Information about the BBC1 Programme Trawlermen which followed the crew of several Peterhead, Aberdeenshire fishing skippers and their crew like Jimmy Buchan of the Amity II:

In 2006 BBC1 had a surprise hit with a documentary about several trawlermen crews and their trawlers. The first series had five episodes of thirty minutes in length. Each episode of Trawlermen was narrated by the Scottish actor Peter Capaldi (Local Hero, The Thick Of It, Magicians, After Sun).

Buy series one of Trawlermen on DVD.

The Fishing Boats and Crew of the Trawlermen

The skipper of the 19 metre prawn boat the Amity II was Jimmy Buchan from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Jimmy has over 20 years in the fishing industry. The programme Trawlerman featured him fishing for prawns and fish in the North Sea, including the dangerous Devil’s Hole. Other scenes showed how his catch was sold at Peterhead fish market and where his fish ended up such as top hotels and restaurants throughout the world. Jimmy left school in 1986 and became a fisherman. His first boat was called the Amity which means friendly. A name that suits his jovial personality.

Another prawn trawler fishing boat that featured in Trawlermen was the Fruitful Bough, which is also a Peterhead registered ship. It is owned by a younger skipper called James West who is thought to have been the youngest fishing boat skipper in the British fishing fleet, though his family have been fisher folk for over a century. His two brothers, Robert (aged 24 years) and Andrew (aged 21 years) form part of his crew.

The Trawlermen TV series highlighted the dangers and hard work faced by modern day fishermen such as stormy weather, getting by on 2 hours sleep in 24 hours, filleting fish non stop for hours, having to make instant decisions such as having to cut loose a stuck fishing net on the seabed worth thousands of pounds, risks of being caught in machinery or washed overboard and getting lost at sea. It is not all as tranquil as the photograph of Peterhead Harbour on the left.

The Trawlermen documentary also featured the families of the skippers and their crew who have to get used to their husbands and fathers being away from home for weeks at end knowing the dangers they face.

Episode List of Trawlermen

1. Coming Home
2. Starting Out
3. The Edge
4. The Storm
5. The Great Prawn Hunt

There was some controversy in the first series of Trawlermen when the BBC screened several episodes with subtitles for English and non Scottish viewers because of the broad Doric and Broch dialects of some of the fishing crew.

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The Blue Toon

Trawlermen featured the Blue Toon in many episodes. The Blue Toon (sometimes called Bloo Toon) is the nickname for Peterhead. Many people think Peterhead is nicknamed the Blue Toon because as you enter the town (in the Doric dialect called Toon) you see rows and rows of houses with blue tiles on their roofs. However the real reason that Peterhead (Peterheid as it is called in Doric) is called the Bloo Toon is because in olden days of the fishing industry each fishing community had their own colour. Each fisherman from that community would wear a jumper of that colour so that they could be easily identified. This was most important if a man was washed overboard and his body could be identified when retrieved from the North Sea and traced back to his area by the colour of his jumper.

Fishing Boats Peterhead

The skippers of Trawlermen were so popular with BBC audiences and viewers that they starred in a special Trawlermen edition of Ready Steady Cook. The skippers cooked with fish ingredients and their fees for the programme went to a fishing charity.

Awards To Trawlermen

In January 2007 John Buchan, skipper of the Ocean Venture, won an award from Seafood Scotland in recognition for supplying UK fish and chip shops with top quality, responsibly caught fish. The award was part of the Fish and Chip Shop of the Year awards which Seafood Scotland sponsors. The award was presented to his son John Junior who skippers his vessel on alternate trips.

Series Two of Trawlermen

Series two of Trawlermen started filming in the winter of 2006 and finished in May 2007 and will be broadcast in the summer of 2007 on BBC One. For this 2nd series of Trawlermen the BBC will again be following the career and fishing trips of Jimmy Buchan and his AmityII crew. Episodes will show how Peterhead Port Authority celebrate Christmas and will feature the AmityII all lit up with Christmas lights and the harbour Christmas decorations.

The BBC television crew will be out and about in Peterhead and the Broch (Fraserburgh) and will follow the crews and skippers of the Ocean Venture, Ryanwood, Starlight, Starlight Rays and the Fruitful Bough. Trawlermen series 2 will be screened on BBC one at peak time for five more episodes in August 2007.

