done to reduce by-catch.

He's come to Mevagissey -

a large fishing village 30 miles up the coast.

Tomorrow, he's going out on the Valhalla -

one of a new breed of environment-friendly trawlers.

It's 4am. The nets are lowered into the water under the watchful eye

of skipper Dave Warwick.

I noticed we headed out heinously early.

You know, whatever it was, 3:30am. Why is that?

That's our general time to come to sea, but haddock fishing

can be better in the dark, so we like to come out

and get this first haul where you start in the dark

and you tow through what we call the dim sea,

where it's coming in daylight, that generally the best time.

I've learnt two things about fishing during my embryonic fishing career -

number one is everything is very heavy

and number two is everything is very early.

-Yeah.

-Those are the two things I've learnt.

That's not a bad estimation, really. Especially trawling!

Two otter boards -

metal plates that are attached to either side of the net -

are lowered into the water.

The otter boards have gone into the water, they've gone in

about four meters apart, and when they get into the water

they'll open out.

As we move through, they'll go like this

and they'll open out the mouth of the net.

The mouth of the net is about 30 meters apart,

so they'll go, sort of, six, seven times the distance they are now,

they'll just move out, open the net up like this.

The net will sink to the bottom and then we'll start fishing.

Unlike beam trawling and scallop dredging -

where heavy metal chains are dragged over the ocean floor -

most otter trawls have lighter, rubber wheels on their bottom rope.

These roll and bounce over the sea bed, causing less disturbance.

After three hours in the water, the nets are hauled up.

This may look like any other trawl net,

but it has been specially designed to minimise by-catch.

Sections of the net have larger holes,

allowing more escape opportunities for small, unwanted fish.

In essence, that size mesh, you're fishing a slightly larger mesh,

so the juveniles are getting through,

the next generation of fish are getting through.

Yeah, we're looking after our own interest

by letting the smaller fish go, and next year or the year after,

when they've grown, we'll hopefully catch them again.

But, yeah...

We have bad press - people think we're out here

to catch the last fish in the sea. We're not.

We're out here to make a living

and for generations after us to make a living behind us.

Now the fish are on board,

it's time to sort the valuable species from the unwanted catch.

What you're doing here, Dave, by adopting this system

of the slightly larger net size

-is you're bringing your discard right down.

-Yeah.

So it's mainly haddock we've got here, isn't it?

Yeah, although when the bag comes aboard, it doesn't look like much

we found, since working with this net, you look at it

and think it isn't a very good haul,

but cos there's literally nothing to go back over the side

-it's better what you think, generally.

-Yeah.

As well as reducing by-catch, large mesh means less drag,

so less fuel is burnt, increasing profits.

And fewer starfish, urchins and rocks end up in the net,

so the fish are less damaged.

For us, the cleaner we can get it, the less rubbish is left in the nets

-in with the fish, the better it is.

-Yeah.

Better for the fish, better for us.

The quality of the fish goes a long way on the market -

the better the quality, the keener the buyers are to buy it.

And you get a reputation.

I was going to say, a lot of it is a name -

if you get a good name for landing good-quality fish,

the buyers will buy it repeatedly, time after time.

-They'll look for your name of the fish boxes.

-Yeah.

In recent years, fishermen and fish scientists

have been at loggerheads, unable to find common ground.

But on board the Valhalla is Government scientist Tom Catchpole

from CEFAS, the marine science organisation.

Two years ago, Tom and his team set out

to try and reduce discards on otter trawls.

Dave and 18 other skippers from the southwest

designed and tested specially made nets.

Discards were reduced by as much as 55%.

Since then, most of the skippers who took part have decided

to carry on using larger-mesh nets.

This is the basket of fish which will be discarded,

so this'll be thrown over the side.

Right. What you've got here is half a basket -

well, a third of a basket, compared to the six baskets that we've kept

and nothing else has been destroyed or killed for that catch.

No, that's it, yep.

So this is a very sustainable

and environmentally friendly way of fishing.

This could be considered a very clean catch.

Yeah.

Do you find your reception on the boats is...

You're well received, generally, on the boats?

Yes, I mean the programme is on a purely voluntary basis

so we are reliant on the goodwill of the industry to allow us

to come on board and measure the fish,

so they're under no obligation to have us on board.

