‘It’s more exciting than Tesco’: can traditional fishing lure Cornwall’s young people?

Matilda Phillips, who helped set up the Young Fishermen Network: ‘Fishing gives young people the opportunity to stay here in Cornwall’ Photograph: Lucy Laught/The Guardian

It’s mid-morning on a rare calm day in Newlyn, Cornwall. Will Roberts is back at the quayside with a catch of mackerel to unload, having set off from the harbour before dawn. At 22, he is something of a rarity here, one of a handful of young fishers running his own small commercial boat from the port.

“It’s a magical feeling when you set out in the dark, with no one else around, and see the Milky Way in the sky above you,” he says. “I couldn’t imagine working in an office or somewhere indoors, and not be surrounded by all of this.”