拖网渔民：捕猎渔获 Trawler fishermen: Hunting and Fishing #生活记录 #电影 #渔民

No pain, no gain. I'm a machine, son. Truth. OK, a lot of fish. Fishy's out. Now they're coming. Get off. It's the last trip before Christmas. And with demand surging, fish prices are rising. Off the south coast of Cornwall, Ocean Pride is heading out in pursuit of Pollock. Its destination, old sunken shipwrecks in the English Channel. Bit of luck we'll have them today. Skipper Ben Laherty fishes with his best mate, Joe. You used to jump out your bedroom window, didn't you? Oh, yeah. Come down mine for breakfast when we was kids. I used to worry my mum like that. My mum would wake up, like, seven o'clock in the morning, go in my bedroom and I wouldn't be there. We work all the shipwrecks in the bay, a lot of wrecks from the wars. I think there's a lot of U-boats and tankers. Look at how many wrecks are out there. There's thousands of wrecks in the Channel that we know about. I reckon if you took all the water away and you could see what it looked like on the seabed, it would be like an old broken-down shipyard, if you know what I mean. The wrecks are breeding ground for the Pollock for us. December, January, February is the best time to catch them because they always want a mate on the wrecks. We've got the Nat West, which is just south-west here. Dad had good fishing off that, so he called it... I named it Nat West. There's some lovely fish come off that wreck. Absolute beauties. This week they're targeting 150 boxes of Pollock, £30,000 if market prices are good. Spotlight was just on it then, Ben. Yeah, all right. Known as wreck netting, nets must be dropped to the seabed to land close to the shipwreck below. It's a very small wreck, that one, so you've got to be on the ball with it, the bloody thing. The first wreck targeted is an old fishing vessel, just 40ft long. There's a real art to being able to shoot those wrecks. He'll go over the wreck and have a look on the fish finder. There's a little bit of fish there marking up there now. Calculate where the best fishing is. It's that tight red mark in there. Then you've got the task of trying to put the net where that fish is. The anchor goes down. The net follows. Where you drop that anchor to, that's not where it's going to end up. That anchor's going to keep going that way with the tide. That net's going to drop by 115m. All that net's got to do is go in a little bit and you miss it. I'm marking that net up on the meter now. Keep altering just a touch, 2-3 degrees either way. The net stands up like a curtain on the seabed, forming a barrier along the side of the wreck. You ain't got to be wrong by a lot. The margins of that find with that net not right where you want it to be, you're not going to catch nothing. They must now wait for 12 hours before hauling the net to see if Ben has hit the target. Definitely not an easy way of fishing. But that's all I know really, that's all we've ever done. 380 miles away on the Yorkshire coast, crabber Tidus is preparing to head out to its North Sea grounds at Bayman's Hole. Time to get up and go to your bunk. Fishing vessel Tidus, are we clear to depart and head out to sea? Yeah, very good. No traffic at the moment. Yo, boys, we're out of here. Come on, chop-chop. Quick, quick, quick. With shellfish prices rising for Christmas, the crew have hopes of a big payday. Everybody wants crab and lobsters at Christmas, so price and demand just skyrockets. They are worth an absolute fortune. You can earn what you earn in a month, in a week. Stiggy's aim is six tonnes in the tank, a catch that this week could fetch well over £30,000. It can be moneymaker of the year. It can really turn your year around. Once expenses are covered, each of the four deckhands has the potential to earn themselves up to three grand for a week's work. Very simple, mate, twist the old top off like that, bish, bash, squash. Keep them there like that. Glynn is our newest addition. Our new greenhorn. Green around the gills still. It's 21-year-old Glynn's maiden voyage with skipper Stiggy on the Titus. When you first join a fishing boat and you've never done the job before, that's a greenhorn. I'll let you be the man to our Stig. Stig, I need to pop these. Greenhorns never know what we're stepping into. They come on the boat thinking we're going to be having a beer, putting a rod over the side of the boat. No, like, I've had someone, they've walked on the deck on the first day and they're like, oh, my God, I'm so out