It's undeniable that the fish stocks are under stress -

there's no doubt about that, particularly certain target species

and to feed the markets, the insatiable desire of the fish markets

and our demand for fish, there's always going to be by-catch,

but what I've seen today is half a basket of fish as by-catch

and six baskets of target species being caught.

The environmental impact of what we've done today has been

really, really minimal and that does give me real hope

that there is a way of doing this in the future that's sustainable.

And the truly great thing is that it's an initiative

that's been led by the fishermen, and that really gives me a lot of hope.

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

Similar net trials have been carried out on beam trawlers,

halving discards.

The success of such schemes show how fishermen

and scientists can work together.

And how being more sustainable can be good for business, too.

Netting from small boats is one of the most targeted forms of fishing.

The mesh size of the gill nets they use is specific

to the head of the fish you want to catch.

Small, juvenile fish swim right through.

Mature fish poke their head into the mesh and are caught by their gills.

People will have different-size nets for different-size fish.

The scale starts small for red-mullet net and it ends up

really big for a monk net, you know, there's all the different things

in-between which people use, so you can target your species more.

Born and bred in Cadgwith, Luke Stephens has fished all his life.

But the job took its toll on his body.

Physically unable to work at sea,

he now makes some of the finest nets in the area.

Do you miss fishing?

Yeah, I do miss it a, but I don't miss the early mornings.

-No, I sympathise.

-It's quite nice to sort of be in bed.

-Yeah.

But I'm still sort of fishing in a way, because I can make nets now

and, you know, they'll do the fishing for me and I get

a great satisfaction of making something,

of producing something which somebody could use.

The only bit that's missing is I'm not at sea.

Luke is using extra-fine filament for this gill net.

It's very hard to see when it's in the water,

so this net should catch more fish in less time.

The net is secured to the rope every seven holes along.

Monty's going to lend a hand.

-The key is, remember seven.

-Yeah.

If you offer it up to yourself like that

and you can just weave it in and out.

Five, six.

-You want it to be about two fingers.

-Yeah.

About there, so you've lined it up with the black bit,

Through that way, pull it sort of slightly tight,

put your thumb on it, cast your string over there,

through this way and one back that way.

Casting the string over - that's what I've not been doing.

So then you pull that tight that way

and that will be there till the cows come home.

Totally confident now.

For every fisherman,

it's estimated that there are at least four other jobs on shore.

Even though it is has declined in recent years,

the fishing industry is a key employer

in many of our coastal communities.

After an hour or so, Monty finally gets to his end of the net.

But something is wrong.

Being brutally honest, somehow you got all this many

left on your last staple.

So, it seems to suggest to me that you've sort of not picked up

the right amount somewhere along the line. Look at them all.

Yes, that's really quite a lot, isn't it?

One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six.

Let's try this one. One, two, three, four, five, six.

He can't count! He done all that.

Oh, dear. Shall I do it again?

Well, we'll be here another week if you do that.

Most of the nets that Luke makes are used on one small boat.

It usually fishes east of the Falmouth Bay area -

15 miles or so up along the coast from Cadgwith.

It's just coming up to dawn, and I'm on a boat

called the Lady Hamilton which I've heard a great deal about

because of the way the boat fishes and also the quality

of the fish that this boat produces.

It's almost legendary round here.

At the helm is Chris Bean.

He's one of the highest grossing small-boat skippers in Cornwall.

Monty wants to see how he operates,

to uncover the secret of his success.

It's 5am.

The extra-fine nets made by Luke Stephens are set before dawn

on the best fishing grounds.

Chris will be back to check these nets in a few hours.

In the meantime, he hauls some tangle and sole nets

he shot a day or so ago,

targeting bottom-dwelling fish and crustaceans.

Whoa-ho!

That's the biggest lobster I've seen since I've been in Cornwall.

Second-in-command Chino, from Ecuador,

and deckhand Andreas, from Lithuania, process the catch.

Chris might be a successful skipper,

but he still struggles to find locals willing to do the job.

The lack of young British men working in fishing

is one of the major threats to the future of the industry.

Every single fish that comes up is carefully sorted.

Nothing is thrown back.

-Do you keep the dog fish, Chris?

-Yeah, we sell them.

-You sell them?

Yeah. That'll be in a Japanese restaurant tomorrow morning

in thin slices.

We have been selling them for bait to the crabbers,

but there's so much added value by processing them

that the amount we're able to release for bait

is getting less and less.

Chris has worked hard on shore

to find markets for everything he catches.

Species that other fishermen would consider valueless,

like wrasse, are now earning him decent money.

