Case Studies

Gone Fishing

In early 2009, Isle of Coll based Kenneth MacIntyre and his partner Karen Robertson purchased the fishing boat Gangwarily. Support from PSYBT helped to equip the creel boat and set up the business. Karen is shorebased, combining supporting the administrative side of the business with looking after the couple's three young children. Kenny meanwhile is out on the boat as often as weather permits, with the support of a crew member. "So far, in our first season, local sales have been great" explains Kenny " The hotel on the island is buying a lot of prawns and squat lobsters from us all the time, as they are very popular with their customers. And we haven't even got to the busy time yet!" Kenny is also pleased that they have been able to help support the local community. As well as taking on a local employee to crew the boat, he is using the services of a local engineer to maintain the boat as needed and a local diver to service the mooring. "It's good that this money is going back into the community" he adds. As the shellfish catch starts picking up through the summer months, Kenny is confident that his business is on track to meet his expectations, although he warns that a business like this will always be dependent on the weather! "There was a very quiet six week patch in April/May" explained Kenny, " It was quite hard with the weather poor and the shellfish being very quiet. This happens every year but it was much later this year for unknown reasons. All the boats caught very little but it does pick up". Another promising sign is that the volume of visitors to the island is up this year already. According to the local hotel owner, recently a gentleman flew to Coll on his private plane and cycled to the hotel just for a seafood platter because he had heard that it was so good. She reckons this word of mouth recommendation is due to the quality of prawns - something Kenny and Karen are only too happy to agree with!