Brexit. Paraded by the pro-Brexit camp as an icon of EU regulation strangling a quintessentially British industry and way of life, fishing has had an outsized presence in Brexit-related headlines.

But from seabed to table top, the wider economic "food chain" of British seafood -- catching, trading and serving fish -- highlights the Gordian Knot of issues that have bedeviled the UK's efforts to divorce from the EU.

The catch

Varndell has worked at sea since he was a teenager, when his father first took him out on his boat, the Versatile.

"It was the freedom of fishing that attracted me to this job. The unknown," he said. "Being at sea, the sea water gets in your blood."

This is not a career for the faint-hearted, however. Each tow of his dredge alongthe sea floor yields just one or two clams all morning. A good tow may only drag up a dozen. At the end of the day he splits his catch 75-25 with his deck hand, Richard, netting between £400 and £450 ($522-$587) in total.

As he zigzags his boat through the waters near Portsmouth, Varndell rails at the suffocating hold he feels regulations have on his work.

"The legislation has gone beyond reasonable and the fleet is getting smaller and smaller by the year," he said.

British inshore fishing is regulated by local Inshore Fishery and Conservation Authorities (IFCA), who state their aim as balancing "social, environmental and economic benefits to ensure healthy seas, sustainable fisheries and a viable industry." Although a UK body, they enforce EU directives on managing the