The Whitby Photography Blog (More Here) – Is written by Glenn Kilpatrick, The Whitby Photographer ®
As many of you will be aware, Ive been closely following the adventures of the local trout And Salmon fishermen here at Whitby. A few weeks ago now I made a post to my facebook group about The boat Phoebe and its crew.
These guys have been fishing out of Whitby for Migratory fish since they were young men. Fishing in this way has been their livelihood for decades now, but sadly the powers that be have now decided its time to make things difficult for these small time fishermen.
In passed years, fixed net fishing for Trout and Salmon off the Yorkshire Coast has been permitted for 4 months of the year. This has now been cut to 2 months with the threat of the fishery being closed all together next year (2020).
The season that ran from may until the last day of August must now finish on the last day of June, and any Salmon caught in the 2 month fishing season must now be returned to the sea, dead or alive. That seems pretty ludicrous to me.
Today I watched the lads shoot their nets off Sandsend Sea Front. Working from the mothership Donna Marie, Pheobe is used to row close to the shore to set the nets on the incoming tide with a hope of catching any passing Trout.
The photographs below are just a small selection of those shot. They are available to purchase in our online shop here. Or should you wish to buy framed prints, drop me a line to whitbyphotography1@gmail.com
Many thanks for looking.
Further Reading
- The Whitby Photography Blog By Glenn Kilpatrick
- Buy Photographs In Our Online Shop
- Buy Calendars From Whitby Here.
- Read More About Fishing At Whitby Here.
Great photos Glenn, I can’t see the point of returning any dead salmon to the sea either. It must be the right thing to do though seeing as “The Powers That Be” have said it has to happen.
I can understand putting the live ones back but dead ones is wasteful. Shows no respect for the fish if you ask me?
I think the main goal of the powers that be is to sicken the Salmon men off so that they (The Environment Agency) don’t have to offer the Salmon Men any compensation for denying them their right to make a living.
Not only do the Salmon Men have to return dead salmon, but if they wanted to fish later into the year they also have to fish with a white net. These guys know that fish can see white nets and won’t get caught.
So we loose hundreds of years of heritage, culture and livelihood, and we also loose local sourced wild Salmon from the market place.
The idea is to put more Salmon into the river for men to pay lots of money to catch on road and line. Even the anglers catching the fish on rod and line know that the nets-men have little impact on the fishery.
As always you have taken some great photos 🙂
Soon we won’t be able to forage or hunt for anything, everything will be farmed, sprayed with chemicals and antibiotics, force fed and in turn creating more waste in our environment. Doing god knows what to our health.
Panorama did a great program on salmon farming on the west coast of Scotland. Incredibly shocking.
They are stunning photos and I like your write up. It’s such a shame that their livelihoods are been taken from them. Your photos will become history lessons for future generation’s who will never know how these fishermen made their living.
Really sad news , great photos of a tradition that should not be lost
Blxxxx bureaucracy gone mad. They don’t care one hoot about culture and tradition. They just have to pass the occasional order, no matter how ridiculous, to justify their salaries.
Glenn, keep on taking your superb photographs and fighting for Whitby, its traditions and untimately its people. You are the voice of reason in the maelstrom of beaurocracy.
Lovely set Glenn, a sad day when tradition is lost to the powers that be . I watched yesterday as the set their nets close to shore at Sandsend and wished them a good haul .