Solway Fishing Traditional Cache
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Haaf netting
Fisherman
Haaf netting - an ancient tradition on The Solway Firth
Bowness on the Solway, at the mouth of the Rivers Eden and Esk was once a thriving fishery, one of the last bastions of Haaf netting.
Haaf netting is an ancient method of catching salmon, and fishermen have been carrying their nets to the sea on the Solway for a 1,000 years.
The fishermen form a line extending into the channel, braced against the tide with the nets billowing behind them.
Some have been netting for almost half a century - the technique is passed from father to son.
Haaf netting probably came to Cumbria with the Vikings - Haaf is the Norse for open sea.
It's a sport for the ordinary man which attracts everyone from labourers to lawyers.
But it could be about to end, and the fishermen are worried by the latest proposals to curb netting.
At the moment they can fish for around 15 weeks a year, although they can't fish at weekends.
Now, they say the Environment Agency wants to ban fishing from 6pm at night to 6am in the morning for conservation reasons.
Netting the catch
Last year the fisher men caught more than 2,700 salmon, well above previous years.
The Environment Agency argues that number has to be cut to conserve stocks on the rivers feeding Bowness on Solway.
Each year juvenile salmon leave the Esk and Eden to feed off the coast of Greenland.
After one to three years they return to breed.
Fishermen
All at sea - Haaf fishermen are concerned about the future
The Environment Agency says that estimates show that there aren't enough fish getting through.
But the netters' scientist says the Agency is using unreliable estimates, because their fish counting machine, which could give accurate figures, isn't working properly.
The Environment Agency says that they've got the best figures available, and the fish counter gives them valuable evidence.
Once the fisher men could earn a week's wages from selling a salmon.
Now they'll get £30-£40 a fish whilst the licence to net costs an extra £120.
They must also complete a return, a log of daily catches.
But in 2005 19 men were prosecuted and 18 found guilty of filling out false returns.
A couple of persistent offenders, were banned, and the rest were fined - the fishermen say that they've all been tarred with the same brush, because of lapses of memory.
Conservation concerns
The netters also think there's a hidden agenda - they think the rod fishers further up the river want rid of them.
They say the riparian owners, who own lucrative fishing rights on the Eden, have pressured the committee that's been advising the Environment Agency.
The owners and rod fishers deny these claims as does the Environment Agency - they say that they're not trying to get rid of them, just limit the fisher men in the interests of conservation.
As the debate continues, a cloud hangs over the Haaf netters of the Solway Firth.
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