A London Fishmonger

It's Not Just Cod, Its Skrei Cod

2012-01-24T20:49:00.000Z

I’ve seen some good looking fish in my time but today I saw something very special. Now you may roll your eyes if tell you it was cod “what’s special about that? everyone has seen a cod?”. And how true that is, everyone has seen a cod, especially me, however this is any old cod, this is a Norwegian delicacy cod, this is ‘Skrei’.

What first catches the eye about a Skrei cod is its colour. A very very dark top skin, glistening in the artificial light as the ice melts and runs down the flank.

Then the striking deep green of the body becomes apparent – just hypnotic. A prod and a poke and suspicions are confirmed; the flesh is as firm as when it left the sea on the end of a Norwegian fisherman’s line.

As the blocksman removes the fillets for a yield test of the first batch the beautiful large white flaked flesh was exposed. This was turning into fish porn!

So what is Skrei cod?

Well as you may have already gathered it’s a Norwegian line caught cod which is targeted only by small day boat fisheries. Due to the immense volume and the short term migration Skrei is there only for taking between January and March. For me the importance of this product is that it is one of the few Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) accredited species that arrive at market in exceptional condition and competitively priced. Condition is so important to the fisherman that only fish without skin blemishes can be packed and sent as Skrei (Unfortunately since the supermarkets have jumped on the ‘Brand mark’ bandwagon they have forced the price of many of our local sustainably caught species which then usually arrive to the counters in less than perfect condition). Additionally Skrei is supported by the World Wildlife Fund and remember when buying true Skrei will have the tag attached to the forward dorsal fin or the fillet should come with this reference.

There are a few articles on the internet explaining the Skrei phenomenon in more detail with this being probably the best

Skrei, the Norwegian miracle

Additionally if you can lay your hands on a copy of January’s edition of ‘Restaurant’ magazine there is a superb article on page 42.

I couldn't help but put a picture of my hair net on :-)

Sydney Fish Market

2011-04-18T09:33:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to admit that i am a fully fledged fish geek. Whether i be on holiday, working or just passing through i feel compelled to stop and look at the fish on sale. I do look at quality as i love testing my ability to pick fresh from old and i love looking at artistic displays, but in reality the fisheries scientist in me is always looking for species i have not seen before as that is what's really exciting. Imagine my excitement when all of a sudden i was in reaching distance of two of the worlds most prestigious fish markets, Tokyo & Sydney. Due to the earthquakes in Japan i have had to put off my trip to Tokyo, but i have finally managed to make the Sydney fish market.

The Brisbane and Melbourne fish markets were very poor in my opinion, although not as bad as Billingsgate but then again where is? But Sydney certainly has the wow factor. Like all other fish markets the car park is the hustle bustle of traders and public fighting each other for the quickest routes and the best views. The place itself is just a concrete building with 10 or so independent shops around the car park. Romantic it is not, historical looking it is not, a site offering the most wonderful sea food - it is.

The area that sets the Australian seafood market apart from the rest is their offer of cooked crustaceans. Whether it be Western Australian or New South Wales rock lobsters, Moreton bay bugs, mud crabs or the extensive range of prawns, one is just drawn to the colours and patterns of the displays created on the slabs. In Australia the demand for cooked seafood at Christmas is astronomical. However, there is a continued demand throughout the rest of the year which does allow shops and supermarkets to have a good offer day in day out.

The wonderful colours can be seen in the pictures above and below which make for spectacular displays.

Throw a prawn on the bar-b they say. Well I'm not sure how accurate that is as the majority sold are already cooked. There are some wonderful flavored prawns out here especially the Queensland banana prawn and some of the jumbo South Australian Tigers. And what makes them so great in a display is the subtle variance in colours from bright red, through the orange shades onto a dull pink. When set out on a slab it is quite hypnotic.

Very few crustaceans seemed to be sold alive or even raw. I am not sure why this is as the majority of Aussies know exactly how to prepare and cook them. Maybe it is a lazy option? Anyhow the rock lobster is a most beautiful creature and i managed to find a few lives ones at the market.

One thing that is very different in this area of the world is the way oysters are sold. Imagine how Pierre would frown if he saw opened oysters on a tray at his local Brittany fish market. I had never seen this concept before and i guess its a great way to move volume. I can confirm, however, that shucked and eaten immediately far supersedes previously opened on both taste and texture. I do love the way they are displayed like this.

Until visiting Sydney i hadn't seen any eye catching seafood displays in Australia (the best have been created by me 9if i do say so myself) when involved in store openings and workshops at a well known supermarket). The displays in Queensland seem very regimental in their style and I'm guessing they are attempting to use quality as the selling point. NSW has a very different approach, a more loving and caring approach displays are set out with pride.

The fish at the market was beautifully fresh. It was difficult to find examples of old fish on display. Of course this is how it should be. They are professionals, they understand how to look after fish to prolong its shelf life and would have a great understanding of potential sales versus ordering patterns. Only when one fully understands this within their own seafood business can they truly offer a display with few blemishes. These guys have nailed it!

On the visit i had a secondary agenda. I was in the process of producing some specialist seafood workshops for a number of supermarket stores and decided they needed to see photos of high quality product. I love the photograph above. When you look closely the two different quality products can be seen intermingled to disguise the older ones. A common trick :-)

Some examples of sashimi cuts of salmon, tuna and octopus.

Sydney fish market is a wonderful place and a mecca for any fish loving foodie. A must visit.
http://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/

The Fish Fight has Only Just Begun

2011-01-20T07:24:00.001Z

So its taken a couple of celebrity chefs and an evening slot on C4 to achieve something Charles Clover’s End of the Line failed to do – ‘Gain support’ I am unsure as to whether Hugh’s fish fight campaign will change the ways of those select unscrupulous fisherman that continue to discard everything they catch until their bow is full of prime sized species; I am unsure as to whether the EU will take on board the significance and act on half a million signatures over the best available scientific advice that they already use; I am unsure that the biggest and most destructive of fish catching nations will be deterred from targeting endangered species on a call from a man that lives in a River Cottage. However, what I am sure of is that the tide is turning. Supermarkets have responded immediately to a call of change from their clientele and independents are offering more diverse species otherwise thought inedible. We can only all hope that if the demand drops from the end user followed by the retail sector then the fishermen will target alternative species. Of course whilst Europe still pays a premium the species will continue to be a target, but one small step at a time. Many said the management programs for North Sea and Eastern Canadian Cod stocks were too little too late. This has shown not to be the case and with time and careful management species will recover, its what they do best.

So what can we do?

Well keep this bandwagon running. Be the one that reads the correct material and I don’t mean newspaper articles, but books or websites from genuine sources. Take time to understand why you are changing your eating habits and don’t just do it because Hugh told you too. The fish and fisheries world is very complex but also fascinating. The more you understand the better you will feel when you choose your dinner. Don’t expect good advice from a supermarket as it will generally be littered with inaccuracies and don’t walk into an independent fishmonger expecting a) him to know absolutely everything and b) him to be absolutely honest. Unfortunately there are people out there, like in any business, who will say exactly what you want to hear. Become friends with your fishmonger it’s the best way.

So to help you understand the complexities of this subject I have listed some extra reading below. Many are anti fishing so will give extreme views and apply exaggerated scare mongering but that is the only method that drums the message across. If you find more useful sites please don’t hesitate to post them in the comments.

Happy reading and remember to make the ethical choice :-)

Hugh’s Fish Fight Homepage – have you signed up?

http://www.fishfight.net/

MCS – MARINE Conservation Society Homepage

http://www.mcsuk.org/

Buying Guide – direct link to the FISHONLINE ethical buying chart

http://www.fishonline.org/buying_eating/seafood.php

FISHONLINE - identify which fish are from well managed sources

http://www.fishonline.org/

Seasons Guide – You know what to eat but do you know when?

http://www.wellseasoned.co.uk/media/09/309-seas.chart.fish.1.2e.pdf

Good Catch - designed to help you make responsible decisions about which seafood to put on your menu
http://www.goodcatch.org.uk/be-informed/good-catch-essentials/

Red List – The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

http://www.iucnredlist.org/initiatives/europe

Line caught – Website dedicated to the line catch Cornish industry

http://www.linecaught.org.uk/

The End of The line Homepage

http://endoftheline.com/

Fish2Fork – Follow up to The End of The Line pinpointing fish selling practices of top restaurants

http://www.fish2fork.com/blog/

Gravlax Just In Time For Christmas

2010-12-19T09:48:00.000Z

Gravlax derives from Scandinavia and is a very simple process of dry-curing by marinading in salt, sugar, pepper and Dill. The result is a delicious dark, firm dill salmon perfect for Christmas or Boxing Day starter.

Firstly your salmon needs to be fresh as it could be up to twelve days old when finally consumed. When buying salmon from your fish monger look for bright and visually appealing fillets. Avoid fillets that show signs of:

Gapping – The flakes of fish appearing to be open. Commonly seen along the line of pin boning or on the fattier sections of the belly flap. Gapping is a sign of old fish.

Soft texture – Old or badly handled salmon will be soft to the touch. If you can press your finger onto the skin and the indentation remains or retracts slowly the fish is to be avoided. Bare in mind if the fish has been scalled the fish will feel slightly softer to the touch so a little leeway should be given.

Patching or lightening of colour – If the salmon has lighter colour patches on the flesh this is probably due to ice burn or water absorption. This is usually a result of poor handling. Although this has probably not affected the freshness and it would cook fine it is not ideal to use for gravlax.

Gravlax requires two matching pieces of salmon fillet with identical thicknesses. This is not the easiest to obtain unless you are great friends with you fishmonger, therefore I would suggest ordering the whole fish (a 4kg head on gutted salmon will yield two skin on sides of approximately 1kg each) then have your fishmonger scale and fillet it for you. When at home you can cut and match your own size. Don’t forget to take the bones as you can scrape enough meat from the frame to make wonderful fishcakes.

For every 1 kg of salmon cured you will need the following ingredients;

1 medium/large bunch of dill chopped

65grms coarse sea salt

50grms white sugar

1 ½ tablespoons of crushed white peppercorns

1. mix all of the above ingredients together

2. lay one of the salmon fillets skin side down on a large piece of cling film

3. cover the upwards facing flesh evenly with the mixed ingredients

4. place the second fillet flesh down on top of the first

5. wrap tightly three or four times with cling film

In the past I have experienced a problem when the marinade (the marinade is produced when the salt draws the water from the fish which then mixes with the other ingredients) leaks from the wrap. Recently I have found better success just wrapping tightly in a food bag. Once wrapped place on a tray and put into the fridge turning every twelve hours. You can place a weighted plate directly on top which helps by forcing the fillets together. The salmon can be cured in the fridge for up to seven days, but I usually do around five. Once cured it has a further shelf life of five days.

When cured the salmon calves easily due to its now firm nature. Try to cut thinly, however not as this as regular smoked salmon. There are some great ready made dill sauces than can be served as an accompaniment but I tend to use creamy sauces such as horseradish and mustard as it balances nicely against the dill marinade.

So there you have it one of the easiest, yet most striking fish starters you can make. Once you have mastered the simple version you can move onto varying the cures to suit your own taste.

Beetroot Cured Salmon

2010-12-18T22:45:00.000Z

Hi All,

Apologies for a lack of content recently but unfortunately my current job doesn't really offer me the correct information to blog about. I now work for Australia's largest seafood company and spend most of my time in supermarkets offering seafood specialist support to improve standards; Would actually make wonderful reading. Whilst in Australia I had hoped to spend a lot of time fishing, catching, preparing, cooking and blogging the outcome, however, Queensland is in its wettest and stormiest spell for 10 years so that has put pay to that. So all i had was the cricket, but that went pear shaped at the WACCA yesterday. Anyhow i will endeavor to find subject matter whilst i am here in Australia or alternatively when i return.

I have a twitter paper running daily which collects and publishes all the most recent news in the industry so it well worth a look.

The Fish & Seafood Daily

Mat :-)

Snappers

2010-10-09T02:31:00.000+01:00

I will always argue that fish from North East Atlantic have the finest of flavours and that cold water fish provide the best eating. However, since moving to the Southern Hemisphere I have had the opportunity to sample some beautiful fish including a fine range of snappers. When involved with wet fish in London I was only aware of the Red snapper which was generally the only species available at any level of quality. Here in Queensland there are a number of snappers available including what seems the most popular species of crimson snapper and frypan snapper (or frypan bream). Unlike the Red Snapper (usually imported from the Seychelles) that is commonly found in UK and has a soft texture when cooked the Australian species are much meatier with some that compare to eating steak soft steak. There texture is unlike any fish I have tried before and due to the firmness holds up well to more aggressive cooking techniques. Currently the Golden Snapper, Saddletail Snapper and Goldband Snapper are my three favorites, but I still have a number to try. When buying your fillets compare to the pictures below as they are a great guide to quality.

Golden Snapper Fillets

Gold band Snapper Cutlets

Saddletail Snapper Fillets

Brioche Crusted GoldBand Snapper

http://tinyurl.com/2fqbasl

Barbecued Goldband Snapper Fillets in Vine Leaves with Warm Lentil Salad

http://tinyurl.com/2cyj9qc

Goldband Snapper with lemon

http://tinyurl.com/22jr8e9

Baked Snapper

http://tinyurl.com/244zbll

Spotted Mackerel with a Cream Prawn Sauce

2010-07-10T03:07:00.001+01:00

Moving to Queensland from London meant I had a whole new set of fish to learn about. Some are similar like the dory and members of the cod family while others I saw on the counters in London such as barracuda, salmon and snapper. In general though most of them can be compared to fish I am already used to in terms of texture and taste.

This is the first time I have cooked with Spotted mackerel which is a beautiful fish caught from the east coast of Australia. The flesh is similar to the Atlantic mackerel, but has very little dark meat, it is less fishy to the palate and as the fish grows larger so it allows nice square portion sizes to be cut. Visually the two fish are different as the Atlantic mackerel has the amazing dark blue/green external flashes on its flanks whereas the Spotted mackerel is a stunning silver sided beast. The monger at Aussie Seafood House, Lawton produced some beautiful fillets from the fish that was about 1.25 kg (my knives are still on a container ship heading our way so he had to do it for me).

This is a simple way to serve fish and can be used with any species although it may favour white fish slightly more. I decided to cook the fish in my favourite way by seasoning well then cooking skin down in a hot pan with olive oil for 2-3 minutes then finishing off in a hot oven for a further 8 minutes. I just feel this method gives a more even cook than on the hob. This method is also wonderful for such species as dover and lemon sole, whole place and other smaller flatfish.

I decided to serve the fish with a prawn sauce although the wife wanted an oyster sauce from a bottle - yikes! I removed the shells from the prawns which I then sautéed in olive oil with some chopped shallot and a little garlic. After a couple of minutes I flambéed with some brandy, added a little chopped fennel, enough weak chicken stock to cover the shells and reduced by half. Once reduced I strained into another saucepan and reduced by half again, seasoned, and added a little cream. It is such a simple sauce and if you find yourself buying prawns and don’t need the shells just pop them in the freezer for a sauce next time. I have found dill instead of fennel works well especially if you are not partial to aniseed. I served blanched pak choi with the dish.

If I were directly comparing to the Atlantic mackerel I would have to say the Aussie fish wins this time. The texture was so beautifully soft and flavoursome and the ability to serve even shaped size portions allow a better consistently in cooking.

Potting for Crabs and Lobsters

2010-06-09T04:52:00.001+01:00

We all love our shellfish from crab and lobster to whelks and prawns. It must be remembered that these, unlike the harvested bivalve species mussels, clams and oysters, have to be caught by trapping or potting methods. This type of fishing can be hugely rewarding but also very dangerous. The short blog post gives a simple explanations into the procedure of catching our favorite seafood.

Traditionally there are two main types of pot in the UK. The creel is constructed from a wooden frame consisting of a rectangular batten base surmounted with ‘D’ shaped hoops or bows and then netted. The entrance or entrances are side mounted and are known as soft eyes together with a stretched band across the pot used for baiting. The inkwell was originally made entirely from wickerwork with a circular base and a neck in the top. These were baited using wooden skewers pushed into the inside of the neck.

