It’s sunset on Hastings Stade and fishing boat RX38 heads off into the night to begin its work.

The crew of the boat is plying the same trade as those ancestors who worked the same waters before the Norman Invasion. Sea fishing is so intrinsic to Hastings that its hard to imagine how the town would be without it. The plight facing local fishermen is well explained in The Last Fishermen, a film made by Greenpeace.

The film was released in 2012, and since then there have been changes made to the Common Fisheries Policy relating to discards and the creation of 27 Marine Conservation Zones. Lets hope that these begin help the Hastings fishermen to keep their work financially sustainable. Otherwise the whole of the industry will slip quietly into the night and become just a memory.

You can view larger images of these photos on my Flickr page by clicking on them.