There was a blind test with Japanese chefs

with many different species and they all come out

-and said wrasse is the best.

-Really?

He even sells monkfish livers to sushi restaurants.

My mother would never let us leave any on the side of the plate.

If it was on your plate you ate it - waste not, want not.

And that's the motive I've been brought up with

and, to me, to go to sea and catch fish,

it was ridiculous to be throwing fish away

that were going to be wasted.

After six hours at sea,

it's time to check the extra-fine nets they set before dawn.

This is a kind of speciality of Chris, really - these very fine nets

that are in the water just for a few hours,

they catch pristine fish which go to the very best markets.

We can't market fish that is overnight in a net,

because the gills have gone pink, they're not gleaming red,

they eyes have lost their lustre and so on

and those sort of fish can only be filleted and most of our fish

that we send away is whole fish in pristine condition

and the only way to guarantee that

is to have very short soak times with the nets.

Chris has been fishing these grounds for more than 40 years...

but a good haul still gets him excited.

Wow, Christmas! Look at that!

Jumbo mackerel.

-Proper job.

-Wow.

-And they're all big ones.

-Look at that. Beautiful fish as well.

Fantastic. Well, that was a nice little break, wasn't it?

-They're all right, they are.

-Yeah, lovely. Firm bodied.

-Three quid a fish.

-Fresh.

These nets are specifically made to target haddock.

But it's impossible not to catch other species. Especially cod.

Cod have got a design fault,

in that these little notches here get caught in the nets, see.

They get caught. No matter what size of mesh, they get caught.

Concerned that it was being overfished,

the Government has imposed strict catch limits on cod.

At the moment, no small Cornish boats

have been allocated any cod quota,

so Chris has to throw back every fish that comes up in his nets.

That's a cod which is indicative of

the size of cod that are out here at the moment.

And that, according to Her Majesty's Government,

has to go back over the side.

The EU estimates that its fishing fleet catches

two to three times more fish than is sustainable,

and that 75% of species in European waters

are currently being overfished.

Some controls on fishing are essential for the future of fish -

and fishermen.

Perception is, Chris - and I have this perception as well -

that cod stocks are very low

and that's the reason they shouldn't be caught.

It's not the case here,

the cod stocks have been absolutely fantastic here

for the last year or two years. We've never seen anything like it.

Last winter, they were right inside in 10, 15 metres and no other fish.

All we caught was cod, cod, cod.

Government scientists have confirmed that the cod population

is healthy in these waters.

Chris and other Cornish fishermen are expecting

a corresponding increase in the monthly quota.

But it is yet to materialise.

Yeah, hello, Michelle. Can I speak to Dylan, please, about the cod,

see if there's any uplift to it?

Chris calls his son on shore

to see if there's any word from the authorities.

Oh, no.

Next week or the week after, they're going to make a decision

and it could be that they're not going to release any more quota.

It's very galling if you're at the sharp end.

You're catching fish and you've got no quota

and you have to throw it back. And the only reason

I haven't got any quota is they haven't sorted it out, you know.

Why haven't they sorted it out? Because they're inept.

For that reason, the anger comes out

and I would like to see heads roll. I would, honestly.

I would like to see some people held to account for this.

It's the job description and the job title isn't it? We're fisherMEN.

You know, we go and catch fish. Nobody wants to dump fish. Nobody.

Nobody.

It's heartbreaking, to be honest.

We've got such a small cod quota

and there's more cod here than I have ever seen.

They've been in crabs pots they're in the nets,

they're in the tangle nets and you daren't catch more than

a kilogram over and land it, cos three goes at that,

you've go a kilogram over, you're threatened with prosecution.

So, you've always got to be watching your weights all the time.

I mean, it's just madness. It is madness, the whole thing.

Billions of cod have been discarded in European waters

over the last 50 years.

The European Union is reviewing the quota system

and has said it will put an end to discarding.

But until something is done, Chris -

who makes the most of every other fish he catches -

will be forced to keep throwing cod over the side.

You can understand the basic concept behind quotas,

but it heavily impacts boats like this.

Chris hasn't set out to catch these fish - they're just by-catch -

it's just an inevitable part of the massive number of cod

that are around here at the moment.

When these fish come up, they're dead

and yet, here it is, this beautiful prime white fish

and it's just wasted, it's thrown away,

it's just going back to the gulls

and surely, on every level, that's nonsense. Surely.

