***additional galleries: trawlermen: DENCH_Trawlermen01

Samuel Johnson said; “Going to sea is like going to prison, with a chance of drowning besides.” A view of Scarborough as The Allegiance begins its 36 hour journey to the fishing grounds, 200 miles into the North Sea.In 1999, Photojournalist Peter Dench spent five days onboard The Allegiance, a 60 foot UK Scarborough-based trawler, fishing the North Sea, with a crew of five. The future has since become extremely bleak for the English trawler men; huge areas of the North Sea have been declared \'off limits\' and fishing quotas have been slashed in an attempt to rescue dwindling North Sea stocks from the point of extinction. These measures have jeopardised the jobs of those in the industry and put dependent towns, like Scarborough, on the brink of ruin.Dench returned to The Allegiance in 2005 to be reunited with the crew and to find out how the decline of the North Sea fishing industry has affected their lives.

Samuel Johnson said; “Going to sea is like going to prison, with a chance of drowning besides.”

A view of Scarborough as The Allegiance begins its 36 hour journey to the fishing grounds, 200 miles into the North Sea.

In 1999, Photojournalist Peter Dench spent five days onboard The Allegiance, a 60 foot UK Scarborough-based trawler, fishing the North Sea, with a crew of five. The future has since become extremely bleak for the English trawler men; huge areas of the North Sea have been declared \'off limits\' and fishing quotas have been slashed in an attempt to rescue dwindling North Sea stocks from the point of extinction. These measures have jeopardised the jobs of those in the industry and put dependent towns, like Scarborough, on the brink of ruin.

Dench returned to The Allegiance in 2005 to be reunited with the crew and to find out how the decline of the North Sea fishing industry has affected their lives.