of my depth here. I just like certain things, like, I like things to be clean and tidy and on the boat you can't really keep things clean and tidy because there's six people around you. I like to have fresh clothes. I like them to smell of, like, comfort and smell nice. But when you come on the boat, they all seem to smell nice, but when you leave, they smell like ----. Pilot's just saying no data. Like, I've got all my hands steering and literally as soon as I switch it to on, it's just saying no data. Right, cheers, buddy. Fiddle to that. We've got no autopilot. Yo, son, come, watch! Stiggy's crab pots are spread over 50 square miles of the North Sea. Without an autopilot, a crew member will need to man the wheel around the clock. When you lose your autopilot, you've got to be on that wheel steering that boat 24 hours a day. You're losing a man, basically. Stig always fixes it. I don't know about this one, mate. Come on, please work. I completely forgot about that switch, it just popped into my head. Oh, come on, please, please, please. Oh, no, no, that's it, I've got to pilot. I'm out of options. I'm not turning around. I'll keep heading out anyway. It's pretty much your last trip of the year. It's your money earner. You can't just turn the boat round. We're not going back in. Staying out. It'll be worth it on payday, though. Going in's for the weak. It's the last trip of the year. Prices are sky high. It's got to end good. With the crew needing to work shifts on the wheel, those remaining on deck will have to pick up the slack. I can imagine being 17, 18, jumping on a big, flat-out crab fishing boat without an autopilot. It's got to be daunting as hell. 390 miles south-west in the English Channel, Ocean Pride has shot six wrecks in the area and is now returning to haul its first net. Oh, I wish I could catch Pollock every day. What are we going to have? Hopefully loads of Pollocks. If you miss the wrecks, you won't catch anything, basically. Come on, fishies. Come on, Pollock. Let's be having you. Can't hit this one. That's no good. Bugger. Didn't even have a fish. Hey, we've got one, look. Don't want to be spending all day out here on deck, hauling empty nets. Don't have a fag now, stressed out. I do beat myself up quite a bit by day. If I make mistakes. That's when it's hard. You know that crew out on that deck, speaking of eight of you out on that wheel, seeing what the hell he's doing up there. It's not an easy task up there, I'll tell you that much. He's probably up there thinking that we're down here cursing him. It's not the case, but I can see why he would think that. It must be stressful for him. He wants to earn his money and himself. When Ben gets stressed, we all just leave him in the wheelhouse. We offer him a cup of coffee, and if he doesn't answer, we leave him to it. Ben has a decision to make. Move on to a bigger wreck or reshoot the same wreck again and hope to hit the target. If you miss one and you shoot it back, there's a lot more pressure. He's definitely got to have his thinking cap on there when it comes to shooting them. He'll find them. If anyone's going to find them, it's him. 90 miles east, Margaret of Ladrum, one of Brixham's most successful beam trawlers, is heading for an area known as the Potboxes. For the last six months, trawlers have been banned from working these grounds to allow crab fishermen to keep their pots fishing on the seabed. But now they're about to open. At the moment, the pink ones are where the pots are, so you can't fish in them. But we can fish in the blue ones now. It's like a chessboard. They have six months in the black squares and six months in the white squares. With no trawlers going in the area, it gives a chance for the fish to breed. It is like a vegetable patch where they get bigger and bigger and they're just ripe for the picking when the box opens. If you can be one of the first boats to fish in them, then I think we'll be quitting. This trip, Adam is hunting for 100 boxes of prime fish, monk and Dover sole. In high demand at Christmas, it could fetch £80,000. All right, steady fishing, all the best, cheers. Adam has got insider knowledge that one box has been cleared 24 hours early. You get the information from the bricks and jungle drums, we call it. Lots of people are friends with the crabbers and what they say is, they say, guess what, so-and-so's doing so, but don't tell anybody. And then the guy will walk down five yards down the quay and he'll say exactly the same