Each time the nets are drawn in, unwanted bycatch is caught.  The bycatch is fish which either won’t sell, or fish for which the trawler has used its full quota.  The unwanted fish, including threatened species, is thrown back dead known as “discarding”.  At fish Fishfight.net, you can read more about Hugh’s campaign to reform EU fishing laws and change the UK’s fish eating habits.  You can also support a petitioning letter which will be sent to the EU, MEPs and the fishing policy reform group.  Three TV episodes fronted by Hugh can be seen on 4OD, as can a series shorts by Jamie Oliver demonstrating recipes different types of fish.

Once signed up, help drive demand for other fish species by eating a fish that’s not Cod, Tuna or Salmon.  These three species apparently make up 50% of the total fish eaten in the UK.  A handy Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) guide shows which fish to try to buy and which to try to avoid in order to ease pressure on fish stocks.
Jamie Oliver’s Fish Suppers include Coley Korma.  This is a quick and easy fish dish, with the added bonus of being really cheap too.  Check out the full recipe here.  You’ll be surprised at how simple and tasty the dish is.  Buy cheap filleted Coley and this curry could become a regular feature on your menu.  The photo above (from C4Website) shows the dish!

You can’t go too wrong with barbequed or grilled Mackerel or Sardines.  If you’re put off by the pin bones, serve with crusty bread and you won’t notice them at all.  Hugh tries to get fried Mackerel baps on the chippy menu here.  Try also herring – like this previous post did, again, cheap, quick and tasty.

In a previous whatiatetoday post about Mussels explained how to gather and prepare wild Mussels.  If you buy sustainably farmed Mussels, either fresh or frozen, they’ll already be clean ready to go; you can knock up the same tasty recipe in minutes.

At the chip shop, consider Coley or Hake in batter.  It’s worth giving them a try and they’re often cheaper than Haddock or Cod.

Far from wanting to sound like a lecture, I hope this post will make you consider trying different types of fish, and consider why it may be that so few species are eaten in the UK.  In truth, I was prompted to blog this when I realised that I rarely cook fish and I don’t know why not.  It can be extremely hard to find alternative fresh fish in your local supermarket.  Most fresh fish in supermarkets is filleted and packaged up and not on a wet fish counter unless your lucky.  The fillets don’t look like fish being presented trimmed, skinless and boneless or a thick fish steaks.  Does fish which looks like fish not sell?

Salmon and Tuna steaks appear and are cooked more like meat than fish.  Perhaps this is key in understanding why other fish don’t appeal.  Are the supermarkets playing safe and stocking what sells?  A more sinister, if speculative explanation for the small number of species on sale, may be that it is quicker and cheaper to produce boneless fillets from salmon, cod and tuna, than from other species.  Is the large supermarket’s desire to minimise costs whilst maintaining “quality” driving them to use endangered species?  Or is it simply that people don’t feel confident with fish they don’t know.

Within days of launching his campaign, Hugh had large chains rushing to drop suppliers and badge fresh fish with “sustainable”, “approved”, or “line caught” labels.  Sadly, they still stock the same few species.  I am nervous about buying expensive fish which I don’t know how to cook, which may have lots of bones or make the kitchen smell of fish.  One of the great things about the fish Hugh advocates is that they are cheap.  At the end of the day, if you’re nervous about fish, it’s easy to see why big juicy tuna and salmon steaks are a safe bet and good value.  However, variety is the spice of life.  With many of the fish Hugh believes we should eat being so affordable, it’s defintilely worth trying some of them during these more austere times.  In the words of Dr Pepper, “try it, you might like it…”

The very reasonably price Mackerel fishing trips on Lyme (£8) were too good an opportunity to turn down!  In Lyme, different numbers of boats operate each day, depending on season, day and weather.  Blackboards and signs at the entrance to the Cobb (harbour wall) give information about various fishing trips, including Bassing trips, all day fishing trips and the ever popular Mackerel/sight seeing trips.  We wandered down to the end of the Cobb one sunny day to await the next boat trip.  The Frances Jane is a delightful little boat, operated by Doug and Amanda (both of whom are also diving instructors).  The boat is a converted Crabber from Cornwall, built in 1952 with a mahogany hull and was easily the prettiest boat in the harbour.

We chugged out into the bay, with beautiful views on show in the calm sunshine.  Using slithers of Mackerel as bait Amanda handed out the lines (long lines on a hand spool, with a large weight to take the line down and a bright coloured bead marking the leader line with the baited hook on the end).  Once the spool is tied onto the railings (to avoid mishaps) its a case of waiting till you feel the tug on the line before winding in the line and checking if there’s a shiny silver green/blue/black mackerel on the end.  Our haul wasn’t huge, apparently due to the hot weather and increasingly choppy seas.  The views were fantastic and the time was up before we knew it.  We’d both caught “one for the pot” and headed back to shore.

We popped into The Old Watch House fish monger at the start of the Cobb and bought a couple of Herring to supplement the Mackerel and pick up some ice packs to keep the fish cool while we walked back to the campsite.  I love the marbled silver green/blue/black pattern Mackerel have and the non slymey, not scaley feel of the fish (like you have with Trout for instance).  We gutted/cleaned the fish and opened the vino! 

I got the BBQ going and we polished off a dressed crab which we bought in The Old Watch House.  In the evening sunshine, the fish looked great.  The Old Watch House didn’t have any Sardines, but instead I bought Herring (essentially just large sardines).  Herring is more sustainable than Sardines, although I’m not sure if this is purely because Sardines are so much more popular.

We were a little low on provisions, so it was just the fish, with some black pepper corns crushed between 2 bricks.  We gave them about 3 minutes on either side, before serving up with crusty bread and salad.   We cooked the Herring in exactly the same way.  The fish skin went beautifully crisp on the barbecue and the smells during cooking were great.

Although the bones came out of the fresh fish very easily, lots of people are put of Mackerel because of the many small bones.  My tip is to always eat fresh crusty bread with small fish – so you don’t notice any little bones remaining.  All in all, the fish made a great dinner.  It left us wondering why we don’t eat fish more often?

The only downside of eating Mackerel and living in London is that inevitably you will be reminded of the tube game “Mackerel” which goes along the line of “there’s only one underground station on the whole of the network which doesn’t contain any of the letters of the word Mackerel – which one?” and then every time you see a tube map while waiting for a train, you’ll be staring and staring and cursing Dr Kate for ever telling you about the game in the first place.  Even worse, you’ll spend hours studying the map, feel let down when you realise the answer and then 2 years later, go fishing for Mackerel in Dorset and remember that you’ve forgotten which underground station it was and have to do it all again!  For the answer and many other random London Underground facts, click here.