A north-east trawlerman who documented a week at sea with a video camera he got as a birthday gift said he is astonished with the public’s reaction to the footage.
John Buchan, skipper of the Ocean Endeavour, shot the video to experiment with his new camera.
When he returned to shore he posted the video online and was shocked to see it go viral with hundreds of supportive comments.
“I really didn’t expect it to travel as far as it has,” Mr Buchan said last night. “I was just having a play about with the GoPro I got for my birthday. I thought others might appreciate the video so stuck it on Facebook.”
In the footage the skipper and his crew are seen shooting the nets, reeling in a catch of cod and haddock surrounded by gulls and then putting the fish through gutting machines below decks.
Each box is weighed, hand packed, iced and then stickered with information about species, size, weight and the area caught.
In total 1,400 boxes of fish were caught during the six-day trip.
Although Mr Buchan captured the footage for fun he said he is delighted to be able to shine a light on the hard work of fellow fishermen.
“Anything at all to promote the industry in a good light is a good thing,” he said. “It lets people have a wee insight into how their fish end up on the plate.
“I actually thought of following a fish to a box, to market, to processor then onto consumer. Guess that will be part two.”
Since Mr Buchan uploaded the video to his own Facebook page last week, 200 people have shared the footage and more than 40,000 have watched it.
Local fish salesman Stephen Bruce, owner of the Peterhead Fish Company, said: “I bought some lovely haddock from the fish market which were caught by the trawler Ocean Endeavour. The skipper John Buchan made this great video of his last trip.”
And a spokesman for the Fraserburgh-based Scottish White Fish Producers Association added: “It’s a great short video on life at sea from one of our members.”