All the nets are hauled.

It's time to head back to the Lady Hamilton's moorings

just off Helford.

Most fishermen's work is almost done when they get ashore.

But Chris's is just beginning.

One kilo of size-two gurnard,

5.4 junga,

10.2 size-three pollack.

Do you have pre-existing orders for this, are your orders phoning in?

No pre-existing orders.

The buyers have to wait until we tell them what we've got.

Oh, I see, so it's the other way around.

Yeah, it's the other way around.

That's the ethos of the operation, really.

So, the buyers adapt their habits to whatever you've caught on that day.

Yep, that's correct.

Only if they're very good quality and if they're big ones.

Chris's son, Dylan, gets busy

letting his customers know what's been caught.

-So that'll be six more boxes.

-Thank you.

Dylan's wife, Mutsuko, boxes the orders in ice.

She's Japanese and has helped to develop relationships

with sushi restaurants in London,

where much of the fish will end up tomorrow morning.

The Beans also have a small shop supplying local trade,

and they run stalls at Farmers' Markets.

Working in this way, they get at least 30% more for their catch

than if they sold it on the open market.

Monty can see how -

by making a direct connection with consumers,

and by trading on the freshness and quality of their catch,

small boats can prosper.

If you want to do the job, you've got to do it properly.

You've got to see the thing all the way through,

from the boat to the consumer

and putting it on that lorry, on that truck, to go to London

for delivery nine o'clock, it's almost as good

as serving the consumer, isn't it?

You're getting fish, you know, that's 24 hours old or less.

That's the satisfying part about the job, really.

All right, see you, folks.

Yeah, thanks.

One of Chris's oldest and most loyal customers

is a sushi restaurant in London's financial district.

Every morning, fish from yesterday's catch is delivered

so the chefs can prepare it for the lunchtime shift.

Owner Caroline Bennett explains how she has adapted her menu

to fit with the way small-boat fishermen work.

We try and classify things as loosely as we can,

so, for example, we've got dishes here

that just say "daily catch from Cornwall."

Daily catch from Cornwall could be anything

from a pollack to a wrasse to a megrim to a dog fish.

This is quite key, because you're altering your consumption

to what the boats are catching, and not the other way around.

That's absolutely it, so, rather than saying - as we used to -

"We want ten kilos of red snapper

"and five kilos of mackerel",

now we say to Chris we'll have ten kilos of any flatfish

and five kilos of a blue fish.

So, if you can imagine lots more restaurants doing the same thing,

the discards and the wastage would be instantly reduced.

Caroline's motivation is not just

getting the best-quality fish for her customers.

She believes anyone who eats fish has a pivotal role to play

in making the fishing industry more sustainable.

The burden and the onus is on the consumer.

If they're going to go to a restaurant and expect to eat bass,

then they're already telling the signals to the market place -

"You've got to catch me bass",

and the fishermen will say, "Well, I've caught you your bass

"but I also caught this and this and that.

"What am I going to do with those?"

That's the consumer that's wasting it.

The chefs have prepared a plate of fish

that were all caught on the Lady Hamilton.

You can really see there, can't you, this sheen on it?

That that was swimming around off the mouth of the Helford 12 hours ago.

It's brilliant, isn't it? And if it's not fresh,

it really doesn't leave that great aftertaste in your mouth

and Chris's fish is just, as you know, exceptional

and it just feels like you are eating a bit of the ocean.

I've been chucking that - dog fish - over the side of my boat

with a little part of my heart breaking every time I do it

ever since I started fishing and every small boat

pretty much does the same, unless they're keeping it for bait.

The liver there, the monkfish liver, exactly the same.

-Yeah.

-You know, that just goes.

Complete discard.

So what you're doing here is essentially using

just about all the catch. You're trying to use as much as possible.

As much of it as you can. Absolutely.

And that obviously benefits the environment,

because less is taken out of the sea and it clearly benefits Chris

-cos he can make a living out of it.

-Yeah.

Chris Bean and his family have worked hard

to build relationships with specific customers.

But most of the Cadgwith skippers are more concerned

with what happens at sea, rather than on shore.

And for men like Nigel Legge, fishing is not so much

a business, as a way of life.

The funny thing is, when I go out in the mornings now,

I probably enjoy it more because I actually take notice

of the sun rising and the clouds and the wind and the colours in the sky.

That's your world, then, for six or eight hours -

that is where you are, and you are on your own.

