About Us
All our activities are run from our London office, headed by a Chief Executive Mr David Jarrad and assisted by our Office Administrator Nicole Hollingsworth.
All operational and financial decisions are agreed by the Association’s Council members and operates under a Chairman, President and Vice Presidents structure.
SAGB Staff
David Jarrad
Chief Executive
David started his career at a shellfish farm on the River Exe in South Devon in the early 1980’s having studied fish farming and fisheries management at Sparsholt Agricultural College, Hampshire.
During these 25+ years he was Managing Director of River Exe Shellfish Farms producing Pacific Oysters and Mussels within the fertile waters of the Exe estuary, South Devon. He closed the business to concentrate on SAGB matters in 2015.
Having been a member of the association since 1989, a past chairman of the Mollusc Committee, he joined the SAGB Council in 1994. He has also been a Ministerial appointee on the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee and has worked extensively with Seafish.
He was appointed Assistant Director of the SAGB in the Spring of 2008 and became Director in the Summer of 2011.
Nicole Hollingsworth
Office Administrator
Originally from Canada, she moved to the UK in 2013, bringing her expertise to various administrative roles.
As the Office Administrator at SAGB since 2019, Nicole coordinates committee meetings, manages memberships, and oversees communications and is generally the first port of call for all things members!
From 2020 – 2022 Nicole undertook part-time studies with the Open University, earning her a certificate in Environmental Studies.
Sarah Horsfall
Senior Project Manager
Sarah has degrees in both science and law and began working closely with SAGB in 2012 when seconded to them by Seafish. This gradually developed into Sarah moving over fully to SAGB in 2017. Sarah has recently been concentrating on projects which include working to improve water quality through collaboration, consolidating data on water quality for shellfish areas to enable a predictive harvesting system to be developed and working across Europe to understand the systems in place in other countries.
Sarah has been engaging in Europe where the desire is for shellfish testing to evolve as the ability to test for active norovirus in shellfish becomes possible in a simple cost effective way. She has followed the European developments and represents the UK position in these discussions as any future legislative changes in testing bi-valves will impact on UK exporters.
Sarah also works across SAGB issues including Pacific oysters where she co-authored the SAGB publication Pacific Oysters – Why We Should Love Them, marketing for shellfish, brown crab issues across Europe and marine protected areas.
Joe Redfern
Project Manager
Joe Redfern brings a well-rounded perspective to the fishing industry, drawing from a diverse range of experiences. He kickstarted his journey at Plymouth University, where he earned an MSc in Marine Biology & Coastal Ecology, sparking his passion for the field. Fuelled by his adventurous nature, Joe spent three years traveling globally, contributing to marine conservation projects and engaging with fishers from Peru to Sri Lanka, Australia, and beyond. His time as a professional SCUBA diver provided him with hands-on knowledge of our oceans.
Returning to the UK, Joe continued his studies at Plymouth, focusing on the impacts of climate change on key rocky shore species. His dedication earned him a distinction, and he published his research through the Marine Biology Association.
Now based in Yorkshire, Joe has further developed his fisheries expertise. He served as an environmental officer for the North Eastern IFCA and later as a commercial fisherman in Whitby harbour. Combining his insights from fishing, environmental work, and research, Joe is now the founder of the Whitby Lobster Hatchery.
In 2023, Joe joined SAGB after a two-year campaign investigating North East Mass Shellfish Mortalities. Currently, he is actively involved in SAGB’s water quality project, collaborating with shellfish producers across the UK and Europe.
President
Chris Leftwich
The Chairman
Originally, I trained as an environmental health officer and have specialised in all areas of food control for nearly 40 years, but for over 30 of those years my expertise has been within the seafood sector.
From May1985 until my retirement in February 2016 I was the Chief Inspector to the Fishmongers’ Company in London. In that capacity I was responsible for the quality control of seafood sold at London’s world-famous Billingsgate Fish Market. During that time I founded the Billingsgate Seafood Training School which runs courses for the industry, public and schoolchildren covering all aspects of seafood inspection, control, processing and cooking, and I am still a trustee of the school. I am also a trustee of the UK Associates of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science.
I am a past president and currently executive board member of the International Association of Fish Inspectors. This is a world-wide organisation which, among other things, organises the World Seafood Conference which takes place every two years in different countries around the world.