There are a large number of shapes and designs both on the near continent and worldwide that have been created to do similar jobs. The standard theory for these differences is the availability of local materials. Today the two major shapes are constructed from metal or plastic frames covered with netting. This netting is usually 3mm black polypropylene with a 75mm mesh but could vary depending on target species. Other designs of various materials are produced, some commercially and some by fisherman, and provided they obey the basic rules they will fish perfectly well. Even if a good pot has been selected many other factors could determine whether a good catch is made.

Species not located – The target species may not be present in the area, or not hungry. Other possibilities include mating, moulting, predators in the area, sea conditions or weather conditions.

Bait – The bait could be of an incorrect type it could be incorrectly positioned or it may have been dislodged as the pot enters the water. Edible Crabs (Cancer pagurus) and spider crabs (Maja squinado) have a preference for very fresh bait compared to the lobster (Homarus gammarus) that has a liking for stale oily bait.

Pots badly positioned on the seabed – This could be due to incorrect weighting. Problems can arise if rocks or other debris block the entrance.

Dislodged pots – Could be carried away by sea conditions, tides or towed away by trawlers.

Scavengers – The bait could attract scavenger species such as sea lice or conger eels before the shellfish have located the pots.

The ropes disturb target species – Due to tide movement.

Pot disturbs shellfish – It is common for shellfish to put off pots that are moving with the tide. This is usually down to the weight of the pot.

Shellfish feeds on the bait from the outside of the pot – This will be down to poor baiting arrangements or practices.

Other shellfish in the pot preventing entry for others – The lobster does not like a large number of spider crabs so may not enter, or the entrance may be blocked by a large spider crab.

Shellfish enters and is eaten by other shellfish – The lobster and brown crabs are cannibalistic and will turn on each other.

Shellfish eats the bait and then escapes – The spider crab rarely escapes and the brown crab will successfully escape but they are slow to do so. The lobster will enter and leave un-trapped pots at will.

The lobster seems to be happier in dark pots with plenty of room. The pot can be adapted to be darker by double netting, but this will add cost and tide drag to the gear. An increase in pot size would also up the cost as well as adding weight to the pot. Stowage and handling problems could also be created and as ever the final decision will have to be a compromise.

Once a shellfish has entered the pot it can be retained by fitting some form of trap in the pot to prevent escape. In the case of a creel this is done by the use of a parlour. A parlour is a separate compartment at one end of the creel, which is entered via a net funnel with a taught deck and a roof, which closes after entry. This method is highly efficient and have made it possible for some boats to double or treble the number of pots used as they only need to be worked every two or three days. This has had a major effect on some shellfish stocks.

It is not possible to fit a parlour to an inkwell pot. The answer has been a trap across the neck, which prevents exit, or a rubber skirt, which discourages exit.

The majority of pots are usually rigged with a bridle and spinner. The spinner is designed to permit the pot to spin in bad conditions without twisting the back rope. This is a convenient way of attaching or removing the pot from the string.

Pots may be shot singly by very small inshore boats but more commonly they are shot in strings or fleets. These strings may be of up to 80 pots in the case of large offshore super-crabbers. The strings will depend on the size of the boat, the number of crew and the ground being worked. The spinner is attached to the ground rope (back rope) by a short snood (1 – 5 fathom length) with a figure of eight knot at the spinner and then spliced into the back rope. The pots are spaced along the back rope at intervals of between 10 and 15 fathoms. At either end of the back rope there may be an anchor or weight. Either this weight or the last pot is attached to the head rope, which are between 2 and 3 times the depth of the water with some sort of buff, float or dhan flag combination.

The rope is usually hard lay split film polypropylene, though it can be monofilament which is more expensive. Smaller boats will commonly use 10mm rope and larger deep-water boats will use up to 14mm. There is also a tendency for some boats to use leaded ropes for a variety of reasons.

There is less drag on the gear as the ground rope is on the bottom.
There is less chafe on the ground rope as there is less movement.
There is less rope on the surface at slack water, which is important in areas of heavy boat traffic.
Disadvantages include cost and strength, as it is weaker for given diameter of rope.

When the gear is hauled it is done by a slave line hauler. This may be mounted either on a ‘P’ bracket or inboard with the rope coming aboard through a snatch block suspended from a davit.

Once hauled the pots need to be cleaned. This entails the removal of shellfish and by-catch to be retained and the removal of undersized shellfish and unwanted by-catch to be returned. The pots are then re-baited and stacked back ready to be shot. When they have all been stacked aboard the pots can be re-shot on the same ground if the catch warrants it or they can be moved elsewhere. It is good practice to use the same man shooting as stacking back because shooting the pots in the wrong order can be very dangerous.

Below are pictures of the target catch: Brown Crab (top), Spider Crab (middle),Native Lobster (Bottom)

Methods to Prevent Fish Spoilage

2010-06-01T06:53:00.000+01:00

Ever wondered about the procedures undertaken to preserve the highest quality seafood that ends up onto your plate? Or have you ever considered how it is possible to buy good quality fish from other continents? Much research time and money is spent on finding the best way to preserve food especially fish being as it is the fastest degrading of them all. Various methods of preservation can reduce the spoilage processes of freshly caught fish and shellfish. The initial stages of processing are highly important when trying to maintain important qualities such as freshness, taste, aesthetic values, and edibility of fish. The lowering of quality in any of these areas will cause degradation amounting to the de-valuing of the product when offered to markets or for public consumption.

The two main causes of spoilage in fish are from the self-digestion of tissues, created by enzymes and the bacterial breakdown of the flesh. Immediately after death the fish will start to experience the stiffening of body muscles, this is known as rigor mortis, and if handled incorrectly when being processed the tearing of muscles can occur. The speed of onset is dictated by storing temperatures and glucose contents of the red muscle. This condition can last between one and five days before it starts to wear off.

The micro organisms that can be found on fish will undoubtedly effect the eating quality and the abundance will vary with their chosen environment, the biological state, impacts of nutrition and the effect of the actual catching the fish and these factors are commonly found to be species specific. The biological cycle and nutritional status significantly affect the lipid content and enzyme activity in fishes. Small sized species such as sprat, caplin, and anchovies have a high abundance of hydrolytic enzymes if they have been feeding well. This results in the rapid quality degradation caused by autolysis, resulting in the bursting of the belly.

Although these processes reduce the quality of the fish, the main cause of spoilage is the bacterial load. The presence of bacteria in the muscle areas and bodily fluids of a freshly caught fish is minimal, but areas such as the gut, gills, and slime do contain larger quantities. The regulatory mechanisms that prevent bacteria from invading the tissues cease to function immediately after death. The bacteria will then attack the fishes flesh, travelling from the gills and kidney using the vascular system as their main route. The main groups of bacteria located include Pseudomanas, Achromobacters, and Flavobactors. It has been found that trawled fish contain between 10-100 times more of these due to the dragging through the seabed substrate that contains large amounts of bacteria. High temperatures coincide with peak bacterial quantities; seasonal variations also have a role as some species of plankton have antibiotic effects on the populations of bacteria.

Initial preservation techniques

Washing and gutting

Washing with clean water is thought to reduce the bacterial content of a freshly killed fish by 80 to 90%. Fish pick up large amounts of bacteria when coming into contact with decks and holds plus the time spent in the sun whilst waiting for processing to commence. Sometimes these actions are unavoidable; therefore, the exposure times to the fish must be reduced to the lowest possible levels. Some experts suggest that the gutting of fish does not reduce the bacterial decomposition, but does slow the digestion of the body cavity walls. The gut area contains large amounts of bacteria therefore fish coming into contact with any removed innards will increase their own overall bacterial loads.

Bleeding

Whilst fish are being stored residues of blood contained in the fillets may undergo oxidation to brown methemoglobin and can catalyse lipid oxidation. Therefore, to preserve the ideal colour of white flesh before chilling, effective bleeding techniques should take place.

Icing

After the discussed processes have taken place, the fish can then be stored on ice. The quality preserving effect of ice on fish is due to the reducing in speeds of undesirable biochemical and chemical reactions, plus the retardation of the spoilage activity of micro-organisms. The temperature and distribution of the ice and the size of the fish are the determining factors of chilling speeds; therefore, ice can have a high cooling capacity if distributed efficiently. Increased storage life gained from chilling varies dramatically with the species of fish. Small fatty fish have an increased life of 5-8 days, lean white fish caught in cold waters can be stored for up to 14 days and species such as mullet and breams from tropical fisheries last for 30 days. Shovels used for the moving of crushed ice tend to transfer bacteria due to initial exposure to the fish. Regular changing of ice and cleaning of holds along with the use of clean shovels are important to reduce this effect. One benefit of icing fish is the added washing capabilities it creates when melting, therefore areas storing the iced fish must have adequate drainage as resting water holds large quantities of bacteria. Common ratios of ice to fish are 1kg to 3kg respectively, with an increase of ice for longer storage periods. Various types of ice are in use with flake ice being the most popular. This type is around 1-2 cm in length and 0.5cm in thickness and has a very intermit contact with the fish. This is important as damage will decrease the value of the product and increase the spoilage rate.

Refrigerated water

Some vessels, especially those working in the pelagic industry, will use refrigerated water as a fish storage method as this causes less damage to the product and cleans them in the process. The bacteria will stay in the water so there is a need for regular change to avoid contamination. The spoilage rate is initially lower than iced fish but after 4-5 days it starts to accelerate then begins to spoil faster. It is not viable to keep all species in water as some absorb salts via osmosis or to much water and liquefy. The temperature of the water needs to be close to freezing, as spoilage rates are much lower at –2oc than they are at 0oc.

Freezing

Many boats have the capability to freeze fish aboard, and this can increase the shelf life of fish by up to 18 months. The modern fishing trade apply frozen storage temperatures of around –30oc to as low as –60oc, and as the most resistant micro-organisms become inactive at –12oc these temperatures are efficient at controlling the rate of spoilage. As bacterial growth stops at commercial freezing temperatures it is suggested that the quality of frozen stored fish depend on the following factors:

Temperature and time of storage
Rates of freezing
Initial quality of seafood, sometimes determined by species.
Preparation before freezing leading to freshness.
Reliability of protection against desiccation and oxidation.
Effectiveness of the protection against detrimental protein changes.

After the consideration of these factors the most efficient method of freezing can now be selected. The three commonly used methods include the blowing of cold air, direct contact between a refrigerated surface and the fish or the immersion or spraying of a refrigerated liquid.

The use of air

Convection or air blast freezers are the most common methods found in the fishing industry. These systems use fans to force a convection of air around a chamber where the fish are standing. The flow rate of the air needs to be reasonably high with a constant uniform stream at all times, therefore a compromise between this and slow freezing rates need to be applied. Approximately 5m/s is close to the compromise required. A major advantage with air blast freezers is the versatility of being able to store fish of various shapes and sizes, although uneven freezing can be common and sometimes a dry product is the result.

Contact freezing

Another frequently used method is contact or plate freezing. These systems do not have the same versatility as air blast freezers because they only have the capability to freeze regular shaped blocks or packages. Horizontal and vertical variations are in use; both constructed from aluminium alloy plates and driven by hydraulics systems.

Horizontal plates

Horizontal plate freezers have two main uses:

The freezing of pre-packed boxes of fish or related products.

Forming consistent rectangular blocks, commonly known as laminated blocks, for the preparation of fish portions. The thickness of the block should fall between 32mm and 100mm, but the machine will only function correctly if the top and bottom surfaces make good contact.

Vertical plates

The main advantage with vertical plate freezers is that the extra packaging or arrangement of trays is unnecessary therefore bulk freezing can be employed with blocks approximately 1070mm x 535mm in size. The weight of the block is the only point restricting large scale freezing, as the physical capability of the user to remove it becomes too large. The majority of species will produce their own compact block; therefore, they can be loaded between the plates without the need of water. Some soft fatty fish do require the addition of water to fill the unwanted holes; the benefits of adding water include:

Strengthening of the block.

Protection of the fish during handling.

Can reduce the effect of dehydration and oxidation.

Salt solution

The uses of sodium chloride or calcium chloride brine solutions allow temperatures to decrease to –15oc before freezing starts. This creates a fast freeze resulting in a good quality, natural looking product although water drawn from the fish via osmosis can cause weight loss and a very salty flavour. It is usual for only large tough skinned species such as tuna, which end up canned (salt added in process), being frozen with this method. The system is cheap to set up but the maintenance can be costly due to the corrosive nature of salt.

Liquid gas

Liquid gas is the most recent form of refrigerant tried, but due to the costs, it is only viable to freeze high value species. Gases such as freon, carbon dioxide or nitrogen can be used all providing extremely fast freezing times, essential for gaining a good final product. There are many advantages to liquid gas freezing, which include: -

Quick and efficient freezing
Low maintenance
No need for compressors, condensers or coolers
Size of the unit is relatively small
Power required for operation is low

The main disadvantage of this method is expense, as it can be up to four times more costly than air blast freezers. Figure five shows the simple set up of a liquid nitrogen freezer, capable of working to temperatures as low as –196oc.

Drying and salting

The drying of fish by means of the sun was probably the first method used for preserving seafood. The risk of microbial spoilage is reduced at high rates of drying due to the decrease in water activity by the removal of water. The level of humidity in the atmosphere dictates the spoilage rate of dried fish and a level of less than 10-14% seems adequate for good preservation

The application of salt before drying helps to accelerate the water removing process. The lighter the salting, the less preservation is given to the product, as water contents will still be high. The types of salt used are very important as large quantities of trace elements can cause detrimental effects to the aesthetic value and taste. Better quality fish products are usually white in colour; therefore, large amounts of copper in the salt will lead to an unwanted brown or grey coloration. Although calcium and magnesium produce a white product the levels of these elements cannot exceed 0.5% as a bitter taste and brittle product will be the outcome. Bleeding of the fish is essential, as any residues of blood left in the fillet will cause discolouring to the final product. The grain size also needs consideration as fine grades have a tendency to block the drainage holes in the salting vats, causing a build up of bacteria. Over several months, at room temperature, the shelf life of dried salty products can be affected by the following factors: -

Humidity and temperature of the environment
Salt concentration
Presence of preservatives
Water quality
Infestation of insects and vermin

All of these factors create spoilage problems, but insects cause the majority of losses in dried fish, during storage. The oily species of fish do not preserve well in this fashion, as the oil tends to go rancid. Pickle curing is the chosen method and the fish can be treated whole, gutted, either with or without the head. If the guts of the fish are removed, the pyloric caeca is left as the enzymes it contains give the mature flavouring. The fish are salted in the same way as lean white fish, but they remain in a brine solution instead of being dried. The life span of this product, depending on contact with air, is around one year

Marinades

Marinating is a form of preserving by the use of both salt and acetic acid. The shelf life of the product is limited by the concentration of acid, but high levels need to be avoided due to the ability of stomaching by humans. Herring and anchovy are preferred species and bivalve molluscs are also common, but these are cooked before being they are treated.

The fish are filleted then washed in a 5-10% salt solution before treatment, this removes blood and scales as well as adding flavour and drawing water from the flesh. The concentrations of acid and salt are affected by the simple use of a lid. An open vat contains approximately 4% acid and 10% salt increasing to 7% and 14% respectively if the vat is sealed. If the concentration is high, fish tend to float giving uneven absorption and unneeded spoilage. Sugar can be added to reduce the bitter taste of the acid. The absorption rate is temperature dependent, but commonly the fish stay in the vat for approximately three weeks at 3oc. After this period the fish are removed and jarred, with the addition of a weaker brine solution around 1-2: 1. Additives such as peppers or peppercorns are included to increase the appeal.

As discussed there are many preserving and processing methods available to control the spoilage rates of fresh fish. The methods vary from high cost liquid cryogenic freezers to cheap and effective greenhouse dryers, thus allowing the whole world the opportunity to enjoy many variations of fish products. With the increased technology of freezing methods it is possible that the consumers will move away from flavoured, preserved, chemically contaminated fish back to the initial product removed from the sea.

Apologies for the Silence

2010-05-26T10:57:00.000+01:00

Many of you will know that I moved from London to Australia at the end of April this year. I left my lovely boys in Chelsea and moved 12000 miles across the world with my wife for, well, for some reason or another. Anyhow my situation has left me nothing really to blog about at this point in time. I hope soon to be back involved with fish in some capacity and then I can unveil the diversity of the Australian seafood phenomenon. Funnily enough I did have an interview today with one of Australia’s top seafood wholesalers, but true to form the interviewer never showed up. A re-schedule was requested for tomorrow, however I will be setting pots in the creek to catch mud crabs for dinner so I declined. Why interview someone with 20 years experience in fish and seafood? How could they offer anything to your business? More importantly if we catch some mud crabs I have a blog post to write.

