Shellfishermen net £1m boost to help develop top UK fishery

The Holderness shellfishing industry is one of the most productive in Europe and has a fleet of 66 boats directly employing 145 men, catching £6m worth of lobster and crab a year.

The £1.15m, which has come from the European Fisheries Fund and Defra, is intended to create new business opportunities for an industry that despite being number one for lobsters in this country, has a low profile, even locally.

The funding comes at a time when the industry is facing huge changes, with the development of up to four massive wind farms – including one right in the middle of prime shellfishing grounds off Withernsea, called Westermost Rough.

A geotechnical survey has recently started five miles off Tunstall. where between 35 and 80 turbines could go up under the plans by Dong Energy.

The development is only 8.6 miles from another huge wind farm called Humber Gateway.

There are also plans for more underground gas storage caverns on the coast near Aldbrough, gas pipelines and carbon capture storage.

The programme formally opens to applications for grant aid on Thursday and prospective applicants are advised to contact the Holderness Coast Fishery Local Action Group.

Proposals already include setting up a lobster hatchery in Bridlington in the hope of replicating the success of the one at Lamb Holm in Orkney, which now releases over 60,000 juvenile lobsters annually. Egg-bearing females are loaned to the hatchery by fishermen and the eggs hatch out in tanks. The young are released into the sea when they are around a month old.

There are also proposals to create a brand, for the first time, to increase awareness of locally-caught crab and lobster, which is both high quality and sustainable.

Other ideas include quality-grading initiatives, chef training, school-based programmes and a website promoting local seafood and businesses.

A business support programme, maritime heritage information and interpretation, and the development of events and festivals and support for apprenticeship programmes are also being considered.

Joint vice chairman of the Holderness Coast FLAG Jo Ackers said: “It’s a crying shame (that we don’t have a brand) because it is a brilliant product.

“Hopefully local branding will increase business and prices for fishermen.

“There has been no movement in crab and lobster prices for years and years but everything else has gone up, insurance, fuel, bait.”

Fishermen are uncertain how much they will be affected by wind farms and other developments and have set up their own industry group to monitor what exactly is going on on the seabed in the Westermost Rough area, by recording what they bring up in their pots.

Mrs Ackers said: “It is an uncertain future on our coast; we have four different wind farm developments and we just don’t know how it is going to affect us, it may or it may not. We will be working with developers to negotiate a compromise because we all have rights to use the sea.

“It’s about finding a solution where we can all work together.”

The Holderness coast was one of only six in the UK to be designated a FLAG along with Cumbria, North Norfolk, Cornwall, North Devon and Hastings. Chairman Coun Arthur Hodgson said: “We have a very successful and sustainable fishing industry, landing a high quality product, but this is not well known.

“The aim of the FLAG is to build on this success and to use the industry as an economic driver to benefit the communities along the coast.”