I have undertaken many consultancies both domestically and abroad for organisations such as the Food Standards Agency, the EU, the United Nations and others to help train inspectors and to set up quality control systems. I assumed the role of chairman of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain in May 2017.
Chairman
Mike Warner
Mike Warner – operates A Passion for Seafood Ltd which is a leading UK seafood and fisheries
consultant, connecting producer (fishermen) to the consumer ‘net to plate,’ via storytelling. Mike
believes in reporting direct from the ‘coal face’ of the industry with integrity, authenticity and
accuracy to emphasise best practice, environmental responsibility, high welfare,
sustainability and traceability.
Mike writes magazine articles, web and social media copy, gives podcasts and broadcasts and
makes video content, which help relay the story of UK seafood production in a consumer-friendly
way, with aims to demystify wild catch and aquaculture practices. Mike has written features
for Country Life magazine, Fishing News and many other platforms as well as his blog. He is a
contributing member of the Guild of Food Writers and has been shortlisted three times in their
annual awards.
Mike’s knowledge of and expertise in, the UK fishing industry and seafood sectors has made
him a popular and reliable source of information for food organisations, NGO’s, the mainstream
media and educational bodies who wish to learn more about the realities of seafood production.
In his time as a consultant, Mike has worked and continues to work closely with Seafish, The
Shellfish Association of Great Britain, The National Lobster Hatchery (of which he is a Patron), The
Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and Seafood Scotland.
Honorary Treasuerer
Ian Arnold
Ian is a Chartered Accountant and Honorary Fellow of the Investor Relations Society. He trained at Price Waterhouse (now PWC) in London but spent most of his working career as Director of Corporate Finance at Howden Joinery Group plc. He retired early in 2009 to focus on voluntary work helping to create a more sustainable world.
He is a member nominated trustee of the Howden Joinery Pension Plan and, through its Investment Sub-Committee, works with fund managers to ensure that they invest responsibly in compliance with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
In addition to his work with SAGB, he sits on the Boards of an Educational Charity that provides experiential research grants to UK students to study oceanography, climate change and risk prediction for global events; and a low carbon research and development company that is developing a novel zero-carbon fuel cell.
He is a Liveryman of The Fishmongers’ Company.
Board Members
Mike Roach
Mike spent a former career in the Royal Navy specialising as both a weapons engineer on submarines and hydrographic surveyor on RN survey ships. On leaving the RN, he undertook his undergraduate degree at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies at the University of Hull studying Coastal Marine Biology. On graduation Mike started employment as fisheries observer at Holderness Fishing Industry Group (HFIG) whilst also self-funding his PhD at the University of Hull. His PhD, awarded in 2020, focused on the impacts of an offshore wind farm on commercially important crustacean species, which aligned with the concerns raised by the fishing industry. He led the offshore research program of the HFIG from 2013 to 2023, whilst also acting in the capacity of crewman for the RV Huntress and relief skipper. His research interests focus on offshore wind and fisheries interactions and the biology and ecology of the target species of the fishery. He is the current chair of the SAGB Crustacean Committee and the Shellfish Industry Advisory Group. He recently took an appointment as the Deputy CEO for the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations to engage with fisheries and policy on a national scale.
Sarah Horsfall
Senior Project Manager
Andrew Rattley
Board Member
Andrew has been actively involved in the shellfish industry for the past 40+ years and specifically within the cockle catching processing and selling environment throughout Europe, from suction dredging to hand raking. He chaired the North Thames Fisheries Liaison Group for its first 2 years and has been a member of the SAGB since Eric Edwards Days. He sat on the original Shellfish group of the FSA in the early 2000s and helped steer the Industry through the A typical DSP problems in cockles on a nationwide basis. His experience comes from working on the ground with many of the shell-fishers within the Industry and have built a wealth of knowledge over the years. He has been fortunate to have had input on many occasions with government departments.
Andrew is the current Chair of the SAGB Mollusc committee to continue on the quest of a sustainable industry that is fairly treated by all governed depts and ensuring that legislation is not a block to all having successful businesses serving the nation with the finest shellfish products from our waters.