Thanks for bearing with me and I will be back.

Octopus - No more excuses

2010-04-27T15:31:00.001+01:00

Fresh octopus is not the most common sight in the UK and when spotted it can be a little daunting spread across the ice of the fishmonger’s slab. The countries surrounding the Mediterranean swear by baby octopuses, but such an item is not available at quality to us Brits. However do not fear as the good old South West has a large number of fisheries that yield excellent octopus.

When you purchase your octopus it may need a rigorous clean. Your fishmonger might gut it for you and skin it if you’re lucky, but the ink will also needs washing from the suckers on each of the legs. Make sure the beak is also removed. At this stage you can bag and freeze your cleaned octopus for up to two weeks which will help to tenderise it.

Pickled Octopus
1kg of Octopus
Approx 150ml olive oil
Approx 150ml red wine Vinegar
4 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
fresh thyme

Place the body and tentacles in a pan with 8 tablespoons of water. Cover and simmer for 1 hour on a very low heat. Drain off excess liquid. When cooled cut into pieces and pack loosely into a screw top jar with some sprigs of fresh thyme.

Mix the oil, vinegar and garlic together, season, an then pour into the jar until the octopus is completely immersed. Now the hard part – the wait. Seal the jar and leave for five days turning occasionally. Before use give the jar a number of rotations as the vinegar would have settled to the bottom with the majority of the octopus.

Commonly picked octopus is eaten cold in a salad, but one of my favorite ways is adding it to a tomato based pasta dish. Add plenty of fresh time and crushed garlic to the olive oil whilst softening a number of fresh cherry tomatoes. Drain the octopus before adding to the pasta as too much vinager makes the dish very sharp, almost too sharp. And here you have it:

That painting on the wall

2010-04-15T14:20:00.002+01:00

Last night i visited a restaurant in Soho, a restaurant that held a special connection with me. The purpose of my visit was not really the food, but to see a painting. For a number of months a very nice lady by the name of Haidee Becker was coming to the shop in search for fish to paint. I spent much time with her trying to find interesting subjects that would make her paintings special. After a while she explained that the pictures were for the wall off her son and chef Jacob Kenedy's restaurant Bocca di lupo (mouth of the wolf). Such fish as the greater weaver fish, silver dory and a painted ray were featured in the painting along with more common species like lobster, squid and mackerel. I was delighted to see the picture and managed to take some snaps before dinner. Whilst searching my photos i found pictures of the actual ray and silver dory used by Haidee in the painting.

I feel i should also mention the dining experience. We started with a raw fish starter which incorporated a langoustine tail, that was very tasty, two small prawns, a slice of bream and a slither of scallop. We also had a Roman starter of Tripe with guanciale, chilli and tomato which had a great texture an some rich flavors. Our mains were a simple clams with cannellini beans, tomato and basil with a side of Agretti - monksbeard with butter and lemon and my pal had roast suckling pig and cicoria. We washed all this down with two half litres of cheerful Pinot Grigio.

http://www.haideebecker.com/
www.boccadilupo.com

Fillet a Sole the Mongers Way

2010-04-07T17:55:00.001+01:00

It can be very rewarding to buy your fish, take it home, then prepare it yourself. The majority of home and professional chefs are taught to fillet flat fish such as Turbot, Sole and Plaice into quarters. This is the easiest and quickest way to produce fillets, however, it will only ever yield quarter fillets. On many occasions the whole fillet, which does look more impressive, is needed for certain dishes especially those that require rolled finishes. I used whole plaice when self teaching myself to fillet flatfish and would suggest this species as a great option as it is generally the cheapest available. The example below is with a lemon sole which is as easy to fillet as a plaice. Personally i would say Dover Sole are the most difficult of the flats to work with as they have the softest of bones.

After removing the head place the fish white skin down on your chopping board. The topside of a flat fish is thicker than the underside and as they are not square by nature this means it will lay flatter on your board. Insert the point of your knife above the bone and gently insert.

With your spare thumb lift the fillet to expose the bone which will allow you to see where you are cutting and then continue to caress the knife all the way along the skeleton until the point appears by the tail.

Now the hard bit that isn't required if quarter filleting. Gently roll the point over the raised centre bone at either head or tail end, which ever you feel comfortable with, then run the knife from one end to the other.

Remove the knife, turn it in your hand so it will run flat to the bone, then in one sweep run your blade over the skeleton.

So we have a Lemon Sole with the top side fillet removed. You can now see the ridge that runs down the centre.

The fish is then turned over and the same process is followed on the B-side. Do take care as the underside is up to a third thinner so requires a little more care when rolling over the centre ridge.

So there you have two clean fillets of Lemon Sole. These can be trimmed tighter to the flesh and/or skinned quite easily with a flexible blade. This fish had a little roe so the trimming was minimal.

Pasta & Prawn Parcels

2010-03-30T20:04:00.000+01:00

With only a couple of weeks left working as a fishmonger in London I thought I would move away from my usual ranting and offer some blog posts of direct interest to fish eaters. Over the past five years i have probably sold something in the region of 2.7 metric tonnes of large black tiger prawns. These derive from Africa as a wild product or sometimes as farmed. As with all warm water prawns they are caught/harvested and then frozen before being transported. They are very impressive visually and are commonly used as the wow item at a dinner party or peeled and put into a curry. However, I have never eaten them as neither of the aforementioned methods really grabbed me so I searched around for a simple but tasty recipe.

Pasta & Prawn Parcels

225grm dried pasta preferably fettuccine or linguine
75ml green pesto (decided to use homemade)
2tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
75ml dry white wine
salt and pepper

I started by making some green pesto by grinding basil leaves and garlic into a paste. Adding some crushed toasted pine nuts, parmigiano, olive oil and beating in butter my pesto was ready. After fully peeling and deveining I was left with eight succulent juicy prawns.

Gently boil the pasta for 4 minutes then drain and set aside. When the pasta has cooled mix with half of the pesto. Add I tsp of olive oil to the centre of each 12" square greaseproof sheets then divide the pasta evenly on the top. Lay on the prawns and then spoon on the remaining pesto and the crushed garlic. Season, sprinkle the wine over, seal the parcels and bake for 10-15 minutes on 200c/Gas Mark 6.

Such a simple dish but hugely tasty and maybe I've proved to myself that prawns are more than just for chucking of the bar-be and these large prawns do have an excellent taste and texture if not overcooked.

Is sustainable and ethical ever achievable? Fishing for answers.

2010-03-23T21:07:00.031Z

Sustainable – Capable of being maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage (Collins English Dictionary)

Ethical – In accordance with principles of conduct that are considered correct. (Collins English Dictionary)

You look from the window and watch your neighbor put three black bags of rubbish out and you wonder where his recycling is. You arrive at work on the bus at the same time a colleague pulls up in his brand new gas guzzling Range Rover. You over hear the man in Starbucks talking about his third flight to Europe this year. The fact is not everybody cares so why the hell should you? Our individual influence is tiny, the decision we make only fits into the small picture, but we can only do the best we can. When hearing about fish you will commonly be subjected to three opinions. The environmentalists will lobby hard using shock tactics to sway the public; the fisherman will use economic arguments to sway public opinion; the governments will use any tactics to sway the public to re-elect them. However there is a fourth opinion, one that is rarely heard, one that holds little value to these three groups – ours, the public opinion. I fit into this fourth group, but with a slight twist; I am a qualified fisheries scientist and also rely on selling fish for my income.

Many readers of my blog are aware of my views about the use of the word sustainability. In my opinion it is an overused term thrown around and generally applied in the wrong context by misled or ill educated users. ‘Is your cod sustainable?’ a customer asks. What answer would you be happy with? Generally ‘yes’ is good enough for most customers with them being happy that their purchase is ethical. But how many fishmongers would just say ‘yes’ to avoid the subject or make a sale? And how many customers would accept ‘yes’ for an answer as any further discussion would lead them way out of their depth? The answer is most if not all. It is a strange and confusing subject not helped by shockumentrys like ‘the End of The Line’. Immediately after its airing I was berated by a regular customer who had just seen this film. She was angry that we were selling, a fish she had been buying from us for over 4 years. Tuna was seen on the counter and instantly we were judged as 'unethical' fishmongers. The fish in question was a Cornish line caught tagged Albacore Tuna from a Marine stewardship council’s accredited fishery. The problem is that the press, as with many subjects, just confuse readers by bad, lazy or incorrect reporting. The key importance about a natural resource such as fish compared to the likes of oil and coal is that with careful management and monitoring it will continue to replenish itself over time and never become exhausted; so returning to cod, an excellent example of a fish currently in resurgence, there are now many safe areas this species can be taken from. We no longer have to search for Icelandic line caught or frozen pacific cod to feel easy about our homemade fish and chips. The fact that the scientists who are the most sceptical and ridiculed members of the stock status management system have suggest increases in cod quotas in many areas of the North east Atlantic says it all – correct management techniques work.

So if the press can be somewhat misleading and the some fishmongers know less than an 11 year old about the subject how are you ever going to make the correct ethical choice? Unfortunately there is no easy answer to this question. Certain websites such as those offered by the Marine Stewardship Council and The Red List give threat levels of many high risk species. But these species are not really of concern to the general public of the UK as they are not available for us to buy. 90% of us have never eaten Blufin tuna and anyone under the age of 40 has probably never eaten true skate yet these are the fish we are told to avoid. In stark contrast our neighbors across Europe continue to eat baby octopus and squid, slip sole (dover sole the size of your finger), juvenile rays, small whole cod and haddock, immature mackerel, sea bass, red mullet – the list goes on - and we also continue to discard perfectly good fish as prosecution for fishermen will result if they are land them. We do need to be realistic as if we all ate only 100% ethically sourced fish we would soon turn to meat. The few species that fall into this category are there for a reason because they are generally tasteless and it doesn’t matter how many times Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall tells us to eat organically farmed carp or dabs, Tom Aiken tells us how amazing Pollock is and how our favorite fish chef Rick Stein goes on about gurnard they will never replace real tasty fish. Troubling me is when the ethical benefits of such a fish as Pollock, and I believe now to more of an extent gurnard, are continually rammed down our throats increasing thus the demand and this coupled with no management or quota system in place two key issues will arise. Firstly the price will climb as fish are affected by supply and demand much like everything else and more concerning the stocks will become under increasing pressure. Ultimately the Pollock will become the new cod, but not for the reasons many are led to believe. I fully understand the benefits of switching our focus away from over-fished species to those that have succeeded to maintain their own stock status, however, few understand the implications of targeting these species to detrimental effect; pollack already falls into this category. It is not all doom and gloom and fear not as we can eat many species we are told to avoid such as dover sole, turbot or sea bass without feeling unfairly pressured by uneducated environmental groups we just need to know where, when and why.

Now you thought had found the perfect sourced fish, however, the capture method of your chosen fish, a fish that may tick all the boxes ethically, may actually have detrimental effect on other species. There does seem an awful lot to consider.

To me the fishing method is one of the most important issues:

Capture techniques

The 10 key capture techniques applied off the British Isles are as follows.

Beam Trawling

Of the net techniques this is by far the harshest. This method can have a tendency to gauge the sea bed removing everything in its path. It has huge implications for many marine species from corals to bi-valves and offers no selectivity of catch. Recently some fisherman have started using solid square mesh nets that allows a larger numbers of juvenile fish to escape but this is far from generic across the fleet. The catch from this method can also be of lesser quality and to be avoided if possible.

Otter Trawling

This is a mid-water trawl that uses two fixings, known as otter boards, to keep the net door open. Although not harsh like the beam trawl it is still unselective and can catch unwanted species. Due to its smaller size than the beam trawl this method can be used by day boats which do offer a higher quality catch.

Pair Otter Trawling

An adaptation to the otter trawl where two vessels tow a huge net in tandem. Can be known to catch huge amounts of fish and can be hugely unselective.

Purse seining

This method uses two vessels, a small one that lays a net circulating the fish shoal and a large on that retrieves the net. It is commonly used for catching tuna although its application around the British Isles is in the capture of sardines, herrings and anchovies.

Long Lining

Not often used to catch species offered in the UK but can be used to catch Atlantic Halibut.

Hook and Line

Currently the most fashionable fish are caught by this method. A highly selective capture technique that yields the highest quality of fish. Used mainly to catch Albacore, bass, pollock and mackerel.

Tangle nets

This method is usually used to catch crab. As the net is pulled onto the boat the body is pulled from the claws that are tangled in the net and returned to the water alive leaving it defenseless. If you like crab claws this is generally how they are collected.

Pots and Creels

A selective method used to catch lobster, crab and langoustine.

Dredging

This is the main collection method for scallops. It sounds a very harsh method, which it is, but the scallop fisheries are rotated regularly and successful signs of recovery are show year on year.

Diver Caught

This method is generally used to collect scallops and is as close to a 100% ethical fishery as possible. The problem that occurs is the availability and cost can tend to put consumers off.

A Case Study – "I tell everybody I eat only 100% ethically sourced fish"

Pollock and gurnard are very fashionable and are deemed as an ethical choice, pacific cod is another example and coley, ling, dabs and whiting also fit into this category, but are they truly the ethical answer? Well that answer is not really. They are certainly abundant species and generally believed to have strong stock levels, but they are all caught with non-selective capture methods (note there are a few pole caught pollack fisheries). This means that within the 4 tonnes of landed ling there could be, for all we know, 1 tonne of a threatened species that is then returned to the sea dead. It is impossible for the fisherman to determine exactly what their nets will catch. The majority of fish you see for sale, especially in supermarkets, are caught by unselective capture techniques. So if the species deemed sustainable are not ethically caught maybe you have to consider fish that are line caught if I wish to be branded 100% ethical. Well unfortunately another problem then arises. Hook and line caught is very different to pole and line caught but both are commonly branded as line caught. Pole and line is very selective and is used in many well managed fisheries. It is, however, also used in some of the tuna fisheries that are most under threat. With regards to the UK we have excellent Bass, Mackerel and Pollock fisheries that employ pole and line methods. The alternative method mentioned is the long line fishery which can be very unselective in its catch and has been shown to be hugely detrimental to some avian species such as the well documented albatross. It can also cause long term problems when fishing gear is lost – the term used for lost gear that continues to fish is ‘ghost netting’.

So our main course is decided and it is line caught Cornish mackerel, well that is what I’ve have been told!

I now need a starter so how about shellfish; crab starter must be ethical as its crab and nobody has mentioned they are threatened. Well maybe so but did you know many fisheries discard the bodies and keep the claws for picking or for sale intact. Last time you picked at those sweet little crab claws at a friend’s house did you pause to consider what happened to the body? So how about a prawn starter instead, but has the production of the bought crustacean resulted in the destruction of important mangrove swamps. It’s all two hard so let’s just serve organically farmed salmon as that is perfect unless of course escapees from that site have infiltrated the local wild salmon stocks.

I may have contrived to confuse the reader, but maybe this is way, maybe this is the goal. It is a hugely complex area that requires a lot more consideration than just not eating cod and only eating Pollock or sticking to line caught fish. Our biggest problem is overcoming the reams of misinformation thrown at us by governments, environmentalists, supermarkets and fishmongers. Whether purposeful or accidental many are convinced by these outlets that they are buying their dinner from a shop that sources their fish ethically. For me Waitrose is a great example as it leads the way by ‘sourcing all their fish from sustainable and well-managed fisheries’ and we must give them credit as they do try. However, recently I saw Ray wings weighing less than 230grms each on one of their counters. Granted, this specific species of short nose skate isn’t under threat and fits into their buying remit, however, is selling juveniles from a slow growing low yielding fish species ethical and will it not result in the long term collapse of the fishery?? I personally believe it is wrong and is very short sighted. Additionally a well known south London fishmonger recently commended by certain food writers for sourcing everything ethically also sells the same line and size of ray and worst still such species as swordfish.

