This weekend marks the end of the traditional sardine fishing season in Cornwall. Meanwhile, here in Bridport, our cannery is filled with the aroma of fresh sardines cooking gently in extra virgin olive oil, lime and ginger (more on this new recipe shortly). So, to mark the occasion, I thought I'd give you a quick deep dive into why we think our Cornish sardines are the best in the world.
Why Cornish Sardines?
The Cornish Sardine has been a cornerstone of the British fishing industry since the Domesday Book. In the 1500s, salted sardines from Cornwall were one of the nation's biggest exports; prized by the Catholic powers of Europe for their plumpness and quality. The coastal towns of Cornwall – Falmouth, Mevagissey, Newlyn – were built on sardine fortunes. There was a saying in those parts that sardines were ‘food, money, and light.’ They fed families, funded fortunes, and their oil lit street lamps from Land's End to London.
By the 1800s, sardines in Cornwall had become big business. A record catch in Newquay in 1868 was noted to be worth the equivalent of over £2.5 million in today's money. But over time, shoals thinned. Tastes changed. The industry collapsed. And globalisation meant sardines could be imported far more cheaply.
Today, the Cornish sardine fishery is a sliver of what it once was — just fifteen small, independent boats, none longer than 15 metres, catch all of our PGI-certified Cornish sardines. Meanwhile, many of the sardines stacked on supermarket shelves are caught far away; almost sixty per cent are from Morocco.
And yet intense global pressure on Moroccan stocks has driven a sharp downturn in catch, down almost fifty per cent between 2022 and 2024, a decrease blamed almost entirely on climate change and overfishing. Meanwhile, our plucky Cornish sardines are as fresh and tasty as ever.
What makes Cornish sardines special?
Cornish Sardines carry PGI status — Protected Geographical Indication, the same designation that protects Champagne and Parma ham.
To carry the Cornish name, every fish must be caught within six miles of the Cornish coast and processed in Cornwall. There may be hundreds of thousands of them in a single season, but each one is fully traceable and sustainably caught.
How are they caught?
Sardine fishermen work at night. Sardines can't be caught in daylight as they see the nets and the shoals move off at pace. As a result, the boats go out in darkness, often not returning until dawn.
Where once a Huer stood on the clifftop watching for that telltale glisten of sunlight on silver backs, now a James Bond-style sonar screen searches for nearby shoals. When they find one, the boats surround it, drawing the nets smaller and smaller until the fish are contained. These ring nets never touch the seabed, so nothing below is disturbed. The fish are the same. The care is the same. But today, two men do the work that once required eight or nine.
Why does it matter who we buy from?
At Sea Sisters, we buy directly from Cornish fishermen. Every tin we sell is a small vote for a British industry that nearly disappeared and is now, with sheer guts and resilience, quietly finding its feet again.
And those sardines cooking in ginger and lime?
March 8th is International Women's Day, and we're releasing our annual limited edition can for 2026. While the fishermen are still mostly men, there is a long tradition of female labour and entrepreneurship in the sardine industry, and we want to celebrate them all this International Women’s Day. This year we've paired our Cornish Sardines with a ginger, chilli and lime sauce by Yoyo, a British-Lao chef and all-round superwoman. It'll be bright, warming and delicious (just like us.) We'll be sharing more about Yoyo and the remarkable women who fillet every sardine in our tins between now and March 8th; stay tuned.