James Wilson
James has been involved for a long time in extensive mussel cultivation in the Menai Strait (N Wales) & Northern Ireland. He is a director od Deepdock Ltd, amongst others
He was on the Seafish Board from 2009 to 2018 and on the Welsh Food and Drink Industry Board from 2015 to 2020 and the Welsh Food Advisory Committee, Food Standards Agency from 2017 to 2020
Is also holds the position of Honorary Research Fellowship at Bangor University
Colin Bannister
Board Member
Colin is a former government fisheries scientist and management advisor. On leaving the Grammar School in Hull he graduated in Honours Zoology at the University of Reading (1962-64), alma mater to several previous fisheries scientists, and began a lifetime career at the MAFF (later Cefas) Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft. He retired in 2004 after 40 years of applying fisheries science to a wide range of finfish and shellfish projects and stock management responsibilities. These included flatfish studies in distant waters at Iceland, and then in the North Sea (1964-80); secondment to Brussels in the mid-1970s to explain ICES advice, and the cause of the N. Sea herring collapse; succeeding Dr Edwards as head of the Cefas shellfish team from 1982-1999 (oyster diseases, crustacean and molluscan shellfish surveys, modelling, and management, lobster assessment & enhancement); reorganizing the science committees at ICES Copenhagen (1990s); and finally head of the large CEFAS finfish assessment and advisory team (2001-04) in the run-up to the EU N Sea cod recovery plan.
Colin enjoys an active retirement. As an honorary life member of SAGB he attends the Council, Crustacean and Mollusc committees, and is a Director of SAGB Ltd. His reports for SAGB include a Shellfish Industry Development Strategy (2006); The Management of Crab Fisheries (2009); SAGB Advisory Note on Crustacean Storage and Transport (2021); and an MSC peer review of the Thames Cockle Fishery (2022, with Dr M C Bell). He chaired the Council from 2010-2017, when SAGB become self-supporting. In the 2010’s he was an MSC assessor for lobster, crab and prawn fisheries in the eastern US, Canada, and Greenland; and is a former Trustee and Chair of the Frank Buckland Foundation (2006-20). He is actively engaged in the groups supporting the formation of the inaugural Crab and Lobster Fisheries Management Plan, and writes on crab and lobster stock status and management for Fishing News. He gave the SAGB Walne Lecture (1999), the SAGB Drummond Lecture (2011), the 2015 Buckland Lecture (with Dr Carl O’Brien of Cefas), and an SAGB 50th Anniversary Lecture (2019). Colin received the SAGB Walne Medal (1999), the Le Cren Medal of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles (2014), and an Honorary D.Sc. from the University of Hull (2015). He is an Emeritus Alumnus at the CEFAS Laboratory Lowestoft.
Andrew Brown
Dr Andrew Brown. New SAGB Chairman of Processors Committee
Andrew joined Macduff Shellfish Ltd as the Director of Sustainability and Public Affairs in 2018 and is recognised as a leader in the shellfish sector through his engagement in UK Fisheries Management Plans and Shellfish Fisheries Improvement Projects. He chairs the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation NQS Committee, the Scottish White Fishermen’s Producers Association Scallop Working Group and the Scottish Seafood Association Executive Board; the industry body representing Scottish Seafood Processors.
Previously Andrew worked in the Scottish Government covering a variety of policy roles in marine and sea fisheries posts. He was stationed in Brussels between 2012 and 2017 as the Scottish Government’s Marine Representative to the EU. Over a 20 year career in the civil service Andrew also worked in transport and European policy and as private secretary to the First Minister Jack McConnell.
Andrew has a PhD in Agricultural Engineering and lives in North Berwick with his wife and 2 sons.
Vice Presidents
Jeremy Simmonds
Vice President
Jeremy qualified as a solicitor in 1967 and practised in London until he retired from 2000. Jeremy became a member of the Association in 1975 and used his legal knowledge to brief speakers of all political persuasions for a day-long debate on the law affecting fish farming in the House of Lords in 1976.
Clive Askew
Vice President
Clive Askew began his career studying the growth and mortality rates of oysters around the Solent, gaining his PhD from what is now Portsmouth University. He then moved into commercial oyster farming In Whitstable and then in N.W. Spain. In 1987 he became an independent consultant, advising on hatcheries and on-growing bivalves, mainly in Spain, Italy, and Greece.