I guess you have been waiting for me to tell you what you can and what you cannot eat. To do that would brand me alongside the ill informed environmentalists; however I can give you some useful guidance. Obviously avoid those well documented species that are critically endangered such as Blufin tuna and common skate and also other exotics like swordfish and marlin. Avoid slow growing and low producing species such as skates, rays and all shark species (the one you are familiar with is dogfish or huss). Try to avoid species caught by destructive capture methods like the beam trawl which may include Dover sole, rays and turbot. That area becomes a little confusing as these species can also be caught by otter trawl. Try to buy line caught fish if your budget allows. If it does not then avoid buying the alternative such as trawled mackerel and bass as buying these deems the achievements of the pole and line caught fisheries somewhat worthless. The majority of species caught off of the British isles are subject to a quota and/or minimum size limits. Some supermarkets disregard scientific quotas as not a true indication of stock status, however these are calculated on best scientific advice and are monitored and adjusted yearly. Although retrospective this is our best management tool and if the species was deemed critically endangered then the fishery would be closed. Waitrose, the leading supermarket in ethical fish sourcing, contradicts itself by first stating “For a fish to be termed "sustainable" in Waitrose it must meet the following criteria: Be caught from a well managed fishery with scientifically based quotas” then follows this up by saying “Waitrose does not take the existence of a legal quotas as evidence of sustainability”. This is as nonsensical as it sounds. If the fish is landed into a UK port and is for sale on the counter of a reputable fishmonger it is pretty safe to say it has been legally caught within a quota system. As long as the fish is not out of season (this is generally their spawning time) I see no concerns eating it. Some species also have minimum landing sizes but this does not mean the final product is ethical. For example monkfish have a very wide head so specially designed square shaped net mesh that is supposed to allow juvenile fish through is ineffective in the case of this species. Due to this the size limit has been set exceptionally low, 500grm whole, so when you consider the huge wastage of 65% plus this would yield a tail something in the region of 100grm (the size of your finger). Although this is the case it does not make it illegal to sell. I would certainly suggest avoiding all juvenile fish. There is no need to buy them just because the Italian cook book suggests tiny red mullet taste better; the is nothing sustainable and certainly nothing ethical about purchasing a fish product that is prefixed with BABY.

After consideration of the above I would also suggest always buying fish that are in season and try to vary your purchases. Maybe choose lemon sole occasionally over dover sole and brill over turbot. And do not forget that buying local fish will substantially reduce that carbon footprint. But maybe as important is try and be friend your fishmonger. You will soon know if he or she has any idea about what or from where the product he is selling is from, how it was caught and how old it is. My guess is he will be a little tongue tied.

My Previous Blog posts relating to this subject:

Tuna - The Unconsidered Alternative
Skating on thin ice - The plight of our skates and rays
I see trouble ahead
Strengths and weaknesses of fisheries stock assessment techniques
What a mist'hake' to make
What a load of 'pollocks'

Try worming your way out of this one?

2010-02-22T15:05:00.000Z

Have you ever taken a piece of fish home from a fishmonger and found a thin black worm in the flesh? If you have it has most certainly put you off that type of fish for life, not unsurprisingly. If you haven’t seen one you may have had a friend that has told you of such an occurrence. This scenario is quite common at this time of year (although there are incidences throughout the year) as fish gorge themselves on food from which the energy they gain is then applied into the production of gametes (eggs and milt). The majority of the bony flat and round fish go through the process of spawning between January and April. So what are these worms and where do they come from? They are parasitic round worms from the species Phocanema and follow the very simple life cycle of most marine parasites. Large marine mammals, generally grey seals, harbour the adult Phocanema who eggs are laid in the stomach of the seal. These eggs are released into the water, hatch, and are then eaten by crustaceans, which are in turn eaten by fish. The worm will then make its way into the flesh of the fish before the fish is eaten by a mammal which completes this very simple cycle. Commonly referred to as Cod worms many species can be affected and some to a huge extent. Cod, Monkfish and John Dory are probably the least affected and easiest to deal with as these three species have nice white flesh making Phocanema easier to spot. Both Hake and Gurnard, more so Tub than Red, can be inundated with Phocanema generally in the stomach and a little in the flesh. Sea Bass can also show signs of Phocanema to some extent at this time of year. I have never seen an incidence in Dover Sole and only once in Lemon sole. Pelagic midwater feeders such as mackerel and herring rarely come into contact with Phocanema.

Most importantly these worms are harmless to humans and die immediately if cooked. Additionally they will die when frozen – probably the reason why worms are never found in many supermarket fish.

So what should you do if you are sold fish with Phocanema in? Firstly, I hope no fishmonger would purposely sell fish inundated with Phocanema, however, if you are buying a whole fish, especially Gurnard, the fishmonger my be unaware of any Phocanema in the flesh. Additionally, if you are buying a very thick piece of cod or Monkfish it could be impossible to see that Phocanema is present. Other than those two scenarios there is no excuse apart from laziness of profiteering to sell a piece of fish with Phocanema in it. If you do see Phocanema in your fish or fillet just put the point of a small knife into the flesh and underneath and lift which will remove the subject. If it is inundated you should consider returning to the fishmonger and asking for a replacement. Be aware the shop is not legally obliged to replace or refund your money, however, I see no reason as why they wouldn’t if they are reputable.

Japanese (Con)fusion at Fujisan

2010-02-08T13:03:00.002Z

I have never blogged about a meal after attending an eatery or dining establishment; many others provide this service to a very high standard. However, anger has led me to write a review, if it can be described as that, about my local Japanese restaurant. Fortunately for ‘Fujisan’ it does not have an over elaborate description of its restaurant, food or dining experience on its website. Maybe somebody has asked them to remove it in the past?

Now, I have actually eaten at Fujisan twice before. The first time was a disaster with poor service and sub standard food. The second visit was much more successful thus dismissing the first trip as a one off. Oh dear, what a mistake to make. In fact the second visit was the one off, the hole in one, the surprise 21^st birthday present whereas visits 1 & 3 were the missed penalty, the getting caught cheating with your team mates bird, the breaking down in tears when being interviewed.

After a very busy Friday at the fishmongers and a restful drink in a local bar my wife and I decided to wander over to Fujisan for some dinner. The restaurant was about half full and we were seated immediately. After 15 minutes of inactivity around our table we were finally asked if we were ok? This was a strange question as the two tables that were seated after us were already on their starters – of course I wasn’t ok, I was exceptionally hungry. Drink and food orders taken (and the worst decision of the evening of not to get up and leave made) we sat and waited and waited and waited – for Edamame (Steamed soybean pods marinated in ginger and spring onions). Were they growing them? Stupidly I asked for a drink whilst waiting for the illusive pods. A tin of Sapporo – you beauty – this will calm me. Suddenly the fearful thought crossed my mind ‘Would they need to brew it first?’ Yes! This never came so I asked again and then again and when it finally arrived the waiter was extremely confused as I poured and toasted its arrival out loud. Sarcastic fool that I am this was the highlight of my evening. With pods, and to be fair a decent portion of Glazed pork ribs consumed, we waited and waited and waited. Even the tables that were seated after us had finished and were at home in bed. 1 hour and 20 minutes after being seated we decided egg on toast at home would suffice. Leaving a restaurant before your main course arrives can cause confusion in the ranks, however, this was unique. Shouting and arguing between the owner, the front of house and the waitress prevailed. The waitress was marched into the kitchen for a bollocking which was a little unlucky as she hadn’t even taken our order. Then they made their worst decision of the night to charge us for what we had consumed. On asking for a receipt I was told there wasn’t one. The owner told me the waitress was confused due to the language barrier. A barrier that hadn’t existed when taking our money. Laughing out load and stating openly my opinions of their restaurant we left only to be followed down the road by the owner shouting ‘I have you receipt, I have you receipt’. I wonder if he did stick it where I told him too?

Fujisan

326 Balham High Road, Tooting, SW17 7AA

http://www.fujisanrestaurant.co.uk/

(Price £10 ahead but may increase if you receive a main course)

Liver little and try something unique

2010-02-08T09:39:00.002Z

Every now and then a treat turns up on our fish counter. This time it was monkfish liver. A unique delicacy, and important to me I can deem it ethical; it is a by product that is usually cast back overboard. You see most unusual delicacies fit into the unique groups of endangered or critically endangered – Dodo eggs for example are covered by one of these. Anyhow, whilst the South-West fisherman attempt to gain accreditation from the marine stewardship council (MSC) for the sustainable status of their (I use 'their' loosely as we technically all own these fish) sole and monkfish grounds we can comfortably assume that levels of monkfish off our Cornish peninsula are sound. Of course I am aware stock levels of monkfish in other catch areas, the Bay of Biscay for example, are in a severe or even a critical status, however, I am not sourcing my products from these fisheries.

I have a simple recipe for monkfish liver that was given to me by a customer a couple of years ago. However, I decided to search through my large selection of fish cookery books to find Rick Stein or Keith Floyd’s recommendations on preparation and serving. Hang on nothing, not a mention. Has Rick Stein never heard of it? Did Keith Floyd leave his in a bag on the fish counter whilst in a rush to catch the Offie before it closed? Searching the internet also offered little helpful information apart from its application in Japanese cuisine.

The simple but effective recipe:

Season the liver well then dust in flour.

Pan fry in butter until crispy on each side.

When done add a squeeze of lemon or drop of vinegar to the pan.

Roll onto a warmed plate and serve with crusty brown bread.

Alternative recipe

Monkfish Liver, bacon and pea shoot salad with a poached hen's egg
http://tinyurl.com/yhcpeme

It is very rich and has a creamy texture and maybe a small amount, 100grms per person, is needed. To my surprise it didn’t sell that well, but I put that down to receiving it on the wrong day of the week. I will try again so many of you can taste this delight.

Nets and Fish - The old fashioned way

2010-01-18T08:34:00.023Z

In my recent past I was lucky enough to be part of a successful fisheries consultancy firm. We undertook the dirty work behind the scenes whilst the larger contractors and engineering firms took the glory on the back of their press conferences. However, our work was by far the most enjoyable. Although a little dated I thought I would share this piece from my old, and fairly static website, With a View to Fisheries. I thought it would be of interest to those who are interested in fish and those many London follows that would have driven past this reservoir on numerous occasions.

Seine netting contracts are commonly undertaken in conjunction with a full or partly drained water body. However, certain situations require further, more complex measures. Occasionally reservoirs are almost completely drained for one of three reasons. Designated filler reservoirs are commonly seen to have extremely low water levels come the end of the summer. Whether for drinking water purposes or feeding canals and rivers these water bodies lose water, however, the levels are controlled and observed daily which minimises the risk to fish stocks. More commonly the stock levels are calculated with water loss in mind thus problems are rare.

The second reason for dewatering directly relates to fisheries. The easiest way to crop or catch fish or a designated species is to remove their medium, water. Reservoirs are commonly used as stock ponds, therefore they are periodically drained. Again little problems are envisaged with this procedure as the water is usually well known by the contractors or owners and the knowledge and equipment is already in place. Conversely, islands or reed beds may need adding or altering thus water levels have to be dropped. The final, and most relevant, reason behind water removal regards large-scale engineering works. Dams leak, sluices block, silt deposits accrual and weed becomes out of hand. These all require plant and machinery which indicates access to difficult areas. Water needs to be removed to carry out these jobs - some times all of it!!

So why do fishery consultants become involved with large-scale drain downs? More emphasis is put onto the environmental issues than ever before and as one can imagine a large-scale fish loss is totally unacceptable. Fish that derive from the drained water body are usually dealt with in one of two ways. They can be stored in designated areas, ponds or lakes, or they can be removed from the site, sold and then replaced when the reservoir is re-filled. The reservoir owners or their designated fishery manager takes this decision. In December 2001 MEM Fisheries Ltd undertook one of the aforementioned drain downs which has offered me a case study to explain such procedures.

Site Description

Brent Reservoir (also known as the Welsh harp) is situated at the foot of the M1 motorway in the London Borough of Brent. This disused filler reservoir is approximately 110 acres in size and is used for many water activities - ironically angling is not undertaken on the reservoir. The reservoir is owned by British Waterways with John Ellis, Fisheries and Environmental manager, BW South East over seeing the fish removal. The image below shows the immense scale of the reservoir and an early morning sunset.

On the bottom of the aerial view the reservoir dam can be seen. Just to the right of centre is the sluice tower and this is where all of the following photographs have been taken from. The reservoir is gravity drained, a more efficient and cost effective method than pumping. It was drained very slowly as the reservoir has high silt levels thus increased water flow would cause this substrate to be sent down the river. The water is deposited into the River Brent via an advanced mechanically controlled sluice system. This sluice was the area of concern and the cause of the reservoir drain down. A section needed replacing and as it was situated at the bottom of the deepest area of the reservoir all of the water was needed to be removed.

The biggest concern with any drain down is knowing quite where the water is going to end up. Now, in theory the water will always drain to the deepest end, this is true for all sites. Unfortunately many lakes and reservoirs have uneven beds that tend to leave many pools of water scattered across the area. Deep silt deposits make retrieving fish from these hold ups very difficult and very time consuming. In general the contours of the lake bed should be assessed to allow the proper planning of large scale jobs; this is easiest done with an echo sounder. Fortunately, Brent Reservoir was drained 8 years ago for similar engineering reasons thus it was known exactly where the fish would be in the final stages. Commonly though, larger waters, when drained, are being done for the first time, therefore prior knowledge is unavailable. Bad planning will result is fish loss, a totally unacceptable and unnecessary scenario.

Job Preparation

It had been decided, in collaboration with English Nature and The Environment Agency, that the fish were to be stored in two secure canal pounds situated at Hanwell on the Grand Union Canal. These pounds would be closed to boat traffic use and were alongside British Waterway's offices for extra security. The stock densities of short canal pounds are commonly low, therefore a small-scale netting and electrofishing operation was undertaken to remove the original stock. These fish were allocated to the canal above and below the secure pounds; migration is common in canals thus fish would soon return to the holding pounds when the Brent Reservoir project was completed. After this small exercise was accomplished the drain down could commence.

The Netting

At low water level the access to the dam section was difficult. A small boat was the only option as it needed pulling across the silt to the remaining water. Seine netting was the only option available to catch the fish safely and quickly. Due to the silt levels and unknown quantities of fish a relatively small 180-metre seine net was used. Large quantities of juvenile fish combined with thick gill blocking silt would spell disaster. Although the activity of the larger fish in a landed seine net will clear large quantities of silt smaller fish tend to perish, therefore it was imperative not to over catch in any one single net.

The three pictures above outline the process of laying the seine net. The net was loaded onto the boat and then laid in a semi circular shape. The sluice tower is shown in the image on the right; the majority of the netting took place to the left of this tower. These images were taken about 6 days into the operation; there was approximately a further 7 acres of water at the start of netting. The net was reasonably heavy to land and required 4 men to achieve this task. The two main problems were silt levels and the deep sump hole in front of the tower. The silt in the net had a tendency to slide down the sump causing strain and pain to those left pulling the net.

With such a steep dam coupled with large quantities of silt the net was extremely heavy when it was time for the leads to be pulled in. On occasions three people were needed to hold up the corks to stop them from being towed underneath the water surface. A benefit was the solid concrete dam that allowed excellent grip under foot. It is common to be waist deep in silt at the net landing stage. The image above shows the leads being pulled in whilst the net and cork line is eased up the shelf. This is the most important stage of any netting as one false move would result in total loss of fish.

The Catch

As previously mentioned Brent Reservoir was drained 8 years prior to this fish rescue. The reservoir bed was exposed to the air for 3 months with the addition of many heavy frosts. This allows the break down of silt deposits and an overall increase of fertility with regards to promotion of fauna and flora. The benefits of this were directly shown in the current yield of fish. Even with high cormorant populations the total stock level had increased by 70% to that of 7 years before. Year classes of all fish were present compared to just roach the previous time. Only small numbers of carp and tench between 8oz and 1lb 8oz were caught. These were severely damaged by cormorants, therefore the levels of these species lower year classes could have been much higher. However, the carp and tench had spawned and achieved a mild success rate. All year classes of roach were present and healthy, bream and perch were also present alongside various gold fish and ornamentals, obviously stocked by the public. There were pike into double figures and carp to over twenty pounds. The three pictures below show the fish in all their glory. Top and Bottom are the vast quantities of silver fish yielded by the reservoir. The centre image shows one of the ornamentals, in this case a white Koi carp.

