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EveryFish

Fishing harbour, United Kingdom

Grimsby

Once among the world's largest fishing ports, now a centre of fish processing and traditional smoked fish.

Grimsby, on the south bank of the Humber estuary in north-east Lincolnshire, grew in the 19th century with the railway and steam trawlers into one of the largest fishing ports in the world. Its distant-water trawlers fished cod and haddock off Iceland, Norway and the Barents Sea. Today it has few big trawlers, but it remains one of Britain's main centres for processing fish.

The Cod Wars

Between 1958 and 1976 Iceland extended its fishing limits in steps, finally to 200 nautical miles, to protect its cod. British trawlers from Grimsby and Hull kept fishing, and Icelandic coastguard vessels cut their nets, leading to clashes with Royal Navy ships in what became known as the Cod Wars. Iceland won its limits, and the British distant-water fleet shrank quickly, with thousands of jobs lost in Grimsby.

Smoke and processing

Grimsby's fish processors now handle cod, haddock, salmon and other fish brought in by road and sea from Norway, Iceland and elsewhere. Traditional Grimsby smoked fish, cod and haddock fillets smoked over wood in tall chimneys, has protected geographical indication status. The town is also a base for servicing offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

Still to be written: Atlantic cod, Haddock, European plaice.

The weekly digest

Every Monday: the fish of the day, new pages on EveryFish, and the conferences and anniversaries of the week ahead.