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Thursday, 21 March 2019

Lobster fisherman Andrew Stevens nominated for Shellfisherman of the Year Award!

Hi All, feeling very humbled. Have been shortlisted for the shellfish fisherman of the yr. voting starts on March 5th. You can vote on . 🦀🦀

What's a Cornish fisherman to do with Twitter? Well, in the case of Andrew Stevens a whole new world opened up when he and three other Newlyn-based fishermen decided to use the phone app to show photos of their fish and shellfish they were catching to online customers. From that simple idea, the concept of Dreckly Fish was born. By the way, the word 'dreckly' is the Cornish equivalent of mañana, without the same sense of urgency.






After leaving school, Andrew's first berth was aboard a 50ft Frenchman in Newlyn, the Mon Rêve (My Dream) owned by Jesse Thomas, he then moved back to St Ives and spent a few years on the Harmony crawfish netting in the summer and then Newlyn for the winter mackerel...



at one time trawling then later netting on the Keriolet out of Newlyn, before co-owning and working the inshore trawler Sarah Jean PW45...



today, Andrew Stevens fishes with his own boat, Benediction...



 and a fleet of 160 pots...


sustainably targeting shellfish...



including prime lobster...



and exclusively supplies The Fish shop in Camberley near London where, at several times during the year, he takes time out from fishing to do a 'meet and greet' with the shop's customers to answer all their fishy questions.




Last summer he took top London chef Cyrus Todiwala out to sea to catch spider crab then back to shore...


to cook up some wonderful cab curry as part of a campaign to encourage the great British public to buy and cook spider crab as 90% of spider crabs are exported to France and Spain.



Andrew is mighty proud of his St Ives 'hake' heritage and carries a constant reminder in this remarkable tattoo on the inside of his arm...



meanwhile, as day and night times equalise on the day of the Spring equinox the first of this lobster season's pots are aboard the Benediction ready to begin fishing.