I suppose, being a fisherman, you've always got this dream

of a big catch around the corner,

but even if you've got a poor catch, I'm not despondent

and mad or anything else.

I always remember once, there was something telling me

I should put me nets there,

I don't know what it was, the gulls were sitting on the water,

I had the nets in the boat, the weather wasn't particularly good,

but something was telling me, you know, stick your nets out.

Next day, I had over 50 stone of bass

and I remember saying to myself, don't haul this lot in too quickly,

enjoy it, because this ain't going to happen very often.

One of my biggest fears is the day's going to come where I've got to

sort of leave that boat to somebody else.

I've been with the damn thing now for 30 years,

it is a big, big thing to leave and, yeah, she's part of me, really.

The word finally comes through

that the Government has released cod quota.

Small boats are now allowed to catch 250 kilograms of cod each

before the end of the month.

But bad weather is on the horizon, so the race is on.

There's a sudden surge of activity in the cove in response to this news,

in response to the quota being released.

Suddenly, they can go after this fish that's been here for ages.

Everyone's kitting up and getting their nets in the water

and trying to make the most of this little bonanza

that will last for at least a couple of weeks.

Every day I've been fishing in Cadgwith,

I've learnt a little lesson about fishing

and the lesson today is, always tuck your gloves inside your sleeves.

That's my lesson for today.

Monty is out on the Victoria Anne.

Skipper Louis Mitchell is a lobsterman in the summer,

but in the autumn and winter months, he teams up with part-time fisherman

Dominic Goldsack, and goes for whatever fish swims into the bay.

What do you think of all this netting business?

Well, it's what we've got to do, I suppose, to make a living.

-In the winter, it's quite exciting, you know.

-I can imagine.

Conditions, trying to get off the beach,

just everything rigged against you.

And do you kind of look forward to this time of year?

Oh, with relish!

It's a beast!

It's not long before they haul up the first cod of the day.

I never doubted, even for a moment.

C-O-D, C-O-D.

Government scientists confirmed that the cod population

is healthy in Cornish waters back in the summer.

But it has taken four months for the extra quota to be released.

If I'd been holding this fish, on this boat,

two days ago, I'd be chucking it over the side for the crabs,

and now, because of some distant bit of legislation and bureaucracy,

the guys can now sell it, it's a legal fish.

They may be catching lots of cod.

But Louis sells into the same market as the big boats

and the price can fluctuate dramatically.

What do you get, per kilo, for cod?

-They have been known to be, like, 50p in January.

-Right.

Cod SHOULD sell for between £2 and £3 a kilogram.

But if a lot is landed by bigger vessels, the price plummets.

I suppose we are competing in the whole market place, you know,

big boats as well as small boats.

They operate on bigger quantities

They're also trying to make their living that way.

But you are competing in that market as well.

After hauling all of their nets, they have a bin of cod

and other saleable species.

Instead of going to market, these prime, fresh fish

could be on a consumer's plate within 24 hours,

just like Chris Bean's catch.

Monty is starting to think that there must be another way

for the thousands of small-boat skippers in the UK

to sell THEIR fish.

I wonder if there is a system or a way that it can be sold

direct to the consumer, so you're cutting out the middle man

and retaining the value of what's freshly caught produce

from a small community like Cadgwith.

The twin pressures of falling financial returns

and increasingly stringent Government regulations

are making it very hard to turn a profit as an inshore skipper.

But these aren't just problems for UK fishermen.

On America's East coast, small boats are having an even harder time.

But Monty's heard that the fishermen here

are starting to turn their industry around.

He wants to find out

if any lessons can be learnt abroad that could help our fleet at home.

He's travelled to New England on America's East Coast,

to the fishing port of Gloucester, 25 miles northeast of Boston.

Monty's come here to see how the US fleet is coping with change.

And to get a British fisherman's perspective,

he's brought Nigel with him.

Best time of the year to be here, as well, isn't it?

Look at the colours, it's amazing.

It's important to take Nigel on the American trip.

One fisherman can spot another fisherman

across the width of the Atlantic, no problem at all,

and Nige obviously can really speak the language

and he can understand any issues facing them.

Gloucester is one of the most iconic fishing ports in the world.

For hundreds of years, its boats fished rich offshore grounds

like the Grand Banks.

Fortunes were made.

But overexploitation resulted in fish stocks crashing.

Since the mid-1990s, the Government has come down hard on the fleet.

