David is a St Ives man who has fishing in his blood. David and his brother Alec skpper the Crystal Sea, a modern 20 meter trawler which is equipped to fish with a twin rig demersal trawl. They work in the southwestern approaches; where the Atlantic Ocean meets the rugged Cornish coast. Demersal trawling is efficient and has allowed David to experiment with trawl designs that improve selectivity, allowing unwanted species and undersized fish to escape. David has taken part in several Fisheries Science Partnership projects, and most recently has been working with the catch quota trials; where CCTV cameras postitioned in sevaral places on the boat record everything caught in order to prove the effectiveness of measures to improve selectivity. David feels that this technology has great potential and that so called 'fully documented fisheries' offer an opportunity for fishermen to prove the results of their efforts to work sustainably.
Crystal Sea SS118, photograph Laurence Hartwell ©