New skippers and crew for series 2 of Trawlermen include Willie Tait and his cousin Peter from Fraserburgh. His vessel is called the Chris Andra and the Trawlermen programme filmed its maiden voyage as part of the Pelagic Fleet. Willie Tait and his crew are followed by the BBC cameramen on his fishing boat's maiden voyage.

FruitfulHarvest

Other new fishing boat skippers include Alex Baird and James Thores (Starlight and Starlight Rays), Sandy Watt (Fruitful Harvest) and James Buchan (Renown) and crew members like Chris Ironside and Mark Innes of the trawler Renown and William Geddes, John Duncan-Campbell, Michael Cordiner and Alexander "Zander" Duncan of the Fruitful Harvest. There is a photo of the Fruitful Harvest to the left and further below. The cameramen follow the work of Sandy Watt whose main catch is haddock and Jimmy Buchan whose main catch is shellfish.

John Buchan (Ocean Venture) and Jimmy Buchan (Amity II) make a welcome return to series 2 of Trawlermen. If you thought the weather and fishing conditions in series one of Trawlermen was bad, in the second series of Trawlermen the skipper Jimmy Buchan and his crew battled a force nine gale. During this bad weather conditions the wind reached over 60mph whilst the waves reached a height of 30 feet. The crew and camera crew raced the storm and failed to win and this dramatic event was captured by the camermen.

The Producer of Trawlermen is Michael Houldey.

Fruitful Harvest

More Aberdeenshire TV Programmes.

Trawlermen Episode Guide

Each episode of Trawlermen is unnamed so the episodes below are numbered.

Series Two of Trawlermen:

Episode 1: Episode 1 of series Two of Trawlermen was originally broadcast on Monday 18 June 2007 at 7pm on BBC1. It once again featured John Buchan of the Ocean Venture trawler and Jimmy Buchan of the Amity II trawler. This episode of Trawlermen was filmed in January 2007 and the seas were rough with the winter weather and winds. John Buchan and his crew were already in the force 9 gales and storms and his crew bravely continued fishing rather than return to the safety of port without a catch. They encountered problems like their £30,000 nets being caught on the sea bed and at risk of damage and a computer problem that affected the trawler nets trawling straight. This lost them a day's fishing and Jimmy had to resign himself to returning to port to have the ship's computer fixed. However he woke the crew up for one last trawl in the hope of landing enough fish to pay for the fuel. He was glad he did because David the ship's engineer managed to fix the computer problem and rather than return to Peterhead port with only 10 boxes of fish they caught another 60 boxes in one haul. Though some were coley fish that would not secure a good price they continued fishing. However with the force9 gale blowing smoke would they still be able to fish?

The Ocean Venture had a new 1st mate for 2007, Barry Lauder, a Peterhead man who had just returned to the Blue Toon from working abroad in New Zealand. Together they were after catches of haddock and other fish.

Meanwhile Jimmy Buchan aboard the Amity had to make a decision as the skipper whether to risk the lives of his crew and head into the storm where he knew there would be a good haul of prawns. Jimmy talked it over with his first mate, the ever optimistic and jovial Irish man Kevin O'Donnell. They were hesitant and anxious to risk the crews life because recently the fishing boat The anstruther vessel Meridian (KY147) had been lost at sea during a violent storm on the 26 October 2006 whilst on oil well duty. There were brave 4 members of crew aboard and sadly all four souls were lost at lost. These were Martin Gardner, Ed Gardner, Ian Donald and Sid Lowe. Only one body was recovered and he had died by drowning. The others are still missing, presumed drowned.

But the recent cuts in the fishing quotas meant that the crew of the Amity could not afford to have their trawler sitting idle on a valuable fishing day.

Episode 2: The second episode of Trawlermen 2 was first shown on Tuesday 19 June at 7pm on BBC 1. It featured the Ocean Venture fishing during a force nine gale when its net chain worth £1500 was snagged 100 metres below sea level on some jagged rocks. If the net were to get lost the crew of Ocean Venture would loose £30,000. Morale was low and the crewmen looked really fed up. First Mate Barry Lauder managed to free the chain and haul in the net and crew member Tucker fixed the damaged net whilst Jonathan gutted the little catch which was mostly cod, haddock and monkfish. The ship's cook Michael Covey cooked a hearty fry up for the crew. The Skipper took the decision to travel near to Norway to try and get a better haul before the storm worsened. They got a better catch and this was seen when they took turns to kiss a fish, a huge cod.