thing as somebody else. You're hoping that you're the one that knows it and nobody else knows it. So you want to get there at the right time and get in there. We'll be the first one in here, first one in this box now. A bit more slack. In. Moment of truth. Looks like there's something there. That's what we want. Very, very pleased with that, yeah. Now we're fishing. That's what we're after, that one there, like, prime monkfish. There, like, look at it, just like, yeah, it's like brand new. Look at the tail on that. That's going to make a few quid. Bit of fish here, lads. Looking all right, my friend. On your third basket, a monk picked up. You're going to get, like, two or three stone of soles. That's well in excess of a thousand pound haul, you know, for an hour and 45 minutes. So that's on the mark. With prices for prime fish sky high, it has the makings of a very good trip for Adam and his five crew, including sons Rico and Zach. What we catch is what we make. Every good haul like this, money in my pocket at the end of the week. That's a banging haul, that is. You had two stone of sole, two stone of tails, that's four. 21-year-old Zach has ambitions to follow in his father's footsteps. I actually took Zach as a punishment. Took him to sea for three days, and then we got in and that's all he ever wanted to do. You know, it sort of backfired on me, really. But, yeah, no, I wouldn't have it any other way. To pass on what I've learned to him, I love it. Belgian beam are coming to us now, he'll come straight to us. A Belgian trawler, steaming north at high speed, is heading straight for Adam. What he'll do is he'll tow straight up here and he'll come straight on our tail. Cos he's towing against tide to get here, which you wouldn't normally do, really. He's heading here at right of knots. And he'll be straight down for it, I guarantee it. Why's that? Cos they'll want to see what we're on, I would imagine. The Belgian is tracking Margaret's movements on AIS, a satellite signal transmitted by fishing vessels. That's the annoying thing with an AIS fisherman. Somebody looks on the phone, they're going up and down there, we'll go straight there. He hasn't done the homework to find it. It is like somebody looking over your shoulder in the exam. It's my pet hate. I hate it. Like being kicked in the nuts. That's the best way I can explain it. Like moths to a light, really. We'll see how many moths we get if we stay around here for two or three hours. Ben has decided to reshoot the wreck he missed first time around. It's time to haul and see if he's hit the target. If I missed it again, there's going to be hell up. I'm seeing nets start to come up on a metre or so. Generally in winter, if you miss one, it could be 10, 15 boxes apart. Prices are half good, there's a couple of grams worth of fish. Where's all the fish he's at, though? Here they bloody come. You want to see? Come on. Yeah, baby. Missing that yesterday cost me a few quid. Here we go. We got them, boy. I love it when the pollock are flying through that hauler and they're snapping you in the head if you're trying to get a fish out of the tray or something like that. We got the pollocks. What a load of pollocks. Get big fish, I'll pick them out, I'm always looking around. Ha-ha, boy. Looking for someone to have a look at how big my fish is. There's no better feeling when you're catching a bit of fish and you know you're going to have good money for it. That's why I keep going back. I love it. Spondoolies. What's the plan here? A lot of boats have booked in for Monday's market by the sound of it. With a decent return, 10 boxes from a single wreck, Ben has a decision to make. There is not a lot of fish on the market Friday. Prices could be better. If he can keep catching at this rate, he should have enough to land on Friday ahead of his rival wrecknetters, with the only pollock on the market. Changing your plans and landing early, say you're losing a day's fishing, but you might gain an extra pound, £1.50 a kilo on your prices. The trick with fishing is the way that you work the market with your fish. He's always asking when the other boat's going in to land so you have a good idea of when you can get in to get the best price. It's an art in itself, just landing the fish. The only thing I'm worried about is time now. We're a bit pushed for time, but we'll get as many calls in as we can, so I'm going to take a chance. If Ben can reach his target and hit the early market, each crewman has