WANT ‘SUSTAINABLE’ FISH? ASK JESUS!
Posted by Stelios Theocharous June 23, 2010 - 3:53 pm
Jesus just before he fed the 5000
I think that there is evidence to suggest that fish has been fried since the roman times, if I owned a fish and chip shop in around the date 30AD I would get on my horse and ride the whole of the Roman Empire to find the man that fed around 5000 men, women and children with 5 loaves of bread and about 2 pieces of fish. That’s quite an impressive feat; no longer would I have to worry about paying the fish man, if I employed him I wouldn’t have to worry about how sustainable my fish was he made it come from thin air. That was one talented guy.
Roll on 1980 years to the year 2010 and we have government interference as to the best way to fish, and as more and more governments get involved the less clarity there is on fishing quotas. British fishermen say they get the raw end of the deal and the way the quota is set up the fishing boats they have to throw over any excess fish that exceeds the quota. So all of this fish that has been caught and then it has to be thrown in for the seagulls to eat, I suppose something has to enjoy it.
I don’t believe that the term ‘sustainable’ fish is acceptable; I strongly disagree with the term. I feel that it is a term to make us spend a little extra on fish although it is already quite expensive for cod and haddock from responsible sourced waters.
The problem is that too much commercial emphasis has been placed in telling the consumer in the supermarkets that their fish has come from sustainable sources, and whilst all this is happening fishing vessels have to dump fish in the sea, and the prices of fish fluctuates all the time because one moment there is too much fish and the next too little.
There are a number of steps that can be taken to make sure you buy from ‘sustainable’ sources, checking the boat and the areas that it was fishing in, however will you ever know how big the holes were in the netting? By making the holes bigger on the netting it is more likely that unsuitable smaller fish will slip through the netting and will have a bit longer to grow to the appropriate size.
Can you believe that organisations like Greenpeace are recommending to consumers to not visit local fishmongers and encouraging them to visit Waitrose and Marks and Spencer, to me this is absolute nonsense. The below organisations need to spend more time fixing our quota system and less influencing customers, they also need to make information about responsibly caught fish more accessible to fish and chip shops and all the catering and hospitality sector.
• Greenpeace
• Marine Conservation Society
• Frozen at Sea Fillets Association
• Seafish Industry Authority
• EU Fisheries Commission
• Marine Management Organisation
The conclusion is that no consumer has a clue, they trust a label on the packet of fish that may have no substance, the truth is that it is a expensive scheme to be a part of which means that fish from ‘sustainable’ sources is only available to the minority, where as if the legislation was changed to make every fishing vessel judge a fair amount of fishing but make them open the size of the nets and audit them regularly then the majority of the world can eat good quality caught fish from ‘responsible’ waters.
Unfortunately we don’t live in 30AD and with the population of the world growing at an unstoppable rate; with Asia getting wealthier we will have more pressure put on our fish stocks. The whole ‘sustainable’ programme is flawed from the get go, the more people that do choose to buy sustainable then more pressure will be put on the ‘sustainable’ scheme which will then defeat the object because they will need fish for more.
How many of you try and source ‘sustainable’ fish for your establishment or home?
Comments
Leave a Reply
- received a fantastic nutritional report today from a user that uses beef dripping...
- Three more nutritional reports in the pipeline and a few being started next week too..
- Started in Walsall this morning, then to Mansfield, then to Leicester, then to Nuneaton, then to Rugby, Back... http://t.co/llXwcqY3
I think that eating more variation in fish is also very important, but Fish Fryers have a duty to buy large fish instead of Juvenile tightly graded fish. Fish Fryers are sometimes to blame, as they take an easy route creating a market that shouldn’t be allowed.
Although I largely agree with your arguments, it is a sad fact that only a very small minority of consumers are concerned about how and where fish is caught and whoever sells fish,in whatever form, is, by the very nature of things, only interested in how much money they can make and how quickly.
I do not know what ‘ sustainable’ fish either I was told it is fish caught and landed in the UK, through legal sources and not , IUU Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated.
The best and freshest fish is long shore cod, caught and landed the same day, if the boat are registered and within their quota is this sustainable.
I do not like the term organic cod, which is farmed cod . Wild cod cannot be called organic because it cannot be proved that they have not eaten processed food, is there a lot of swim by Mcdonalds in the waters round the UK.
You make a good point!
Sustainable its such a buzz word that people buy into!
Similar to items made from Sustainable forests, they knock a tree down to make a piece of furniture, and the way sustaunable is promoted, is that they plant a tree and following year a new tree is ready to cut down! Not that it takes years, effort and resources before the tree is ready to be cut down to produce what ever its going to be made into next!!
I am torn, because I want to buy local from my fishmonger who knows plenty about sustainable fish and offers me variety from the standard cod and haddock, but then Greenpeace and msc dissuade me from using a local fishmonger and try encourage me to go Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and M&S.
I think we should stay LOCAL and they can teach us about other fish which is caught responsibly.
How can Greenpeace recommend that we shop at a large supermarket chain rather than a local fishmonger.
I think it is absolute madness, what does Seafish Industry Authority think of this?
Thomas Lombardi
I agree with S Harker in his first comment about the importance of eating a wide variety of fish. “Exotic” types of fish are only avaliable from fishmongers because supermarkets cannot process them. As local fishmongers buy these varieties they arent thrown over board, thus reducing waste and giving fishermen better business. The fishmongers in my local (Leicester) market are more knowledgeable, better value and offer a wider variety. I know where I’ll continue buying mine
!
Finally… I think that restaurants should also be doing more as they use a higher % of the catch than consumers. Next time you are in a restaurant why not ask where they source their fish…. “urm, Brakes Brothers”.
The problem with quotas is that it dose not allow inuf tolerances toward the variety of fish in the ocean. The oceans of our world hold the most life on the planet, but yet man seems incapable of harvesting this with out upsetting the life balance. Surely the sensible thing would be to allow a certain amount of boats a certain amount of fishing time per year.And then also, every thing that is caught could be used?
So how does this get resolved, why don’t the people in charge do their job properly?
Billy I completely agree, but that is well over our heads.
Luke Pulford I agree, keep local.
I also agree with S Harker in his first comment about the importance of eating a wide variety of fish.
But the main issue involves heavy political arguments and greed of chief executives at big name companies e.g. Waitrose and M&S
Although I find this issue interesting I try not to think about it too much because as a young fish frier I need to look at the future and how things will be done tomorrow,in the next couple of years and coming decades. There has been a major breakthrough in controlled fish breeding. There is a company that had managed to breed saltwater fish in freshwater.
THIS IS SURELY THE FUTURE!!!
As new technologies take off, I believe this type of breakthrough will revolutionise the fishing industry
just read billy watts comment again, why is it that fish has to be wasted? Why can it not always be used? Surely there is a market for the fish that is caught?
Whilst we use over 388 kilos of frozen at sea Cod we are particular where we buy it from! Having said this, why do I and millions of others watch on TV fish beack ing caught and dumped back into the sea DEAD. Surely this is a waste on stock for for the future!!!! Why does this happen day in day out?
May be worth investigating how much waitrose donates to the greenpeace charity fund?! We are owners of fish and chip shops and we use frozen at sea cod and haddock which is caught off the Icelandic coast and yes, we have “bought in to” the sustainable source thing. But how can we be any more responsible for where we source our fish? Being located hours from the coast it is our best choice. I agree with zohaib, technology will prevail.
Chris I agree completely, I wonder if those figures are available.