Along with a sustainable approach to crab and lobster fishing, pilchard fishing was part of the lifeblood of many Cornish communities, and along with work on local farms provided an income and food source for families in and around Mullion and elsewhere on the Lizard Peninsula. Part of the wages paid to fishermen came in the form of fish. Another local industry, the manufacture of fishing pots from locally grown Withies or willow strands, highlighted part of the sustainability of the fishing industry. Each fisherman made his own pots every year, both in the cove and in small buildings in the village before the season began. That skill is now limited to a few fishermen only.