Cornish Sardines in at number 40!

After several years of painstaking research and development by catchers and producers alike, Cornwall's sardine fishermen can now land and sell their unique product with the same PDO protection as Arbroath Smokies and a host of other well known brands like Wenslydale Cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese, Parma Ham, Burgundy, and Port. Cornish Sardines are the 40th such product to have been granted PDO status in the UK

Cornish Sardines are mainly caught by a small fleet of boats in Newlyn and Mevagissey using ring nets. See the full story here from the BBC or visit the Sardine Management Association's site. The Pilchard Works web site give a useful background to the story of sardine fishing including recordings of fishermen from St Ives and the ports along the south east Cornish coast like Mevagissey.

Hopefully, a spell of more settled weather will see the elusive fish return to the inshore waters of Cornwall. In recent weeks the severe winter storms have pushed the sardine shoals further offshore than the fleet of small inshore vessels are safely able to fish.