Hugh's Fish Fight

[wattsy]

if this is in the wrong place then i apologise but i think this is a really important campaign thats in line with most of the ideals of people on this site i've joined it and it'd be lovely if you nice people could have a look and lend your support.
http://www.fishfight.net/

cheers
matt

[Nonsuch]

I've joined too

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

i've joined ^^

[Beardy]

Around half of the fish caught by fishermen in the North Sea are unnecessarily thrown back into the ocean dead.

The problem is that in a mixed fishery where many different fish live together, fishermen cannot control the species that they catch.

Fishing for one species often means catching another, and if people don’t want them or fishermen are not allowed to land them, the only option is to throw them overboard. The vast majority of these discarded fish will die.

Because discards are not monitored, it is difficult to know exactly how many fish are being thrown away. The EU estimates that in the North Sea, discards are between 40% and 60% of the total catch. Many of these fish are species that have fallen out of fashion: we can help to prevent their discard just by rediscovering our taste for them.

Others are prime cod, haddock, plaice and other popular food species that are “over-quota”. The quota system is intended to protect fish stocks by setting limits on how many fish of a certain species should be caught.

Fishermen are not allowed to land any over-quota fish; if they accidentally catch them – which they can’t help but do - there is no choice but to throw them overboard before they reach the docks.

In the Icelandic fishing quota system, if you catch fish that are over your quota, you can trade with other boats and businesses that are under quota for that species. Instead of saying 'we are over for cod this year, throw them all back', you call up whoever has been having more luck with mackerel and has a bit of room left in his cod quota and can exchange them. It means fish are far less likely to be thrown back dead. If we are throwing back 40-60% of the catch dead then we are fishing and killing fish 40-60% in excess of what we need to, if only we could better organise our efforts - and that could help massively with decline of fish stocks.

Obviously it's not a foolproof system, and would need policing so that boats didn't "accidentally" catch fish over quota just to be able to trade with others and hence get around the quota, but I think it would definitely be worth a shot. It's got to be better than the alternative of overfishing, and it has worked well for Iceland, who's fisheries are increasing in fish stock numbers (unlike ours and the EU's), and that is when they are exporting giant amounts of their catch to us in addition to feeding their own population with it. The Icelandic quota system isn't a perfect system, but the discontent is focussed on how fairly quota is awarded and won or lost between boat owners internally - externally (as in it's effect on the environment and the fisheries) it seems to be a highly successful system.

What will happen to that system and Icelandic fisheries if Iceland joins the EU (as they currently are in negotiations over) and presumably take on the CFP and have more foreign trawlers in their fisheries will remain to be seen.

Best of luck to Hugh et al in this - something does need to change with the way we currently do things!

[Angus Og]

Already a thread about this

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67019

[Paul_B]

Well I looked at the site and I do think that a lot of well meaning people (like Jamie Oliver and Hugh F-W) need to take a look at incomes too. All well and good to go for a lot of fish and varied fish but TBH how much of it is cheap enough? I see them cooking food that is sutainable and the like but IMHO Mackeral is really it. I can't afford to travel to a specialist fishmongers. There just isn't one near me that is open when I can get there. Nearest is abouthalf hour away and it shuts early on saturdays. I work on a different town so can't get there. Also supermarkets near me don't have good fish counters. They don't stock much choice and anything Hugh says is good apart from mackeral is a bit pricey to eat all the time.

Anyway I do like to see Oliver, Hugh and all doing their cooking and preaching (to the would be converted as far as Hugh' stuff goes not too keen on Oliver'r crap personally) and useing all these different types of oils and what not to give a better flavour. All I want to do is eat healthily to a budget with food I like. If I have to buy 6 different oils or a load of spices and herbs (obviously fresh leaf andnotcheaper dried herbs) then it blows my budget.

I do like Hugh's ideas but not his realism some of the times. Anyway, I will continue to stick to mussels and mackeral (my two favourites) when in their best season. WIll leave the pollack, red gurnard, etc to special occasions when I am able to splash out. Red gurnard is great BTW.

I do recommend getting Hugh's large book on fish. Makes a good read with details on the fish, preparation (filletting pages were a good way to learn from), recipes and other fish related info. My best purchase for half price in tescos (along wiht a mesh net of mussels).

BTW what do you do with mussels when you can only buy in mesh nets in a supermarket and you only need to cook for one? I can eat mussels for BRitain I relly can but even I cannot eat on my own a full mesh net of them. I once put the second half in the salad section of my fridge with water in it. I guess it must have helped taking the saltiness and grit out a bit. Not sure how healthy for me it was. Stilll only one day so I survived. I just wished they would sell by weight and not pre-packed nets. They do in rest of europe. Certainly in FRancer and spain and italy that i have seen also belgium and holland.

