The fishing vessel Amanda Jane was sold earlier this year, and now the final remaining boat in Alderney, the Katie C, has also been sold and was delivered to new owners in Belgium in the past two weeks. Alderney now has no full-time large boats.
Local angler David Nash said it was a tragedy for the island.
‘When I first moved here in the late 1960s there were at least a dozen crabbing and fishing boats,’ he said.
‘There are still one or two people going out part-time but that’s it.
‘The octopus situation has hit them hard, and in general fishing has been poor. We have had shoals of tuna offshore which they can’t touch and they, along with seals, have decimated fish stocks. At the angling festival there was only one or two mackerel of decent size, no pollock and no mullet.’
He said the start of the end for the local fishing industry was when a new pontoon for visitors was installed in 2023, which meant the fishermen were forced to give up their traditional mooring rights.
‘They were loading half a tonne of bait a day by rope and bucket,’ he said.
‘They felt very let down by the States.’
Tracey Farquhar-Beck, director at The Blonde Hedgehog, one of the island’s premier hotels, said the end to commercial fishing would have an impact on local businesses. ‘It’s such a great shame for the island,’ she said.
‘We are trying to promote sustainability and if you are on an island like ours how can you do that without local fishermen? I just hope there is some way back.’
Stuart Clark, the chairman of Alderney’s Economic Development Committee, refused to comment, saying he was very busy.
But fellow States member Alex Snowdon said it was a sad day as fishing was in Alderney’s blood.
‘It is concerning for all the Channel Islands to see this knowledge and experience disappearing across what is such an important industry for a seaside community,’ he said. ‘I hope we find ways, not just here but across the Channel Islands, to support the industry in the future.’
There are fears in Guernsey that the demise of Alderney’s fishing fleet will herald a similar situation.
The most recent figures for Guernsey’s fleet, from 2024, showed 115 local boats under 10m, down from 159 in 2014, and four vessels over 10m down from seven a decade ago.
Retired fisherman Richard Keen said this year’s statistics will paint a very bleak picture.
‘Of the four crabbers over 10m, two have been sold and one is for sale and not fishing,’ he said. ‘The last isn’t fishing in Guernsey waters but is 150 miles away.’
He warned that Guernsey appeared to be heading in the same direction as Alderney.
‘It is a sad state of affairs but there does not seem to be a lot we can do. You don’t like to blame one thing, but it does appear to be mainly due to the influx of octopus. I saw a photo of a Jersey scallop trawler the other day and it was just full of octopus.’
He added that the situation with wet fish was also poor.
‘Local prices aren’t helping,’ he said. ‘If we had access to Brixham or France we could charge twice as much. Every time people go out to sea they lose money, it’s that bad.’
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