The Fish Movement

Although catching the fish was a fairly straightforward process the removal and loading was far from easy. The small obstacle of a concrete dam wall stood in the way of easy loading. The only efficient way to get fish from the water to the tanks at the top of the dam was through sheer hard work. Slings of fish, approximately 20 lbs in weight, were loaded and then carried to the base of the wall. A rope was attached to the sling and then it was manually hauled to the top where the fish could be released into the tank. The period of the drain down saw over 1000 slings of fish pulled to the top of the dam. The relatively poor water quality, mainly caused by the silt, meant that the fish needed to be removed and loaded into clean, oxygenated water as quickly as possible.

As small fish tend to reside at the surface of the net, thus easily caught, a tank was designated for 0-2+ silver fish. This would remove the additional stress caused by larger fish charging around inside a tank. Carp and larger fish traveled separately as their lower dissolved oxygen requirements meant higher quantities can be moved together. The very low water temperatures allowed up to 900lbs of fish to be transported in one tank at any one time. Providing the water is clean, the temperature is low and the correct level of oxygen coupled with the correct diffusers are used there is no reason why 1200lbs of carp (850lbs of roach) cannot be successfully transported in one tank. The fish were loaded and taken to Hanwell where they were stocked into their temporary home.

With regards to water drainage Brent Reservoir is very efficient. Although silt levels are high and access is relatively poor the water does drain to one point on the dam. No pools of any note are left, therefore all of the fish can be successfully caught with nets. Once the water had been drained to a small pool approximately 7 square metres in size only one carp was left to rescue. The continued dragging of a seine net had resulted in the successful removal of all the fish resident in the reservoir. Overall a comparatively easy drain down to complete.

Re-capturing and returning Brent's stock

The re-capture of the fish required a very different process. Small nets, 50 metres in length, were dragged along the canal where they met strategically positioned stop nets. These stop nets are used to break up a length of canal into easily manageable sections. The net is then closed to the bank and landed. This process can be seen in the photographs below. The biggest problem encountered with netting urban canals is the multitude of items thrown in by the public. Bicycles, lawn mowers umbrellas etc all need removing before successful nets can be landed. The only way to find these items is by dragging the nets, therefore continued de-snagging was required.

The pictures below show some of the fish being returned to a brim full Brent Reservoir. On the top is one of the very large carp and the right is our friend, the white Koi, returning home. Our very own Professor Parr is holding both of the fish. The centre picture illustrates one of many nets of roach and silver fish being released. Although the natural stocks require a large return of small fish many resident fish eating birds also welcomed the re-stocking of such species.

Conclusion

The drain down, fish removal and engineering works on Brent reservoir in 2001/02 were a resounding success. Many thousands of fish were safely stored whilst large scale works were carried out. However, the picture below shows a frozen Brent Reservoir on Christmas Eve proving Mother Nature will always intervene if every thing is going to plan. This weather caused a cessation in work for over two weeks. It is highly unlikely Brent will be drained again in the foreseeable future, however, if the stock continues to thrive in a similar fashion to 8 years ago Brent Reservoir will once again become a successful haven for a diverse selection of fish species and fish eating birds.

A New Year, Roes and Very Poor Shows

2010-01-13T19:53:00.003Z

Moving into the New Year is a testing time for us mongers. We have sub zero temperatures to endure (-7 lowest so far and we have no front door), slippery pavements, transport problems and customers watching their pennies. But the most difficult and testing part is the explaining to people that many fish are out of season. “Fish have seasons! You learn something everyday” was the most recent remark, but they do, and very distinct ones. At this time of year many round and flat fish are preparing to reproduce. The utmost effort is aimed towards the production of gametes, milt or roe, with little emphasis on flesh production. Already the good quality flatfish, such as plaice, have almost disappeared from sale. Plaice are a particularly good example as they produce huge roes that has a major detriment to the quality of the flesh. Those fishmongers that only offer line caught species such as Bass, Red Mullet and Mackerel will also see these dwindle as many fisheries will self impose a closure to protect their future stock levels. Dover Sole, and to some extent Lemon Sole, will now start to roe and only the discerning fishmongers will be selective with what they offer; for those that aren't this is a very poor show. Of course I wish it was simple but fish across vast water bodies have their own seasons so spawning species in one area may have already spawned in another area. So I suggest you ‘look at the show and avoid the roe’ as a better quality product will be your prize.

Fish, Wine, and a Jolly Good Time

2009-12-20T11:42:00.001Z

I have never blogged about dinning experiences in restaurants as a) not sure I have experienced enough good food to compare and b) many others do the restaurant reviewing so well. Two or three times a year I undertake the fish extravaganza at my flat where a few join my wife and i for numerous fish courses accompanied by much lovely wine; last nights was quite unique. My wife was away for this one so I was joined by my boss and a work colleague and two fellow Chelsea green workers, one, Jimbo, whom is a director of top wine merchants Haynes, Hanson and Clark. Jim supplied the wine and until this dinner I hadn’t realised how real wine tasted.

We started our dinner with some fantastic wild south coast native oysters and a select few Maldon rock oysters. Both of these are just sublime, clean tasting with fantastic textures. With just a squeeze of lemon and a glass of 2002 vintage Pierre Vaudon the perfect start to any fish meal.

On the night a couple of the courses stood out for everyone. The first out was my home cured gravlax, cut slightly thick and accompanied by a horseradish and mustard cream sauce. They blended fantastically together and I was delighted with the outcome. Accompanied by a Sancerre Terre de Maimbray 2008, probably my favourite white of the evening, this course was enjoyed by all.

Of course as the night went on my cooking suffered due to blurred vision. However at this part of the night I was still running on all cylinders and my classic fish soup was just sublime and enjoyed by all. This dish has never been a favourite of mine but recently I ate at Racine on Knightsbridge and Henry Harris really inspired me with his fish soup that was absolutely delightful. Mine didn’t match his but it was very good. It is difficult to obtain the correct fish for this dish so I used red mullet, monkfish, conger and gurnard and served it with rouille and my only cheat of the night – shop bought croutons. Poured with this course was a Steinerrassen Riesling 2006.

After a short rest we moved onto grilled scallop with hazelnut and coriander butter (a Rick Stein recipe). The scallops I used were jumbo Scottish hand dived beauties that weighed over 120grms which is 4-5 times the size of your average scallop. The butter was beautiful, but maybe the scallops were not warmed enough. I underestimated their size and the failings of my grill. However, they tasted fabulous and the wine served, a 2006 Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir was amazing.

My spaghetti vongole was a bit of a disaster. It tasted very nice but I was just too pissed to make the most of the spaghetti I had made earlier. Such a shame as it is one of my favourite dishes but you can’t win them all. Fortunately the 2003 Chabllis Grand Cru Clos saved the day as it was so fantastic it moved talk away from the poor course I had just served.

I clawed back some dignity with my John Dory en papillote which is cooked with cherry tomatoes, black olives and fine green beans. This is one of my all time favourite dishes and the simplicity of the dish compliments the delicate nature of the fillet. With the white wine finished we moved onto a couple of amazing reds. Firstly a 2004 Nuit-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Chaignots followed by the piste de resistance a 2001 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru.

I suppose we should have been full by then but a huge amount of cheese, including and amazing pecorino with black and white truffles, and a bottle of port passed us by and then straight from the silverspoon cookbook four of us managed to consume a tiramisu at about 2:30 in the morning.

Almost forgot the final tipple that being the Syndicate 58/6 12 year old

Normally these parties are all about the fish but I am happy to say the wine took centre stage

Old Birds & Old Fish - Magical museum exibits

2009-11-28T13:37:00.002Z

Probably your first visit to London was to the Natural History museum. A magnificent building idealistic of the age it was built in with memorising gargoyles' and figurines now staring down on the cueing tourists. A statue of Thomas Huxley greats you as you enter the main doors, the man so in favour of Darwin theories, and so against one of the original museum curators Professor Richard Owen creationist views. As you enter the building the breathtaking high ceilings become engrossing and the architecture just mesmerising and then ….. you head for the dinosaurs!!!

I love this museum and am unsure how many times I have visited it even though it now seems geared only towards children and foreign tourists. My monthly trip leads me to only four exhibits and it is the same four every time, but to me, they are the only four. Firstly the Mary Anning collection incorporating the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. There is something so very close to home about this collection mostly from the Lyme Regis area. Each fossil has its own story.

A left turn then takes me to the stuffed replica Dodos. One has to remember no preserved Dodos exist so my ears are covered when hearing a teacher tell his pupils they are real. The story is amazing considering that all stuffed offerings are modelled from drawings; not even a complete skeleton remains. This is a real story of humans’ ability to remove a species in a 35 year period.

From the Dodo I meander pass the children to the memorising display of hummingbirds (Victorian period) pinned to a board. There is something addictive about gazing into this glass case at these beautiful birds until that sick feeling of what you really are looking at hits you. From there I walk straight across the main hall to a small glass tank of formaldehyde sat lonely in an alcove. As I stand there transfixed on a pale white fish people walk to the tank, glance, dismiss, and walk away. Not a second thought is given to the importance of what is in front of them. They throw their eyes at the meaningless tiny plaque that only states ‘coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae Smith, 1939. No body offers more than 10 seconds of their time to study my friend and the museum offers no information as to why they should. At a point in the late 1930s this fish was thought to be the link between wet and dry. The papers were littered with ‘missing link’ headlines. A worldwide hunt started for another specimen leading to an international incident involving

France

and

South Africa

. Ultimately the fish was proved not to be the walking miracle once thought but the story behind Marjorie Latimer’s first discovery in 1938 and the events that followed just show how important the scientific world deem these findings. Amazingly it hit the news again in 1998 when a couple of marine biologists on honeymoon in

Indonesia

spotted one on a wooden trolley in a fish market. This fish was thought only to habit the areas around the

Comoros

off Eastern Africa. More history was in the making.

My visits to the Natural History Museum are short and sweet. I hope, however, on your next visit you might take a look at the ichthyosaurs and Dodos, the Hummingbirds and my friend the coelacanth in a new light and for more than 10 seconds.

'The Dinosaur Hunters' Deborah Cadbury ISBN; 1-85702-963-1
'Dodo from extinction to icon' Errol Fuller ISBN: 0-00-714572-1
'A fish caught in time-The search for the coelcanth' Samantha Weinberg ISBN: 1-85702-907-0

Tuna - The unconsidered alternative

2009-11-27T18:00:00.001Z

As the wave of opinion gets behind the recent campaign to save the blufin tuna are other key issues being blinkered by this rolling bandwagon? I do not profess to be an expert on the state of tuna fisheries but it is documented well enough to believe that certain stocks of blufin are critically endangered. Any species of endangered animal should be protected and no one could argue against that. The West is the backbone of the recent anti blufin campaign, the very parts of the world that’s insatiable appetite for sashimi has helped to cause such depletions in stock levels. Of course Japan have a lot to answer for but they have, however, been using these species in cuisine for a very long time compared to Europe and the US. So the two problems occur. Firstly what happens to the countries and their fishing fleets that have invested so much money into the infrastructure for catching blufin? The very people encouraged to catch blufin to supply London, Paris and New York? The very people now being blamed for trying to make a living out of an industry the West has turned its back on? The very people that know no other way of life? No wonder the blufin catching countries will not ratify treaties outlawing the capture of their 'own oil'. And secondly, and the most overlooked and crucial point in my opinion, the opinion of a fisheries scientist, is what will happen to the alternative? Well if blufin imports to Japan can be outlawed, the only true way to conserve the species, then a replacement will be required and it will only be the yellow fin Tuna that offers similar tastes and textures. So while we rejoice in saving of the blufin, while we congratulate ourselves on how we forced our hand on many underdeveloped countries and made them change their ways the yellow fin will be shaking its tail in fear. The world is coming to get you – you are the alternative!

Zander - Coming to a canal, or dinner plate, near you

2009-11-26T14:20:00.001Z

The other day a customer told me about a fish. He was very pleased that he new about a species we didn’t sell and even spelt it’s name to me. He explained where it was caught, its life history and what it tasted like; the subject had arose as he had eaten it recently in a pub in Kent. Off he went smug in the fact that he had spread his knowledge. The fish in question was a zander (z a n d e r) and contrary to popular belief is NOT a cross between a pike and a perch. Just so happened I knew an awful lot about this fish as in the early part of this decade I was involved in an extensive zander culling exercises undertaken on the canal networks of central England. Not since pre ice age was the zander indigenous to the UK. It was re introduced illegally in the 1950s into the Great Ouse and then spread across the linked waterways of the midlands and can now be found as far south as the River Thames. They are a pretty destructive predatorial species that not only seem to hunt in packs but also, due to impressive eye sight, succeed exceptionally well in coloured water; canals are an ideal environment. Over a 20 year period they have successfully depleted many indigenous species across the midlands and the south.

A couple of big Zander from the Trent & Mersey Canal (i'm looking young)

I have eaten this fish many times and it is not that bad. As it is a carnivore and not a benthic forager (like a carp) there is no real problem with muddy tastes. People will say it’s bony, but it only has a similar bone structure to a sea bass. The scales are particularly abrasive so I would suggest skinning the fillet.

Zander In Bacon Wrap With Caramelized Chicory On Carrot Puree Recipe

Zander fillets in cream and herbs

Fillets of Gloucestershire zander with duck egg, asparagus and crayfish

London's reliance upon the South West

2009-11-24T16:30:00.000Z

Ok, so we can’t get ANY fish at all as the winds keep blowing but when all is fine London and the South really does rely upon the South West fish markets. Recent figures published in the Fishing News show quite how large the landings are at Plymouth, Newlyn and Brixham and to my joy Newlyn leads the way. Well done boys and if you could just make your minds up regarding market modernisation you may just keep this title.

Port          *Demersal   **Pelagic      Shellfish          Total

Newlyn £7,866,615    £436,488   £1,704,632    £10,007,735

Brixham    £5,093,629    £157,528   £3,833,638    £9,084,795

Plymouth £1,991,377    £2,709,280 £2,088,775    £6,789,432

*   Ground fish such as soles, skates etc
** Midwater fish such as mackerel and sardines

My old vocation - rescuing fish

2009-11-21T20:52:00.009Z

As many of you know I have a background in fish that stretches further than mongery. One of the most enjoyable parts of an old job was to get wet and dirty with the fish. I wrote the account below for my old fisheries management website that details how we removed the fish out of those canals you all drive over – enjoy.

The United Kingdom has a fairly extensive canal network with lengths from Exeter in Devon to Edinburgh in Scotland. Through the mid 19 hundreds the canals became rather disused; this was due to commercial goods transport moving to the road and rail networks. However, over the past 15 years the canal has returned into the limelight with huge grants allowing essential maintenance; this is especially the case on the Kennet & Avon canal in Devizes and the Union Canal in Falkirk. This increased interest, and some may suggest trend, in living by waterways has encouraged the canal owners, British Waterways, to continue with essential work to maintain the network. So with all of this work underway how and why do fishery consultants become involved? The canals have always been a favourite haunt for anglers; this has resulted in thousands of pounds of fish being stocked over the past twenty years. On many occasions the scheduled work requires the removal of the water. The replacement of lock gates, repairs to culverts, lining of canal beds, dredging and piling are common practice, but before these essential works can commence the canal section requires de-watering.

These three images show why water is removed from canal sections. The picture at the top was taken at Farmers Bridge, Birmingham on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal where extensive re-development work was being undertaken. A series of lock pounds were drained to allow bank side renovation to take place; the aim was to rejuvenate the area with new housing and office buildings. Of the twelve pounds along the Farmers bridge length all but one drained to an efficient narrow section on the towpath side. The image in the centre shows a lock gate renovation work at Cosgrove on the Grand Union Canal Main Line near Northampton. The removal of lock gates will always lead to de-watering. However, as many locks have a bridge situated close by the use of stop planks can be employed hence leaving short drained sections. On occasions a further problem is uncovered once the section has been de-watered. At Cosgrove (image at bottom) a hole was located in the bank, but luckily four grade 1 British Waterways staff were on hand and were left to look into it!!!

There are various ways to de-water a section of canal. Two solid barriers are required; therefore, short pounds with adjoining locks are ideal. Unfortunately this scenario is rare so other water retaining methods need to be employed. Stop planks can be placed in the purpose cut grooves located underneath bridges.

