Fishing out of Wells
Michael Frary
Deputy Harbour Master and former fisherman

Wells has a small resident fleet of nine commerical fishing vessels and, on occasions, a number of craft from other ports. The boats range in size from 7 metres to about 13 metres and are crewed by two or three personnel. Their main catches are crabs, velvet crabs and lobsters.

Crab fishing started here approximately twenty years ago. Prior to this, Wells was a renowned port for Whelk fishing. The velvet crab industry has only taken off in the last two or three years. These are either processed in Ireland or sent live to Spain or Portugal. Crabs and lobsters have a shorter journey only as far as Cromer.

The average working day is approximately 14 hours with the vessels working anything up to 35 miles from harbour and the crew having to haul as many as 500 pots per day.

Visiting vessels are usually fishing for brown shrimps, which are transported to Kings Lynn.