'Whither Goest Thou' is a work of fiction based on fact and it describes some of the extreme conditions and bureaucratic lunacy that fishermen have to work with. I myself was a trawler skipper for many years and though I loved the job to pieces nowadays I'm glad to be out of it. These days it would be a great help if you had a secretary and a legal expert in the wheelhouse with you. The amount of paperwork involved in catching a few fish is staggering and if you don't dot the i's and cross the t's you're in serious trouble. Fines for transgressing some vague rule can financially ruin you and the goal posts are constantly on the move. During the era my story is set it was touch and go as to whether you still had a job the next time you walked down the pier and many boats didn't make it.
Over the course of the last thirty years or so we have educated our children to believe that televisions, computers, mobile phones, cars e.t.c are essential to their existence and the career they pursue should be enjoyable at all times. God help you if one has to get dirty or work more than forty hours in any given week! You will be hard pressed to find a trawlerman who is less than forty years old and some of them are beyond pensionable age. When these guys are gone British fish and chips will be history as will the fishing industry itself.
It's about time governments woke up to the fact that in the very near future food is going to become a problem. Humans cannot eat communication systems, paper, cars, fossil fuels and minerals. Farmers and fishermen should be helped in pursuit of their careers not hindered and people should be encouraged to join these industries. Both jobs can be arduous and sometimes dangerous, but so is thrashing your way to work every morning in a car. With a little help fishing and farming could become financially and mentally rewarding providing the general population with a constant food supply. Yes, we must preserve our fish stocks, but as this book will prove to you the current rules and regulations do little in this direction.
