Local fisherman who's spent a life at sea

From November until April, Shaun Humphreys, his son Cameron and brother Wayne will be out tackling conditions in the Irish Sea to gather scallops for some of Cumbria’s best restaurants.

Shaun, 52, has been fishing since he was at school, going out on his great uncle’s boat from Maryport as a child and then working for other fishermen before gaining his skipper qualification to take on his own boat over 30 years ago.

While they fish for scallops in the winter, they spend the spring and summer trawling for langoustines in their 15m vessel.

During the year they will travel all over the Irish Sea, along the coast of Scotland, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Wales and they can be at sea for weeks during the height of the scallop season.

They catch the langoustines by trawling in shallow waters with a net, while the scallops are caught via dredging on the seabed.

(Image: Shaun Humphreys)

Shaun says the licences for dredging around the Isle of Man in particular are very restrictive, with only a limited number granted and strict quotas to preserve the shellfish populations and conserve the environment.

“They really do a lot to look after their stocks and so it’s really good fishing for us,” he says.

“You’ve got to earn the licence through the years you spend at sea and how many days you put in. You can’t buy them, no matter how much money you’ve got.

“It’s policed very heavily and there’s fines of up to £50,000 for breaking the rules.

 "They will do surveys twice a year and if they find a lot of juveniles in a certain area, they'll just close that area completely.”

When the team are fishing for langoustines, they can work 24 hours a day for up to three days at a time before coming back to shore to ensure they remain fresh.

"It's a way of life. It's not a job, definitely not,” says Shaun.

“It's just what we do. We've had different folk come with us before and tried it and they just can't hack it.

“It’s just completely different than anything else you can do. Sometimes we might not stop for  36 hours, solid.

"It takes years of experience. Ten years isn't even enough. After a certain amount of time you just know where they are going to be, in certain tides and certain weather conditions, and if it's bright or rainy, and you just fire your net out.”

(Image: Shaun Humphreys)

Inevitably, a life spent at sea can also result in some hairy situations.

"Sometimes we've been fast on the seabed and you think ‘This is pushing our luck’,” says Shaun.

“It can be like that. It's just part of the job. You just do what's right at the right time. You couldn't teach anybody it. It's just experience.”

When fish markets closed during the pandemic, Shaun turned to selling direct to the public on the quayside, with partner Leanne Howard overseeing the sales and also drumming up custom via social media.

Direct sales have endured long after lockdown finished and the return of the Chelaris to the harbour at Maryport is usually greeted by a queue of customers keen to buy fresh produce.

Elsewhere, its catch is sold to Michelin-starred restaurants such as the Dog and Gun, in Skelton, and Allium, at Askham Hall.

Some of the langoustines are also exported to Spain via Prestwick, in Scotland.

“We can have up to 70 people queuing, waiting for us to come in and they start queuing about an hour-and-a-half before we arrive,” says Shaun.

Despite his love of his maritime lifestyle, Shaun says he also enjoys the creature comforts of dry land.

“We’ve got bunks on board, it’s a narrow bed that you could describe as a coffin,” he says.

“You can’t have anything wider than that because you’ve got to be jammed in when the boat is rolling and jumping about.

“But we’ve got showers and cooking facilities. We’re not proper savages.

“The only thing we haven’t got is a proper comfortable seat, so it’s nice when you can get back to your living room and sit down and watch the telly.”