the potential to make hundreds of extra pounds. But he's got just 48 hours to catch it. 405 miles away in the North Sea, Titus is struggling with a broken autopilot. Its crab pot cannot be shot in a straight line onto the seabed. All overshot. When I'm hauling next, I'm going to be weaving across the ground, trying to keep the gear in the right place. For hauling, it's going to be a nightmare. Normally it would take us about half an hour to pull it in and shoot it out. It's going to take us about 50 minutes. It adds up throughout the day. With the pots taking longer to haul, the crew will work shifts of at least 18 hours a day. Just going to keep hauling. Just keep going through the gear. Any crabber can be a fisherman. Not all fishermen can be a crabber. You've got to be unhinged to be a crabber. That's it, Glyn. No pain, no gain. Glyn's now part of a four-man production line, which must haul, clear, bait and stack one crab pot every minute. Come on. Next one's done. My fingers are blistered. You're doing well, Glyn. Keep positive. Before joining Titus, newcomer Glyn did a stint fishing on small boats. I'm used to doing six strings. How many do we do? About 18. About what? 18. 18, you know what I mean? That's three times as much as what I used to do. Pots are a bit bigger. It's a whole different kettle of fish, son. Glyn, he's a good wee lad. Tries hard, that's all he can ask. If Greenhorn starts with a crab boat, he'll always start as a bait and stacker. If the pots ain't baited right, we ain't going to catch nothing. So he has got quite an important job. If he's not quick enough and he can't keep up, he slows the whole production line down. Teamwork makes the dream work, plain and simple. Oh, Christmas crab! Oh, Christmas crab! Money, money, money, money! Stiggy's found good crab with his first pot. Lobster! He's got £30 by himself. We're getting paid much. Deckhands on successful crabbers can earn over £50,000 a year. From the age of 13 when I started, I was on £50 a day. By the time I was 16, I was earning about £1,000 a week. Teachers thought I was doing naughty things. No, I'm at work fishing. And I'm earning more money than you at 15 years old. It's a total mood-lifter, you know what I mean? You know you're getting paid. I'm a machine, son! On these prices, you don't have to catch a lot to earn a lot of money. £652 a boat ship made out of that one string. It's good fishing, that. The hams fill up. 360 miles south, Margaret of Ladrum is no longer alone. She's been swarmed by five other fishing vessels. All are now fishing in the tiny three-by-three-mile pop box. Last night, the Belgium horde came. We've got the Dennis, the Van Eyck, the Fransom, the Jerky and the Bridget. You've got another two over here. Every move we make, they're right alongside us. They're just on top of each other, aren't they? Yeah, it's wacky races. The Belgians talk to each other a lot. Once you see one, then you're going to get three or four or five. They're all going to be there. They target souls. The pop boxes aren't that big. We're already working a piece of ground about three or four mile by three or four mile. Last night, we had eight boats in it. Our coastline is the richest waters for fishing anywhere. It's because of the temperature of the water. Say when, mate. Because of the food sources. And the currents. It's some of the most productive areas for fishing in the world. Got a lot of fish. With market prices high, all six large trawlers are targeting prime fish to sell into the Christmas restaurant trade. Didn't do a monk, no turbot, no brew, lemon. But the box is fast running out of fish. Yeah, there ain't a lot of monk here. If we had this box to ourselves, we could have got the whole trip here. To find Pollock quickly and land ahead of her rivals Ocean Pride has gambled and steamed 60 miles to the southwest, shooting nets over a new set of wrecks. We've been steaming six hours. We're going to be a bit pushed for time here. But you've got to take risks, don't you? To get the rewards, I suppose. Only one way to find out. Get it done, get to go home. If Ben's to have the first and only fish on the market, he needs to be landed in just 36 hours' time. Losing six hours to get here, he's betting on these wrecks teeming with Pollock. When Ben makes big decisions like that, I'm like, are we doing the right thing, we're doing the right thing? And there's been many a time when I've gone, why are we doing this? What are we going to have? Really want to