When the use of stop planks and lock gates as dams is not possible temporary structures are required to hold vast quantities of water back. The common choice is the use of an impervious fabric membrane attached to a free standing steel support system. These Portadams are fixed across the canal, shown in the above pictures (Horton Bridge, Kennet & Avon Canal), and then with a slow drain down the sheet is allowed to seal creating a water tight barrier. This system allows work to be undertaken on otherwise non-accessible sections. However, they have a tendency to breech, especially in the more silty sections, so jobs are commonly held up while complete sealing takes place.

These two images show the completed dams in place. At the top is the dam at Horton on the K&A Canal; note the drag net can be seen still in place behind the now completed dam. Below is the fitted dam at sheepcote street, Birmingham. This was a larger dam thus did experience many problems before a seal was achieved. The ideal conditions for a successful fish rescue consist of a width near to 4 metres and a depth 0.45 metres. However, these conditions are rare due to the varied contours found on the many different sections of canal. Silt deposit levels and recent dredging exploits also influence depths. Whatever the conditions presented the rescue needs to be completed, therefore methods vary to suit each job.

The concept is simple. A small boat is pulled along the canal section behind 3 - 4 electrofishermen. The boat contains a generator linked to a control box. From this box run two hand held anodes and one cathode; this is connected to the rear of the boat. 240 volts and 6 amperes are generated and a direct current is implemented. The current is applied via the use of two "dead man's switches", one on each anode. Also within the boat there can be up to four large bins of water which hold the captured fish.; each bin has an aerator pipe that is connected to a battery powered air pump. Up to three stop nets of various sizes can also be carried. Each bin can hold up to 100lbs of large fish or 50lbs of small before they need to be emptied.

With a three man team the outside men will control the anodes, sweeping left to right, whilst the centre man controls the boat. Each team member will also use a small net to collect stunned fish. Large nets are held in the boat if substantial amounts of fish are encountered. If a forth team member is utilized the man can be placed in one of two positions. If the presented canal still has a wide area of water the forth man would be suited at the front alongside his team members. However, if conditions are either 1) good (narrow); he can follow behind netting the smaller fish that rise late (usually perch & ruffe), or 2) Very silty; he will probably have to push the boat if the substrate offers difficult walking conditions.

The length of the canal section is the usual determining factor that dictates where the job will commence. It is beneficial to work into clear water, therefore, if groundwater is entering on the length then the electrofishing should always take place towards the source. However, if the section is being pumped or drained whilst the rescue is in progress then working away from the running pumps or open paddles is again preferable. Incidentally, it is not always possible to fish into clear water as accesses are not always available to launch the boat from.

Once a suitable area has been found for launching, and the water flows and colour has been assessed, the work can commence. The process is fairly simple, however, there is one hard and fast rule. No matter what conditions are presented the job is not complete until all of the fish have been removed. This could mean up to four runs of the whole length; usually two complete runs are sufficient to remove the fish.

These three pictures show a successful fish rescue in progress at Yelvertoft on the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal. These conditions are almost perfect offering a narrow canal and constant depth. The silt levels through the boat channel are low which allows easy walking conditions. Unfortunately I needed to leave the water to take these pictures, however, with the offered conditions I would have been seen approximately 20 metres behind the boat collecting the smaller ruffe and perch that show late. The electrofishermen can be seen on each side with a hand held anode and an accompanying netsman in the centre. The pictures givesa good indication of the parallel line kept by the probe users. If one were to fall behind, this coinciding with large numbers of fish, then the fish shoal will tend to charge the withdrawn side. If kept level the fish are moved slowly up the canal until they meet a solid barrier; a net can be dropped behind at this point trapping the fish into a short section. The creation of a diagonal current caused by a withdrawn anode will cause increasing problems as a section becomes wider. The section above is sufficiently narrow so not to be effected by sloppy working practices.

The picture on the top gives a clear view of the contents inside the electrofishing boat. The electric box can be seen on the front of the boat (grey) with the yellow cables of each anode attached via specialised waterproof four pin plugs; the UK standard colour for these plugs is blue/grey. The box is connected to the generator (red) which is situated in the rear of the boat. The generator can usually be found in the rear as it counteracts the water bins (yellow) in the front. To the left of the generator the air pump can been seen; the pipes and diffusers from this pump run to the water bins. There can be up to five bins in the boat at any given time. The picture on the bottom shows an electrofisherman (that's me) working an anode whilst netting small roach. He can be seen in a full dry suit and gloves, the only realistic clothing to carry out fish rescues in.

These two pictures show the working conditions in and around solid structures. The image above shows a simple lock system that requires navigating before the next section can be fished. Note the large amount of ice in the lock; never assume all jobs are warm and fun!! The second image gives an excellent view when approaching a portadam.

On occasions it is possible to carry out a drag down with a net before a dam is put in place. These pictures, taken at Horton Bridge, near Devizes on the Kennet & Avon Canal, show the aforementioned drag down in progress. This method has shown to be very effective in herding shoals of bream and large roach from the target section. Years of scientific testing, with regards to the effect of electrofishing on certain species, has continuously revealed potential damage to fish when exposed to long bursts of electrical current. Therefore, any opportunity to remove fish from the section with methods other than electricity will always be employed.

A canal drag-down is usually undertaken with a small seine net rarely exceeding 25 metres in length. Again the concept is simple. The net needs to be a sufficient depth to cope with the drag-down; therefore, a net exceeding 1 metre at the deepest point of the canal is required. A man works each bank from the water by pulling the net towards the dam frame; it is imperative that the net stays of equal distance between workmen. The middle of the net needs to be in the centre of the canal. The images above show the net being pulled towards the dam frame (top) and of the excess net bulging behind as the net is pulled (centre). Incidentally, this method is not always feasible as dragging nets is both time consuming and energy sapping. In reality very long stretches cannot be netted as the efficiency decreases over long lengths due to snags.

As a net is pulled through a section numerous obstacles will be encountered. Many areas of canal are used as dumping grounds for all types of rubbish; this will affect the efficiency of any drag-down. As these snags are uncovered the leads attached to the base of the net need careful manoeuvring over the obstacle. The worst type of snags include bicycles, tree branches and brambles and the mandatory car engine. However, if the canal is not to deep most problems can be solved. This image (bottom) shows a large branch being removed from the net.

These two images taken at Sheepcote Street, Birmingham on the Birmingham & Worcester Canal, show a relatively inefficient electrofishing exercise. The catch efficiency of a canal section drained to this width would be less than 50%, however circumstances sometimes dictate that rescues need to go ahead. This section had prolonged problems with holding water back, but the section was finally drained and a successful rescue was completed.

Occasionally some very difficult conditions are put in front of a rescue procedure. As many rescues are linked with hugely expensive civil engineering projects the time scale available is always short. Therefore, problems other than deep water, which cannot be solved, require tackling and over coming. These two images were taken in January 2002 at Yelvertoft on the Grand Union canal Leicester Line. This stretch was approximately 2200 metres in length and when presented had 2 inches of ice across the surface. For obvious reasons a rescue could not be undertaken, the only solution was to launch the boat, find some heavy poles, and then tow the boat whilst breaking the ice.

What 'Cod' the prize be?

2009-11-21T19:11:00.001Z

Roll up roll up come and get your raffle tickets. Bottle of wine? Box of chocolates? Cuddly toy? Oh no in a strange twist of events The Marine and Fisheries Agency have decided to pop all the members of the under 10 metre vessels fleet into a hat for a draw with the prize being 18 tonnes of Eastern Channel Atlantic Cod. Of course small print is in place to be eligible but 36 of those lucky enough to be in the hat will be rewarded with a catch limit of 500kg of cod each to be caught between the dates 1st -31st December.

‘Before starting to fish for their 500kg of cod winners will have to receive an EU log book and permit letters'

How bizarre is all this? Why could anybody think the allocation of fish quotas in this day and age is dated when such games are used to decide people’s livelihoods? Not to forget the sleepless nights poor Charles Clover will have when he finds out “his fish” are been given as a prize in a raffle!!

Fish Locomotion

2009-11-15T17:15:00.003Z

Fish species are present in many varying forms all over the world. The main difference between shapes of individual species would firstly be concern the need for them to travel through a fluid with varying densities pressures and drags. With a combination of these problems and in tern making best use of there form inside their chosen environment each species has developed, sometimes radically, different body profiles.

Species such as the rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) have developed torpedo shaped bodies to counteract the drag confronted in a viscous fluid. Figure 1 shows the difference in streamline effects on two very different shaped objects in a fluid. The ideal situation to experience in a viscous fluid would involve laminar flow, this being smooth and thin with a creation of minimal drag. The circular shape in figure 1 is less streamlined in appearance and at the rear end turbulent flow is created. This is usually in the form of an eddy or wake and consists of a thicker layer, which increases the drag. For many fast swimming species the creation of a turbulent flow would result in the inefficient use of resources with respect to energy requirements. This may seem fairly straight forward but Blake (1983), suggests although the maintaining of a laminar boundary layer is a drag reduction system it happens to be less stable than a turbulent flow as it creates larger pressures upon separation.

Figure 1: Comparisons of flow around objects in viscous fluids. Source: Hosford (1997), p.16

As this is the case the inducing of a turbulent boundary layer can also reduce drag. It has been suggested that some species such as the mackerel (with the use of added dorsal fins), and the rainbow trout (with the use of an adipose fin) tend to induce a change in boundaries. Figure 2 shows that many years of development in aerofoil technology have created a design identical to the shape of a rainbow trout. The solid line is the aerofoil where as the dotted line is the trout. This concludes that the rainbow trout has formed into a highly streamlined structure.

The position of the shoulder will determine the type of flow over the body of the species. The shoulder of the trout is somewhat further back than the likes of the common bream (Abramis brama). This seems to verify that the form compares to the habitat and lifestyle of the species. The final point on the subject of drag would involve the use of the mucus covering the skin of the fish. The use of mucus in filling irregularities on the body could improve the flow characteristics of the boundary layers.

Figure 2: Comparison of a trout body form and a typical aerofoil. Source: Blake (1983), p.61

In normal observations fish swimming can be split into steady speeds, where the fish moves in one direction at a constant velocity or more commonly un-steady swimming which is the continuous changing of speeds and directions (Hoar, 1978). The critical speed of a species can only be measured from steady swimming but it is important to note that three other phrases, prolonged, burst and sustained swimming will take place in either of the firstly mentioned descriptions. It must be mentioned that potential growth response is effected by the cost of locomotion, which in tern contributes to the overall metabolic load (Ware, 1975), therefore efficient energy use is essential. Evidence has been found that juvenile fish do feed by moving at the appropriate speed to maximise their production rate (Ware, 1978). Figure 3 shows the fatigue curve of a rainbow trout (formally Salmo gairdneri). It clearly defines the three states of swimming used by all species of fish. Sustained swimming includes routine activities such as schooling and cruising and can be maintained in excess of 200 minutes. Prolonged swimming can continue between 200 minutes to 15 seconds and entails cruising with short bouts of vigorous movement. Burst swimming is the most inefficient form of activity with respect to energy use and can only be achieved for short periods of up to 15 seconds (Wilson, 1994).

Figure 3: Fatigue curves Source: Blake(1983), p.38

The rainbow trout can be classified into the group of subcarangiform fishes. This defines the type of body movement the species experiences when swimming. Most fish species swim with lateral body undulations running from head to tail. These waves run more slowly than the waves of muscle activation causing them, reflecting the effect of the interaction between the fish’s body and reactive forces from the water (Wardle, 1995). The undulations of the side to side movement in the body are slight in the anterior but there is a significant increase in the rear half to third of the body. The snout of the fish does not travel in a straight line but tends to oscillate at small amplitudes along the mean path of the fish (Hoar, 1978). Figure 4 illustrates this type of movement and clearly shows that no part of the body travels in a straight line, but tends to follow a curving path through the water.

Figure 4: Body propulsion of subcarangifom mode. Source: Hoar (1978), p.10

Only at speeds of under 1 to 2 body lengths per second does the amplitude of the body undulations change, usually there is no change with swimming speeds. The frequency that the tail beats and the velocity at which waves are passed to the rear of the fish directly effect the speed of the fish. Speeds of up to 25 body lengths per second have been recorded for fish below 1 metre in length. Although this measurement is for fairly small fish, Webb (1975) discovered that maximum acceleration rates for rainbow trout (40-50cm/sec²) were in the same order for other fish from a wide range of sizes. This suggested that maximum acceleration rates may be relatively independent of size. Although acceleration and size may not be comparable the wavelength of the body undulations remain constant when relative to the body length within species. When the size of the fish increases the attainable maximum frequencies decrease. In relation to tail beats and swimming style, Webb (1991) found that over a period of 226 completed tail beats from trout no constant speed was registered. Figure 5 shows the results and clarifies that sustained swimming is never constant and will always involve acceleration, deceleration or turning.

The caudal fin is probably the most important attachment used for acceleration. During Webbs (1977) experiment involving fin amputation of rainbow trout he clarified that the large caudal fin is required for maximum acceleration performance and creates the majority of generated thrust during fast starts. The dorsal and anal fins are also important in generating thrust but they are not as nearly as significant.

Some of the important aspects involving the movement of trout have been discussed, finally but just as significant is the production of energy needed to create these exercises. The thrust force of the fish is produced by contractions of the propulsive musculature. The velocity that the muscle contracts dictates the power that the fish can produce. Muscle structures of fish can be split into white and red types. Red muscle consists of up to 20% of the total belonging to the trout (less for lower active species such as carp (Cyprinus carpio)). This muscle has a low rate of fatigue and is used for all of the low speed sustained cruising. The white muscle fatigues more rapidly but gives maximum power output, which is used for burst speeds. Due to the speed of fatigue the white muscle can be used only for short periods of time.

Blake, R.W. (1983). Fish locomotion. Cambridge university press, Cambridge.

Hoar, W.S., and Randall, D.J. (1978). Fish physiology, volume VII: Locomotion. Academic press, New York.

Hosford, M.B. (1997). Fluid dynamics of ship resistance and propulsion. Institute of marine studies, Plymouth.

Wardle, C.W., Videler, J.J., and Altringham, J.D. (1995). Tuning in to fish swimming waves: body form, swimming mode and muscle function. Journal of experimental Biology, Vol 198, p. 1629-1636.

Ware, D.M. (1975). Growth, metabolism and optimal swimming speed of pelagic fish. Journal of the fisheries research board of Canada, Vol. 32, p. 33-41.

Ware, D.M. (1978). Bioenergetics of pelagic fish: Theoretical change in swimming speed and ration with body size. Journal of the fisheries research board of Canada, Vol 35, p. 220-228.

Webb, P.W. (1975). Acceleration performance of rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss). Journal of experimental Biology, Vol 63, p. 451-465.

Webb, P.W. (1977). Effects of median-fin amputation on fast start performance of rainbow trout. Journal of experimental Biology, Vol 68, p. 123-135.

Webb, P.W. (1991). Composition and mechanics of routine swimming of rainbow trout, (Oncorhyncus mykiss). Canadian journal of fisheries and aquatic services, Vol 48, no. 4,

p. 583-589.

Wilson, R.W., and Egginton, S. (1994). Assessment of maximum sustainable swimming performance in rainbow trout. The journal of experimental biology, Vol 192, no.1, p. 299-305.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

2009-11-15T11:57:00.002Z

So I whinge I can’t get fish. My customers complain that they can’t get the fish they want. My wholesalers complain they struggle to get fish. This past couple of weeks has seen some of the worst storms for nearly a decade with 70mph+ coastal winds, flooding, extensive damage to property and yet we still expect fish. As fish go short the price increases as wholesalers and exporters bid against each other for the morsels. The over worked, under paid, fisherman eye a chance for a better return and risk their lives for this and ultimately to put fish on our plates. Again last weekend we lost another brave crewman who was washed over board into the English Channel from the Brixham trawler the Korenbloem. Young James Grindy was heroically pulled from the water by two of his colleagues who dived into the icy water with no concern for their own safety. James was taken by the air ambulance but died later in hospital. I would like to say many understand the dangers of being a fisherman, however, many more do not. Make it you business to realise what some people do to supply fish – sometimes the ultimate sacrifice

Trees and Deers and Fresh Air

2009-11-09T13:03:00.003Z

Occasionally the outskirts of London offer a real getaway from the hustles of our packed metropolis. The expanse of Richmond Park in late Autumn is a place to be savoured. Beautiful colours, majestic wildlife and if you can’t bear to be with out a latte maker in every car park.

