Bill Simpson is the latest character in a series of interviews undertaken to get an insight into the lives of people who work on or even in the Firth of Forth. People who spend their lives on boats, diving, fishing or undertaking contract work, many of whom have incredible long term knowledge of the local marine environment.
Bill and his crew were recently contracted by Restoration Forth to transport 30 oyster enthusiasts plus the first few thousand native oysters for release onto the sea bed during this 3 year 30,000 oyster project. Their enthusiasm for re-introducing oysters after over 100 years was as great as the participants.
Karen Chambers and I stepped down the ramp onto MV Conserver, an 18-metre Hydrographic Survey Vessel, one of two boats operated by Seahunter Marine (https://www.seahunter-marine.co.uk/). We found Bill on board with his crew planning some repair work and sat in the cockpit for a couple of hours talking about his experience of working in and on the Firth of Forth for the last 50 years. Starting off as a recreational diver, Bill and a friend got into salvage work, eventually buying up wrecks and investing £600 in their first boat – a rebuilt wreck. In the 1970s they secured contract work with the Lighthouse Board transporting lighthouse attendants to Inchkeith, Inchcolm and Oxcars. They now take out angling parties, dive to salvage fishing equipment and inspect sewage outfalls, transport Historic Environment Scotland staff out to Inchcolm to welcome visitors sailing from the South Queensferry boat trips and more recently crab and lobster fishing and running private trips to scatter ashes.
There has been massive change in how things are done in the Firth of Forth since the start of his business in terms of Health and Safety and licensing. Bill recounts contractors dumping rocks from dredged material in piles to create lobster habitat where they would subsequently fish and being allowed to use 10lbs of explosive in his salvage work – no questions asked… GPS has made a huge difference where previously locations of wrecks and best places for lobsters etc depended entirely on expert interpretation of landmarks known as ‘mizzies’
He said that anglers were catching 10 lb cod and pollack off his boat in the 1970s – now the only interest in angling is when the mackerel come in. He said that lobsters while larger than those found East of North Berwick are becoming smaller and there is only one place remaining where ‘clappy doos’ 1 can be found and which form critically important habitat. There is no interest in them – they used to send 2 boxes to Glasgow Barras each week. Bill has noted a lack of sand eels which are a critical food source for breeding birds including kittiwakes and puffins and said that puffins are trying to eat ‘those hard worms’ – possibly a reference to pipe fish which can choke young birds and are not nutritious. In terms of fishing pressure – ‘Fishermen have always been competitive by nature – try to catch it before anyone else’.
Bill reckons that dolphins, porpoises and whales were seen with the same frequency as now. They regularly saw a lone dolphin at Inchcolm which the ship’s dog – a Labrador called Sasha regarded as a friend. Bill was planning to dive with the dolphin but after watching it tossing a porpoise in the air decided against trying to make friends.
Several years ago he ‘borrowed’ a book – Society of Free Fishermen of Newhaven In Memorial published in 1951 documenting the final demise of the oyster in the Firth of Forth and realised the tremendous significance of this loss. Bill is keen to continue supporting the work of Restoration Forth.
Leonie Alexander & Karen Chambers
September 2023
1 Clappy or clabby doos are large mussels – usually horse mussels Modiolus modiolus. The name is derived from the Gaelic words “clab” meaning an enormous mouth and “dubh” which means black or dark.