be looking for anything over, like, five or six boxes. When you get ten boxes, it's a nice one. That's the lottery. You've got to be trusting to another, because at the end of the day, it's your wages that he's playing with. But if he doesn't do it and he sits on ground where there's no fish, it's also your wages he's playing with. It's all seal damage. Seal and cuttlefish damage. Half a fish. Yeah, half a fish! I hate seals. Because the seals eat the bellies and sometimes they even skin the Pollock. So you've got a whole big fish gone from this to a tail that's this big, and it's...it's, yeah, they break your heart. That's what seals and cuttlefish do to the fish when they're down on the wreck. Not a lot left. Cost us a lot of money. You see that one coming over? Just don't chew that. Harmless on this wreck. Most of the catch has been destroyed. Leaving just two boxes of fish off the wreck. Bit disheartening, really. I like having good mates work for me, and they are good mates. It doesn't make it easy. You've got four people out there relying on you, so, yeah, there is a lot of pressure. His mood is always up and down, but that's...he's stressed. And that's just a life that they all have. They might not admit it to you, they might say they're cool as a cucumber, but you guarantee when there's no-one up there with them, they're thinking, what am I going to do here next? The seals have set them back, but Ben has an opportunity to make up on the losses. They're massive wrecks, big wrecks. Close by is one of the biggest wrecks in the channel. A 300-foot World War II oil tanker, a potential haven for thousands of pollock. Yeah, looking all clear now, is it? Right on, mate. One down, yeah. Almost in a straight line. Using two nets, Ben's plan is to encircle the entire wreck, trapping the pollock within. Working a big wreck, you're going to have more net on the wreck, so generally you're going to have more fish through the gear. Looking all right. It's now a long 12-hour wait for the results. Make or break this one. With the holiday season in full swing, shellfish prices are rising. And Stiggy has found good crabbing. That's always a good noise when you hear that. It means we've got a crab. Yee-haw! We've got crabbies! Glynn and the crew are just four hours into another 18-hour day on deck. We've got a baby elephant away. We've got six weeks and then he's born. My little chestnuts. You just keep moving those hands. With a new family to support, he needs this job to stick. We're after our full pots. It's lying down. Having hit rich grounds, Stiggy pushes the crew to work faster to get the pots baited and back on the seabed as quickly as possible. We need to work extra quick now. It's non-stop. My back is absolutely killing. I bet this weighs about the same as me. It's the hardest job on the boat. What is? Stacking all day, lad. Go on, Glynn, you can do it. It's all in your head. That's it, son. That's it. Use the ridge. One of the greenhorn's responsibilities is to stay behind after each haul and wash down. You see what things like that, don't they? I have to sweat out all day stacking and I get left to do a job like this. In the middle of the field, grab a few pots. I grab 80 pots and stack 80 pots. How are the boys? As you mentioned, Jimmy are warriors, so they're fine, but poor wee Glynn's struggling. He's the wee greenhorn. He'll be fine. I'll keep on going, though, don't worry. This job isn't for the faint-hearted. You've got to really have something about you. Most people will get to that point and just want to give up. Get the foot down, you've got to get the head down. You'll be right as rain tomorrow. So you've got to push through that. It really does separate the men from the boys. I've seen bigger guys, guys three times the size of him, come on and last an hour. You see bodybuilders coming on and they're crying. It's a hard job. We don't want them to quit. We want them to stay and keep doing well. I've just moved to the north of the box and literally gone up the edge of it once, and if you look out the window there, what have we got right alongside us? It's very, very annoying. Adam has moved to an un-towed area of the box, but one boat has tailed him and is following his every move. A potlicker in fishing is a man who is too lazy to go and find fish on his own, so he looks for someone who is already on the fish, and then he moves in on the man's spot, he potlicks, and depends on what others leave him. So we'll leave our European