River Cottage Gone Fishing

[Stewy]

Lol.........No, they only do them until 11am I think...........

[Cazzie]

So... any fishy delights for you tonight then?

I've got Plaice Florentine - sadly it's a ready meal tho as I'm on my own tonight, mind you it's easy to 'zap' it lol!

[Stewy]

Nah, pork chops tonight, dunno what with yet, pasta of some sort I expect.

Going to pop into the fishmongers tommoz and get some plaice fillets and do some goujons with home made chips and peas me thinks.......

[Cazzie]

Originally Posted by Stewy

Nah, pork chops tonight, dunno what with yet, pasta of some sort I expect.

Going to pop into the fishmongers tommoz and get some plaice fillets and do some goujons with home made chips and peas me thinks.......

Hmmmm.... where you watching Nigella by chance last night.. late on BBC1?

[Stewy]

Rumbled................. She used sole though didn't she? I'll go for the cheaper option of plaice.

[Cazzie]

Originally Posted by Stewy

Rumbled................. She used sole though didn't she? I'll go for the cheaper option of plaice.

I stand corrected... twas lemon sole she used I was going to watch UKTVFOOD late last night by my 'magic eye' wouldn't work on my portable for some strange reason which is why I ended up with the godess who is known as Nigella

Well my zapped micro meal was should have made it myself really if I wasn't feeling so lazy....

Nice chops?

[Paul mabbott]

They (sea urchins) don't travel well, apparently .. but they're okay if you just take them out the water (on a clean bit of coast - they're very dodgy, like most seafood, when there's a sewage outlet nearby ) and eat them raw. Actually, I've not had many and they were pretty tastelesss to me but ....

Originally Posted by Cazzie

No I haven't.... it's on my 'to do' list lol!

[Cazzie]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

They (sea urchins) don't travel well, apparently .. but they're okay if you just take them out the water (on a clean bit of coast - they're very dodgy, like most seafood, when there's a sewage outlet nearby ) and eat them raw. Actually, I've not had many and they were pretty tastelesss to me but ....

Hmmm... mabye I'm not so keen now However I did hear HFW say that they are an aphrodisiac!

Oh dear, I think Hugh needs a visit from the fashion police and sharpish! Did you see that shirt last night?

It was a good interview and hearing about his chicken crusade was interesting. Don't think he was too pleased about Jonathan showing the clip of him eating baby elvers tho

[Stewy]

Shocking shirt, he looked like one of those chocolate and mint sweets........ can't remember the names of 'em.......

The chicken out campaign is such a worthy cause, as Hugh said last night the poor old chicken is abused beyond belief.

Have a peek here folks.

Chicken Out Campaign!

[Jez]

Originally Posted by Cazzie

Rofl! erm... no! sadly Morrisons didn't have any yesterday

I actually had Gilthead Sea Bream with Moules Mariniere to start *smacks lips* yum yum!

Jealous huh?!? Think Hugh would be proud of me?

I have been to our little farm shop and saw lobster Claws *I'll have those & make it snappy*. Yer-Two can play at that game

[Stewy]

Chocolate Limes!!!!!!!!! That's them...........

[Jez]

Originally Posted by Stewy

Shocking shirt, he looked like one of those chocolate and mint sweets........ can't remember the names of 'em.......

The chicken out campaign is such a worthy cause, as Hugh said last night the poor old chicken is abused beyond belief.

Have a peek here folks.

Chicken Out Campaign!

Will have a butchers excuse the pun Stewy at the Campaign. My feelings to Chickens Is mostly the lack of exersize they get. Unhealthy meat fit for unhealthy people

[FutureCompost]

I know this is not about River Cottage and Hugh and his TV series about sustainable fish. But this is about undersized fish.
I watched Rick Stein's recent Medditeranean series where continental fisherman sold undersized fish in the harbour early in the morning and the authorities turned a blind eye.
Whereas in England fisherman throw tons of dead undersize fish into the sea every year because of our stickler for rules.
So my point is this would you buy undersize fish if you could or would you you rather fisherman stick to the rules and just dump undersize fish in the sea for the gulls.

