Archie started fishing in 1952. His great grandfather, grandfather and father were all fishermen as well as his son and grandson. So, fishing for the Johnstons is very much a family generational thing.
His grandfather, who he lived with, fished for oysters. He remembers they were mostly sold to the French and Spaniards. The oyster beds started just west of Cockenzie harbour and went all the way to Newhaven. He believes they may have been killed by pollution. They sold them by the barrel and, to cheat the buyers, used add mud and shingle. There were also spats in the barrels, so the foreigners apparently took them too and used them to start their own oyster beds. They only fished for them in October, as they knew they were seeding in the summer.
But when Archie started there were really only white fish and prawns left. And now there is very little to be harvested apart from clams and lobsters, which are still relatively plentiful. Shellfish probably do better nowadays because the water is warmer than it used to be. However there are few crabs – this isn’t due to over fishing as they are only fished in the winter, but he believes pollution is the probable cause, as they spawn in the sand. Small cod often turn up in the crab pots.
He gets lots of clams in his nets ‘coodies and ‘queenies,’ but no one wants them as they are covered in barnacles.
Apparently some of the big 25 year old prawns in the Kinghorn area are also barnacled. He said that he had heard there are no barnacles on the oysters in the Beauly Firth as it has fresher water and lower salinity.
He remembers how you used to be able to walk out for miles on mussels – now there are none. However, at the end of September you can find lots of small ones attached to the lobster creel strings and on the bottom of stationary boats. He couldn’t account for this.
The locals believe that their mussels disappeared because they got drawn into the Cockenzie power station pipes and poisoned by the chemicals used periodically to flush out the pipes. Lobsters used to be kept in their creels just outside Port Seton harbour waiting for the next pick up but started dying. Everyone knew it was the same chemicals ‘but no official would admit this’.
There used to be big clappy doos right out into the middle of the Forth, but hardly any are trawled up now. 4 years ago there were lots of big buckies (whelks), which crawled into submerged plastic drums and even into the lobster pots. He believes it is a 4 year cycle and expects to see more soon.
The few haddock remaining are very thin and have “these warty things” on their gills. [1] Archie thinks it could be cancer, however “Scientists know but won’t tell you anything”.
Sand eels are plentiful, you can see the ‘maps’ they make on the seabed and he has seen great collections of birds diving for them.
Sewage is a problem in relation to water quality, but it’s better than it used to be. He understands that the cruise ships off-load into smaller boats which then dump where Gardy Loo used to dump – off St Abbs and the other side of the Isle of May. There are no fish at all there, only wee flounders on the bottom that are covered in warts, but there do seem to be a lot of fish at the end of the North Berwick long sea outfall.
In 1990 he decided to give up trawling and start farming mussels on ropes but was forbidden by Aberdeen University due to the contaminants in the Forth. He reckoned they could be cleansed with 24hours of ultra-violet exposure, but this wasn’t allowed.
Hardly any local boats go out these days – maybe 10% compared with the ones that went out 50 years ago and his son and grandson fish further north rather than in the Forth. (His son has now given up). They often take their fish down to Eyemouth. One issue for Scottish fishing generally is not being able to get local crews. The larger ships all have crews from overseas.
‘People are trying to stop trawling but people are always trying to stop things. It’s not heavy trawling anyway, just small boats with small engines going out of Port Seton harbour.’
He never sees any dredging in his bit of the Forth because there is a big 50 fathom ‘trink’ all down the middle in this part of it.
Generally Archie felt bringing back seagrass and oysters could be a positive thing for the Forth and said he had been heartened to hear recently about Stranraer’s sustainable management of a native oyster fishery.
KAREN CHAMBERS
OCTOBER 2023
[1] These could be parasites – perhaps flukes or copepods