friends a little present on our way out, just to say happy Christmas. HE LAUGHS Yeah. Zak! Right, we've got to get rid of these munkheads this time. Yeah, you and him! You and him! If somebody has annoyed us a little bit, and they've, like, potlicked us, then we just leave them a little surprise with a few munkheads, and away we go. They'll haul the nets up and they'll think, God, that looks a good haul for munk. The munkheads have been there for three or four days, so they're stinking. So a guy has to empty the cod end, so all this munk-stinking juice, and he'll be stinking coming out of there. And then when they open the cod end up, it's just heads. I know it's childish. Is that munk juice? I know it is. HE LAUGHS It is like pissing in their fish and chips. 110 miles west, Ocean Pride is returning to haul the two nets shot around the World War II oil tanker. If we get 15 boxes for the two, I'll be happy with that. You take chances, sometimes you get rewarded, sometimes you don't. If the tanker delivers, they could have enough pollock to land first tomorrow and bag a monopoly at market. I'm stressed. HE LAUGHS The suspense is killing me. I reckon we might have a bit of fish off it. Big break. Come on, baby. We got him. That is a licker. Do they? Come on, you pollocks. A lot of fish on this. I just love catching fish. A few boxes in this one. Nice little Christmas bonus, eh? Yeah, it's going to make him smile, that's for sure. I'm happy with that. HE LAUGHS Very happy. When you've got fish in the nets, there is a massive sigh of relief. The wreck has given them 15 boxes and there's still another net to haul. Might have 15 boxes off of this one. I don't know. David Davis, TRF. There's so many fish, the crew can't keep up. Even this skipper's come out to help us. Not very often. It's nice to get out of the wheelhouse as well and go and have a laugh with the boys all day. When you're catching fish, you're all in a good mood, all having a laugh and a giggle, a bit of a sing-song. You can't beat it, though. Prime pollock right there, mate. Get on, boy! For me, it was always who you're working with, not what job it is you're doing, what it is you're earning. It's my life, it's not my job. I want to be spending my life with people that I like. 30 boxes from the wreck. One more haul and they'll have enough to land at market tomorrow. What are the posts looking like? Yeah, good. What are they going to be like come Friday? I don't know. Hopefully they hold up a bit for us. Titus has caught enough to cover the expenses. Every crab now is wages for the crew. Got a whole float cos there's too much crab. Glyn is nearly four days into his first offshore crabbing trip. At my back, he's absolutely killing me. There's only one thing you can be in this world and that's honest. Ground's falling off, ground's falling off. I woke up more tired than I was when I went to bed. It's crazy. On a crab boat, a lot of people can do the first day. It's the 6th, 7th, 10th day down the line, which they can't do. It takes a different kind of man to be able to do that. Cos you're aching and you feel a bit sick and you're tired, you're drained and you've just got to pick up pot. If you think you're tough, come have a go at this, know what I mean? The runoff's called the wall glen. It's like, you keep going, then you hit this wall. You've just got to break through it. You only get so tired, then you just stay at that point. You'll get to that point where you are a broken man, your whole body hurts. You're tired, really, really tired. You're broken. But if you can fight through that, that's what makes you a crabber. Stay strong, Glenn, stay strong. In the English Channel, Margaret of Ladrum is slipping away from her rivals and making for the Christmas tree, a fishing spot known only to local skippers. I mean, it's called the Christmas tree for a reason. I've had fishing there at Christmas. I have a hunch that it's going to be all right. We've got a rock in there, I reckon, Zach. Zach, did you rock that time? Yeah. Not a lot of fish here? No, very poor. Very, very poor. Yeah, that's probably one of the worst falls we've had for a trip. So much for my hunch, it's going to be fish here. Prime that time was one, say, got two and a half of tails, so three and a half. From the new Omicron variant, it's a record high yesterday. The Covid-19 Omicron variant is spreading across the UK, threatening to close the restaurant industry just a few days before Christmas. It doesn't look