Many skippers are being forced out of business.

Jack Flaherty has been a tuna and swordfish fisherman

for more than four decades.

He's seen a once-vibrant industry brought to its knees.

It's just a shadow of what it was 25, 30 years ago.

We lost 21 small fishing vessels in Gloucester last year alone.

For every man on deck of a boat, there were five shoreside jobs -

welders, boatwrights, boat-caulkers, fish-packers,

fish-cutters, truck drivers, ice-house workers, it's all gone.

It's somewhat sad to see Gloucester transformed from

a bustling fishing port

into, basically, a yacht basin surrounded by a ghetto.

That's what's happening here,

and not only is an industry being destroyed,

but a very unique lifestyle.

It's sad. It's sad. I'm at the end of my rope and my fishing career

and I tell young folks that come around and, "We want to go fishing."

No, you don't. It's a stacked deck and it's not in your favour.

This is a very strange thing, Mont,

because we've come 3,000 miles and it's almost come home, really,

it's all the same, it's no different, is it?

Yeah, yeah, very true, very true.

The dramatic decline of America's East Coast fleet

has prompted a fight back.

Fishermen have developed an innovative way of maximising

the return they get for their catch.

Monty and Nigel are heading out on a trawler that sells fish

into the new scheme.

Just like back home, trawlermen get up early.

They're at sea before dawn.

Skipper Joe Rizzo is hoping to catch flounders and other flatfish,

five miles or so offshore from Gloucester.

This spot here, in particular, we're just trying it out for future,

So if there's no gear here, I'll say, tomorrow,

if there's fish here, tomorrow, I'll come right back over here.

It's part of the joy of fishing, I suppose, isn't it?

Trying out new areas all the time. You never really know, do you?

You just don't know. That's fishing. That's why they call it fishing.

That's true.

Joe's boat, the Razzo, is a small otter trawler,

like the Valhalla Monty worked on a few weeks ago.

Out on deck are Joe's brother, Rob, and Al Catone.

Al has his own small trawler, but often crews for his friend.

Three o'clock this morning, it was pretty cold

and the bed was warm. Do you still enjoy getting up every morning?

I love it.

It's the only job in the world, believe me...

The freedom, you know, one with nature

and all the cliches you can come up with, they're all true.

There's no place I'd rather be.

Al has been working these grounds for more than 20 years.

He witnessed the dramatic decline of stocks as a result of overfishing.

In the mid-'90s, there was a serious problem stocks-wise with cod fish

and a few flounder species, and I was actually the one

to welcome the hard regulations,

because I knew something had to be done.

A lot of the old-timers who were a lot wiser than me said,

"If the Government steps in,

"they will never take their foot of your throat."

And, essentially, that's what's happened.

The more the stocks got better, the more regulations they put on us.

Small-boat fishermen like Al believe the stringent regulations

favour the biggest boats in the fleet,

and are only succeeding in driving smaller vessels, like the Razzo,

out of business.

It would be like a domino effect to get rid of the smaller boats.

Basically, in every business it would be the same thing -

once you start eliminating from the bottom up,

eventually there's going to be four people left in the business.

In order to prevent it,

we have to keep every single fisherman going now going.

We've already lost a few of the smaller guys.

The more we lose, the more we're going to lose.

We're trying to stop that domino effect now.

The trouble is, once you've lost it,

nobody will come back to it. Once the boats are gone, they're gone.

-Exactly.

-You've lost the expertise and all your comrades are gone.

It's sad to see, but, I mean, we're trying to keep everybody going.

That's my philosophy going into this -

I want to see everyone fishing now to keep fishing.

I'm not going anywhere, I'm in this for the long haul.

After a few hours trawling, the nets are hauled onto the deck.

Due to the concerns about overfishing,

the Government increased the size of the net holes.

The Razzo's now using one of the largest mesh sizes in the world.

It's great to hear you say, Al, that you're endorsing the big-mesh size.

I am, absolutely.

Because that's key, isn't it, as well?

That the fish community adopts that.

I truly believe - and I'm not the only one -

that the mesh size rebuilt the fishery.

-Cos in the early '90s, the cod stock was in tough shape.

-Yeah.

And we went to bigger mesh, bigger mesh, and we went to the square bag,

the escapability of the round fish

made all the difference in the world.

-Right, that's great to hear.

-Live and learn.

-Yeah.

It's a good haul - lots of flatfish.

