At a time when things like foreign factory trawlers and climate change have conspired to make life even harder for our local heroes in Rye’s fishing fleet, the arrival of a brand new route to market might have been seen as a real opportunity.
Brixham Fish Market arrived on Simmons Quay earlier in the year, in direct competition with existing local fish market, Chapmans. Simmons Quay is managed by the Environment Agency as is the rest of the harbour of Rye. Locals will be familiar with Rye Bay Fish, one of our local fishmongers and also with Rye Fish Market and Seafood Bar run by Chapmans. Both outlets are at either end of Simmons Quay. It is clear from social media posts Rye Bay Fish are much more positive about the arrival of Brixham in the harbour.
As ever it is our own fishing community themselves who are squeezed by dwindling fish
stocks, increasing fuel and equipment costs and the effect of huge foreign owned factory trawlers. Brixham Fish Market has benefitted from years of funding from the former government that has seen tens of millions of pounds go to the now market leader in southern England. Chapmans, a fish merchant with a smaller market presence, have benefited from a lesser (but very welcome) £150,000 grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, secured last year by Cllr Christine Bayliss, Leader of Rother Labour Group and Deputy Leader of Rother.
With their funding, Chapmans set about creating the Rye Seafood Bar where locals and
visitors enjoy seasonal, fresh and high quality seafood, often straight from the boat. It is prepared by locals, has created jobs and generates revenue locally. What do Brixham bring in comparison?
Brixham’s model is one of “hub and spoke”. They buy fish landed in Rye, put it in a fridge (they also have these units at Hastings, Ramsgate and across the south) and then truck it to Brixham where it is auctioned and trucked to buyers. By law and regulations it must be taken to Brixham first even if its landed in Rye – this was confirmed to me by Matthew Bailey of Brixham Fish Market. They have developed their business model rapidly using government funding earmarked for our beleaguered fishing industry.
There are clear concerns about fair competition when Brixham have had so much funding compared with Chapmans. The impact of thousands more food miles is far from sustainable (their sustainability statement is incredibly vague) and damages the environment. What will happen to Rye’s fishing fleet when this economically and environmentally unsustainable model is no longer profitable?
Over the last 12 months I have been writing to the Environment Agency and our former MP. We were promised a visit by senior Environment Agency managers which failed to materialise.
How can we ensure our sustainable, local fishing fleet of small boats thrives and is
supported by companies with an interest in our community alongside a fair and equitable funding process?
Our new MP, Helena Dollimore made reference to our local fishing industry in her maiden speech in Parliament. We want to see a fair and level playing field for businesses of all sizes to prosper in and for everyone to support our vulnerable fishing communities who are an intrinsic part of who we are as a town.
Image Credits: Chris Lawson , Simon McGurk , Abigail Cooper-Hansen .
Hear, hear. Our fishing fleet deserves all the support promised back in 2020 but which never materialised. Whole fishing communities and their families are struggling throughout the UK and this needs to be addressed.
I will certainly be asking if my fish has travelled and won’t buy it if it has. The whole point of having a local fishmonger is that the fish is freshly-caught and has no food miles!
This practice prioritises profit over community, sustainability, and common sense.
We, as consumers, have a choice. Every purchase from Chapmans is a vote for a thriving, independent Rye, where our fishing fleet tradition is valued, our community prospers, and our environment is respected.
Where we choose to shop can protect what makes Rye special. Choose to support businesses that are rooted in our community, that care about our future, and that contribute directly to the local economy.
What do I REALLY mean by that? When you shop at Jempsons you are helping to support the families of of over 400 local people, and every fish you buy from Chapmans is more than just a meal; it’s a commitment to Rye, its people, and its legacy.
Thank you Simon for your article. A little awareness goes a long way to help us be concientious consumers.
I agree Chapmans are running a fantastic venue and allowing locals to buy locally caught fish and enjoy great local fish meals. We must try and support locals
I must be missing something – when Aldi (a dominant German-owned company) want to move to Rye the local’s shouts of Yes are deafening, as cheap food apparently overrides locally-sourced/British produced goods.
