Fisherman's corner

Taken in the small fishing port of Gourdon in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Still a working harbour since 1820 but now a shadow of its former glory days.

In the 1881 season over 8,000 barrels of herrings were exported from Gourdon. The herring declined in the early 1900s and by 1912 fishermen from Gourdon had switched to long line fishing from motor boats, some of the first in Scotland to do so.

Long line fishing entailed laying a series of lines about 1,000m long across the sea bed, one for each man on the boat. Attached to each line were around 800 hooks, baited with mussels by the women of the village. Getting the mussels and baiting the hooks could take up to 9 hours per day and each fisherman had two lines, one being used, the other being baited for the following day.

A must, full screen.