John Botterell from the fish and shellfish merchants of Rye Harbour reported a good start to this year’s Scallop Festival, favoured by the fine weather in contrast to last year’s grim conditions.
The supply of scallops was good on average, and the quality excellent as usual. There are four boats fishing out of Rye, three selling their catch through the Rye fish auction managed by Russell Drew and one through a Hastings fish merchant.
Last year (as reported in Rye News) there was a reluctance on the part of Rye fishermen to change their tackle for scallop dredging, but this year the catches are sufficiently plentiful to make viable the use of the smaller-width dredging gear, fitted to the Rye boats.
Image Credits: Clive Sawyer .