good. What they say about hospitality and everything, it's going to affect the prices. If we have a lockdown, restaurants have to close, the pubs have to close. It's really bad. I mean, we can land one day and make 60,000 and then, if this happens, the next day, on the Tuesday, you'll be lucky to make 20,000. If the prices do collapse, it'll cut the cruise wages by about 70%. Pubs are closing, restaurants are closing. You're thinking, well, who's going to buy the fish? This is a worry. Yeah, it really is. All right, my lover. Home time, Scott. We're going home. Last one. I hope I get the last one for the trip. I'd be a bit gullied if it ends with a miss. Ben is set to beat his rivals to landing the first pollock to market, potentially doubling its value. It's looking a little bit fishy. He has one final wreck to haul before steaming home. Let's be happy. Nice way to finish the whole trip off. Yeah. Having a few boxes. Worth coming up here and shooting, that's for sure. Country roads, take me home To the place I belong Ocean Pride now has nearly 200 boxes, smashing her target. Can I ask for a better finish? One of the best days of the trip. Right now, they're the only boat booked in to market. Well done, boys. Well done, Ben. That's a wrap, baby. At the end of the trip, we always have a little bet of who can get the closest to what price we're going to get for the fish. You always end up coming off on Christmas relying on that wage that you get for the trip before Christmas, so it's always good when it's a good one. Ah, job done. Time to go and have a pint. Oh, hello, Dad. Why is he pointing the boat for tomorrow? What's the point in that? Ben's dad has heard rumours that many in the fleet are heading in early to land their catch, fearing Covid shutting the restaurant trade. I reckon it's going to be like £1.50, £1.80 a kilo tomorrow. Whatever it is, I'd rather give it away for that price. I think a lot of boats out there made a run for it, knowing what the market was going to do. No-one wants to stay there and catch it when it's not going to make any money. It's just working for nothing, isn't it? Oh, that worked our asses off there. Then we're going to get hammered. If the price does crash, the boat's profit could be wiped out, and with it, the crew's wages. It's the largest daily total since the pandemic began. More details from our health correspondent, Sophie Hutchinson. It's clear the Omicron wave is upon us, with a second day of record-high cases announced and warnings there'll be many more to come. Ocean Pride heads the market to learn its fate. Further east, fearing a price crash hitting its own catch, Margaret of Ladrum is heading for new grounds and a different target. Out of the pot boxes and into the cuddle ground. We're going to get 100 boxes of cuddle, so if the Covid does hit the market prices, then we're not relying on one thing. Cuddle fish prices, they do go up and down, but they tend only to go up and down pence rather than pounds. You can pretty much guarantee what you're going to get per box. You're not putting all your eggs into one basket. You're playing the market as such. The last I heard, we had £4.50 on the crab, so good prices. With Stiggy's crab sold to the continent, Titus is better protected from any UK restaurant trade shutdown. Hopefully it'll be a nice 300, 400 crab in that. There you go, Jimmy boy. Despite struggling without an autopilot, Titus is on track to reach her target. All we ever wanted was a job where you get paid for how hard you work. That's exactly what fishing is. The harder you work, the more you get paid. Hard work's good for the soul. That's it, that's it. I mean, you can get through this trip, you can get through any trip. I'll be all right in a couple of months or so, after I get used to it. You know what I mean? You'll be a beast by the end of it, boy. No, I'm not, my friend. It's a nine-pound crab. What's that, a nine-pound crab? I used to get paid that an hour. And I'm getting it in a crab. Jeez, it's mental, isn't it? I just caught it in one crab. This fishing is hard. My arms are aching. But it's worth it in the end. Do you know what? I won't lie to you, I do actually enjoy the job. It's like living in a caravan but on water, do you know what I mean? The best thing about it all is no-one can get hold of you. I'd say as a crabber he just needs a bit more time. Another year on the deck of a big boat and he'll be all right. Hard work definitely gets rewarded in this game. You work hard