Over 200 Cornish children benefit from hands on experience of Cornwall’s fishing sector

Thu 1st December 2011

The Net to Plate funded tours, organised and coordinated by Seafood Cornwall Training, included a range of activities such as: visiting Newlyn Fish Market and harbour; climbing aboard and exploring the RNLI Penlee Lifeboat whilst learning about safety at sea; visiting W. Harvey’s and Sons shellfish tanks where the students enjoyed looking at and touching all the different species of shellfish native to Cornwall; and a tour of the Fisheries Protection vessel.  Many of the visits finished with a tasty and sustainable fish and chip lunch on Newlyn Green or breakfast at the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen. 

Mark Greet, Falfish Managing Director and sponsor of the Net to Plate project, commented, "It's really great to see the children enjoy learning about the fishing industry and Newlyn harbour.  I am pleased to be able to support this project which encourages Cornwall's school children to come and see what really goes on in the county's fishing industry.  Who knows, some of them may be the fishermen, filleters or chefs of tomorrow, as well as consumers."

Sarah Crosbie, Manager of Seafood Cornwall Training, explained, "Bringing children to Newlyn from Cornish schools means they can see, feel and breathe the fishing industry, a key part of Cornwall's heritage and economic future.  We adapt each visit to suit the children's ages and needs and if past visits are anything to go by, it's something the children will never forget.  Thanks to the support received from Falfish these visits were offered free of charge and we are seeking further funding to continue this worthwhile initiative."

Bryony Bates, the Advanced Skills Teacher for Food Technology at Cape Cornwall School enthused, “this was a really good learning experience for my catering GCS students aged 15 to16 and provided supporting knowledge for the curriculum.  I would really recommend this to other secondary schools as the students learnt such a lot.  After the trip we continued with fish cookery at school and the students made fish h'orderves.  We have also just won a Taste of the West School local produce award and as part of the application I included information about this trip to Newlyn.”