Meanwhile The Amity (PD 177) headed to the ooze hole for prawns which prefer the jagged holes to hide in though it does make fishing difficult. They risked the incoming storms because when it is stormy at sea prices for their catch can be higher because restaurants and fish traders stock up and pay higher prices because they known for a few days or even a week the trawlermen will keep their trawlers safely in harbour until the storm ends. So the race was on to get home to Peterhead to the fish market whilst the catch was fresh. If left another day prices would drop for day old fish at the auction.

Both crews made it safely to Peterhead harbour and on time and sold their catches for high prices - smiles all round with more fish kissing! Off they drove in their cars to a well earnt rest.

Episode 3: The third episode of Trawlermen 2 was first shown on Wednesday 20 June at 7pm. It showed the twining trawler work of Starlight (PD 786 skipper James Watt) and Starlight Rays (PD230 skipper Alec Baird). Between them and their crew they would share nets in waters at the Shetlands to catch haddock, whiting and cooling. By using the fishing method of twin trawling they can catch more fish for less fuel but between them they need a 12 man crew.

The paired trawlers ran into problems when one trawlers side of the net became snagged on the bottom of the sea bed. They had gone into more dangerous and jagged rock bottomed sea where cod like to live. By winching it up and down they were able to release the trapped net and bring it back aboard to check for torn damage. Unfortunately all the catch was lost to the sea and after working through the night they had lost an estimated £4000 when taking into account the fuel used, torn nets and lost fish. In order to get a new trawling net the Starlight and its twin trawler Starlight Rays had to go stern to stern close together in heavy seas for a new net to be transferred. By doing this they ran the risk of colliding and damaging both trawlers. Fortunately the transfer was done safely and paired trawling continued. Their next catch was black fish which trawlermen call cooley and this dead fish was dumped in the sea because the trawler was over fishing quota for this type of fish but the next haul was a record catch of cod.

New trawlerman to the trawlermen series was skipper of the Fruitful Harvest Sandy Watt. He is a Christian and ran his boat in line with his Christian faith; a happy nice crew with no swearing! It is an older wooden fishing boat and he has owned it for over 20 years. The Fruitful Harvest fished for haddock but sadly Sandy Watt and crewmen like 18 year old John Duncan Campbell only hauled a small catch. Their no swear rule was strained when they were unable to hook the tail buoy as they passed their nets because of the glare of the sun in their eyes. Sandy Watt had a good laugh from the wheelhouse but persistence paid off and the tail buoy was hooked.

They soon encountered a sea swell that made trawling uncomfortable for the trawlermen and when Sandy listened to the Radio 4 shipping forecast and heard the bad weather forecast he broke the terrible news to his crew that they were to be forced back to Peterhead harbour for their own safety. This meant they had not enough fish to pay the crew well after the running costs and expenses were deducted. They had been at sea for 3 days and only had 80 boxes of fish. His fears were confirmed and a right decision made when a day later scenes of Peterhead lighthouse being battered by high winds and waves were shown on the TV programme.

Episode 4: The fourth episode of Trawlermen 2 was first shown on Thursday 21 June at 7pm. The largest trawler in the Scottish fishing fleet was featured. It was the Chris Andra and this was its first trip. The Chris Andra (FR 228) cost £12 million with bridge equipment such as sonar and navigation costing half a million pounds. It was skippered by cousins William (Willie) Tait and Peter Tait. The Chris Andra has an 8000 horse power engine and fishes for mackerel off the Coast of Shetland. The ship engineer was Bruce Buchan, a dab hand at playing the banjo. Crew quarters looked luxurious compared to the small bunks of the other trawlermen. They were like small hotel rooms with en suite showers and satellite television. They even had a chef, Lewis Duffy, who was trained in top hotels. His galley was more like a fully equipped five star hotel kitchen and even had walk in fridges and freezers.

In just one haul the Chris Andra caught 500 tonnes of fish which was worth about £300,000.

In contrast viewers were shown the 20 year old Renown (FR 246) that uses the old fashioned and rarely used fishing technique of seine net fishing. This involves a 2 mile long net being trawled along the sea bed. It scares the fish into a net behind. Few fishermen and trawlermen use this method of catching fish like haddock because it is hard to do. The skipper was James Buchan who runs his ship with the philosophy of his Christian faith aboardship. Crewmen include James McKay and 1st mate Bill Stevens who is also the chef and cooks a much loved fish soup. Though their galley and dining room is so small that crew have to crawl under the table to reach the seats!