[Stewy]

Originally Posted by FutureCompost

So my point is this would you buy undersize fish if you could or would you you rather fisherman stick to the rules and just dump undersize fish in the sea for the gulls.

No & there would be hardly any need for fisherman to dump undersized fish over the side if they all used square mesh.

[hammock monkey]

me neither, i wouldnt buy it.
its a mess that needs attention. it drives me mad that politicians (Cameron in particular) spend all their time crowbarring open yet another enquiry when real problems are left until they have some headline value.
the cod that gets thrown back as highlighted on the news the other day is offensive to everyone, but i dont blame the fishermen. Theres a problem that needs designing out there, the square beam trawler featured on riv cott gone fishing was a bright light at the end of the tunnel i thought. the beauty of it was that he was not only improving the chances of the young fish, but increasing his financial income by bringing home less damaged fish, perfect.

if the guys on the continent keep fishing the smaller fry as it were, they'll probably get away with it until someone can sort the new nets out. all they have to do is buy the new nets and keep going...although if they're making money selling the small stuff why should they stop? (their opinion, not mine)

i thought the E.U was supposed to sort all this out...best fill in some forms to arrange a meeting to begin thinking about an enquiry into the beginnings of looking at the problem....with a plan to get some positive action in place by 3007.... not that i'm cynical or anything...

[zan]

I would rather see the undersize fish landed than thrown back. One of the big problems with trawlers is that virtually all the white fish that come up are dead (the rapid decrease in pressure as they are raised from the depths usually ruptures their swimbladders), so it doesn't matter if they go back in the sea or stay on board - the end result is a load of small, dead fish.

the system used in Norway makes discarding at sea illegal. Fishermen MUST land everything they catch, but only the large fish can be sold for food. The rest goes for industrial fishmeal production etc. for a much lower price. The economics encourage the fishermen to target only the biggest, most valuable fish while getting rid of the waste through discarding. Unfortunately, as long as we are part of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, this approach is unlikely to work as we can't manage our own stocks effectively.

I agree that the problem is most likely political - the scientific community have been giving pretty much the same advice for years, and the fishermen obviously don't want to lose their livelihoods.

WRT river cottage gone fishing, I personally think that anything that encourages brits to eat more (sustainable) seafood is ace. Just make sure it comes from a good source! the good fish guide (Welcome to Fishonline) will give you advice on all current species landed in the UK.

[hammock monkey]

Cheers Zan for the link - looks great.
I agree that dead fish back in is a shocking waste, but at least they go back into the food chain close to where they were taken...difficult to decide for certain.
The quota system and number of days out at sea is kind of going in the right direction, but using square nets has to be one of the best steps. How to make all fisherman go for it is the next hurdle, if it means an increased income then i'm sure its going to follow.
surely the fishermen themselves know the answer, they want a sustainable system that obviously pays as well as possible. a level playing field wrt to imported fish is incredibly important...as it is with all things to my mind...not that exists at all!!
ah well, keep on buying the good stuff and hope it becomes a political point scoring issue at some time in the future i say, thats possibly the fastest way to get movement in a positive direction

[zan]

true, but by throwing it back you only encourage scavenging communities to develop, not necessarily the original community animals. since we also have giant factory boats out every day trawling for key prey species like sandeels and other 'industrial' fish species for teh industrial fishery, I'd be keen to see alternatives before we knacker another ecosystem.

square-mesh nets on every trawler would be a lovely dream!

Zan

[coasty]

What worries me is when I used to fish on the harbour wall when I was a kid, We could catch a hundred little pollack and coalfish in a few hours. and In the winter we used to catch teeny cod and loads of whiting in the Autumn,,,
The mackeral shoals in the summer were such that I have could have caught dozens in an hour of the pier.

They are just not there anymore...and no little fish now means no big fish next year or the year after...