When a fish trader from Brixham moves in, the competition is unwelcome. Can someone explain the subtle difference to me please.
Hi Kate. It’s not unwelcome to the fisherman who use Brixham to get a better price or the fishmongers who can get bigger margins here in Rye but we must be aware that the fish that are landed in Rye, even if they are to be sold in Rye, go back and forth to Devon to get the best price at market. Bonkers.
Being a conscientious consumer in Rye is a privileged choice and responsibility we each have and I am grateful to have the facts about the fishing industry here in your article Simon. The Chapmans and our local fishermen and their families have my100% support.
Cllr Simon fails to mention that both Chapmans and Rye Bay Fish buy in fish and shellfish from Cornwall, Scotland, East Coast and Asia. This also has an adverse impact on the environment. This has been a particularly bad year for Rye fishing fleet, some of you will have noticed how empty the Quay is looking now. Hopefully Cllr Simon will talk with the Rye fisherman to get a better understanding of the situation and the problems, it’s not just the lack of local fish.
Most people are very unaware of how the fishing industry works. The sea is in an empty state due to the unsustainable fishing methods used by the European fishing vessels , pair trawling , pulse trawling, which has decreased the fish stocks dramatically over the last few years leaving our local fisherman with no stocks to work with . There have always been 2 boat agents and 2 shops on Simmon’s Quay so all Brixham Fishmarket has done is give the fisherman a choice to land their fish with them as well. This is done on auction to give the fisherman the best possible price and try to expand the harbour with more boats and hopefully jobs , otherwise the Hastings and Rye fishing fleet that are already on their knees will be extinct and will lose their maritime history. Giving fishermen choice where to land will offer the best prices possible , otherwise the industry will not be dying – it will be dead – no boats /jobs/history /tourism . Also a few years ago the fishing vessels had to land their catch and what couldn’t be landed had to be thrown into a big fish drum to die which all the lemon soles , plaice , dover sole , turbot , brills which would have lived if thrown back. How is this sustainable fishing ? Rye Bay Fish – your local fishmonger by the bridge on the A259 is owned by me – Shane Haddon – and we are also from a long line of fishing families dating back to the 1600s – one of the original fishing families have traded as Rye Bay Fish for 12 years now with a big reputation and online presence. We have to buy local fish from all over the south coast ports to ensure we have enough selection of local fresh fish for our daily customers. Just using Hastings and Rye fishing boats nowadays wouldn’t give us enough fish to sell retail and wholesale to our public and trade customers. . regards Shane Haddon – Rye Bay Fish
You’re absolutely right Garry, fish is often sourced from all over but Brixham’s model and source of funding are very different to other local merchants around the country. It’s about fairness, a level playing field and avoiding building in many more food miles even before the product can be sold.
This is an interesting situation, but surely it’s a bit more nuanced than Simon suggests?Chapman’s advent has been hugely positive and is to be welcomed, but presumably the entrance of Brixham actually helps Rye’s fishing fleet to some degree, providing another potential buyer and creating some competition in terms of the prices they may expect for their catch? (As the poster, above, implies.) Certainly on the East coast, whilst the market heft of Brixham has arguably militated against the development of local hubs, I read reports of it revitalising the fortunes of some local boats. So, isn’t there a broader story to explore here? Additionally, as a footnote, hasn’t Mrs Hart been somewhat written out of this story? Our current MP might well have paid lip service to our fishing fleet in her maiden speech, but she played no part in securing the Shared Prosperity funding that supplemented Chapman’s own considerable investments.
Perhaps a member of Rye’s fishing community might also like to feed into this interesting discussion?
Thank you Cllr Simon McGurk, for writing such an interesting article about what is clearly a very emotive topic to everyone in Rye.
As a company, we tend not to comment on social media or newspaper posts, but there have been a number of responses that we feel now demand a reply.
