Cornish queen scallop rice (paella)
PHOTOGRAPHS: MAJA SMEND. FOOD STYLING: JEN BEDLOE. STYLING: TONY HUTCHINSON
One moment you’re rushing to support shellfish farmers battered by Brexit, the next you’re swearing off seafood for life after having watched the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy. When it comes to sourcing fish responsibly, the waters are very muddy indeed. To help clear them, we spoke to people whose mission it is to support sustainable fishing practices in Britain.That’s not to say there aren’t sustainable sources beyond our shores, but in an effort to reduce our food miles – and support hundreds of fishermen left high and dry by Brexit and the pandemic – it makes sense to source at home.
The bad news
This means that cod, tuna and prawns shouldn’t be your first port of call.
Most prawns eaten in the UK are imported frozen from Southeast Asia and South America, where they’re farmed or caught in ways that are and importing 80% often damaging to the local ecosystem. The sustainability of of what we eat” Atlantic cod varies, but UK cod stocks are considered perilously small – so most of the cod we eat here comes from Iceland and Norway.
And now for the good news…
Our waters are home to a wealth of alternatives (see The Big Fish Swap, p28) that can be sustainably fished. Ben King is the co-founder of online retailer Pesky Fish, which aims to shorten the supply chain between fishermen and customers (see Where To Buy, p26).“Britain has been exporting 80% of its catch – and importing 80% of what we eat,” he says.
Pre-pandemic and pre-Brexit, this was less of a problem: British producers sold their catch abroad to those who were “more appreciative of our seafood”. But when the pandemic shut hospitality, demand plummeted – an issue compounded by the EU’s import ban on live bivalves (clams, oysters, mussels and scallops) from the UK.
After Brexit, our shellfish exports fell by 62%, leaving many producers on the brink of bankruptcy. The tragedy, beyond the impact on industry, is that bivalves can be a brilliant, sustainable source of protein. They filter the water around them, improving its quality, and provide microhabitats for fish and smaller invertebrates. They also require little or no feed, which is a great advantage when you consider that a good proportion of the wild fish caught worldwide becomes food for fish farms.
“Britain has been exporting 80% of its catch —and importing 80% of what we eat”
Let’s buy British!
So why aren’t we eating more British seafood? And why is it so hard to figure out what’s sustainable? The answer has a lot to do with our dependence on supermarkets. Buying from a fishmonger – as previous generations did – means choosing from what’s on the counter, but many supermarkets have popular items filleted and constantly in stock, blinding us to seasonality and fluctuating fish populations, and giving the illusion that there’s an unlimited supply.