[salan]

I could do with a good recipe (sp?) for mussels. I must admit to only having them on either pitzas or pickled.
There are lots of good fish that we could eat but I agree with you they are all to b***y expensive!
I can get a danm good steak for a lot less then a decent portion of fish near us. The local fish shop sells skinned rabbits as well. Guess?
£7!!!! each!!!!
Errr no thanks

Alan

[wattsy]

i reckon they should use a 'season' system don't limit the number of fish that can be caught but limit the number of days fishing each boat can have then you'd get no bycatch at all it could all be landed. the icelandic system is all well and good but what if nobody wants to trade your catch?

[Melonfish]

From 5 minutes into the first program i was simply stating quota the time not the fish, the wastage is criminal!
what did the fisherman say? quota the time not the fish.
hell its such a simple solution that i can spot it within a few minutes of seeing the problem so why then did the EU think that putting quota's on the fish would help?
its depressingly insane
why is it there's always more reasons to tell the EU to stuff it all?

[Paul_B]

I could do with a good recipe (sp?) for mussels. I must admit to only having them on either pitzas or pickled.
There are lots of good fish that we could eat but I agree with you they are all to b***y expensive!
I can get a danm good steak for a lot less then a decent portion of fish near us. The local fish shop sells skinned rabbits as well. Guess?
£7!!!! each!!!!
Errr no thanks

Alan

I just sweat some shallots, or more likely onions as cheaper, with grlic (unless you no like) in a little oil then pour in some wine and the mussels and cover with a lid. Only use the closed mussles and only eat those fully open yadayadayada! Basically steam until open. Can put herbs in if you want. Also can take musssels out and add cream if you want. Serve in a bowl with the stock you cooked it in and a nice crusty white bread. Mop up the juices with the bread and you can scoop up the juices with an empty shell to save on cutlery if you want.

A nice sloppy meal. One you can get messy eating.

I think that is what I do. Not done for a while. I keep forgetting the mussel season so haven't bought for a while. I do same with mackeral. There are seasons where both are better. Is it winter for both??

BTW mussels in their shells take at most 10 minutes to cook. I'm sure people have better recipes too. YOu can use cider instead of white wine but when I did it I think I picked the wrong cider and it tasted too bitter. I read to use a dry cider which I did but it tasted way too bitter and welll appley for the mussels in my opinion.

[bilmo-p5]

... you can scoop up the juices with an empty shell to save on cutlery if you want.

Use an empty double shell like a pair of 'tongs' too, to pull the others out of their shells.

[Paul_B]

Use an empty double shell like a pair of 'tongs' too, to pull the others out of their shells.

I just suck or slurp them out of their shells. As I said mussels are just an excuse to eat messily without come back on the grounds of manners.

As a 17 or 18 yer old I travelled around Belgium and Holland a bit one summer. I got to Oostende by ferry and once ensconced in the hostel there went to the sea front to a restaurant. We ordered mussels (moule mariniere which is kind of what my recipe was). Two of us ordered it. We got a huge two handled pan put in the middle between us and got as much bread as we wanted. Each had a bowl and another one in the iddle for waste. Anyway we set to it and ate for what felt like ages without the pile of mussels going down in the pan. It was absolutely amazing as for the price of a happy meal at MacD's we were eating healthy mussels and a hell of a lotmore. In fact we didin't eat again til tea time the next day we ate so much. Now I really love mussels with a passion. My favourite food but after that I couldn't eat any more for the hwol trip despite mussels being a Belgium speciality. It was good though. If I was to guess I would say we each had the equivalent of two net baskets you get in supermarkets. Each of those net bags IMHO are for 2 or more likely 3 people as the main course. WE had huge appetites and hadn't eaten since a fry up that morning so were hungry in our defence but we did pig out.

You know what I am going to get some mussels. I get paid tomorrow so yes mussels this week. Yum yum!

I once went to a restaurant with my boss and a potential customer and we all had mussels as a starter. Now with customers you are on your best table manners. So I waited to see how they ate the mussels. I was amused to see the customer get hisknife and fork out to individually pick the mussels out of the shells to eat. My boss did the same, presumably not to show the customer up. So I had to do the same. It was a real awkward way of eating them. Anyway it was taking way too long so the customer got pissed off and said "I'm using my fingers on these bloody things you do what you want," at which point me and my boss immediately put tyhe cutlery down and started to wolf the rest of the mussels down. Moral of the story is... stuff the customer if you're eating mussels eat them anyway you damn well want to.

Then we all looked up with our three messy faces and sauce covered hands. It was the only meal at that French restaurant that I've ever liked. Can't beat mussels!

[gsfgaz]

i'm in ...