Unable to get a good catch of haddock James Buchan set sail for his secret fishing ground that always has good haddock stocks only to find that it had been trawled by a pair of trawlers.

The Renown headed to a fishing area nicknamed The Graveyard. It is a small patch of shallow water where two currents meet. Over the centuries dozens of boats have been sunk at The Graveyard but some skippers fish there because large shoals of cod and haddock like to hide in the wrecks. Though this can give a skipper a good catch there is the risk of nets being caught amongst the wreckage. The Renown's fishing nets did get stuck but the crew managed to free them and haul in a catch of cod and haddock which was worth over £10,000. The crew gutted the fish whilst singing a fishing hymn and other hymns.

Jimmy Buchan of the Amity II (PD177) had been tied up in Peterhead harbour for one month and the crew were itching to get back to sea. As they made to sea viewers were treated to scenes of Boddam lighthouse. Their first haul was a huge catch of langoustine which would normally have been caught over one week. A delighted crew set out to process the langoustine. However because the haul was so big they had no time for hot meals or sleep. Their large catches of langoustine continued and the crew of the Amity only got 3 hours sleep in 2 days.

The Amity got a routine visit from a fishery protection vessel. The boat could have been impounded if the books were not up to date or if he was over quota. The episode ended with first mate Kevin O'Donnell joking Jimmy's going to jail!

Episode 5: The fifth part was the last episode of Trawlermen 2 series though a Christmas and New special are anticipated. Jimmy Buchan in the Amity underwent his inspection from the fishery inspectors. They studied his log books and then inspected his hold to make sure the records matched with the catch. He passed and did not go to jail! The next scene showed an Aberdeen Italian restaurant cooking the Amity's prawns and langoustine. Jimmy and fellow trawlerman Sandy were joined by their wives Irene and Liz for a meal. I think Jimmy's wife is Irene. Back at sea the crew were surprised to find a cat fish in the haul.

Sandy Watt aboard the Fruitful Harvest headed for home from the North Sea as a force 10 storm approached. Before this he swapped roles with John the young deckhand who got to steer the boat and handle the controls whilst Sandy worked as a deckhand, handling the creeper hook to bring in the net. They returned to port with 50 boxes of fish.

To make the Fruitful Harvest more profitable Sandy decided to use the boat for oil rig work where they guard against other trawlers fishing nearby and damaging the rigs. He later decided to retire after 27 years aboard the Fruitful harvest, 20 years of which were as the owner and skipper.

The theme tune music to Trawlermen was composed by Carl Harms and the narrator for Trawlermen 2 was Peter Capaldi.

The Trawlermen 2 series was repeated late at night with sign language. A Trawlerman 2 DVD will be released soon.

Sadly after the second series of Trawlermen was filmed Sandy Watt had to give up his life as a skipper trawlerman after spending over 27 years aboard the Fruitful Harvest. Poor catches was one of the many factors that caused his sale of his vessel. The seine netter the Fruitful Harvest was bought by Neil Main from Buckie.

The BBC have yet to confirm if a third series of Trawlermen will be made but there will be a one hour special broadcast in late 2007.

Trawlermen: Pick of the Catch

On Wednesday 5 September 2007 BBC1 repeated highlights of the Trawlermen series called Trawlermen: Pick of the Catch. The hour long programme showed some of the best bits of the Trawlermen series and some new previously unseen footage.

Monkfish Fishing

North East Trawlermen got some good news on the 10 May 2007 when Monkfish was permitted to be fished and the quota increased. It was thought that monkfish may no longer be sustainable so the fishing quota for monkfish was reduced. Some grocery shops were so concerned that they stopping selling monkfish. For example whilst there was concern over stock levels of the fish Asda stopped selling monkfish.

Pictures of Trawlermen

Here is a small collection of pictures of trawlermen and trawlers. If you have a picture or image that I may use on this page then please contact me.

