Notes on the Cromer crabbing industry, Norfolk:
Fishermen use small boats to go crabbing, small family businesses. a dying trade. not enough money in it. too hard, early mornings, rough seas. An apprenticeship scheme in Cromer was scrapped after every single trainee failed to last in the job, so the lady (mum and wife) dressing the crabs in the fish shop says. only 10 cromer crab fisherman left.
Place plays a crucial role in well being, providing people with a purpose and meaning in their lives (Relph 1976). But helplessness is also associated with dependency on rootedness. Occupational attachment maybe a barrier to forms of adaptation (Marshall et al 2012). /distinctive fishing boats- sense of place. / how to adapt/ evolve the industry.
velvet crab abundant 2004-2006, and mostly exported (no demand here). Jon (fisherman at cromer) ‘i thought they (velvet crab) were gunna take over the browncrab fishery. That was really hard work cos they all go live and have to be handled really quickly and we didnt really have the set up here to do it properly anyway. But they went south and they ended up on the Dover beach, thank god.’ / Jim (fisherman) ‘What did us no favours is the Wells boat. When they cleared up (the whelks), they turned over to crab. Thats all the crabs from here go out to the race bank towards the wash and spawn. Thats what keeps our fishery going. I think that had a big effect'. / Currently significant scientific uncertainty in stock assessments for the Norfolk crab fishery. / The scope of European and UK marine governance has now been expanded with fisherman now having to compete for space with Marine Conservation Zones and offshore wind energy developments.
