Who buys Looe’s fish?

One of the main buyers when we visit Looe Fish Market is Richard Newman. He set up the fish merchant Starfish in 2004 after 25 years as a trawlerman. He has his share of tales, not least the day his own 40ft boat sank under him 40 miles south of the Lizard, and he had to be rescued by another fisherman. “I had it built new, which is a bit of a shame,” he says with some understatement.
After that, he spent a couple of years in other boats, then “changed sides” to become a wholesaler. On the day we visited, he bought half a tonne of fish – a quarter of the whole auction. Half was destined for Cornwall, with the rest going to customers across the UK, including Bath, Gloucester, Bristol, Leeds, Southampton and Mersea. Typically though, much of Looe’s fish goes for export, shipped across to Boulogne and down to Spain, Portugal and Italy.