And lots of cod.

The best of these fish will not be sold on the market -

they are going directly to local consumers

as part of a Community Supported Fishery scheme, known as a CSF.

There's no messing about here, is there?

This is going to be gutted, landed within the hour

-and then it'll go straight to market.

-Straight to market, exactly.

Which, in this case, is the Community Supported Fishery.

Yes.

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

If we get in early enough, it'll be this afternoon.

Right, and that's really one of the beauties, isn't it,

-of the small boat, the way you operate?

-Absolutely.

In and out, no messing about, fresh fish.

Al and Joe are part of the Gloucester CSF,

which was set up two years ago.

The portion of their catch that they sell into the scheme

fetches a slightly higher, guaranteed price.

As a result, their income has increased by as much as 30% -

just enough to see them through hard economic times.

You kind of want someone who has one of these fish to say,

"That didn't taste like a fish that I'm used to eating

-"and I want another one."

-Yeah.

If you're going to get a CSF fish or fish from market,

you're going to notice the difference.

The Razzo arrives back in Gloucester and lands the catch.

There are now three dozen other boats

supplying the Community Supported Fishery,

with a ton and a half of fish every week.

Rather than putting the middlemen out of business,

local fish merchants, like Ocean Crest, are part of scheme,

and have adapted the way they buy fish for the CSF.

Manager Lenny Parco explains how it works.

When the orders come in, I get them on a daily basis

and then I choose which fish we're going to use for that particular day

based on what the boats are catching and what's the best quality.

You know, one week it may be haddock which tend to be

a high-priced fish, another week it could be pollack,

which is a lesser-priced fish

and then average, it all works out.

Customers get whatever has come up in the nets,

encouraging people to eat different species,

and minimising by-catch.

More than a thousand local people now buy fish this way,

and more are joining every day.

It's good for us, because it gives us a whole new customer base,

it's good for the boats, because it allows me to give them

a little bit more money for their fish

and it's good for the consumer,

because they're getting the best-quality fish possible,

stuff that they just wouldn't have access to otherwise

and they're getting it for a good price.

It's a win-win for everyone, as far as I can see.

It certainly hasn't hurt my business at all,

it's been a benefit, if anything.

The fish are driven to Needham -

a middle-class suburb on the outskirts of Boston.

Five days a week, there are drop-offs like these

in the 20 communities around Gloucester that are part of scheme.

Steve Tousignant is employed to co-ordinate deliveries.

We've done a survey asking

what was the motivation behind joining the programme.

Primarily, the freshness and quality of the fish seemed to be...

Basically, foodies, you know, people who really enjoy

cooking and eating, and then there's folks that are inclined

for the environmental and sustainable aspects

of the programme, you know,

to ensure that the fishermen get paid a higher price for their catch,

they're keeping all their monies in the local economy

and also reducing the carbon footprint

of bringing dinner to your table.

It's a real kind of premium product, in a way, it's fresh from the sea.

And it's less expensive. What's not to like?

Yeah, yeah. Well, good for you. Enjoy.

-There you are.

-Thank you. Thank

-YOU.

No money changes hands.

Just like with a vegetable-box scheme in the UK,

people pay in advance

so they are actively investing in their local fishing fleet.

I love that I can actually support the community and the fishermen.

Everything about it is absolutely fabulous.

We know that the fishing industry, generally, has taken a beating here

in the Northeast and it one of the things, you don't want to lose it.

For me, the number one motivation is to support local fisher people,

so they can continue what they are doing and bringing us

the best that there is to be brought to us.

That's the lovely this, isn't it?

You're supporting your local fishing community,

but the way you're doing it is by eating the best fish in America.

The idea of small boats selling direct to local consumers

is spreading like wildfire.

In only a few years, 26 similar schemes

have been set up in the USA and Canada,

and 12 more are in the pipeline.

But could it work somewhere like Cadgwith,

which only has a small fishing fleet?

Further up the coast is Port Clyde.

Ten small boats fish out of the harbour,

as they have done for centuries.

Only a few hundred people live here...

but the population swells during summer months.

This is America's Cadgwith.

And it's where the first Community Supported Fishery began.

-Hello, Kim.

-Hey, how are you?

-Nice to meet you, I'm Monty.

-Hi, Monty, nice to meet you.

-How's it going?

-Nigel.

-I'm Nigel, how are you doing?

-I've looked forward to seeing you.