Make no mistake, fishing is big business. In 2022, UK vessels landed 640 thousand tonnes of sea fish with a value of £1.04 billion, so it is unsurprising that it is such a contentious issue. But climate change is disrupting already depleted fish stocks and increased energy costs are making it prohibitively expensive for many of our boats to get to sea. Fishermen feel let down by our politicians that failed to secure the much-touted Brexit deal of improved fishing opportunities. And while all these issues are valid, and certainly deserve extensive discussion, this is not what Cllr McGurk’s article is about. Cllr McGurk writes about sustainability and the environmental impacts that the arrival of Brixham Trawler Agents will have on our small town and fishing community.
As Garry Walker points out, (and incidentally, he is one of Rye’s local fishermen, so has more experience than most), it has been a terrible year for fishing – the worst for over 50 years according to many. As our fishermen will tell you, the seas are warming up, costs and regulatory requirements are increasing, and sometimes, you just have a bad year.
But the sea it is not, as Mr Hadden claims, ‘in an empty state’. Mr Hadden also talks of fishing boats having to discard their fish ‘into a big fish drum to die’. However, when I asked Marcus Griffiths, Senior Marine Officer at the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) (this is the government body that regulates fisheries), about this, he said that as far as he was aware, this may have happened some years ago in Brixham, but not here on the South Coast. Our local fisherman agree that this has never been the case here in Rye. Fishing is highly regulated. Fishermen have quotas for certain species of fish and guidance on the sizes of fish they are allowed to land, and the MMO proactively police these landing obligations. It is in no-one’s interest to land undersized or over-quota fish. We can’t legally sell it, so apart from the obvious environmental and sustainable impacts this would have on our seas, it would be wasted time and effort but all involved – along with the risk of hefty fines from the MMO.
There have always been two fish shops in Rye, and we believe that this competition is a good thing for us, our fishermen and consumers. However, the Brixham model is different. For a business to legally buy fish straight from the boats, you must be a registered ‘first buyer’. This is a regulatory process that involves health and hygiene inspections, plus the requirement to report all landings into MMO and pay government fish levies, The levy collected is used to provide support, advice and services across the whole UK seafood supply chain. This costs us around £50,000 each year (in levies and administration).
According to the MMO, Mr Hadden and Rye Bay Fish are not registered first buyers, so are not legally allowed to buy fish straight from the boats. And this is the point of Cllr McGurk’s article. Once our local fish goes inside the Brixham fridge, it must travel to Brixham so it can be sold at auction. If Mr Hadden – or anyone else wants to buy our ‘local’ fish from Brixham’s auction, it will require a journey of around 500 miles. This is environmentally crazy and certainly unsustainable.
And yes, as pointed out by Mr Walker, we do buy some fish from further afield. You won’t find species such as salmon, tuna or hake swimming in our waters, so for as long as there is a demand for these, we will source them from further afield. We will never, however, sell farmed fish such as bass when there is a local wild option available.
Guy Harris suggests the arrival of Brixham has revitalised the fortunes of some local boats. However, we spoke to the MMO today and they said that as far as they were aware, no boats had put any fish in the Rye fridge so far.
If Mr Harris (who represented Hastings and Rye Liberal Democrats during the previous two elections), would like to ‘explore this story further’ I would be very happy to speak with him. Thus far, Mr Harris has not engaged with us in any way to learn more about the industry, unlike representatives from both the Labour and the Conservative parties. We worked closely with Cllr Christine Bayliss, Leader of Rother Labour Group and Deputy Leader of Rother, to secure our funding a few years ago. As our MP, Sally-Ann Hart was hugely supportive of us as a business, and even before she was elected, we were invited to Westminster with Helena Dollimore to meet Kier Starmer and the (then) shadow cabinet to discuss the issues faced by our fishing community.
And so, we come full-circle. While it appears that Cllr McGurk’s article has been hijacked somewhat by others attempting to score political or personal points, I would point back to the article’s original intention. We have a massive company with millions of pounds of Government funding trying to muscle in on our small fishing community, taking our fish on a 500 mile journey if it is to sell it back to the people of Rye.
We love Rye and feel it is a huge privilege to live and work in such an amazing town. When we started our business here, we decided at the outset we wanted to support the local community. Five years ago we had three staff in Rye. Now at the weekends when our Seafood Bar is open we have 16. We sponsor and support local events, we have created an educational program for local school children which has so far seen over 200 students learning how to prepare and cook fish (all run completely free of charge). We work with local organisations to employ young adults with special needs and we are now working with one of our fishermen in a Government trial to explore the potential of setting up a clam & oyster purification system at Rye.