In 1991 he became part-time Deputy Director of SAGB and in that rile a founder member of the European Mollusc Producers Association. He was later appointed as Fisheries Consultant to the Fishmongers’ Company and took forward the issue of seafood and health which he had begun with SAGB.
He now gives talks on this subject to u3a and writes occasional articles for The Marine Biologist magazine as a professional member of the Marine Biological Association.
Peter Hunt
Vice President
Dr Hunt had a long and distinguished career in international fisheries science, management and marketing before becoming Director of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (2000-2009).
Previous posts included : Fisheries Scientist, New Zealand Government; Area Fisheries Manager, Severn Trent Water Authority; Director of Fisheries, Government of Fiji (8 years); Managing Director, Pacific Fishing and Canning Company (5 years); and Managing Director of Royal Greenland Limited (UK) (10years). Dr Hunt has published widely in international fisheries journals including The Journal of Fish Biology (x9), The Journal of Zoology, The Journal of Fisheries Management, The Journal of Water Pollution Control and FAO.
Council Members
Tristan Hugh-Jones
Tristan Hugh-Jones is a Director of Atlantic Shellfish Ltd, a native oyster farm in Cork, Ireland, on the farm where he was born. Since 1996 he has run the Loch Ryan Oyster Fishery Co. Ltd, a wild native oyster fishery in Scotland. These oysters and others are depurated in tanks in West Sussex, and they are then distributed to restaurants and hotels in London. He is on the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers management committee, and is also a Trustee of the Solway Firth Partnership. Tristan is also a Board member of the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance, promoting the restoration of native oysters in Europe.
John Holmyard
John Holmyard, founder and MD of Offshore Shellfish Ltd has been farming mussels for 34 years. With his current farm in Lyme Bay, John has broken the mould, by pioneered methods that enable mussel farming to move out of crowded inshore waters into an offshore setting.
The family-run offshore farm produces several thousand tonnes of rope grown mussels per year. These mussels remove excess carbon, phosphates and nitrates from the seawater, while the farm structure itself, acts as giant floating reef. The result is an increase in local marine biodiversity, and a protected habitat, nursery ground, food and shelter for many commercial fish and shellfish species.
John believes we should all “eat more mussels and save the planet!”
Chris Venmore
Walter Speirs
What We Do
Our aim is to assist and promote the sustainable development of the Shellfish Industry in the United Kingdom.
Shellfish contribute nearly 50% of the total value of seafood landed into the UK vessels into the UK. Cultivated shellfish contribute an additional £38 million, from nearly 30,000 tonnes. Despite this, our industry is often overlooked in discussions and decisions that can have huge impacts.
The SAGB represents the views of shellfisheries, both wild-caught and cultivated, in debates with the Government, other users of the sea and environmental organisations. We are striving to ensure a more viable and sustainable future for UK shellfish operations. With the increasing legislation and financial constraints facing the industry, our role is more vital than ever.
Alongside our lobbying activities, the SAGB also promotes the sustainability of your operations, the health benefits of eating shellfish, brings together buyers and sellers of shellfish and sells the story of this magnificent industry to the public.
Testimonials
As a consultant working at the interface between research, fishery management and shellfisheries, membership of SAGBPro is essential. SAGBPro membership provides me with access to industry expertise and a network of shellfish industry professional contacts
There are often mishaps and misunderstandings in the retailing of live molluscs and crustaceans, it is therefore important to belong to an organisation that can provide you with an excellent level of expertise, especially in this time of overburdening bureaucracy. Membership of SAGB is invaluable.
With the massive growth of shellfish production in the UK and the every growing popularity of shellfish in the UK restaurant sector, the SAGB are playing a key role in the promotion of the health benefits of shellfish and also popularising the wide and distinct variation in the tastes and flavours of all the shellfish grown in and around our shores. The tasting materials for oysters and crustacea have been a huge success with the customers eating in our restaurants.
Regrettably we live in an increasingly bureaucratic world where individuals and small businesses can feel powerless against a rising tide of rules and regulations. The SAGB has a vital role representing the shellfish industry in all its forms. We have found their services invaluable helping us on occasions, they know who to contact and their voice carries weight representing the whole industry. My advice to prospective members contemplating joining is to think of it as insurance – you never know when you might need it!
