Crystal Sea Trawling Blog

We landed our catch on Tuesdays market, Alec had a good haul of fish (350 boxes of mixed fish) but unfortunately the prices were very poor.

This time of year we are usually in and out with the weather, although I am grateful for the fine spell, it is rare to have it so fine for 3wks in February. This is not so good for the marketing of fish as it is the time of year when there isa lot of bulk fishing to be found right across the country and Europe, but the demand is not as strong as it is later in the year. We are also seeing a lot more fish coming in from Iceland, particularly Cod and Haddocks, as they have upped their quota in the hope of paying off the Countrys debts. I spoke to friends in Scotland this week and they said that the extra fish from Iceland and the unexpected fine weather was having a huge impact, as the processors freezing capacity has reached its limit, so they are paying less for the fish as it is becoming more expensive to handle. This is happening right across Europe, in France they have stopped all imported fish and have even stopped taking scallops from their own vessels.

We have seen quite a few boats knock it on the head this week as the prices have been so slack, they are saving their quota to catch later in the year hopefully when the prices and demand are stronger.

We are still out fishing, it has been up and down this week, so I'm not sure if we're doing the right thing or not, but it's fine weather and we have a loan to pay - so what can you do? It's looking very poor from Tuesday onwards next week, so I'm hoping the threat of poor weather to come will improve the situation. I suppose it could be worse - if this was last year with the fuel prices so high we definitely wouldn't be at sea.