Worthing is turning the tide on sustainable fishing with a successful grant application to the Heritage Lottery Fund 

This month We Are Food Pioneers CIC, a local social food enterprise and part of the Worthing Borough Council led Sustainable Fish Group, has been awarded funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to preserve our town’s unique fishing heritage.  

Over the next two years, “The last fisherman standing” project will uncover the history of fishing in Worthing, organise and run boat building and net mending workshops as well as a series of talks, fish cookery courses and work with different communities across our town to bring fisheries back to our seaside. An outreach programme by Creative Waves CIC will also take the maritime theme to a group of Worthing schools, with net making sessions and paper mache fish on the menu from next year.

Anne Weinhold, Director of We Are Food Pioneers CIC, said: “I am delighted with the outcome of the Heritage Lottery Fund application and very much look forward to bringing Worthing’s rich fisheries heritage and small scale sustainable fishing back to the heart of our town. As the last full time fishermen have now left Worthing’s beach it is more urgent than ever to preserve and share our town’s fishing history. To enable a future for our fishermen, we also need to reconnect locals with a community that has one of the most dangerous but potentially also most rewarding livelihoods in the country.”

Cllr Bryan Turner, Executive Member for Regeneration at Worthing Borough Council, said:

“It’s fantastic that funding has been attracted to preserve an industry that has a long heritage in our community. Worthing is one of the few towns with a rich maritime history despite not having a harbour. It’s important for generations to come that we continue to teach these traditions.”

The project is now looking for volunteers keen to find out more about the local fishing history, help with the running of events, learn how to cook with fish and support with our cookery sessions. All volunteers will be trained up in the relevant skills needed for each of these tasks, and outings to other towns nearby with a rich fishing heritage will be part of the volunteers’ involvement in the project.

If you want to be part of planting small scale fishing firmly in the Worthing of today and register your interest to volunteer please contact info@foodpioneers.org.uk

Thanks go to the Heritage Lottery Fund for providing the funding for this exciting project, and to Worthing Borough Council’s Sustainable Fish Group for their continued advice and involvement. Special thanks go to the Proto Restaurant Group and Andy Sparsis for their fantastic support from the beginning of Catchbox in Worthing to where we are with the project today.

Beyond the Heritage Lottery Fund project “The last fisherman standing”, the Sustainable Fish Group will also be looking to bid for additional funds in the future to improve the fishing infrastructure along the coastline.