Dorset fishermen risking their lives in icy waters (From Bournemouth Echo)

Dorset fishermen risking their lives in icy waters

8:30am Friday 8th January 2010 in

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“MEN can die out there quite easily.”

If you think you’re cold just imagine being one of Dorset’s fishermen.

Chris Mowlem yesterday arrived at his boat around 5.30am as temperatures reached minus 5C.

He had to scrape the ice off the inside of the cabin but said most Poole crews are still fishing.

“Your clothes get icy but it’s the wind chill that you feel when you are at sea,” he said. “You do need extra motivation to get up in the morning!”

He gets drenched in water as the lobster and crab pots fly up their lines and out of the sea.

The water temperature is not really affected by cold air. The coastguard said the water is 9.6C in the channel, about average for the time of year.

There are upsides to the cold weather; even the angriest crabs are docile, and you don’t need to ice the fish to keep it fresh.

Chris said even this weather is “not too bad” as long as you keep on working and moving around.

“Back in around 1983 or ‘84, we had waves coming over that were freezing as they hit the deck,” he said. “We put the crabs in the bin and they just froze solid.”

Whelk fisherman Chris Veasey, 47, arrived at Poole Quay at 4.25pm yesterday after 10 hours at sea.

He said: “This is the best time of year for whelks – the colder the better!

“The wind at sea is much stronger than here. It’s about 20-25mph.

“When the water gets on your face it can get so cold you can’t feel your jaw. In the morning the boat was like an ice rink but it’s alright as long as you keep busy.

“It was about this cold in February last year. It was minus 6C.”

The catch was taken away in a van with the refrigerator turned up to try and keep the whelks warm enough to stay alive until they could reach Selsey in West Sussex.

Retired fisherman Don Goodwin, 68, from Swanage, said he remembered even worse bad winters in 1963 and 1974 or ’75.

“Men can die out there quite easily,” he said.

“You just put your hand in the water for five minutes and see what happens. You won’t have no hand left.

“Everything becomes more difficult. Your boots stick to the deck. If you are rowing you have to keep knocking ice off the oars.

“The cold drives the fish out the harbour. They are stiff as a board by the time you get home, and you have a big red face.”

He added: “They used to call me ‘10 Jumpers’ when it was cold.

“And I reckon you’d need about 10 jumpers out there at the moment!”

The cold weather makes life uncomfortable but unlike the wind it doesn’t normally keep people in harbour.

Charter fisherman Peter Gough, 64, from Corfe Mullen, said his biggest problem is that the icy roads stop drivers actually making it here.

Peter, who yesterday had to sit it out in Poole’s Fisherman Café, said: “We have around 35 charter boats operating, and lots of B&Bs that need customers to support them.”