For centuries, fishing has been the lifeblood of many coastal communities, providing both subsistence and livelihoods. However, this has often come at high personal cost within the fishing community with many lives lost, especially during bad weather events.
Today, the UK fishing industry has become much safer through technological advancements, better meteorological knowledge and education campaigns regarding the importance of wearing life jackets.
Even so, statistically fishing is one of the most dangerous professions in the UK, with 11,000 people working on fishing vessels in harsh and unpredictable environments.
Throughout the UK there are memorials, plaques and statues remembering fishers of the past.
A new interactive map highlights just some of the many fascinating stories these memorials reveal.
The information has been selected from Maritime Memorials, an online database established by the National Maritime Museum containing more than 6,000 entries. This map, supported by The Seafarers' Charity, is a way to make that data more accessible.
Using the map
Each memorial is represented on the map by a blue hexagonal symbol, with light blue representing memorials where a service is being held on 12 May 2024 for National Fishing Remembrance Day.
More data about each memorial can be found in its pop-up. To view the pop-up for a specific memorial, click on its symbol on the map viewer.
The pop-up tells you a range of information about the memorial including its type, transcript, and an image if one is available. For pop-ups with a large amount of information, hover the mouse over the pop-up itself and scroll down.
Locations plotted on the map may not always be exact. Precise details like position within a church or graveyard may be unknown for example. Each memorial’s pop-up contains information on how precise the location plotted is – in the same building, street, or precise coordinates.
We encourage you to do further research into the memorial before visiting, as some may have moved or been altered since entered into the database. You can search for memorials by year and location in the search bar in the top right.
If you have any feedback about the map interface, or other maritime memorials you'd like to draw our attention to, please contact mnproject@rmg.co.uk.
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National Fishing Remembrance Day
National Fishing Remembrance Day (second Sunday in May annually) is a day for reflection and commemoration of all those who have lost their lives while working in fishing in the UK.
It is an opportunity to raise awareness of the dangers of fishing as a profession to a wider audience and to remember those who have lost their lives at sea. For those living and working in local fishing communities, it is hoped that this will become an annual focal point for remembrance and connection with the national fishing industry. This period of remembrance will also provide an opportunity to focus on initiatives aimed at improving safety in commercial fishing.
To find out more and for event details please visit the Seafarers' Charity website.
Image: Historic photograph of a fisherman, taken in Folkestone circa 1900 (P32703)
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Our partners
This map is supported by The Seafarers' Charity, as part of the Maritime Memorials Project.
