TRAWL AT SEA
Gareth Easton’s images tell the tale of the tough life of Scotland’s trawlermen
When photographer Gareth Easton wanted to document the life of a trawlerman, he turned to Peter Bruce, the owner and skipper of the Peterhead trawler Budding Rose PD418. Peter comes from a long line of seafarers: his great-great–grandfather John Buchan and his great-grandfather Tommy Buchan both sailed on the whaling ships that went out from Peterhead in the 19th century. The name of the boat also goes back through the family to Peter’s grandfather, John ‘Jeckie’ Reid, who skippered a coal-fired steam drifter called
Budding Rose BF 39 out of Banff not long after he qualified in 1928. The modern 80ft steel seine-net trawler Peter takes to sea today is quite a different boat from its previous incarnations. Its immediate predecessor, Budding Rose PD284, sank dramatically in a force 10 storm 100 miles east of Peterhead in July 1988. The Sea King helicopter rescue of the crew of seven, including Peter’s twin brother Stephen, was captured on film for the television series Rescue.
The current incarnation of the trawler was built by the Campbeltown Shipyard and launched into the loch in 1990 to the strains of a piper playing Mull of Kintyre. Even though Peter’s father Jim, had to stop fishing in 1982, due to ill-health, he encouraged his sons to rebuild the
Budding Rose. Sadly, Jim was not well enough to attend the launch of his boys’ boat and he died several months later.
Over the past 26 years, the boat has made many fishing expeditions into Norwegian waters to catch whitefish; mostly haddock, cod and whiting with some monkfish and halibut. When I spoke with Peter, he was on the Budding Rose 160 miles east of Peterhead, a sixteen-hour journey to the fishing grounds. Fishing trawlers always go out in pairs, and the Budding Rose’s regular companion at sea is the Lapwing PD972.
Although Peterhead has the biggest fish market in Europe, both the market and the industry are a shadow of what they once were before the United Kingdom joined the European Union (EU). Peter says he is one of the 93% of people in the fishing industry who voted to leave the EU because of the damage caused by its common fisheries policy. ‘Ever since the UK joined the EU there’s been a massive decline in the industry and in the fishing communities,’ he said. ‘When we joined the EU we gave away our waters; around two thirds of the fish caught in our waters are caught by French and Spanish fishermen. Maybe after Brexit the industry will get a wee bit bigger which would be good for our coastal communities. Perhaps if the government realised the importance of the fishing industry, they would fight for us a bit more.’
That said, Peter admits that the EU scientists’ advice to leave fish stocks to replenish is beginning to pay off with the fish looking much healthier now compared to what they were. As a result the quotas have been increased for species such as cod, haddock and mackerel. Peter is hoping this will encourage people to eat more of the fish he catches.
Budding Rose usually sets out to sea from Peterhead for about a week, with the crew fishing 24 hours a day. Previous trips have been anything
‘Perhaps if the government realised the importance of the fishing industry, they would fight for us a bit more’
up to eight or nine days at sea, but Peter prefers to land the fish earlier whenever possible. ‘The fresher the fish, the better the price although a lot depends on supply and demand. When we’re out on the boat, the crew really like eating freshly caught fish, there’s nothing quite like it.’
On this particular trip, thanks to the high pressure over the North Sea, Peter is enjoying calm seas and the plentiful wildlife. ‘We get a lot of seagulls and gannets diving at our nets for the smaller fish that slip through. In general we like to see the birds about the boat, they’re usually not a pest unless we’ve just cleaned the boat and they make a mess. We often see dolphins inshore as we steam off from Peterhead and occasionally an orca or other kinds of whales – they’re lovely to watch.’
Although the Peterhead fishing fleet of 30 boats is a third of what it was when Peter started fishing, the Peterhead fish market is flourishing. Over £130m worth of fish was landed last year and this figure is likely to be even higher for 2016. And with the possibility of the UK reclaiming its territorial fishing waters, Peter is hoping
‘We like to see the seagulls and gannets about the boat, they’re generally not a pest unless we’ve just cleaned the boat’
for a resurgence in Scotland’s fishing industry. This is good news for his young first mate Ryan Cordiner, one of the skippers of the future. Both of Peter’s children have chosen careers in education so it will be up to future generations to pick up the Bruce family fishing mantle.
The final word should be left to Gareth, the land-lubber whose first experience of seafaring was a week on the Budding Rose. ‘These guys work in an utterly brutal environment,’ he says. ‘We had relatively benign weather for a week, so I can’t imagine what it’s like when it gets choppy, very dangerous is probably the answer. Having seen these guys at first hand, I have so much admiration for the job they do.’