When the fish market in Looe closed in 2019, fishing crews in the town began to rely on the company Plymouth Trawler Agents to take their catches.
To help out the fishermen, Looe Harbour Commissioners are temporarily transporting the day-catch twice a day to Brixham in Devon for its fish auction. However, Cornwall crews said it was not the commissioners' job to do such work, while other members of the industry have warned that prices could rise as a result.Mike "Moogie" Pengelly has been fishing off Looe after leaving school in 1967 and owns the small stern trawler the Ganesha with his two sons.
He said things could be "disastrous" after the closure of the Plymouth market "put us in a bit of a pickle"."We used to land on Looe Market, but that collapsed and we went to Plymouth, which was successful.He said the issue was transport and, although the harbour commissioners had been very good at helping sell catches, he said that was not their job.
When Plymouth Trawler Agents ceased running the fish market on 17 May, he started going to Newlyn to collect fish for sale.Mr Chapman said he was now considering buying another lorry and employing another member of staff to collect the day-caught fish from Brixham Harbour."Fish is already at an all-time high, and people are being put off by the price.Two men in sports car injured in crash