During lockdown Charlotte Dawe and Angus Cowen moved to the coast and launched Sea Sisters, an artisanal fish cannery – a salty love letter to the British coastline
Interview Susie Atkinson
When Charlotte Dawe and Angus Cowen set off in a dilapidated campervan to travel Europe over a decade ago, they didn’t expect a tin of sardines to reroute their lives. Fast-forward to today and the couple are running Sea Sisters – a brand new artisanal fish cannery using the UK’s catch – from the windswept west Dorset coast. Their mission? To put British seafood back on the map, one beautiful tin at a time.
That fateful trip introduced them to ‘conservas culture’ – the reverence Europeans have for tinned fish as a delicacy. ‘We were living off tinned fish,’ Charlotte says. ‘But it wasn’t just cheap staples, it was beautifully made, lovingly preserved food with real respect for the ingredient. That didn’t exist back home.’
Back in Hackney, the idea of creating a British equivalent grew. Angus, then a chef at Trullo and Rochelle Canteen, was working long hours in London kitchens. Charlotte was navigating hospitality and community work. But when the Covid-19 lockdown hit, everything changed. ‘We were at home with our two daughters under two and we didn’t want Angus back in a kitchen until 1am,’ says Charlotte. ‘We wanted to be together, to build something that felt rooted – and we began to think of the tinned fish idea.’
A MOVE TO DORSET
‘The move to Dorset was a turning point,’ Charlotte says. ‘Before we had the children, we’d vowed to move to the sea one day and this was the perfect reason to do this.’
Both Angus and Charlotte had many childhood memories of camping along the Jurassic Coast and one of their first weekends together was spent in a campervan tucked in a field near Bridport. ‘We decided we wanted to raise our family here and we also knew that if were to run an authentic tinned fish business, we had to be rooted near the fishing communities we work with.’
They made the move in May 2023 and now their home life reflects their philosophy: simple, sea-soaked and hands-on. ‘We live in a tiny, two-up-two-down cottage with no TV and a record player, just a five-minute walk from the beach,’ says Charlotte.
‘We’re giving our girls the kind of ’80s-style childhood we had – lots of sand and garden potions. We are out on the beach every day. We swim all year round. We take the kids down to the beach at Eype. We’re out in all weathers: walking, cooking over fire, exploring rock pools. The sea is part of everything we do. It’s in our products, it’s in our lives. Living here has grounded us in a life with the ocean. The coast gives us perspective. It’s why we
do what we do,’ she says.
SEA SISTERS
‘We called our business Sea Sisters after our daughters, but it’s also about reconnecting people with our coastline – its flavours and its communities,’ says Charlotte.
In Bridport, they set up a 100-square-metre cannery on a fifth-generation female-run farm, and Sea Sisters is now a small-batch cannery that sources its seafood directly from local, sustainable fisheries. Sardines are caught a mile off Cornwall, whelks are from Norfolk, cuttlefish are pot-caught by the Hastings fleet and mussels are grown in Lyme Bay. ‘Mussels are a superfood. They clean the sea, sequester carbon, create ecosystems – and they’re delicious!’
Each tin is a love letter to the British coastline. Their Cuttlefish Caponata with Pine Nuts and Capers sings of Sicilian summers, yet the fish
is sourced entirely from UK waters. Their Cornish Hake with Seaweed & Butter is a quiet triumph. They love to bring different flavours together and collaborate with fellow food artisans such Dorset’s Two Fields olive oil or Amy Poon’s Chinese sauces – bringing new twists to traditional ingredients.
SUSTAINABILITY
At Sea Sisters’ Bridport cannery, nothing is wasted. Fish skins go into compost for the farm’s soil. Cardboard is passed to local growers. Shells become materials for artists. It’s about full-circle sustainability. ‘Every tin preserves more than just flavour – it preserves a moment, a place, a way of life. British seafood is incredible and we want to showcase that. Some of our customers are trying mussels or sardines for the first time. They’re discovering that British fish isn’t beige – It’s bold, it’s beautiful and it belongs on our tables.’
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. A machinery breakdown before Christmas 2023 forced them to delay their launch. ‘We ended up donating everything to City Harvest food bank who used our cans as ingredients to be used in hot meals for people unable to afford their weekly food bill,’ Charlotte explains. ‘We’d worked so hard – and suddenly, we couldn’t launch. But it had to be right.’
A NEW WAY OF LIFE
As the company has grown from strength to strength, the couple have turned down investors who didn’t align with their values, choosing purpose over profit and craft over scale. ‘This isn’t just a business,’ says Charlotte. ‘It’s our family. It’s our legacy.’ Growth is happening slowly and deliberately: new seasonal tins, a separate space for fulfilment and a growing community of seafood lovers who believe in what Sea Sisters stands for.
At the core of it all is the sea. ‘The coastline is our pantry. It’s our playground. It’s the reason Sea Sisters exists,’ says Charlotte. ‘Every tin is a way of saying, look at what we have, right here in our own waters.’
What began as a lockdown experiment has become something far deeper: a way of life, a reconnection to coast and craft and a quietly powerful call to fall back in love with British seafood.
Find Sea Sisters at seasisters.co.uk and follow them on social media @seasistersuk.
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