Today is #InternationalWomansDay - so it would be fitting to pay tribute to tribute to a few of the few women in the local fishing industry...
like Sam, who not only works as an observer for Cefas but crews aboard her husband's netter, Sea Spray...
or staff at FalFish...
or Elaine who manages Stevenson's wet fish shop - back in the day there were some notable characters handlining for mackerel - anyone fishing out of Newlyn around then will well remember Carol with Robin on the Quo Vadis' pithy tongue crackling over the VHF or Kim who fished with Ian Johns on the Aquarius - often family firms have women in key roles...
like Emma Rowse, the other half and business partner of skipper and fleet manager, Mark Rowse of the the crab fishing and processing company, Rowse Fishing...
most notably locally is of course Elisabeth Stevenson - but women actually at sea are very much the exception - not so across the pond however in Alaska it seems things are different...
156° West but pretty much on the same Longitude as Fairisle is the fishing town of Homer...
where, after 15 years of maritime experience and five seasons spent as a marine technician on research vessels in Antartica, Amy Schaub bought her own Seine salmon fishing boat, the Norsel in 2015...
it looks colder outside the fishroom than in! For some superb photographs and an insight into the lives of the fisherwomen of Alaska you can read the full story in the current issue of Vogue online magazine here:
