Since Britain joined the European Economic Community in the mid-1970s, the fishing industry along our coasts has been under pressure from overfishing. Mike Smylie takes us on a tour of England’s south coast, taking us to harbours that you could once walk over on the hundreds of fishing boats to coastal inlets where the herring once shoaled. Each area of the coast had its unique boats, built for local conditions, as well as methods of catching the fish.

Mike Smylie, shows us the fishermen and women on shore and at sea, their boats, the harbours and tells us of the methods used to catch the fish. He also documents the changes and the decline of the industry, from the times when it once employed hundreds of thousands. Covering the South Coast and English Channel, Mike Smylie brings the pilchard and herring industries to life, as well as looking at the unique fishing boats to be found in Kent and Sussex.