Buying fish

AntarcticPilot said:
I'm sorry if you disbelieve me, but that is what HE said, when we enquired whether his fish was local. We were equally incredulous, as it certainly seemed completely insane in a fishing port! He stated categorically that at that time (late 60s), a fish retailer could NOT source fish except from an accredited fish market, and at that time, the only ones supplying the retail trade were Grimsby and Billingsgate. I remember it precisely BECAUSE it was a very stupid regulation. The Trading Standards action in closing down the small trader I mentioned was seen locally as being connected with this, though I doubt if he met the most stringent hygene regulations.

Things may have changed since then, and from your account it seems they have, but I am reporting the position as it was. Sadly, the fishing industry in Dunbar has declined substantially since those days, so I doubt enough fish is landed these days to make it possible (the harbour, I am told, has become badly silted).

I note that in East Anglia, all the travelling fish merchants tend to advertise fish from Grimsby, except for a small amount of crab etc. from Cromer. And there are certainly fishing communities more local than Grimsby!
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I suspect the only places he could buy the way he wanted to was as he said, the people I knew and the Fisherow place goes back to my childhood managed to buy locally. If you go to the Anstruther Fish Bar all the fish sold is local, and in most of the bars etc the fish is always local. There is nothing to stop fish being sold in the harbour as long as you abide by the rules, there is a caravan that operates in the summer again in Anstruther. Equally most of the vans who sell around the Forth claim to sell local fish and are legal.
 
you can still buy fresh fish from the harbour in newhaven,& there are 2 more
1 is near the hove/shoreham border,& the other one is in shoreham opposite the
big B&Q.
There are also several fishermens stalls along the beach at worthing,but you take your chance on the catch that day--If any.
;)
 
What appealed to me so much was the idea of texting the customer with what had been caught so not only do I have the opportunity to purchase top quality fish but there is a great communication between the buyer and the fisherman. That has to create a healthy conversation on the scarcity, or otherwise, of the different fish.

I don't quite know why but I find this concept really exciting(perhaps I should get out more!), I know there are a number of vans out there and some excellent market stalls, Lobbs at Dartmouth come to mind, but the idea that this guy and his family are engaging with me on such a level is wonderful!

Do go and have a look at his website, especially latest news which has charming updates on what's happening out there on a daily basis, just love it :-)

www.mouseholefish.com
 
Fisherman have been selling from individual sheds on Aldeburgh, Suffolk beach for over 100 years. Fish, lobsters and crabs caught from beach-launched boats.
However, with the pressure put on them re quotas/ rules and regs/less interest, etc the District Council have recently allowed them to sell 'bought-in' fish and shellfish. Probably about a a dozen people make a full time living from this 'industry'.
The pressure put on these people over recent years has been an un-publicised disgrace.
 
Gerry said:
We live aboard, but this winter are tied to a dock, therefore little fishing going on from the boat. I miss fresh fish but find the markets and supermarkets very pricey and would far rather buy directly from the fishing boats that frequent our part of the world.

Sadly that can be rather difficult at times what with private docks, distances from fish docks etc so I was intrigued by this novel idea from a fishing boat in Mousehole, Cornwall http://www.mouseholefish.com/latest-news.html


Set me to wondering whether anyone knows of similar ventures around Britain, I really like the idea of cutting out the middleman and patronizing the guy who really does all the work, the fisherman.
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That's what they do at our little port. They set up stalls in a covered place at their disposal. What doesn't get sold there goes to the market. Once you get to know the fishermen you can give them a request/order. They give you a call if they have caught it. There's a lot of demand for sea bass and so it's good to know the guy.
 
In Italian fishing ports, full boxes of whatever go off to the cooperative to be sold to supermarkets or taken to the city wholesale markets, then what's left is sold on the quayside. Lovely stuff too, but you usually have to buy a box of it, which means an afternoon spent cleaning and freezing, or a big supper for all your friends.

On the other hand, where I grew up - Largs - there used to be a couple of fishing boats that landed their catch at the pier, from where it was taken in a lorry down to Ayr to be sold at the market.

It's now next to impossible to buy off the boat. In the whole of Ayrshire there are decent independent fishmongers only in Ayr and Kilmarnock and anywhere else you can only buy haddock fillets. Some supermarkets have a little more variety, I once bought an octopus at Morrisons at Stevenston and cooked it for my sister's kids.

It's really sad considering the variety of fish and seafood they catch in the Firth of Clyde and further afield. One wonders where it goes!
 
MouseholeFish said:
Good morning Gerry,
thank-you for mentioning us and we are so pleased that you like our idea. Basically we started selling our catch direct to the public because the prices we were getting on the fish market were ridiculously low compared to what the fish merchants were selling the same fish for.

Take Herring as an example. This winter we have been getting between 5p and 30p a kilo for the fish whilst the same merchant who bought it advertises on his website at £7 a kilo!

If we look at the other end of the scale towards the premium priced fish and look at Monkfish......we receive between £4 and £7 per kilo whilst again the same merchant advertises at £28 a kilo. The price differential is the same across every species of fish and it was glaringly obvious that we had to do something or give up fishing.

If you'd like any of our fish then please give us a ring and we can arrange overnight delivery for you, our number is on our website www.mouseholefish.com

As regards legalities we are fully registered and have a sellers licence. Strangely enough when we were researching about everything that we needed we were asked by the powers that be to obtain a buyers licence too which indeed we did.
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Would love to do business with you if that really is the scale of the rip off that both you and we are being subject to. But sadly, S Wales is a bit far from Mousehole - it isnt a local delivery

Take care not to do the same as the farmers markets where the farmers simply take all the middlemans mark up for themselves plus a bit and so end up more expensive than the traditional route. Give a saving to the punter too and then everyone is happy. In short, dont be greedy.

