When the boat comes in

YOU don't have to get very close to realise that it's not called the Fish Quay for nothing. It's not just the smell - although that hits you even before you get within decent sniffing distance - there's also a shoal of fish restaurants, fish bars and fish shops.

The pub on the corner is the New Dolphin, maybe not a fish but the same general idea, and alongside the 'No Parking' sign on the outside of the public toilets is another reading 'No fish boxes'.

For generations, North Shields has played a key role in the country's fishing industry, centered, not surprisingly, on the Fish Quay, at the foot of a steep hill on the Tyne estuary. But as the industry has declined, with falling stocks and EU quotas, so the processing companies based on the Fish Quay have suffered.

One consequence of this has been that few companies have trained people to fillet the fish - taking the meat off the bones before it is sold on to fish mongers and supermarkets - with the result that many filleters are now in their 50s, and approaching retirement.

This looming shortage has prompted the creation of the country's first fish filleting school. Housed in an industrial unit on the Fish Quay, it is virtually empty apart from five large sinks against the back wall. On each side of each sink is a stone worktop, and standing at the worktops are the trainee filleters, clad in white coats.

Every few minutes, their hands go into the sink and pull out a fish - a small haddock - and a few strokes of the knife later, two neat fillets are deposited in one box and a glassy-eyed fish head in another. All this is carried out under the watchful eye of Darren Adamson.

Darren's father was a fish filleter, and his grandfather before him, and Darren has been doing it himself for 15 years. Tellingly, at 30, he was the youngest filleter on the Fish Quay. Now he has given it up to train the next generation, although his passion for the quay is as strong as ever.

"All my family was doing it so it was natural when I left school for me to come straight in. I used to get brought down here as a young lad and they used to let me wash boxes," he says, as though it were a treat.

"I love it down here - I have a passionate love affair with the Fish Quay. You come down here and see the sun rise and the break of day and it makes you feel alive. When you go along the top road you hear the hustle and bustle and see the sun rise in between the piers. It is just a fantastic sight. I just thought I would like to pass that on to other people."

As fish became more expensive, the result of falling stocks and the introduction of quotas, so processing firms became increasingly reluctant to allow trainees to practise on their valuable supplies.

It was the traders themselves who approached North Tyneside Council with the idea of setting up a training school, says project manager Allan Schiller. Trainees are taken from the New Deal programme - 18-24-year-olds who have been unemployed for six months or more - with the whole scheme funded by the Learning and Skills Council and Job Centre Plus, the new name for the JobCentre.

"We're hoping to have this as a centre of excellence, where people can come from all over the country and learn the art of fish filleting," says Mr Schiller. "We must keep fish filleting going because it is a dying art. That is why we have got the school up and running, getting fresh blood into the industry and making sure we have got plenty of people to carry it on."

As well as fish filleting, the trainees complete courses in health and safety, food hygiene, fire fighting, fork lift driving and first aid, over 16 weeks. Every Friday is spent on placement with one of the Fish Quay companies, and students are working towards an NVQ in fish filleting.

The school is also hoping to become a commercial operation from next year, offering training to hotels, supermarkets and restaurants in fish filleting.

Nine trainees started the course back in April, although three have since dropped out. One of those still filleting is 19-year-old Dean Saint, who is following his father into the trade.

"I have always been into fish. I worked in a factory but it is just doing the same thing over and over again. Here you are doing different stuff. It might look like you are doing the same thing, but you aren't," he says.

Dean has his own view on why three of them didn't last long - "They didn't like handling the fish," he says, which seems like a good reason not to become a fish filleter.

Dean seems enthusiastic about the prospect of a career in filleting, although there is one problem. The smell. "I don't notice it but my girlfriend does," he says. "She says 'You stink' but you get used to the smell."

"At least you are guaranteed a seat on the Metro," adds Kevin Syvarson, 20 and also from North Shields. "This is one of the cleanest buildings on the quay but it still takes about three days to get the smell off your hands."

Filleters are paid by the stone, putting a premium on getting as much meat off the bones as possible. According to Darren, they can expect to earn £200 to £400 a week, depending on the size of fish. Mostly it is cod, haddock, lemon sole, whiting, plaice and salmon, although basking sharks are occasionally landed at the quay.

But the rewards are greater for those prepared to work abroad, with Iceland seen as particularly lucrative, where the larger fish means filleters can earn from £800 to £1,500 a week.

Darren sells the fillets produced by the trainees to processing companies or traders. At the start of the course, he says, he was getting "next to nowt" for them, but as the quality has got better so has the price. The fish heads go for fish meal or fertiliser.

Despite his love of the quay, Darren pulls no punches about the downsides of the job, one of which may come as a blow to Dean.

"It is very monotonous. It is a strain physically but also mentally. The cold gets to you - you have got your hands in water all the time and in the winter it is absolutely freezing down here," he says.

"You get used to the smell, as long as you keep the place clean you never smell of fish. It is not a dirty job, but it is a skilled trade and I believe fish filleters should be paid more. You have got to be willing to do it. Some people are born to do it."

The next course starts on August 19. The North Shields Fish Filleting School can be contacted on 0191-296 1925