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 http://fishingnews.co.uk/awards .

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.

If you love life love lobster love @DrecklyFish

Straight from the boat...

and heading for the pot...

given 15 minutes plus five for luck...

this fine example of macho piscine pleasure...

Is ready for preferred weapons off mass digestion.

The Apprentice goes fishing - Monty Halls in Cadgwith - BBC2 last night at 8pm, tonight at midnight in HD!!

Apprentice fisherman Monty Halls on the beach at Cadgwith with top lobster pot man Nigel Legge.

Showing for the next five weeks every Wednesday night at 8pm, marine biologiost Monty Hall finds out just what it takes to actually make a living from the sea in Cornish waters. In episode one, an Introduction to the Skippers from Cadgwith Cove who Monty Halls is about to work alongside, local Skipper Jonathan Tonkin - 'Tonks' - gives his first impressions of Monty. This is first in a series of six episodes; in later shows Monty will have his understanding of ethical fishing vs making a living in the context of modern fishing methods put to the test when he sails in some of the bigger boats from Newlyn.


Monty Halls is a writer, explorer, television presenter and public speaker. A former Royal Marines officer who worked for Nelson Mandela on the peace process in South Africa, he left the services in 1996 to pursue a career in leading expeditions. Having achieved a First Class Honors degree in marine biology, over the next decade he circumnavigated the globe four times on various projects, leading multi-national teams in some of the most demanding environments on earth. Notable expeditions included an anti poaching project in the high montane grasslands of the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi, the discovery of a sunken city off the coast of Tamil Nadu in India, and a (successful) attempt to find and photograph a rare crocodile species in the mountain pools of the Raspaculo Basin in Central America. In 2002 he was awarded the Bish Medal by the Scientific Exploration Society for his services to exploration.

Cornish claws have it!

Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium now has a full compliment of two-handed lobsters in its tanks. Last month the first arrived with two cutting claws and now, thanks to the Pen kernow from St Just, they have a fish with two crushing claws to make a matched pair!