P.S. Are you selling spider crabs too?
 
@ Gerry - thank-you for your kind words and enthusiastic support. We are really grateful, thank-you.

@ Wotayottie - Yes, sadly, this is the scale of the......let's be nice and call it the "mark up" of the price differential between what the fisherman receives for his catch and what the fish merchant then sells it on for. Here's another example for you, today we discovered the prices for the fish that we caught yesterday. For smoothhounds we received 10 pence per kilo whilst the same merchant was plainly advertising on his website the same fish for.......wait for it.............an astonishing £11.95 per kilo.

Your advice re: not making our prices to be premium is both sound thinking and fits perfectly with our own core ethos.Our aim is to produce fish caught on the same day at a fraction of supermarket prices ( which saves the customer money) whilst at the same time giving ourselves a fair price for our fish.
 
Sandyman said:
Same in just about every European country......................except UK where you have endless stupid pointless rules, regulations and red-tape bo**ox.
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Just think, if we didn't have all these stupid and useless regulations the number of pens going to landfill sites would cost us a fortune and what would we do with all the idiots who used to push them.:D:D:rolleyes:
 
BERT T said:
Just think, if we didn't have all these stupid and useless regulations the number of pens going to landfill sites would cost us a fortune and what would we do with all the idiots who used to push them.:D:D:rolleyes:
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On the other hand perhaps people in other countries comply with their local health regulations where as in the UK there are always people who try to avoid them and put us at risk to make an extra few pounds.

Mind you here on the Algarve our local fish market is still not open because of difficulties getting the compliance with the regulations agreed, 3 years and counting so the local fishermen have to land their catch in the next town and all the retailer have to go their to buy stock
 
MouseholeFish said:
My apologies but I forgot to answer your question in my last reply. Yes indeed we are selling spider crabs, along with brown crab and lobster. We can offer overnight delivery, including both our fish and shellfish, to anywhere in the UK too.
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Really frustrating that you can only do business locally.
 
MouseholeFish said:
We can offer overnight delivery, including both our fish and shellfish, to anywhere in the UK too.
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This is something I would be most interested in, simply to be buying from an enterprising source rather than through supermarkets.

I don't see it listed on the website anywhere, but what do you charge for delivery, and how do you prefer to take payment for said service?

Chris
 
maxi77 said:
On the other hand perhaps people in other countries comply with their local health regulations where as in the UK there are always people who try to avoid them and put us at risk to make an extra few pounds.
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In general I agree, but in the context of this thread about buying fish direct from the fisherman, how can this apply? Local health regulations that prevents a fisherman from selling his catch from his boat is a nonsense.
 
longjohnsilver said:
In general I agree, but in the context of this thread about buying fish direct from the fisherman, how can this apply? Local health regulations that prevents a fisherman from selling his catch from his boat is a nonsense.
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I think selling from the boat has more to do with ensuring all catches are properly registered for quota purposes. But of course why should the fisherman be able to circumvent the health rules?
 
There is a rather nice wet fish shop, series of wooden sheds, on the beach at Hythe (the one near Folkestone). The fishing boats pull up on the, pebble beach, immediately next door (in front of the sheds). The shop is roughly west of the Imperial and Stade Court Hotels, maybe 300m, but for anyone not in the know - well off the beaten track (nowhere near the town centre).


No commercial interest, at all, in the shop - but when we fly into Heathrow we drive down to get decent fish to take up to the family 'up north'. Whether they (the fish shop) buy the fish off the boats, or from London - do not know, but its good fish.

Jonathan
Sydney
 
Years ago used to be able to buy direct at Bridport.

Also a guy with a trailer stall would sell at the markets, I think it was Thursdays at Axminster market, also did Yeovil and Wimbourne I think

Any one know if he still does ?
 
Fish prices

We were in trawl and drift fishing ar Lowestoft before WW2., and the poisoning of the North Sea by fertiliser run-off.
During the herring season, three trains a night left, two for London and one for midlands.
Our price for herring varied from 5/- to about 35/- a cran (a cran is four baskets = about 1000 herring, and a boat's landing for a night's fishing could be anything from zilch to 325 cran, which record is why I called my live-aboard boat Hosanna after her LT 167.
Fish were sold retail from stalls in the market, and of course there were a dozen or more smokehouses producing kippers, bloaters, buckling and reds. Prices in the smokehouses varied from aa penny a pair (nobody ate a single herring, even as a small boy, I could eat six for breakfast) to about 3 d a pair.
There were about 600 boats fishing out of Lowestoft and abbout the same from Gorleston. For conservation, there was jno fishing allowed on Saturday.
Some will say we over-fished. But there were good catches in 1938, then nofishing at all for obvious reasons, until 1946 when it started slowly. And in 1947, we caught less herring than 1938. 1948 even less. and that was after resting the grounds for 8 years.!
At that time we did not know where the herring spawned. Now we know where they did. And that was an area where poison gas was dumped.
Of course the government scientists deny the connnecton. Well, they would, wouldn't they?
It was in the sailing drifter Mons Boys rigged as a sandy, that I made my first voyage, during half-term from school in 1934.
The cod are returning to our area. When the tide is slack and the water goes sheer, you can see down and count the cod, haddock and sea bream on the bottom. But we are not allowed to fish any more. The Belgians are.
Incidentally the word dandy-rigged was originally dundee-rigged, for it was the dundonians who first used the rig, a good one for a gaff-ketch.
 
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