Peterhead Fish Market:

You can just make out the Peterhead harbour seals in these photographs. They cheekily wait by the docked trawlers to get an easy free meal of unwanted fish:

Jimmy Buchan

Jimmy Buchan has become something of a local celebrity in the Peterhead area. We have spotted him a few times in his four wheel drive car with his amity2.com signs on the vehicle. Since Trawlermen appeared on TV Jimmy Buchan has appeared at the Peterhead Scottish Week celebrations. In 2007 he crowned the Buchan Queen, Kelly Hall, at the carnival opening ceremony on Saturday 21 July.

In summer 2007 Jimmy Buchan launched his own brand of prawns.

Read the blog, see photos and contact Jimmy Buchan by e-mail at his blogger web site www.seafish.org/sea/blog.asp?p=em529 and visit the official Amity website at www.amity2.com

If you are ever in Peterhead and want a chance to see the Trawlermen who appeared in the BBC TV programme then try having breakfast, lunch or dinner at the Dolphin cafe at Peterhead harbour. There is free parking and they do a delicious fish supper - freshly caught!

Training Course For Mates And Skippers At Banff And Buchan College Fraserburgh

One unexpected spin off of the Trawlermen series is that there has been in increase in interest in fishermen and Aberdeenshire folk wanting to become skipers and first mates. So much so that the local training course for mates and skippers at Banff and Buchan College in Fraserburgh, Scotland has been over subscribed. This is great news for the local area because there were fears that the course would have to be cancelled due to low interest.

Aberdeen Fish Market

In July 2007 the historic building of Aberdeen Fish Market was bulldozed and resurfaced after 118 years of use. The Aberdeen Fish Market at Commercial Quay West was opened on the 20 May 1889 after the construction of the Albert Basin because of the diversion of the River Dee. The building on Commercial Quay West had no longer been used despite a £520,000 upgrade in the year 2000. Fish landings in Aberdeen had fallen over the years as the fishing industry declined. The fish market at Palmerston Quay in Aberdeen will continue to operate.

TrueNorth

Fans of Trawlermen may be interested in the fictional film of TrueNorth that was made in 2006 and released in 2007 and starred several Scottish actors. TrueNorth tells the story of a Peterhead registered Trawler The Providence (PD 100) that is facing bankruptcy and the skippers son takes on board some Chinese illegal immigrants from a Belgium port to take back to the UK. Read more and see some photographs in the About Aberdeen True North Film review.

2006 Landing Catches Figures

In 2006 there were five new registered trawlers in the North East of Scotland. This meant there were now 101 registered fishing trawlers in Fraserburgh, 99 trawlers in Peterhead and 93 at Aberdeen. Looking at the overall numbers of trawler fishing boats in Scotland this figure was 2,224 vessels which was down in 2005 by 62 vessels.

The 2006 landing catches figures for Aberdeenshire were 16,700 tonnes of fish for Aberdeen, 138,100 tonnes at Peterhead, 1,700 tonnes for Buckie and 3,200 tonnes for Aberdeen, These catches were worth £14,236,000; £102,576,000; £3,534,000 and £53,489,000 respectively.

Official Observer On Fishing Trips To Monitor Catches

One of the stars of Trawlermen on BBC 1 was chosen to trial a new Scottish Government project that could sea fishing quotas increased whilst protected fish stocks. James West, skipper of the trawler The Fruitful Bough, will take an official observer on fishing trips to monitor catches. If the official observer finds that less than 5% of the catch is cod then the skipper and crew will be awarded with more fishing days at sea. This scheme is an attempt to safeguard the stocks of fish such as cod in the North Sea whilst rewarded skippers with more days at sea. The Fruitful Bough was chosen because of the publicity and good reputation that the skipper gained during filming and broadcasting.

Series Three of Trawlermen.

The third series of Trawlermen for the BBC was filmed in Peterhead and the North East of Scotland in February 2008 for broadcast later in 08. Jimmy Buchan has a new crew who are John McGrean, Geoff Philips, Nikolajas Afansenko, and everyone's favourite Trawlerman Kevin O'Donnell is still with Jimmy as second mate. The crew of Amity were given special fisherman's trousers and jackets by the company Don-Mor Safety. They were sponsored by Regatta of Norway. These oilskin type protective clothing has a built in buoyancy in the front and back independent of any mechanical device or gas cylinders and does not encumber the wearer. Because of the dangers of bulky lifejackets getting caught in machinery or nets some fishermen do not wear them, but these protective clothing is not bulky and is already proving popular with Norwegian fishermen. The maintenance free buoyancy clothing is also popular with the crew of Amity.

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