Director

Darren has been an owner/skipper for 30 years. He has a long family heritage of fishing, which spans back many generations. He began his fishing career straight from school and has never looked back. The skills and experience gained enabled him to broaden his career to skippering tugs and being barge master on cable laying vessels. His maritime experience has taken him around the world. These days Darren fishes out of Plymouth. He is owner/skipper of two vessels and is also a fleet manager. Darren will be seeking ways in which the PFSA can help ease the complex bureaucracy faced by fishers and help them overcome the many challenges they experience.

Director

Adrian began fishing in 1986, starting as a deckhand then working his way up to skipper on crabbing boats or potters. Adrian has fished for Edible brown crabs, native lobster and other shellfish all around the UK coast but mainly built his crabbing career in the English Channel in the tidal waters North of Alderney (Channel Islands). After working in the industry for 28 years and being passionate about the UK Seafish Industry, he took the opportunity to share his knowledge and passion with the UK public and chefs though Crabstock, demonstrating how good UK Shellfish is to eat and how easy it is to prepare. Adrian is also vice chair of Fishing into the Future, delivers health and safety and safety awareness training, is an associate Marine lecturer South Devon College and a Director of Ecomotus which offers an innovative solution to helping to reduce carbon emissions and deliver fuel efficiencies for fishing vessels.

Director

Im a first generation fisherman originally from Cornwall but now live in Plymouth and have always fished out of Plymouth. Ive been fishing for over 15 years now. I started crewing on a crabber and then moved on to trawling. I then bought my first boat (a trawler) at the age of 28 which I kept for 3 year. I then bought another trawler/scalloper which I kept for 3 years and recently sold. I’m currently working a modern 14m multi task boat for north Devon trawlers

Director

Alison is a Fisheries Programme Manager at the Fishmongers’ Company. Alison manages a wide range of charitable projects and grants across the breadth of the fisheries sector in the UK and UK Overseas Territories. Alison works in collaboration with industry, government, academia, non-governmental and is guided by the principles of ‘co-management’. Alison co-founded the Fisheries Industry Science (FISP) Network, which supports the fishing industry to develop research and access funding, and was responsible for developing the COVID Rapid Response Grant Programme and Master Fishmonger Standard.

Director

I have been involved with fishing most of my life with my father and brother both fishing full time for several years. I worked on my brother's trawler for several years , skippering for one of those, before spending time at sea on beam trawlers working from Plymouth. This path led me to fish buying for a Spanish export firm at Looe, Newlyn, Plymouth, and Brixham. In 1993 I created RG Seafoods retailing and wholesaling all seafoods slowly expanding. In 2017 we took residence at Plymouth fish market ,which is our principle source of fresh fish, expanding again in 2021 moving to our current site. We now supply Mid Counties Co-Op, along with local catering establishments and send fish nationally daily.

Director

Graeme has been in the fishing industry for 40 years. He began his career beam trawling and then stern trawling. He bought his first fishing vessel when only 23 years old. For the past 30 years he has owned and skippered fishing vessels focussing on netting. He was one of the founding directors of Sole of Discretion Community Interest Company. Graeme is keen that the Plymouth Fishing and Seafood Association CIC should help give the unrepresented – who are the majority - in the fishing industry a voice and enable Plymouth to prosper as a sustainable fishing port.

Director

I have been fishing since I left school at 15 years old, in 1990. I joined my father also David. I started work on our family vessel the crystal sea SS 118. By 19 I was filling in for my Dad and skippering the boat, working with my brother Alec. We fish out of Newlyn in Cornwall but our vessel is registered to St ives as that was where our fishing history started. My brother and I have worked 4 crystal sea's,which and our current crystal sea, was built for us by Macduff shipyards in 2020. She is a 25 metrer twin rig trawler, we work west of the lizard point all year long, out beyond the Isles of scillies. So we need a larger vessel, to cope with the far bigger swell we encounter west. We land our fish weekly into Newlyn but we always send our fish to be sold up to Plymouth trawler agents. As part of our job, we regularly participate in collaborative work with scientists, to help us understand our fisheries further, and are always looking to ask the questions of management that need answering. We use REM equipment onboard and have done for many years, as it is autominus and is the most effective way to gather large amounts of data.

CEO

Edward was formerly the Principal Fisheries Manager for quota management at the Marine Management Organisation. He joined the MMO 8 years ago as a Marine Officer, working in Plymouth, Brixham and Newlyn and has excellent local knowledge as well as a broad understanding of UK fisheries and environmental conservation. In previous roles Edward has worked on board a trawler in the Channel Islands, as a Fisheries Observer in New Zealand, a Marine Mammal Scientist on board seismic survey vessels, as a yacht skipper teaching cadets to sail, and as an Environmental Protection Officer, Coastguard and Port Control radio operator in Jersey. “Working for PFSA gives me the opportunity to work more closely with the fishermen and organisations whose livelihoods depend on the sea. I am excited and grateful to be able to play a part in the creation of sustainable fisheries that will be there for all generations to come.”