The coastline of Wales streches for nearly 600miles. It is therefore easy to understand why the sea has always played an important part in the lives of the Welsh people.
For centuries the people who lived in the tiny and isolated villages on the West coast prefered to earn their living from the sea rather than from the bleak hills behind them.
Fresh fish is a nourishing food and it makes a pleasant change from the usual meals of oatcake and flummery.
Local fishermen in Cardigan Bay often caught huge shoals of cod, whiting, mackerel, herring, skate, mullet, eels, crabs and lobsters. Herring fishing was especially important. The two most foamous hering ports were Nefyn and Aber-porth. In Nefyn herrings were called Penwaig and in Aber-porth they were known as Sgadan.
In those days there were no refrigerators and the fish can go smelly or bad in a few hours on a hot day.Large quantities of herring were pickled, smoked or bloated.
Bloated herrings were pickled in dry salt or brine in order to preserve them. In the Aber-porth area fish were spread on the floors of the salting houses near the beach. Dry salt was then sprinkled over them. They were then left for about three weeks before they were washed and placed in the open air to dry.
Red herrings were also very popular. These were salted for five days and then washed before being put out to hang in a smoke house, for another five days. They were then placed in brie and smoked once more for five days. Local coopers made casks for the salted herrings. The herring industry flourished until the First World War, but there are few people now who remember the cry which once echoed around the village of Nefyn

Nefyn herrings, Nefyn herrings
Bellies like innkeepers
Backs like farmers