Seafood Champion finalist!

Seafood Champion finalist - Congratulations to David Stevens skipper of the Newlyn based twin-rig trawler Crystal Sea II

Crystal Sea II - twin rig stern trawler from Newlyn

When your family business is a 158 tonne 21m trawler its pays to stay on top of things and keep one step ahead of the game. Skipper David Stevens has learned to do more than just be successful fisherman - in a bid to counteract reduced quotas, often based on out of data or even inaccurate data he's been taking the fight to the MMO and others by being at the forefront of technological measures that monitor or modify what he catches and puts ashore for auction and it seems his efforts have now been recognised.

Skipper David was also keen to point out that this work was very much a team effort - without a crew willing to make changes to the way they work - sometimes at a cost - it would not have been possible.

"I would really like to emphasise that the work we were nominated for is very much a team effort of Crystal Sea fishing. Our vessel is the Crystal Sea SS 118 and my brother and I skipper the boat with a crew of four others. The work we undertake is very much a team effort, from the gear innovations to working of the catch and data gathering. The work we do is continuous we are constantly striving to improve our fishing gear and adapt to whatever our fishery presents ourselves with."

Where the money comes from that pays the wages - the cod end.

He has now become one of the 2016 Seafood Champion Awards finalists.