A Day In The Life Of: Maryport fisherman Shaun Humphreys

“The last five years have given me a new lease of life,” Maryport-based fisherman and owner of quayside fish sales business Chelaris Fresh Fish, Shaun Humphreys (pictured above in the centre), told Fishing News.

“I’ve been fishing all my life. I was getting a bit fed up with it all – the same old stuff, and not knowing what prices you were going to get – but now I love it.”

Fifty-two-year-old Shaun’s career started at a young age, fishing with his great-uncle. “I started going out with him when I was really young. I was out on trawlers long before I left school.”

On leaving school, Shaun’s career as a professional fisherman began – and by the 1990s he was skippering his own vessels. Fishing out of Maryport, targeting seasonal mixed flatfish, Nephrops and scallops, Shaun is now on his third vessel, Chelaris MT 23 – with his brother Wayne and son Cameron crewing.

The Covid pandemic of 2020 led to the vessel’s name also becoming familiar with the people of Maryport, helping Shaun to rekindle his passion for fishing in the process.

“Covid hit, and we were stuck indoors like everybody else for a couple of months. With
the markets closed, we thought, right, let’s put something on Facebook and see what kind of interest we get.”

As a result, in the summer of 2020 Chelaris Fresh Fish was born, with the aim of selling part of Shaun’s catch direct from the quayside.

“As soon as we created the Facebook page, we started getting orders. It changed our fishing patterns completely.

We don’t tend to put as much time in at sea now. We’re still busy, with one or two landings a week, but before Covid, we were coming in, landing, and then back out on the same tide. Now, we have 24 hours off before we go back out.”

The Chelaris coming in to land. “It’s now about quality, rather than quantity,” said Shaun, who also supplies local wet fish shops, restaurants and chefs – including Michelin-starred Richard Swale and Ben Queen- Fryer. “I met Ben during Covid. He came down to the quay to see how we did things. I explained the way we work – that we don’t take orders, and can only catch what we can catch – and he thought it was brilliant. He’s bought off us ever since.”

The move to selling on the quayside has also had an impact on Shaun’s typical day, with him taking on a range of new responsibilities.

“Twenty-four hours before we come in, we’ll decide on what time we’re going to land. We’ve got signs around the quay, and one up in the town, where it will be written what time the boat is due in, and what time we’re going to sell.

“My long-term partner Leanne runs the fish sale side of things. She’ll also post the information on our Facebook page, so people know what time the boat will be in, and what time the sale will start.”

With word getting around, Shaun begins to prepare for the day’s sale. “People tend to start queuing around an hour and a half before we start. Those who want, say, the big turbots or the big lobsters get there early.

“When we come in, it’s then just a matter of landing the catch. One of my crew is on the quay while we’re landing, and he’ll know which boxes to put to one side. We always keep the last day’s langoustine to sell on the quay. That will get pulled to one side, along with all the fish.”

With the best langoustine kept aside for quayside customers, Shaun prepares the rest for collection.

“The majority of the langoustine we catch goes away. We normally sell around 10 boxes on the quayside. Sometimes we’re landing around 50 boxes at a time, so we’ll put them in the chiller for collection. They’ll go to Prestwick, where they’ll get processed and shipped to Spain.”

Once the sale is underway, and with Leanne looking after the customers, Shaun’s job is to ensure everything runs smoothly. “My brother will bag the fish up for the customers, whilst me and my son will look after anything else – like making sure everything is iced, and any wings have been skinned.

“If we’ve sold out of something, I also walk down the quay and tell the people queuing that we’ve run out. I don’t want anybody standing there for an hour expecting something, but there’s none left.”

The business has gone from strength to strength, and has built up a strong customer base. “The people who are willing to come down and stand on the quay – they’re my priority. If people are willing to stand down here for one or two hours to buy some fish, then they’re going to get first pick of the catch.”

After two to three hours, and with the sale complete, Shaun moves on to his end-of-day tasks. “We’ll box up whatever is left, so rather than having everything spread out in different boxes, we’ll put things together – like all the different-size brills into one box – that will then go in the chiller ready to go off to Fleetwood market.”

With another successful sale over, and no need to immediately get back to sea, Shaun can enjoy some time off. And the move to quayside selling hasn’t just altered his fishing patterns.

“It’s changed me a lot. When my sister-in-law found out we were selling from the quay, she texted me – and the only thing she said was: ‘Be nice.’

“We’ve built up a really good following. It’s a bit surprising – because I wasn’t that type of person. I could be a bit abrupt, I kept myself to myself – I’m just a fisherman, and I’d never dealt with the public before.

“I used to come in, land the fish, and then go back out and do the same again. You’d hardly see anybody for weeks on end.

“Now, I get to meet loads and loads of lovely people.”

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.

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