Port Clyde fisherman Gary Libby and his wife Kim

started selling directly to local customers four years ago.

They immediately earned much more for their catch -

from 30 cents for a pound of shrimp to almost two dollars.

Contact with the fishermen themselves has been key

to getting consumers onside.

So, they get to meet me, one of the other fishermen

and they feel as though they know that person catching that fish.

It's not like going to a big fish market and just buying a fish.

You're buying it from this guy that you know what he looks like,

you know what his voice sounds like.

They have a sense of ownership, like Gary was saying, you know,

know your fish, know your fishermen.

They kind of own me.

They do.

Yeah, yeah, various bits of you,

you're owned entirely by shareholders!

We will make the delivery happen for you today.

The extra revenue and financial security

enabled them to step up their operation.

They now process their catch themselves,

so earn even more return.

While almost every other fishing community along the East Coast

is losing ITS fish-processing infrastructure,

Port Clyde is expanding.

Gary runs two small fishing boats -

a trawler going for cod and other wetfish, and a lobster boat.

Ever since he was a boy,

Nigel has wanted to fish for lobsters in New England.

Gary has invited him and Monty out for a trip.

There's a lot of bait, Gary,

-There's a lot more going in than we use in the UK.

-Yep.

The system is slightly different to back home.

Gary uses square cages called traps, with detachable bait bags.

And he's catching a more docile species of lobster.

But Nigel soon gets in the swing.

I could settle into this pretty easy. This is lovely scenery,

nice weather, lobsters, pots are light. It's sort of heaven, really.

-You're a man in your element, aren't you?

-Absolute heaven.

I could shut my eyes and breathe and sniff the air.

I could smell Lewis's bait, diesel, fishermen, fishing boats,

and it wasn't any different. With a different accent,

that's all it was, really, to be quite honest.

Give me two days there and I would have fitted in

'and had a job and wouldn't have felt out of place.'

Can you see Razorbill out here, pottering around?

We'd be all right here. This'd be all right here.

-Oh, look, there's a lobster.

-Wa-hey!

Lobsters are part of the Port Clyde fresh catch scheme,

and are sold to lucky locals

if no wetfish, like cod, are caught that week.

That's a nice meal. We're keeping that one.

Since 1997 - in response to falling stocks -

the lobstermen in this area have self-regulated their fishery.

They took control of quotas, reduced the number of pots per fisherman,

and introduced escape panels for undersized lobsters.

Also, if the pot is lost at sea, the hatch is designed to fall out

after a few months, so there's no danger of it

continuing to ghost fish.

This bit here is the biodegradable bit. It's steel,

so it just breaks off, and that panel flips out.

And the panel here, an undersized lobster gets out.

So simple, you know?

Like in the UK, Gary marks and returns breeding females.

And there is a minimum size of lobster you can legally land.

That's a 1.5lb lobster, that's easily big enough.

There's a maximum size as well, ensuring that big, old lobsters -

potentially the best breeders - remain in the wild.

The oversize thing is genius - you're returning oversized animals.

They're the breeding stock, and they meet other large animals, and breed.

And what's the state of your lobster population?

Well, we're setting landing records every year now.

I think this year's going to be another record-breaker.

We landed a lot of lobsters in the summer.

The lobster fishery here is now

one of the most tightly regulated in the world.

But crucially, it is also one of the most profitable.

Monty and Nigel have learnt how small boats can prosper,

by focusing on by long-term sustainability

instead of short-term profit.

And they've seen how communities in the US

are getting behind their local fishermen.

Monty is inspired. But what does Nigel think?

Well, I think the word'll get spread pretty quickly.

OK, it'll start of gradually, and then probably snowball slowly,

and even if they only get...

Say, one small boat in Cadgwith only gets ten or a dozen customers,

and they're happy with the product they're buying,

that's what you really want. That's a good thing.

It's also all down to if the people want the fish.

You can't sell it to them if they don't want it.

Direct selling could help small-boat skippers in the UK

get more for THEIR catch.

But is there enough demand for seafood back at home?

And are people in Britain willing to support their local fishermen?

Next time, Monty and Nigel set some plans in motion.

But there's some resistance to change in the Cove.

Getting a bunch of fishermen round here to work in a co-op

is like getting a horse to live up a tree.

Then, winter storms blow in, and put everything on hold.

So, there's genuine tension for me,

and genuine frustration.

Yes, it isn't very good out there.

It isn't very good out there at all.

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