Stromness Focus for European Fishing Heritage Workshop
Next week Stromness, Orkney will be the focal point for a Europe wide initiative aimed at helping communities make best use of their fishing cultural heritage. The meeting, which is being hosted by local environmental and sustainable development consultants Aquatera, is the start of a three year project called Fishernet. The project aims to link together fishing communities across Europe, investigating how they capture and use fishing heritage and producing a “best practise” guide that can be used to maximise the benefits derived from fishing cultural heritage.
Working alongside Aquatera on the project are partners from 5 other countries, Iceland, Norway, Galicia in Spain, Cyprus and Bulgaria. This core group of 15 specialists are coming to Scotland, and Orkney in particular, to see how fishing cultural heritage is interwoven with many aspects of modern life from present day fishing to folklore, from production of seafood to poetry and from boat building to tourism.
At the heart of the programme of activities there will be a workshop – open to interested organisations and members of the public - at which many of the activities that take place in Orkney and neighbouring communities will be discussed and ideas for approaches that have been, and could be, particularly successful will be identified. The workshop will take place in the Stromness Town Hall from 1 pm to 6 pm on Wednesday 21st and 9 am to 1 pm on Thursday 22nd January. There will also be an exhibition of local fisheries related products, activities and culture at the Pier Arts Centre between 6.30 pm and 8 pm. For further details on the Workshop and to reserve a place please contact Aquatera on 01856 850088 or email us at office@aquatera.co.uk.