Less Fish Higher Prices

2009-11-09T09:42:00.000Z

The European Commission recently published it’s proposed changes for 2010 Total Allowable Catches based on best available scientific and catch data. As expected a number of fisheries have proposed reductions in total take by fisherman. The commonly known plight of Cod in certain areas continues with proposed 25% cuts in nearly all fishing grounds around the UK. The haddock fishing grounds off West Scotland have a massive proposed 54% cut. Among others the eastern English Channel may have a 15% reduction in Skate & Ray landings. The plaice fisheries of Western Ireland, the Bristol Channel and the eastern English Channel have proposed 15% cuts. The North Sea has further 15% cuts in Turbot and Brill catches. The good old sustainable Pollack fisheries of the whole west coast will be cut by 15%. Many Dover sole fisheries have be cut by between 7 and 31% with the eastern English Channel suffering most. Also many langoustine fisheries have been cut by around 10%. Interestingly no monkfish fisheries are cut and one has increased by 15% indicating good stock status.

So be prepared for increases in the price of your fish. The Scottish fisheries are hugely important to the British fish haul and with potentially huge reductions in landings the remaining ports will suffer increased pressure from the big wholesalers. All legally caught fish are auctioned and follow the simple rule of prices being affected by market availability and demand. Many of you would actually shudder if they new how much Cod costs at wholesale, especially as a notable percentage is trimmed off before re-sale. I am confident that the least return on any product sold by a fishmonger is the Cod so do expect it to rise in price in 2010. Additionally the haddock is a very important species to the Scottish Fleet so with the proposed 50%+ reductions huge pressure will be inflicted on the south west ports of England.

When The Wind Blows

2009-11-03T20:29:00.001Z

Fishmongers have to face the major problem of a lack of quality fish when the weather is bad. I see many mongers quality fall through the floor when bad weather is about as they feel they have to continue to offer every product all of the time. I embrace these situations as it allows me to restrict my fare to a selection of high quality sourced species. I recall that on my one and only trip to Borough Market a couple of years ago I saw the perfect example of this. The mentioned weekend had been towards the end of a week of some countrywide gales and quality fish was critically short. A fishmonger in the centre of Borough, whose name I am unaware, had a huge selection of species with much interest and many sales. The quality was awful. Apart from one piece of tuna there was not an item I would have allowed on my counter. Walking out of the market rather bemused and disappointed I noticed a fishmonger called Applebee’s. I popped in and introduced myself and was pleasantly greeted with a small selection of great quality. Not a chance were they going to compromise their standards for market tourist trade.

Remember that our fish are not kept in fields with fences penning them in. When bad weather is about be prepared to change your menu as many fish will not be available. Also be prepared to be offered low quality if you visit a shop that puts profit over pride. I am not ashamed to say I only had 22 species (including each shellfish and prawn) for sale today. I am, however, proud to say I sold them all.

Skating on Thin Ice - The Plight of our skates and rays

2009-11-02T18:04:00.014Z

Skates and rays are ancient and stunningly beautiful creatures thought to have been with us for 150 million years. There are approximately 600 species throughout the world including 21 around the coast of the UK; varieties also include electrical and stinging species. They derive from the class Chondrichthyes and fall into the sub-class elasmabranchii that also includes the sharks. The close relationship of the skates and sharks mean they both differ from the bony fish as their endoskeleton is made entirely of cartilage. The differences do not stop their as unlike many bony fish the skates and rays do not have scales; they are either armed with mucus covered skin, common to the spotted ray, or bony armoured projections called tubercles. They are very sociable animals and can commonly be found in large groups sometimes in piles on top of each other. They glide effortlessly through the water using their huge pectoral fins, commonly known as wings that move by waves of dorsoventral muscle contractions, whilst using their long whip like tail as a rudder. Their beautiful markings, normally characteristic of their specific environment, are used as camouflage as they lie lifeless disguised on the sea bed; camouflage on the sea bed is a great form of predator defence.

The beautiful markings of a Cuckoo Ray

They are slow moving bottom dwellers and spend a large amount of time laying on the sea bed so have their mouth on the underside of the body which traps prey against the substrate. They are ambush predators commonly laying in wait too pounce on their unsuspecting prey grasping them with compact rows of strong pointed teeth.

The skates and rays have evolved additional help in breathing; their five to seven pairs of gills on the underside of the body would continuously become clogged with silt if no help was at hand. On the top of the body, alongside each eye, there is an opening called a spiracle. Water is taken into these vents and then past over the gills allowing the oxygen to be removed. Similar to sharks the skates have great senses and having electro receptors that are able to detect electricity produced by prey.

Male skates have specialised fins known as claspers that can be seen either side of the tail on the underside. Mating is quite violent with the males commonly biting into the females. The fish generally have a late age at maturity, between 5 and 10 years, and the females produce only a small number of spiny egg cases, less than 100 per year, and these are commonly known as mermaids’ purses. Depending on the species and certain environmental factors their eggs can take 6 to 12 months to hatch; some species of sting rays do bear live young.

The catch levels into UK ports of the main species approaches 2-3000 tonnes per year. Considering that nearly all caught skates are part of the bottom trawl by-catch these levels are quite high. Being a by-catch species has particularly bad consequences as it is very difficult to ascertain accurate catch levels. Managing fisheries with figures ascertained from by-catch data make effective fishery management hugely difficult. Additionally over the past decades all species have been recorded in the generic skate and ray family resulting in little or no accurate historical commercial catch records; without this data it is impossible to assess stock level fluctuations over time. Since 2009, however, a species specific recording system has become compulsory. The retention of the common skate species is now illegal in the majority of the Europeon waters and must be returned alive if caught. This is also true of the undulate ray species.

Of the many species across the world we need only to centre around a small percentage of local varieties. The stage is taken by the critically endangered common skate (Dipturus batis), the species of categorised ray thought to be at low or critical levels n certain areas including the Thornback (Raja clavata), Undulate (Raja undulata), Blonde (Raja brachyura) and Painted or otherwise known as small-eyed (Raja microcellata) and the species deemed at safe levels which include the Cuckoo (Leucoraja naevus), spotted (Raja montagui), and the Starry (Raja radiata).

So why has the skate, and to a lesser extent certain species of ray, found themselves on the endangered list. They are not particularly fashionable like the blufin or other species of tuna, delicate like halibut or even as easy to cook as cod. Unfortunately the skates and rays have one huge disadvantage when compared to these species. They take time to mature and reproduce very slowly in incredibly small numbers. Unlike a mackerel that will release many thousands of eggs per fish the rays will lay a small number per female. The majority of shoaling species work on the theory that a mass production of eggs will yield a small percentage of survivors. If, for example, the female population were halved the tiny survival rate would also be halved; the problem that created the cod stocks to collapse of the west coast of Canada. So if the species only lays a small number of eggs to start with then it is critical a large percentage survive. Ultimately a stock can reach no return when the spawning stock is not large enough to successfully recruit and the species becomes extinct – when only two males are left the Adam and eve theory reverts to Adam and Steve – no reproduction.

The EC have recently proposed a 15% cut in Total Allowable Catches across the board within EC waters. The landing of Common Skate, Norwegian Skate, White Skate and Underlate Ray remains illegal in many European waters.

For many years the skate in England and the Ray in France have traditionally appeared on restaurant menus or in front of the family at dinner time; served with black butter and capers or more commonly in England battered with chips. In more resent times skate has become a popular dish offered by some of the top London establishments; maybe it offers something quintessentially English?

Personally, I have not seen a piece of Common skate for a number of years and although our shop is situated in the heart of London’s largest and wealthiest French and English communities the demand for this, and ray species, is minimal. I put this down to my choice of rarely offering this product; I am one of the people fascinated by them in their own environment. On a Friday the shop will offer a small amount of carefully selected ray species that I am happy with selling. I understand it can be very hard for certain businesses when the most talked about ‘must avoid’ species are also the most popular. In a way I feel sorry for restaurants such as Nobo, Scotts and Sheekeys as they are being publicly pressured into to removing dishes they have sold for many years, dishes that are signature of their restaurant, dishes that will leave gaping holes in their menus, holes that cannot be filled. However, nobody can condone the selling of an endangered species, aquatic or not, so these restaurants will have to come to terms with this and adapt their menus accordingly. Those that do not will eventually find themselves ostracised which will be more damaging long term to their businesses.

I certainly believe the majority of restaurants, including those so heavily criticised on recent ‘where not to buy fish’ websites which offer skate on the menu, are in fact selling species of sustainable ray (websites such as the recent fish2fork.com which was removed for a short period and updated as inaccuracies and assumptions where leading to possible libel action). The problem that occurs is that all these species encompass the group of true skates. All of our commercial species are then split into the larger species with long snouts (true skates) and the smaller short snouted species (rays). Although technically they can all be called skate on the menu it is time, with increased pressure of knowing some are critically endangered, to label our dishes, and in the case of fishmongers, their counters, correctly. Not until 2009 has the fishing industry been forced into labelling each variety as species specific.

Common Skate

Many chefs and fishmongers will not recognise the difference between the many species. In fact many would have never sold common skate. However, many of the menu inaccuracies involving skate are accidental and without true malice, but those restaurants that have known they have been selling ray as skate will now feel uneasy with recent publicity. Conversely, many will be happy with their labelling as technically it is correct and the assumption by the recent fish2fork website that menu citing of skate are automatically the endangered species are very assuming and in most cases wholly inaccurate. I am also told there is a certain amount of misleading undertaken by some wholesalers and fishmongers and I have also seen the smallest of immature ray wings labelled as skate in the so called ‘green’ supermarket. The real problem is that over the past ten years everybody has just called all species skate. It was just easier that way. It was a name everybody recognised. “Portion of skate and chips please love” just makes more sense than “Portion of small-eyed ray and chips please”. This however needs to change. People are aware of the uneasy plight of certain species of fish. Shops and restaurants need to re-label. It is not acceptable to sell endangered species of Skate so why use the name. The rays have such beautiful names so use it as a sale pitch.

So what is my advice on buying or not buying skate and ray? Due to the lack of data it has been very difficult in finding any real help to answer this question. The fishonline.org website offers its usual level of worthless help by suggesting the stock levels of most species is uncertain. Fish2fork seem to categorise all species as skate thus assuming they are critically endangered without any real justification. Seafish ‘the authority on seafood’ (their branding) offer little more than a lack of data gives insufficient results. The IUCN red list offers little unless well hidden in its site. For example the Thornback Ray, categorised by Seafish (with reference to IUCN) as ‘near threatened’ is actually categorised as lower risk by the IUCN – all very confusing and might I say misleading. All I can suggest is to follow the following list and you should buy the tastiest meal that hasn’t come from a critically endangered species.

Your purchased piece of fish should be as pink as possible (see picture below) – remember ‘White will be shite’. The older the fish the whiter it will be so if no colour remains walk away.

Many will know that an old piece of skate will smell of ammonia but why?
The skates retain nitrogenous wastes such as urea in their blood stream to help water from being drawn out of them via osmosis. When combined with blood salts the concentration is raised above that of the surrounding water resulting in osmotic equality. If it smells do not eat it.

And finally with regards to ethical selection the size may be your only help. As the very large species of True Skates and the Underlate Ray are now rarely or never landed I would suggest avoiding the very small wings that would come from immature fish. It is hard as the smaller species are believed to be the most abundant, but rarely will any have reached maturity at a small size. Buy whole wings that weigh 700grms+ or pieces that have come from wings this size or above. Maybe your ideal size to guarantee your fish had reached maturity and had been given a chance to spawn would be bigger still.

To note – Unlike the cleanly skinned Blonde Ray wings in the picture below the common skate has small black squiggly lines left on the flesh after skinning (they are part of the skin that remains and could be likened to black worms?) and I believe is the only species that does. If you see it for sale you’ll know it is from a critically endangered species.

I See Trouble Ahead

2009-11-02T08:24:00.001Z

So is it ethical to follow the lead of celebrity chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall? Should we choose unusual non fashionable fish that fall under ‘their own’ new favourite label of ‘sustainable’. Or maybe get into line behind Charles Clover and only eat at restaurants that he wants us too. I am confused, and trust me, when it comes to fish that is not usual. Of course the majority of fish HFW champions are not only awful to the taste, but are unavailable to buy anyway. That’s fine, but please don’t try to convince us we need to eat carp et al. Anyhow the point; I have been studying the European Communities (EC) proposed Total Allowable Catch (TAC) alterations for 2010. Although the piece I am writing centres around the popular species I did pick up on the following. The marine stewardship council accredits fisheries that can prove they are sustainable which is a very hard status to achieve. The Eastern English Channel Dover Sole fishery gained this status last year and has since won the plaudits and then recommendations of all the ‘where to source fish’ guides. Why then is there a proposed 31% reduction in the TAC of this species in this area? This to me is not showing a stable fishery? This to me is showing that even more than ever before people are jumping on a bandwagon to gain respect from the concerned public by suggesting sources of ‘sustainable, fish – sources they have no understanding of.

Secondly, everyone’s favourite savour of the ocean the Pollack. Let us open with the shuddering words from the SeaFish website that states

“Although Pollack are not an assessed species the European Union set a precautionary Total Allowable Catches based on previous catches (this can be modified based on evidence provided to the EU by the Member State making the request) for this species in the following ICES areas”

So Pollack has no assessment! This problem has caused certain species to collapse in the past and will continue to do in the near future. So, with no assessment the EC has proposed a 15% decrease in TAC which to me is very concerning. This could be construed as guess work as no member state will suggest cuts in their own fleets catch. Maybe in a few years people will be saying ‘don’t eat Pollack it is an endangered species’. And if this scenario occurs please remember the names of those who bullied us all into eating this tasteless fish for their own publicity.

Quality over Quantity

2009-10-30T08:29:00.005Z

It can be very hard finding the quality of fish that I like to sell especially on the back of a windy week. Bad weather over a weekend moves the wholesalers’ and the exporters’ bottomless pocket buying power into Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday leaving the smaller boys scrapping around for the remains. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a demand for 52 day aged sea bass, but unfortunately this is what makes fishmongery so much more difficult than butchery – it needs to be in and out in one day. Ok by the look of some other establishments fish this is not always the case but it is certainly the principal I try to adopt.

It is, however, lovely to see, and especially on a Friday, some high quality fish from some of the most reliable boats in the fleet. The fishing port of Plymouth (the fine town where I read my fisheries science degree) now has an updated re-built busy market with a near faultless on line Dutch auction. Many boats have now chosen to land here because of the facilities. The lemon sole pictured were landed by the ever reliable Plymouth registered ‘Our Endeavour’.

Of course my favourite fish are landed into the quaint fishing port of Newlyn and although their soon to be updated market is a little dated it does have the glamour of a shout auction which gives a lovely historical feel. More importantly though is the Newlyn registered Scorpio, the most reliable Red Mullet boat in the fleet. Pristine fish (pictured) on every landing incurs much interest and huge demand.

A fish that always creates an interest are hook and line caught mackerel. “The only way to eat them is straight out of the sea” I hear. All well and good but there is not much of a coastline in London so you will have to rely on some of the St Ives registered hand-liner the ‘Janet Ann’ to supply the best in London – and they are the best!!

The skippers of these boats lead the way when it comes to looking after their catch. They clearly realise the higher the quality when reaching the market, the higher the market price. I see Icelandic lemon sole and small trawled red mullet and tiny watery Scottish mackerel (which I would be embarrassed to sell) at Billingsgate that are less than half the price, however, I never whinge when paying through the nose for the quality of fish from my favourite boats. Twice the price maybe, five times the quality certainly.

Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy - Maybe?

2009-10-19T07:23:00.002+01:00

Ever since the cinema premier of the hugely revealing documentary 'The End of The Line', which exposes frailties in certain fisheries around the world, everybody has become an expert. The politician, the chef, the angler, the greenie, the organic and so on all now think they have a full insight into the plight of the worlds fisheries so much so they are polished in all aspects of fisheries management. Apparently the fisherman, the fish wholesaler and the fishmonger are clueless and have no understanding about the current situation of certain depleted species and are only interested in capitalising on the profits that can be made from fish. I can't speak for others but in my case this could be no further from the truth. With the TV premier of this documentary imminent i ask those who will watch it for the first time to listen to the words and not just be memorised by the shock factor pictures unveiling in front of your eyes. After watching we will all have an opinion, whether structured or not, however, few people have offered me any better suggestions on how to solve this problem other than 'talking about' buying pollack instead of cod or not buying blufin tuna that isn't available for them to buy anyway. Why? Because the documentary offers no clear insight or understanding into the subject of fisheries. Please enjoy some of my opinions, based around our more local situation of the European Union, and maybe it will also give an insight into how complex the fisheries world really is.

