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it didn’t seem much
after dawn as chris neve was telling me he comes from a long line of fishermen.
great-grandfather went to sea in 1840, grandfather in 1880, and his dad in the
1920’s; chris is the first son in three generations not actually fishing for a
living ~ but he has been buying and selling at the fleetwood fish auction since
1967.
the auction hall was
virtually deserted when I arrived; apart from dozens of boxes of fish graded
into size ~ and mike slater who works for the marine and fisheries agency, a
government department which carries out biological sampling of fish landed in
britain. on my visit mike was measuring the length of fish, and selectively
cutting out earstones (similar to the cross-section of a tree, with rings which
determine age) this information helps to give an idea of what age the fish are ~
and assess the state of fish stocks in the sea...
chris neve's
family used to own six small boats. as the industry has shrunk this has reduced
to just one, however chris acts as the selling agent for several
other independent fleetwood fishermen such as the owner of the colline which
moored and started unloading roundabout 6am! working as a seller as well as
a buyer gives chris a unique point of view of how much the boats need to
earn in order to remain viable; thus he always pays realistic prices for top
quality fish, and is substantially responsible for keeping the fleetwood fish
auction alive.
chris gets most of his
prime fish from these small boats working inside the twelve mile limit, where,
in comparison with the past, fishing is much less intensive. this is reflected
in the fact that (according to season) superb quality brill, hake, skate and
turbot are once again in comparatively plentiful supply in the irish sea.
chris and the other buyers look for firm flesh and bright red gills as the best
indicator of freshness and health ~ then must make quick decisions under the
beady eye of the auctioneer.
on the morning of
my visit I saw a considerable quantity of skate which chris bought for a french
supermarket ~ as well as hake, brill and turbot which mainly goes to his
restaurant customers.
ramsons 
