This Is Guernsey

RESTAURATEURS are praying for better weather so that local fish can be put back on the menu. Gunter Botzenhardt, owner of Le Nautique, said he had to work around the shortage.

‘It’s not something new. We have to deal with it according to what is available,’ he said.

‘You have just got to be flexible and customers realise that you can sell only what the fishermen have caught.

‘If the local fishermen can’t get out, then the French might get out and if the French haven’t got out, then the divers might have got out.

‘Luckily, I have built up a very good relationship with the fishermen who I have been dealing with for years.’

Mr Botzenhardt said it was very rare he didn’t have any fish at all.

‘You always have something. I know my diver is going to go out so I will have scallops but I might not have any turbot,’ he said.

The men who catch the fish are also hoping for a decent catch later this week after nearly a fortnight in port.

Peter Munro, president of the Guernsey Fishermen’s Association, said the Met Office was expecting the weather to improve.

‘That suggests everybody is going to make the most of that up to the holidays.’

He said bad weather was just part of the job.

‘This is just a bit of bad weather it’s happened to us before and it will happen again.’

He said it was a case of waiting for the storm to pass.

‘Every fisherman will look after his boat - it’s his livelihood.

‘Quite often a fisherman will wake up at night concerned about his boat and will go and check it,’ he said.

Mr Munro said there was no doubt there had been a shortage of fresh fish.

‘I dare say there will be until the fleet gets out,’ he said.