and you show your willingness. You can go a long way in this game. Beautiful. Shit like that makes it the best job in the world. All along the coast, fierce Covid will shut the restaurant trade as spreading across the fleet. Boats are racing into harbour to land at market before it's too late. How you getting on, Ben? How you getting on? Yeah, not bad. ------- quality fish. Stunning. They are stunning. A lot of the restaurants are shutting down. We're having a lot of cancellations for the food bookings. So that's the knock-on effect, we're first ones hit. The rumours were true. The market is stacked with pollock. It was 2.25 or 2.60, wasn't it, this morning? I don't know. Yeah. If we get the same again, it'd be something, wouldn't it? Blood boils, Val, because there's nothing that you've done. It's not our fault, it's not like the fish quality is bad or it's something that's out of your power. The fate of Ocean Pride will finally be settled tomorrow morning when the fish is sold at auction. In the North Sea, Titus is heading back to harbour in Hartlepool early and well short of her target. 20 minutes, mate, if you want to get everyone up for us. It's on the way in at the minute. One of the guys has got Covid, we think, so we'd better go in. Coronavirus has been detected on board. Covid has hit Titus directly. Hey, boys. What? What are we doing? Everyone coming down with Covid and everyone being quarantined on the boat for ten days. It's not over Christmas, it's not fair. That's it, time to go home. One obstacle after another. Fishing, it beats you down, beats you to the floor at times. It is a hard job and it's being able to get through that what makes you a good fisherman. Right, let's see if we can find a bit of cuttlefish. It's the last day of the trip and to protect himself from the price crashes is now hitting other boats in the fleet. Adam is hunting cuttlefish. What's it looking like, Zach? Have you got any cuttle there or not? Yeah, it looks like there's a bit there. We're hoping for at least 20 stone of cuttle. We call it black gold. 20 stone of cuttle and I'll be happy. 20 stone of cuttle. We just need a little bit just to top it off now. Right, I want you to get the wheelhouse. Take the watch. 20 stone, nothing less. Having found rich ground for cuttles, Adam's asked son Zach to take the next tow. It's a massive responsibility. The lads are in the bunk there now. I'm down here. He's driving the boat. He's in control. He's stepping up to the plate and that's what you want. He's growing up. We catch more fish than me, he'll love it. He'll be like Christmas Day with his mother, he'll be like, yeah, I caught more fish than Dad. You know what I mean? That's what it'll be. I want to hear the end of it. Zach's all this is. If there's no fish here, it's your fault. You know that, don't you? Nah, I'm not worried. Yeah, he's got cuttlefish, yeah. I can hear it. I think it's going to be close. Yeah, it looks like we're going to top it, I reckon. More cuttle this time. Loads of cuttlefish. 10, 17... 21. 21 at large? Yeah, right. 21 at large. Might be a steward's inquiry on this, I think. You've got a stone to get a squid. I want a recount. He's still smiling up there now, made up. Yeah, there you go. I'm really proud. You see him do stuff out there that other people can't do, I think, yeah, that's my son. I do, I think that a lot. I don't tell them that. But, yeah, I do. Hopefully, when I retire, I said to him, I'll go as his relief skipper, so I can just maybe do one trip a month or something, and then he'll have me in the background if he wants me. He says yes, but then he might just be humouring me, and he might say, I don't know, forget that. But we'll see. Right, let's go home, lads. Whee! Job done. 23 or so. 22 a month. Cuttle. We haven't got too much of one thing. We've got a bit of everything. That's ideal. Next time... ..£8 million endeavour hunts for squid off Scotland's wild west coast. We've not stopped panicking yet. The Waters family race out for the beginning of the North Sea whelk season. That's the money shot right there, that. And off Shetland, rivals discover Reliance 3's secret grounds. They'll be scooping the fish that we were hoping to catch. Life, death and everything in between. New recruits take on the highs and lows of policing. Press red now to walk the beat with the Fresh Cops on iPlayer. A Storyville documentary on midwives over on BBC4 now. Or keep it BBC1 for the final gripping episode of Inside Man. Next.