Fishing News Awards 2025: Nomination countdown is on!

The countdown is now on to this year’s Fishing News Awards, with nominations closing on 10 February. Who do you want to see honoured at this year’s awards?

The only awards event dedicated to recognising achievement, innovation and success in the UK and Irish commercial fishing industry, the Fishing News Awards will make awards in 12 categories this year.

All nominations need to be received by midnight on Monday, 10 February – so get those names in now! You can nominate a colleague, a friend, a family member – or indeed yourself.

Shortlists will then be drawn up before voting opens for eight of the categories: Over 10m Fisherman of the Year, Under 10m Fisherman of the Year, Young Fisherman of the Year, Trainee Fisherman of the Year, Service Provider of the Year, Initiative of the Year, Technical Innovation of the Year and Fish and Chip Shop of the Year.

A panel of judges from the fishing industry will decide the winners of the remaining four categories: Over 15m Boat of the Year, Under 15m Boat of the Year, the Sustainability Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The winners will be revealed at our gala awards evening on 7 May. Featuring a bespoke three-course seafood meal and entertainment from top comedian Ed Byrne, this will again take place at the prestigious Chester Hotel in Aberdeen.

To put forward your nominations, click here.

CATCH UP WITH LAST YEAR’S WINNERS

Jim Cowie: 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award

” I was as gobsmacked as anybody could ever be. I knew nothing about it,” Jim Cowie, recipient of last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, told Fishing News.

From starting out selling, marketing and merchanting fish to, in his fifties, becoming a successful restaurateur, Jim’s career has spanned a range of sectors and more than five decades. Today, he hosts the Seafood Matters podcast series – as well as contributing to FN.

“It’s a lovely industry, and the Fishing News Awards was a lovely occasion. The evening was very emotional. My son helps me out with the podcast, and he wanted some photographs from the event. He went on the FN website and found some images. He phoned me up and said: ‘Dad, I’ve found some photos – but you look awful sad.’ I told him: ‘You realise I was completely gobsmacked – I was in tears.’

“In the end, he used AI to put a smile on my face. I thought to myself that the old fogey has been outdone by modern technology!”

For 75-year-old Jim, the year ahead looks no less busy – starting off with the latest podcast, published on 3 January.

“This episode is something very different and really exciting. John Goodlad made a speech at the Orkney Science Festival last year. He discussed fishing, fishermen, environmentalists, NGOs – we’ve put that speech out in our latest podcast.”

Seafood Matters can be listened to on all the main podcast networks, or here.

James Spencer: 2024 Over 10m Fisherman of the Year

For James Spencer, who skippers the scalloper Sylvia Bowers DS 8, last year’s triumph in the Over 10m Fisherman of the Year category followed on from him being named Shellfish Fisherman of the Year in 2018 – with both trophies now proudly on display in his living room.

“It was a buzz to have been nominated again last year. It was a good experience, and it was nice to have been nominated, and to have people vote for you – it shows you must be doing something right,” he told FN.

Since his latest win, ‘it has been very much a case of business as usual’, he said. “We’ve been sticking to the usual fishing patterns. Fishing was a bit slow through the middle of the year, but picked up during the latter part – and the last two or three months were very good down the eastern end of the Channel out of Shoreham.”

James, who has been fishing for more than four decades, the majority of which has been spent onboard the Sylvia Bowers, said that the award was recognition of both his vessel and his crew.

“A lot of my colleagues attended the ceremony, my bosses were there – and the whole of my family was there. It was a good night – a very good night.”

Find out more about the Fishing News Awards here.