I’ve loved the sea and seafood all my life. My father instilled in me a deep-seated passion for the shallow seas of our coastline and all that dwelt therein. As a boy I marvelled at the indigenous flora and fauna of the intertidal zone and as I grew, I acquainted myself with the practices and skills of the inshore fisherman. Lobstering, long-lining for bull-headed cod and thorny roker and hooking (rod and line fishing) for whiting, dabs, bass and pouting.

I quickly learned the ways and phraseology of the old boatmen. Summer after summer spent on the beach in a sun-soaked idyll where time and tide were the masters and highly varnished clinker motorboats ran trips round the bay, red ensigns fluttering in the breeze of high water.

This was my domain. I must have been baptised in salt water as some 40-odd years later the pull of the sea is ever-strong. It is now my mission to revisit my old haunts, to practice once again the ways of the fisherman and to observe, record and promote an industry that is now sadly a shadow of its former self and aim to preserve its heritage.

But let’s not be downbeat. Our waters still harbour some of the richest and most prolific stocks in the Northern Hemisphere. Yes, they must be fished sustainably and responsibly, but to appreciate them we need to relearn and reclaim what Keith Floyd called ‘the nerve of our Grandparents’ when eating seafood. This blog embodies just that: seafood served simply and naturally to exemplify its flavour and to celebrate its provenance.

Enjoy the journey with me.

Mike Warner

October 2019