Fishy Business Fishy Business is a research project, I started in 2008. In 2009 Jonathan John joined me on the project and we began our first collaboration. Jonathan John is a 3rd year human geography student at the University of Exeter, Devon. Fishy Business seeks to answer the question 'why is there a decline in fish in the Teign Estuary and surrounding waters'.
In 2001 I met Barrie Nockolds, once a farmer, and always a country loving man, and keen recreational angler. He is president of the Wyvern Division of the National Federation of Sea Anglers, (NFSA),, covering a substantial area of Devon and Cornwall, having been treasurer and chairman for many years. He told me stories of him as a boy fishing during and after WWII, and the abundance of fish in the estuary and surrounding waters even up until the 90s; how the annual flounder fishing competition had 400 entrants in 1999 and over 1000 fish caught, yet in 2009 there were just 264 entries and 56 fish landed.
In the 1990s the fish that won prizes were all over 3lb, today it is very rare to catch a fish of that size. Jonathan and I spoke to local anglers, crab pot owners, auctioneers at Brixham fish market, Devon Sea Fisheries, River Teign Shellfish. Every person had their own story and reason for the decline.
Fishy Business is linked to my overarching reseacrh in to food following, a term used, primarily by geographers, to describe the exploration of the journey of food - from source to plate. Fishy Business is my third project about food following, Milked Dry (about the loss of livelihood for small English dairy farmers), and An Antipodean Expedition (a project looking at staple foods of 2 land based antipodes - Hawaii and Namibia) are my other two projects. They are all on going.
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My initial result is a film and installation piece showing as part of the exhibition Art, Ecology and the Economy, at CCANW (Centre of Contemporary Art and the Natural World, Exeter), until 28 March 2010. http://www.ccanw.co.uk/ Film will appear via YouTube, please allow a few moments.
Fishy Business 1, 2010. On completion of this first phase, i saw the film End of the Line, a documentary written by Charles Clover, journalist and author. I quote from the film - 'It is scientifically predicted that if the fishing industry does not change, all fish we now know will be extinct by 2048' The film and it's campaign reinforced my belief that we, as consumers, can make a difference, we just need to know how... see http://endoftheline.com/ I will be sending this film to as many authorities, decision makers and individuals as I can. If you feel as strongly as I do, maybe you can do the same...
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