The following article about a fishing trip on the Research LK62 appeared in The Scotsman newspaper on 27 September
The tension inside the wheelhouse of the Shetland herring fishing vessel, Research, was palpable as skipper Gary Williamson and first mate Harry Sandison concentrated intently on the electronic fish-finder screens in front of them.
It was dawn and we were about 15 miles east of Fair Isle, with the faint outline of Sumburgh Head on the southern tip of Shetland just visible to the north. Herring are fickle fish and the sonar was showing that many of the shoals were higher up in the water column where they tend to spread out and are more challenging to catch. Gary was looking for a shoal deeper down, where the herring normally congregate closer together.
“This is why it is called fishing, rather than catching,” said Gary. “It’s all about experience and learning how the herring behave.”
Gary explains to me the digital patterns on the screen which signify fish. To a layperson, they appear like vast orange smudges, but to Gary’s experienced eye, he can quickly tell the size of the shoal and the direction they are heading. What is immediately apparent from the digital shoal signatures is that there is an abundance of herring in the seas off Shetland – an encouraging sign the stock is in good health.
Soon, a good mark of fish is detected at the correct depth. The order goes out to the crew to release the trawl, which shoots off the stern of the vessel. After about half-an-hour or so, it is time to haul the net back in, the winches start to revolve and the hawsers tighten. It is a complicated task, shackles were attached here and there, ropes prepared, and the tail-end of the net was hauled up from the winch by a specially designed crane, before being hung over the stern. It was a study in teamwork, the crew going about their tasks quickly, efficiently, and methodically, each one knowing what their colleagues were doing, and working together as if guided by telepathy.
It is always an exciting moment waiting for the cod-end of the trawl to break the surface – will it be a big catch or small one? Despite the electronic sensors in the trawl which give an indication of the volume of fish caught when it is still in the water, one can never really tell for sure until the net is brought right up to the boat.
It transpired to be a good haul and the fish were pumped out of the trawl and quickly stored on the vessel into specially designed refrigerated seawater tanks which cool the herring down to just above 0 degrees centigrade to ensure optimum quality when landed. During the process, some of the herring is sampled for their length and weight, with the information then fed into the Scottish Pelagic Industry-Science Data Collection programme. This pioneering scheme, which was spearheaded by fishermen, brings catchers, scientists and government together where the information gathered adds to our knowledge of the stock and helps inform management decisions, helping ensure a sustainable future for the fishery.
During the last haul of the day in the early evening, a small pod of orcas gathered around the vessel looking to snap-up any herring that had spilled from the net. It was more than apparent that the crew enjoyed seeing the orcas and had a close empathy with their marine environment.
The Research is based on the island of Whalsay in Shetland, and Gary co-skippers the vessel with his first cousin Richard, with mate Harry Sandison also taking charge occasionally. Onboard and helping to run the vessel were Gary’s sons Bobby and Stuart, along with Richard’s sons David and Bobby. Other family members or local Shetlander’s were also onboard to crew the boat.
Gary said: “We are a family-owned boat and the sustainability of the fishery is very important – indeed, it is probably more important to us than anyone else because our futures depend upon sustainably catching herring, and our other main target species, mackerel.”
The Research is 79m in length and the trawl is large, but this is a very sustainable method of fishing, with the North Sea herring fishery being closely regulated with quotas and other regulations, and having carried the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) ecolabel since 2008 for the responsible way in which it is carried out. Herring trawls do not touch the seabed and there is very little bycatch of unwanted species. Scientific studies have shown that herring catching, along with other pelagic fish such as mackerel, has a low carbon footprint compared to most other forms of protein production such as beef, pork or chicken.
The importance of the humble herring to Scottish society and its cultural and economic development is immense, with there being evidence of herring fisheries in Scotland from Medieval times onwards. Herring was the foundation of many of our fishing communities around the coast and became part of the beating heart of the nation.
The herring boom of the 19th century led to the Scottish fishing industry becoming the largest in Europe and in the early years of the 20th century it is estimated there were over 10,000 boats fishing for the ‘silver darlings’ alone. It was even possible to walk from one side of Wick harbour to the other across the tightly packed boats such was the scale of this herring bonanza.
In many ways, herring helped fuel the industrial revolution, being a key food staple that helped provided sustenance for workers in factories and fields across the land. The fishery affected every part of community life, and the Scots fisher lasses, who came from fishing villages around the coast of Scotland, travelled throughout the year from Stornoway to Lerwick, to Peterhead and as far south as Yarmouth following the movement of these boats. The air buzzed, railway lines were built and communities became established to service this rapidly expanding industry. In short, it created economic opportunity and much-need employment, as well as a valuable source of nutritious food.
However, the decades that followed were not an entirely happy period and over-exploitation led to a complete closure of the herring fishery in the late 1970s and early 1980s to enable the stock to recover. Thankfully, the stock has bounced back and North Sea herring is once more abundant and carefully managed. On the downside, the period of closure for a few years from the late 1970s meant many people in the UK lost their taste for herring and they moved on to consume other types of fish and seafood instead.
Gary says it would be wonderful if people could rediscover their love for herring once more, which can come in a variety of forms, including marinated fish, as well as kippers, which are smoked herring and a traditional breakfast item.
He says: “It seems crazy that we import so much seafood into our country when we have this fantastic resource right on our doorstep – not just of herring, but also of mackerel and many other types of fish. It would be wonderful if British consumers reignited their past passion for herring because it really is a fish that ticks all the right boxes – sustainable, nutritious, delicious, and great value for money.”
