For new series Trawlermen’s Lives, Ben sailed the North Sea, working without rest for up to 24 hours at a time, hauling thousands of fish from the sea.
Ben embarks on the life of a North Sea fisherman and chats to the men about what draws to put their lives at risk in one of the UK’s most dangerous professions.
Ben said: “Nothing could prepare me for how tough this is going to be.”
He starts his journey in Peterhead, where over a million boxes of fish have passed through in the last 12 months, spending the next seven days sleeping, fishing and working on a 24-metre trawler on the hunt for North Sea haddock and cod.
Ben said: “I’ve taken on some real challenges in the past, rowing the Atlantic, crossing the Arabian Desert, but this is going to be a completely different task. Over the last 15 years, over 250 British fishermen have lost their lives at sea, making it one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.”
12 hours into the North Sea, viewers will see skipper Sandy McCleman explain just how dangerous life at sea is. He knows only too well – in 1994, Sandy’s own father lost his life at sea.
Sandy said: “There were six of us on the boat and five of us were saved. My father was sadly lost. It was all over so fast, before we’d even realised anything was wrong. It really rocked our whole world; that was our family unit destroyed. It was just devastating really for us. That’s how cruel the ocean is.”
And once the fish are caught, there’s a stomach churning job at hand, as Ben and the trawler-men gut the fish.
Ben said: “The smell and movement down here are overpowering.”
Tune in on Wednesday August 20 to find out how Ben gets on in the physically and mentally exhausting challenge.