Victoria's Great Lobster Fishers. Part II
George Brocklesby, the ever-smiling lobster fisher and captain of Hanna Ann G. Image by Richard Cornish.
George Brocklesby
San Remo
George Brocklesby is fixing his boat. The ever-smiling San Remo lobster fisher closes a hatch in the cabin of his fast purpose-built boat Hanna Ann G. “You have to be a jack of all trades in this business,” says George. “You are always repairing pots or splicing rope,” he says. George was a Melbourne lad who grew up around the bayside suburbs, spent many afternoons seeing bands at the Espy in St Kilda and travelling the world to round off his training as a shipwright. The call of the sea was always strong with George, yachting, surfing and scuba diving. In 2003 he made his way down to Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula where he started fishing with an old timer, learning the fishing business hands-on. Now he is one of two full-time commercial lobster fishers working out of the fishing town next to Phillip Island.
George is one of two full-time commercial lobster fishers out of San Remo. Image by Richard Cornish.
“I fish from Cape Liptrap near Wilson’s Promontory to Cape Schanck near Flinders,” says George. “My passion is the environment I work in. The sea is such an amazingly beautiful place but also an incredibly bio-diverse place. And I want to keep it that way.” George and other fishers are working with Seafood Industry Victoria on a programme to change the way that lobster traps, also known as cray pots, are made. Presently many are made with plastic mesh covering a steel frame, with a slippery neck made of plastic. “We never want to leave a cray pot on the bottom of the sea,” says George. But through bad weather or accidents, it does happen. His aim is to change the way lobster traps are made, using biodegradable wood or non-perishable materials that won’t pollute the water if they are lost at sea.
“We have a responsibility to look after the sea,” says George. “We can’t overfish ourselves out of a job,” he comments. He says the fishers at San Remo are also part of the local community. “It is important that we share the bounty of the sea locally. We’re no use to the local community having a fishing fleet and they can’t get access to fresh local seafood.” George keeps his lobsters in coffs, wooden pens, under the pier at San Remo before taking them to the San Remo Fishermen’s Co-op on shore. “People can always come down and get a lobster off the boat when I am unloading.”