page_title: Fishing in Cornwall
section_title: North coast
hierarchical_section_title: Fishing in Cornwall / Fishing ports / North coast
caption_attribution_description: English: St Endellion: fish cellars at Port Gaverne. One of the surviving courtyards of cellars, now owned by the National Trust. Pilchards were once salted and washed and packed into barrels here for export
context_page_description: Fishing in Cornwall, England, UK, has traditionally been one of the main elements of the economy of the county. Pilchard fishing and processing was a thriving industry in Cornwall from around 1750 to around 1880, after which it went into an almost terminal decline. During the 20th century the varieties of fish taken became much more diverse and crustaceans such as crab and lobster are now significant. Much of the catch is exported to France due to the higher prices obtainable there. Though fishing has been significantly damaged by overfishing, the Southwest Handline Fishermen's Association has started to revive the fishing industry.
  As of 2007, stocks are improving.
  The industry has featured in numerous works of art, particularly by Stanhope Forbes and other Newlyn School artists.
context_section_description: The most important fishing ports on the north coast were St Ives which had a considerable fleet and Padstow. A. K. Hamilton Jenkin describes how the St Ives fisherman strictly observed Sunday as a day of rest. St Ives was a very busy fishing port and seining the usual method of fishing there. Seining was carried on by a set of three boats of different sizes, the largest two carrying seine nets of different sizes. The total number of crew was 17 or 18. However this came to an end in 1924. The bulk of the catch was exported to Italy: for example in 1830 6,400 hogsheads were sent to Mediterranean ports. From 1829–38 the yearly average for this trade was 9,000 hogsheads. One remarkable catch at St Ives was of one thousand hogsheads in three seine nets, approximately 2,400,000 fish in all. 
  In 1870 the Gurnard's Head seine fishery was worth an estimated £800 per year and employed twenty-four men with ten boats and two seines. The pilchards were sold locally as fresh pilchards rather than salted and sold as fumadoes for the Mediterranean market. 
  A new harbour was built at St Agnes in 1798 which supported a fishing industry and allowed for the export of copper ore and the import of coal from South Wales for the smelters at the mines. In 1802, a pilchard fishing industry was established from the harbour at St Agnes, reaching its peak in 1829 and 1830 before declining. St Agnes remained a busy port until the collapse of the harbour wall in a storm in 1915/16. There are only remains of the old harbour in existence.
  Up to the early 20th century, Newquay was a small fishing port famous for pilchards and there is a "Huer's Hut" above the harbour from which a lookout would cry "Hevva!" to call out the fishing fleet when pilchard shoals were spotted. The town's present insignia is two pilchards. The real pilchards have long gone, but a small number of boats still catch the local edible crabs and lobsters.
  On the north east coast the harbours are generally smaller and Port Isaac, Port Quin (now deserted), Bossiney and Boscastle have relied on fishing, though there is a larger harbour at Bude. In the eighteenth century there was a small unprotected tidal harbour at Bude, but it was difficult whenever the sea was up. The Bude Canal Company built a canal and improved the harbour. Nowadays around twenty small boats use the tidal moorings of the original harbour during the summer months. Most are sport fishermen, but there is also some small-scale, semi-commercial, fishing for crab and lobster.
caption: Fish cellars at Port Gaverne
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