We believe that we have a responsibility to support our community, to ensure that it remains a thriving town for generations to come. If Brixham successfully takes over our fishing ports, (and its not just Rye – they are using Government money to put fridges in ports across the country), we will lose far more than fish.
Thankyou Louise for your excellent response to Simon’s article. It is a privilege for Rye News to be publishing such an informative piece which so clearly explains the facts about this industry. Most of us who enjoy shopping for and eating fish know so little about the people and circumstances who make it possible.
Thanks, Louise. That makes things clear, and I appreciate Simon’s point now. Fair comment on my engagements with you. I regularly chat to a pal from the local fishing community, but we haven’t chatted, alas. Not due to disinterest, I can assume you, only due to time and pressure of life… Best of luck.
Louise
I have just read the comments for the first time today.I am afraid you have been missinformed about fish with no quota being landed much of it alive by Marcus Griffiths but he probably had nothing to do with it at the time.He is a nice fella as I seem to remember talking to him at Rye Bay Fish a few years back.This went on for many weeks at Hastings fishmarket put into large black plastic bins the fishermen understood it happened in every south coast port so we assumed it was done at Rye when Duncan Grant and Russell Drew were the two wholesalers.The fishing industry in Hastings now is minimal to what it once was as the fish stocks are so low and catches so poor the overheads are in most cases not being reached.Family’s that have been there for generations now gone.Going back to the dumpted fish i checked i had not gone do-lally by asking other old fishermen and they confirmed i was right.Maybe for research we were never told.
I would love to buy locally caught fish in Rye, but why is it so expensive? If operators like Rye Bay Fish and Chapmans are cutting out the wholesaler by selling direct to the public, the price should be cheaper. The price is high because they think the local market will tolerate it. The same issue applies to farmers’ markets, where prices are excessive. Farmers argue that supermarkets are not paying them enough for their produce but then charge a lot more than supermarkets at farmers’ markets. It’s ludicrous. This doesn’t happen in places like France, where a local produce market is cheaper than a foodstore.
The prices are a lot higher nowadays because it’s been totally overfished by foreign fishing vessels who have fished unsustainably, there is a lot of deep sea fish available which is far lesser quality as opposed to day boat fish we use at rye bay fish which is very minimal nowadays , this is why fresh fish prices have gone up . It’s not due to fishmongers wanting to put the prices up as we sell the highest quality fresh fish at the best prices we can for the customers, prices have risen but there again what hasn’t nowadays?This is due to high overheads and limited prime day boat fish which is very minimal nowadays .
Well presented Louise, spot on. The invite stands for our new MP and or councillor(s) to meet with local fisherman to better understand the issues we have. Fisherman work to a very strict regulatory controls, which I’m happy to to share / explain. From my perspective I will continue to land my catch to Chapmans and support local economy / jobs. As I’ve previously written in Rye news for the past few years – some of you will have noticed how empty the Quay looks now!
I hope to see you soon Gary. I’ve met with an only a couple of local fishermen in the last year and I’m very keen to hear more about the experiences of local people in such a challenging business.
Louise’s response was so much better and illuminating than my original letter, each time I’ve read it I’ve learnt something new!
I would like to add to all of the comments above I have been fishing for 45 years, I have never done any other job. I own the fishing boat My Sara Rx419 which is located on Simmons quay, I fish it with my son. Fishing is the hardest it has ever been to make a living because of many reasons, Indeed there is a long list which is why very few of the boats are fishing now just 3 boats from Simmons quay on a regular basis, you do not need to be Albert Einstein to realise you need competition for your fish to get a fair price ,as at Rye Fish you will see dover soles, plaice, dabs, flounder, Gurnard, bass, skate, rock ,huss, lobster, brown crab,spider crab, (cod sometimes). Anyone wanting to support us please dont ask for halibut, tuna or any of the other stuff which comes from god knows where my no is 07758224196