The Fisherman's Apprentice - Monty Halls in Cadgwith - part I

A few of the bigger boats pulled up on the beach at Cadgwith.

Marine biologist Monty Halls explores the challenges facing the British fishing industry by living and working as a traditional Cornish fisherman. In this episode he goes it alone and soon learns that making a living as an inshore fisherman is a lot harder than he thought. A bout of violent sea sickness puts the whole project in jeopardy.


Episode one last week saw Monty arrive in Cadgwith 'down on the Lizard', home to a fleet of small beach-based inshore boats looking every inch the visiting celeb. Under the wing, or should that be lobster paw of top pot man Nigel Legge,  Monty began his metamorphosis into a fisherman proper. Nigel is full time punt fisherman, one of the last withy pot makers left in the UK, part time artist and full of patience.


His charge is bewildered at first; he has eight months in which to try and prove he can make a living on his own, but keen to get stuck in and be a fisherman. As Kingfisher II skipper John 'Tonks' Tonkin says, fishing is a way of life not a job. What that means is every moment of the waking day, and at night too, is either spent thinking about the sea, being at sea, looking at the sea or listening and watching others do the same - taking stock of the weather and orientating the boat by eye are unthinking and a constant.


Diver Monty will have given many local fishermen their first glimpse of the bottom on which they shoot their gear - expect more later in the series. Talk of accidents at sea and what can go wrong make up much of the early footage - necessarily so as fishing is the number one most dangerous job in the UK.


The weekly rod fishing competition which involves many of the boats going to sea for the fun of it with all hands fishing for the biggest specimen of any fish they can catch is a part of the village's way of life. The world will become a duller and drearier place in general without such intimate activities that involve communities so closley with the very reason for their existence in the first place. Those parties at Newlyn may wish to consider the knock-on effect of allowing fish to be auctioned away from the port and losing the fish market altogether - it is a part of community life that is Newlyn and just as relevant and important as the fortnightly angling events that are celebrated in front of, and inside, the Cadgwith Cove Inn.


Look out for the next episode this Wednesday at 8pm on BBC 2.