Tuesday 25 September 2012

Fraserburgh Fishing.


The harbour at Fraserburgh was built to cater for the herring fleet and the vessels which consigned the cured herring to Europe and as the fleet increased a further enlargement of the harbour facilities was required. The prominence in Fraserburgh in the herring trade resulted in the demise of the neighbouring ports of Sandhaven, Pitullie and above all, Rosehearty, which in the 19th century rivalled Fraserburgh as a herring landing port.
Accordingly, the dependence of the town on fishing is obvious but with the decline in the herring fishery at that time due to a lack of sufficient stocks, Fraserburgh has developed a substantial white fish, pelagic and shell fish fishing fleet. 
This morning the Dawn Patroller had arranged to do his patrol at the Fish Auction in Fraserburgh.


It was a wee bit wet and windy.  So where you would normally park your car, well, you didnt!

Auctioneer is the chap without the boots facing you, chap with his back and the de rigeur fishermens boots, was buying.


The fish boxes have labels to note which boat fished them.  As here "Gratitude".  A lot of the fishing boats have some allusion to him upstairs.  "Forever Grateful", another, Most fishermen are deeply religious.



Mindst you hauling one of these monsters out of the sea you can understand why.





The labels in the boxes are then of the buyers.




Only a few halibut, and these were sold individually, by weight.



Then it's off to the lorries, vans, trucks and away to you.




The auction was over in half an hour.  The fish were landed overnight and this morning, then packed in ice, off to the shops, supermarkets and stalls.
234 boxes of fish.  At Peterhead, a bigger port, there were 6000 boxes of fish at their auction.
Fancy fish for tea?

3 comments:

Susan T said...

I love fish, but in all honesty seldom think about the peril the fishermen are putting themselves in to get my tea on the plate.

BadPenny said...

Brave men - hard job. I saw a programme about investigating the fish in our fish & chip shops not being what it was supposed to be... in some cases it came from Vietnam ! I don't like batter anyway so think I'll cook my own fish suppers now - so blimmin expensive at the chippy & we have an amazing fishmongers / restaurant in the village.

Linda said...

My maternal grandfather was a fisherman from Buckie, going out in much smaller boats than those of today. I remember going to the fishmarket with him when I was a child - it didn't seem as shiny clean as the one in your photos!