An outline of steps taken to support the fisher community here at Weyfish by Sean Cooper.
“Week Commencing 16th March Bob and I invited all the local Weymouth harbour boats who regularly land to us to attend a meeting where we outlined Weyfish’s plans and intentions in regard to the early signs of the Pandemic. We explained the following.
- Weyfish will continue to trade as 7 days a week through the crisis
- We consider Weyfish to be an Essential Business, under the governments definition, supplying our local community and vulnerable residents with vital supplies
- We consider our continued trade to be essential in supporting the Fisher community, most of whom at the time seemed to be overlooked by government announced support programmes
- We outlined how we would take everything the fishermen caught and if we had to send any surplus to market we would do this as a free service providing storage, ice and transport free of charge
- We outlined how we would communicate more closely as to what species were in demand so Fishers could target catch more specifically
- We suggested a responsible approach to returning one armed crab and lobster to the sea as well as species such as skate where by catch meant we would have surplus
- We promised to maintain prices
- We promised to support other fish buyers by agreeing to sell on catch at cost to help their businesses
- We undertook to buy Scallops and Oysters from Weymouth waters helping to keep local fisheries going
- We undertook to develop a broader marketplace by
- Securing a retail outlet in Dorchester
- Introducing home deliveries within DT1, 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 postcodes
- Providing a weekly delivery service to 2 vulnerable communities in surrey
Today we are seeing customer interest and uptake at levels above our expectation and as such we would like to extend our support of the fisher community beyond Weymouth and Portland. I would be very grateful if you could circulate our offer of support to the flag board and other fisher contacts from further across your catchment areas. We are keen to see larger sized fish of the following species.
- Turbot
- Brill
- Plaice
- Red Mullet
- Huss
- Pollack (line caught)
- Black Bream
- Gilt Head Bream
- Dover Soles
We are seeing plenty of the following which would mean we cant take anymore supply.
- Skate
- Bass
- Crab
- Lobster
- Grey Mullet”
Sean is happy to take calls
Tel: 01305 761277| Web: www.weyfish.com