It could be argued that

Britain

and Europe must have a sustainable fishery to meet the requirements of consumer demand and coastal employment. In the majority of cases fish are common property, but can they still be treated as a free resource? Or will this continuation cause the extinction of many species? Fish resources are not only limited, but are increasingly insufficient, pointing to an argument that fish resources can no longer be treated as free. To implement this is a challenge; if tackled incorrectly the collapse of Eco-systems, entire food chains and huge economic hardships may result. Organisations throughout the world have been established to undertake these problems; Europe is no exception.

The common fisheries policy originated from the accession of three countries to the European union. With Great Britain, Denmark and Ireland’s application, the existing member states felt it was necessary to compile a policy concerning the fisheries in EU waters. This policy would attempt to protect and manage the existing and new member’s rights. The new members joined in 1973 with the basic foundation of the policy being laid down on November 3^rd 1976; this coincided with the introduction of a 200-mile fisheries limit by the EEC. This agreement included management techniques in the form of total allowable catches (TACs) and individual quotas for each member state for each of the main fish stocks.

One problem that arises is the apportionment of TACs and quotas. The method of allocation is still based on an agreement reached in 1980 relating to relative stability of states; member states maintain their share of a TAC over time. Interestingly, it must be noted that fish stocks fluctuate, effort levels vary, technology improves and demands change, but TAC allocation methods stay the same. This approach seems somewhat static and although allocation is modified yearly within TACs it is probably the case that when they are at their lowest there are to many boats chasing to many fish (this may also be the case when set at highest levels as it is dependent on exploitation levels).

People in charge of setting TACs have on occasions been inexact, leading to collapses of certain stocks. The problem stems from data availability and the inaccurate scientific techniques used in quantification. Although indirectly associated with the common fisheries policy, assessment methods need to improve. More accurate data is essential and bias needs to be eliminated from mathematical models, it may be fair to assume that in submission of figures these problems may not be taken into consideration for political reasons. The continued setting of incorrect TACs may eventuate in a failure to conserve stocks (the key rationale behind the common fisheries policy), hence undermining the whole process in the eyes of fishermen. These and other techniques have essentially failed to safeguard fish stocks. This leads to the long-term future of fishing industries being unpredictable as stock depletion has failed to ensure a sustainable fishery.

The resident allocation of quotas could have become redundant in 2002, when the question of open access was addressed. It would seem that reform was fundamental in this area otherwise the community would continue with 10-year recesses resulting in no denouement of the issue. The engagement of free access was of course unrealisable, as this would require unanimity amongst member states which is highly unlikely. A more viable notion is regional or national control. Allocation would stay adequately constant, but regionalising of management and control will assist against the enigmas of enforcement.

Enforcement of laws and regulations are arduous and costly and with some fishermen just covering their variable costs, there will always be falsification in the system; it could probably be said that abuse is rife. Abuse in the system will proceed whilst fishermen have to contend for dwindling fish resources. So would an abatement of capacity in the fishing fleet resolve these problems? The accession of Spain and Portugal in 1986 put an augmenting burden onto Europe’s total catching fleet. Technically Spain is part of Europe, but at this stage they were not union members, so prior to their accession the majority of their vessels were fishing in distant non-EU waters. Once they had joined (after prolonged discussions), Europe’s fleet had the added problem of compensating for some of Spain’s vast fleet (17300 vessels). This expanded competition between vessels meant far too much power pursuing too few fish.

With continued accession of European countries coinciding with deficient polices, reform seems the only option. The largest consideration entails what areas can be amended and how many disturbances it may cause to the fisheries sector. It could be argued that increasing the level of officious bureaucracy into a system that is already over-bureaucratic, is unnecessary and definitely unwanted by the fishermen. This leads to the opinion that the common fisheries policy is politically driven. Members will negotiate between themselves to gain the best deal for their country, their fisherman, or more cynically their political party. The problem is the lower priority, given to conservation and long-term sustainability throughout negotiations.

If excluding the political interactions that obviously play such a large role in policy making, the reform must then directly reflect on the fleet, the main contributors to stock reduction. If through reform, the cheats in the system can be reduced or removed, the policies, in theory should work with greater efficiency. Convincing fisherman that regulations set by ‘armchair’ politicians are indeed beneficial, may be the most strenuous task. Being told how much you are authorised to catch after years of exploiting a free resource will obviously cause dissatisfaction in fishing sectors.

Allowing fishermen their own rights to the fish rather than be granted them by a European government may increase faith in the policies and may give good reasons to subscribe to their success. Allowing fisherman to buy into and sell out of these schemes would help to give them a sense of ownership. This could stop the immense problems of discarding, illegal net sizes and immoral bycatches as fishermen would be cheating a system they consider their own. Essentially, the system would become self-enforcing, thus taking the pressure from the already inadequate enforcement agencies. On the subject of discards it must be conceived that this behaviour is not only influenced by market opportunities, but in some cases it is in the direction of conservation. Obviously, it cannot be classed as conservation, therefore policies concerning this problem are unquestionably in need of reform.

These suggestions coinciding with developments of satellite tracking will aid the uncertainty of enforcing policies. By tracking catches to the point of sale, assurances that fish obtainable on the market were legally caught as part of a sustainability management scheme can be given.

The more extreme method of reform would entail a reduction in fleet capacity across the board. This is a feasible option if befitting compensation is given to members who choose to vacate the fleet and deploy their maritime skills elsewhere. The problem with this policy is many traditional fishing communities have few if any alternative sources of employment thus a return to politically sensitive issues. Decommissioning is an unavoidable evil. There will be no long-term future for the fishing industry unless fishing stocks are offered a chance to recuperate and, when recovered, the fish are harvested at a sustainable level.

This decommissioning may be prerequisite, but the techniques used are somewhat prejudiced. It must be unacceptable that states are decommissioning vessels, facilitating supplementary fishing opportunities in their waters for the fishing industry of their European partners. Also vast amounts of money are paid into cohesion funds to help the upgrading and upkeep of other countries fishing fleets. It may also be the case that some countries are paying more for the upkeep of partner’s vessels than to their own fisherman to eradicate theirs. When considering these points it is of no surprise that some members of the fishing industry object to the common fisheries policy.

Essentially, a reduction in fleet size will not initially enlarge stock sizes. If the TAC system remains, the quota of fish targeted by the decommissioned boat will be shared amongst other vessels. If this process continues it would be fair to say that socio-economic impacts will result, but the stock of fish is unlikely to be conserved. This argument leads directly into quota reductions, a highly sensitive issue that without accompaniment of decommissioning, would bankrupt fishermen without any compensation. Once a vessel has been scraped the equivalent quota should follow the same route.

To conclude, areas of the common fisheries policy require reform if sustainable fisheries are to be met. Fishermen require more stability and understanding of the regulations that are being enforced. This may be done through implementing schemes enabling them to buy into the rights of fish stocks and in turn reduce the obvious abuse to the system. Essentially, a policy that enforces itself will be more effective and may reduce problems of unnecessary bycatches and gear usage. A reduction in fishing effort will reduce the competition and catch per unit effort, making the fishery more efficient and less likely to hoard poachers. This will only work if quota levels are re-assessed alongside decommissioning. The communities are required to offer adequate compensation for those choosing to leave the industry for retraining in other sectors. The calculation and setting of total allowable catches need to be 1) more dynamic instead of the exceedingly static method deployed at the moment and 2) more accurate.

Finally, the issue of open access requires settlement with control being passed over to regional and national authorities, instead of being centralised in Brussels. This should ameliorate enforcement and management strategies that are currently inadequate.

Italy's Island of Fantastic Fishes

2009-10-18T11:07:00.014+01:00

I admit that i have an obsession with fish so with every visit to anywhere i will seek out the aquarium, the fish market, fishmonger or fishing port. On my recent honeymoon to the Island of Ischia i was a little spoiled as this area of Italy really depends on fish to fill their busy restaurants.

Externally this could be the prettiest front to a fishmongers i have ever seen. It was situated in Ischia Ponte just before the headland to the castle. It really was an eye catcher, but sadly the fish inside, mainly farmed Orata and Spigola were of fairly poor quality.

At the start of the causeway that leads to the castle i found a concrete pontoon that yielded a small collection of fishing boats selling their fare in some of the most breathtaking surroundings.

This fisherman obviously takes care of his catch as his fish were carefully kept in salt water that he continually re-freshed. In this picture he was selling a large red octopus to a delighted Signora. It was still alive and about 1.2kgs (my estimate) in size. Price was about 20 euros per Kilo. The middle blue tub was full of cuttlefish.

Our man also had a nice collection of rock dwellers such as wrasse, weavers and small scorpion fish.

The sale comes to an end but what was noticeable was the lack of bargaining. The fishermen valued their product and no-body questioned their prices.

Mending their small tatty nets. Can't believe they ever catch anything with their gear.

I stumbled across a busy food market in a town called Casamicciola that had a small covered fish stall. Bear in mind the temperature was approaching 27 and not a cube of ice was to be seen!!

The stall, albeit not the best quality, had some very interesting species. My first spot of the famous gambero rosso, huge cuttlefish and a box of garfish.

This was the largest fish stall i found, again void of ice. It was also situated in the town of Casamicciola.

He was selling a large, may be too large, selection of fish with some impressive swordfish, rascasse and tuna and some not so impressive bass, bream, mullet and so on. We had beautiful weather whilst on Ischia with not a cloud in the sky. After visiting this mongers i realised he had all the clouds pasted to his fishes eyes! His shop needed a clean up too. That aside displays like this allow you to see what local fish species are available.

These two pictures are common site in Ischia Porto where the busy restaurants are competing for tourist diners. Among the amazing swordfish, scorpion fish and red bream are defrosting langoustine, farmed turbot and old farmed bream. Why???

Effects of Electricity on Fish

2009-10-17T20:17:00.006+01:00

A number of years ago i participated in a fish survey that was undertaken on a southern section of the grand union canal. It gave me the perfect opportunity to gain some photographic evidence of fish reaction to electrical fields. I wrote this short piece explaining how fish then react when in contact with these electrical fields. I did not delve to deeply into the rather confusing areas of theoretical reactions of fish as this rather is long-winded.

There are three types of electrical current available to fisheries scientists - uninterrupted direct current; pulsed direct current; alternating current.

Three keys stages are witnessed when fish are exposed to electrical fields. The initial reaction is commonly known as 'excitation' and all current types result in similar responses. Fish show restlessness and begin to shudder as they come into line with, and then lie along, the lines of the force.

The second stage is known as 'electrotaxis' and does tend to vary slightly between current types. Uninterrupted and pulsed DC are, however, similar. The fish begin to move towards the anode and away from the cathode. When the anode is reached the fish becomes immobile with their head facing the anode.

The slight difference with pulsed DC is that if the pulse is set to frequent some larger fish can succumb to muscular cramps. The reaction of fish when using DC in the headed section of 'electrotaxis' is sub-headed to galvanotaxis . Conversely, in the same section, but applying AC, is known as oscillotaxis. This area of fish reaction varies from that of DC. The fish become oppressed into occupying a position along the euipotential (central between positive and negative).

The final section of fish reaction is 'electronarcosis'. With DC this sub-section is known as galvanonarcosis. Fish become dazed and immobile and show little or no response to alternative stimuli. At this point the fish will cease to breathe for short periods. Depending on species, some will sink (eels, bullheads, initially carp and zander) and others will float (bream, pike, carp after a short period and zander after a couple of minutes but float for a long period there after). This is a critical point as long periods in the field can cause death. Conversely, shorter periods are ideal as fish will recover and return to normal.

The effects of AC are known as oscillonarcosis and are very similar to galvonarcosis, however, the physiological effects are much greater thus the reason why DC is now more commonly used.

The difficulty in gaining accurate photographs on a working boat means that the following images only fall between the categories of the final stages of galvanotaxis through to complete galvanonarcosis.

These three images are good examples of multiple fish reaction to direct current . The top image shows a large crucian carp clearly under the state of electrotaxis. By looking at the water pattern this shows the fish being pulled towards the anode (positive) headfirst. The middle picture shows some bream in a state of electronarcosis - visual state of immobility and beginning to float to the surface. The bottom image shows the result when counteracting a shoal of fish. All responses are shown in this picture. All pictures show the right arm of the electrofishing boom boat and a fisheries technician working an extra hand held anode to increase the fishable width and efficiency.

Just another Thursday

2009-10-15T13:48:00.020+01:00

I deem myself very lucky to have started my fishmonger career at the very top. Being situated in SW3 I am able to deal with the highest quality of produce on a day basis. There are many lines covered by regular fishmongers that I have never sold or simply avoid selling. This is not because they are not nice, in fact some are delicious, but at the end of the day we are a business and need to sell everything to turn a profit; waste is criminal. This blog post is really a photo call of my Thursday delivery highlighting the quality that can be achieved across the board. People tell me that Tuesday and Friday are the only days to buy fresh fish. I disagree. I thought it would be nice for all to see what quality is available if searched for in London.

As with any of the best fishmongers in London I source my highest quality fish from the West Country. Plymouth, with its computerised Dutch auction system, Brixham with its draw of hungry wholesalers and Newlyn with its rich exporters all encourage the best selection of fisherman to land they fare as the prices will rarely be topped.

Although bought through a London wholesaler my scallops are again from the West Country and come via Brixham. They look as good as they taste.

Tagged Cornish Bass,, landed in Newlyn really are the cream of the crop. Other excellent sources, such as the English Channel, offer high quality, but the MSC accredited Bass hand line fishery is rarely surpassed

The second important MSC accredited line fishery is for the Atlantic mackerel where most are landed into Newlyn. Note the shear size of these fish that overshadow their small waterery trawled cousins, usually deriving from the west of Scotland, and caught by Spanish boats.

The best red mullet I have ever had are landed in Newlyn. These fish are really special but unfortunately have suffered, like many species, of becoming fashionable. As restaurants increase their usage the price then begins to rise as many are chasing a few fish.

The cheeky Guarnard is visually my favourite of all the British food fish. The species, Red, Grey and Tub, make up this hugely interesting fish group that has also suffered price wise through its own success

The Turbot, or the king of the sea, is a really special fish. A great dinner party spectacle in its whole form. My fish are mostly from Plymouth, but Newlyn does indeed yield some beauties. A Close relative of the Turbot, and a member of the left eye flatfish family, is the Brill. This is my absolute favourite and fish of this quality are an absolute must.

The John Dory. Simply sublime and a true favourite of our French and Italian customers. Generally served as fillets when eating in a restaurant this fish really must be tried whole as the bones yield so much flavour.

The South West Monkfish is the best in the business. As acceptable as the Scottish monk is it is always a little wet and has much larger flaps that yield wastage. Always look for the nice pink coloured flesh indicating the height of freshness. All the South West ports produce high quality Monkfish and if searched for Monkfish liver can also be located

I defy anyone to find better plaice, haddock, or cod (when available) than that landed at the three South West ports. Always consistently superb quality and a joy to sell on a daily basis. Not much to choose between the ports but it would seem Plymouth yields the best place whereas Newlyn edges the haddock and cod.

My Soles are the best anywhere. The Plymouth Lemons are just amazing and outstrip the Channel, scotch and Icelandic by fathoms. By the nature of the product they are a little more expensive but when reciting the phrase ‘you get what you pay for’, in the world of fish Lemon Sole really matches that theory. I recently spoke about my Dovers in its own blog post to the joy of the West Country.

All hail the West Country as their squid is also the best money can buy. Inshore netting or jigging offers such high quality that a huge percentage of ink sacks are still intact for customers to use in their pasta dishes.

The Scots do some great fish including these live creel caught west coast Langoustine. These are the finest prawn available and if you see these lively chaps you have too try.

Native English Lobsters

These Razors are Scotch and lively little chaps to boot