29 July 2013
Fish lovers across the country are being asked to put their questions to TV’s toughest fisherman as part of a new initiative to highlight the complex and dangerous nature of life at sea.
TV Fisherman to Send ‘Tweets from the Deep’ to Show Life at Sea
Cornish fisherman and star of the BBC’s Toughest Place to be a…Fisherman, Andy
Giles, will be tweeting everything he does during a day’s fishing at sea, as
well as answering questions put to him through Twitter.
The initiative, dubbed ‘Tweets from the Deep’, will take
place Wednesday, 14 August in order to celebrate National Fishing Month (19
July- 26 August) and raise awareness of the often dangerous daily tasks
fishermen perform to put food on the nation’s plate.
Andy, who has been a fisherman for more than 25 years and is
the proud skipper of 15m trawler Guiding Light III, will be providing
insight into his work life, which starts at 3am when he leaves his family home
in Looe. He then has to travel to Brixham or Plymouth, depending where his boat
lands, before heading up to 20 miles out to sea in search of lemon sole,
haddock, monkfish or sea bass. With the expense of fuel, a single fishing trip
can cost in the region of £600 and so sometimes Andy is not home until 9pm at
night, as he has to ensure he catches enough fish to cover the cost of the
trip.
On taking part in ‘Tweets from the Deep’, Andy said: “With
the vast amount of rules and regulations governing our industry, often there
are huge amounts of pressure on us to monitor and record our catch, especially
toward the end of the month when we’re running out of quota. ‘Tweets from the
Deep’ is a great way to show people what life as a fisherman is really like and
perhaps demonstrate some of the hurdles we have to jump through to put fish on
their plates.”
The event is being organised by the National Federation of
Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), which represents fishermen across England,
Wales and Northern Ireland. It wants to provide a glimpse into an often
misunderstood and misconstrued industry.
Barrie Deas, Chief Executive of the NFFO, said: “Every day,
fishermen are putting their lives at risk to provide food security for our
island nation. Yet, often the image of these should-be-heroes is of trawler
barons pillaging the seas for personal gain. We hope this event will go some
way to showing the hardships fishermen undergo and reinstate them to where they
belong, as heroes of the seas.”
In 2012, Andy took part in the BBC documentary Toughest
Place to be a…Fisherman where he travelled to the small fishing village
Mania in Sierra Leone. There he was taught to fish out of a small, leaky canoe
with a sail made of plastic bags and an umbrella, and with floats for fishing
lines made of an old pair of flip flops.To put your questions to Andy, tweet @NFFO_UK using the
hashtag #FishTales.