“FISHING is too small an industry to care about.” How do you feel about this statement? We have heard it said often in recent times. Car manufacturing, financial services or even working in Topshop matters more, it is implied, than the 12,000 people employed in fishing – why should the Brexit deal be brought to the brink over the future of just an insignificant few?
Yet you only have to watch an episode of BBC2’s excellent Cornwall: This Fishing Life, a documentary series about how fishermen have fared through the pandemic, to marvel at how those working in this industry have adapted to the monumental challenges thrown at them – without a scrap of self-pity.

Having realised that both the hospitality and export markets would be closed, many in the Cornish fleet shrugged at the losses and set to finding new customers. One started a fish-box scheme, delivering mixed boxes to the doorsteps of locals. Other skippers discovered a home-delivery business further afield, creating a seafood Amazon. All say that these new customers intend to continue to buy fish this way in future.