I’ve loved the sea and seafood all my life. My father instilled in me a deep-seated passion for the shallow seas of our coastline and all that dwelt therein. As a boy I marvelled at the indigenous flora and fauna of the intertidal zone and as I grew, I acquainted myself with the practices and skills of the inshore fisherman lobstering, long-lining for bull-headed cod and thorny roker and hooking (rod and line fishing) for whiting, dabs, bass and pouting.

I quickly learned the ways and phraseology of the old boatmen. Summer after summer spent on the beach in a sun-soaked idyll, where time and tide were the masters and highly varnished clinker motorboats ran trips round the bay, red ensigns fluttering in the breeze of high water.

This was my domain. I must have been baptised in salt water as some 50-odd years later, the pull of the sea is ever-strong.

For the last ten years I have purposely immersed myself in our UK fishing industry, to reconnect with all the history, heritage and culture that’s associated with their communities. Also to learn. To acquire as much knowledge and first hand information as possible about their craft, about their lives and their challenges. This has meant spending countless hours with fishermen, at sea, on quaysides, in fish markets, in pubs and cafes and in their homes, hearing and seeing first hand what affects their lives and businesses on a daily basis.

We live in a world now, where, very sadly, well funded, dogmatic ideologies compete with the extensive knowledge and ways of generations of fishermen, whose livelihoods are now constantly beleaguered by organisations and bodies who seek to know better and to legislate and enforce against this rich and diverse sector, which along with farming, helps underpin our food security and our environment.

But let’s not be downbeat. Our waters still harbour some of the richest and most prolific stocks in the Northern Hemisphere. Yes, they must be fished sustainably and responsibly, but to appreciate them we need to relearn and reclaim what Keith Floyd called ‘the nerve of our Grandparents’ when eating seafood’ and to embrace the integrity of those who actually know.

My seafood odyssey has begun a new chapter. An exciting, novel and interactive educational journey to bring the realities and authenticity of seafood production in the UK to a wider audience and to cut through the myth and misinformation peddled constantly by those who more often than not, have little or no connection to the sea and its wild harvest.

Enjoy the journey with me.

Mike Warner

May 2025