The Spiders (or aviers) tend to be caught from May through to September. The average catch for a boat is about one tonne per day - which averages out at about £800/day at the quayside.

The Portland Brown Crab or Shanker season runs from approximately July to December. Again the average catch per day is about one tonne/boat with ‘hens’- (females), fetching 60p/kilo and ‘cocks’ 80p/kilo.

Our local crab are regarded as a delicacy on the tables of Europe and 95% of those caught here leave our shores bound for the restaurants of Spain and France - where each truck load has an end-market value of up to 300% more than the price paid at the quayside here - food for thought.

Lobsters are caught all year round by all types of craft. A high value shellfish with powerful but tasty claws.

Scallops - season Jan - April (though fished all year). High value. Punishing for the crew and vessel. A modern scalloper would average 22 hauls per day, each haul comprising a couple of tonnes of rock and scallop. All done by three men, resulting in an average catch of 40 - 50 x ten-dozen sacks at 25 kilos/sack. (6000 individual scallops/boat/day)

Interestingly there are two areas off Portland where the scallopers regularly dredge up an assortment of dinosaur bones - just makes you think, what else might be down there?

Various other shellfish such as winkles, pollards, razorfish and whelks are all commercially fished within Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour.

Weymouth and Portland Harbours are major landing ports for shellfish. Weymouth has it’s own fenced-off area from which the public are excluded to ensure that fish landed at the port can pass from boats, through the landing facility and onto waiting vivier trucks without being contaminated.

Vivier truck

A 30 tonne articulated truck - usually French, Portuguese or Spanish - equipped with (refrigerated) seawater-filled holding tanks containing 15-18 metric tonnes. They arrive empty from the continent and book into various fishing ports to load live shellfish. Vessels make their own landing arrangements with different boats/companies.

Each truck load has an end market value of up to 300% more than the price paid at the quay.