Barry Brunton
"If the scientists and policymakers spent one week on our boats, the rules would look very different."
Location: Dunbar
Job: Owner-operator, Cygnus 21 Creel boat
Barry Brunton has spent nearly his entire life at sea. A Dunbar native and proud fisherman, he comes from a long family line of seafarers, though he's now the last Brunton still working the water.
"I started 'One Man on His Boat' to show what it's really like out here," he says. "The public doesn't always get to see the graft, the struggle, and the sheer determination it takes just to make a wage."
After decades working trawlers and creel boats, Barry downsized to a single-handed Cygnus 21 a few years ago. Rising costs and difficulty in retaining crew left him no choice. "You'd train someone up, but they didn't want to work weekends or early mornings. This job's a lifestyle, not a nine-to-five."
The transition hasn't been easy. "It's taken three years just to get to the point where I'm earning a proper wage again," he admits. "Every penny's gone back into the business."
But Barry's biggest concern isn't gear or weather, it's the creeping squeeze on fishing grounds. "There are fewer boats now than ever before. And still we're told to fish in less space."
He's seen changes already, fewer hauls, strange catch patterns, even abnormal lobsters appearing after nearby wind farms became active. "That's not coincidence," he says.
Barry's frustration runs deeper than regulations alone. "The policymakers listen to the scientists, but they never listen to the fishermen who actually work the ground," he explains. "I for one have never seen a scientist work our south east coast of Scotland."
What worries him most is the cascading effect of losing boats. "The key issue is this: take the boats away, and every other industry relying on those boats disappears too. The processors, the fish shops, the engineers, the sparkies, the boat builders, the welders - a good few jobs will be lost from the area where fishing boats operate. And just like fishing, once they're gone, they're gone for good."
He's witnessing it firsthand. "We're seeing this contraction of the loss of industry in every fishing harbour and port throughout the UK. I know it sounds dramatic, but that's the reality of losing our fishing industry."
Still, he finds joy in his independence and pride in what he's built. "It's hard graft, but it's real. If I can inspire just one young person to think, 'I could do this too,' then that's something."
His message to decision-makers is simple: "Come see for yourself. Spend a week on a boat. Then tell us it's not worth protecting."
