Back in from her second full trip...
the Sapphire II looks to be getting sorted on deck...
with her fish...
on the market and ready for sale.
Thursday 4 April 2013
Sapphire II makes her second landing on Wednesday's market.
Back in from her second full trip...
the Sapphire II looks to be getting sorted on deck...
with her fish...
on the market and ready for sale.
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Seven per cent of fish sold in Britain mislabelled
Let's face it, it could be worse!!
Here are a few extracts from articles in the media today:
From the Guardian:
The first is the news, if you can call it that, that eating oily fish is good for us. As far as most fish-eaters are concerned this is not an earth-shattering revelation. For years we've known, or have at least been told, that mackerel, herring, sardines and so on are all good stuff. But now it seems that loading up on omega-3s can add 2.2 years to your life, cutting "the overall risk of dying by as much as 27%", however that works.
Second up, and perhaps more significant, is the piscine challenge to the horsemeat scandal, with the discovery that fish counters and chippies are swimming with incorrectly labelled produce, including some fish that hadn't previously entered the food chain.
The connection between the two is that for all the health benefits imparted by fish, eating them is becoming ever more of a headache. Let's take the sainted mackerel, that sustainable, economical, plentiful, omega-3-rich, not to mention delicious specimen. Earlier this year we were told to control our mackerel-eating urges due to over-fishing. Never mind the (disputed) health benefits – mackerel should now be a rare treat.
And a trip to the chippie, once a haddock-or-cod affair, has now been muddled not only by dissenting voices about the ethics of eating cod, but also by the possibility that your simple fish supper consists of a frozen and air-freighted monster of the Mekong.
So where does one begin? Who do we trust?
"Labelling fish accurately is a very difficult thing to do," says fishmonger Robin Moxon. "Every restaurant in town seems to have 'hand-dived' scallops, but I've only ever met two divers. When I get my fish out of Plymouth I know pretty much exactly where it's been fished. But with a new supplier you don't know if it's come from way out at sea, and isn't quite as local as you might have thought."
Perhaps you don't know, but you can, says Calum Richardson at the Bay Fish and Chips in Stonehaven. His chippy has digital menus that display the name and registration of the boat that caught the fish on that particular day. "All the boats have GPS, so every time they drop their nets they log where they were dropped, at what time, the species caught, and how much. When I get a box of fish delivered to the shop I know everything except the fishes' names."
I demolished an exemplary fish supper from Richardson's shop in November (Maimai FR432 was the fishing boat, if you're asking), and was pleased when it was awarded Best Fish and Chips in the UK at this year's Fish and Chips Awards. According to Richardson, six out of 10 of the finalists had bought fish from his supplier in Peterhead.
Here are a few extracts from articles in the media today:
From the Guardian:
About one in seven fish sold in shops, restaurants or fish and chip shops may not be what they say on packs or menus, according to trading standards checks.
Figures supplied by councils to the UK Food Standards Agency indicate that 41 of 303 checks on packaged frozen or chilled fish and in catering businesses in 2011 did not meet labelling requirements.
In 27 cases the fish described as cod was another species, such as haddock, whiting or pollock. Other types of fish were also incorrectly described among other breaches of labelling rules. said the agency.
The UK fishing industry has demanded tougher action to ensure consumers are not misled over the type of fish they are eating amid mounting evidence of mislabelling of fish internationally and as Europe reels from the horsemeat in beef scandal.
And this article from their mobile site:
Eating fish: it's complicated With all these tales of fishy labelling floating around, how can we tell the codliness or otherwise of our fish suppers?
Two stories today further complicate the already vexed issue of eating fish.
Eating fish: it's complicated With all these tales of fishy labelling floating around, how can we tell the codliness or otherwise of our fish suppers?
Two stories today further complicate the already vexed issue of eating fish.
The first is the news, if you can call it that, that eating oily fish is good for us. As far as most fish-eaters are concerned this is not an earth-shattering revelation. For years we've known, or have at least been told, that mackerel, herring, sardines and so on are all good stuff. But now it seems that loading up on omega-3s can add 2.2 years to your life, cutting "the overall risk of dying by as much as 27%", however that works.
Second up, and perhaps more significant, is the piscine challenge to the horsemeat scandal, with the discovery that fish counters and chippies are swimming with incorrectly labelled produce, including some fish that hadn't previously entered the food chain.
The connection between the two is that for all the health benefits imparted by fish, eating them is becoming ever more of a headache. Let's take the sainted mackerel, that sustainable, economical, plentiful, omega-3-rich, not to mention delicious specimen. Earlier this year we were told to control our mackerel-eating urges due to over-fishing. Never mind the (disputed) health benefits – mackerel should now be a rare treat.
And a trip to the chippie, once a haddock-or-cod affair, has now been muddled not only by dissenting voices about the ethics of eating cod, but also by the possibility that your simple fish supper consists of a frozen and air-freighted monster of the Mekong.
So where does one begin? Who do we trust?
"Labelling fish accurately is a very difficult thing to do," says fishmonger Robin Moxon. "Every restaurant in town seems to have 'hand-dived' scallops, but I've only ever met two divers. When I get my fish out of Plymouth I know pretty much exactly where it's been fished. But with a new supplier you don't know if it's come from way out at sea, and isn't quite as local as you might have thought."
Perhaps you don't know, but you can, says Calum Richardson at the Bay Fish and Chips in Stonehaven. His chippy has digital menus that display the name and registration of the boat that caught the fish on that particular day. "All the boats have GPS, so every time they drop their nets they log where they were dropped, at what time, the species caught, and how much. When I get a box of fish delivered to the shop I know everything except the fishes' names."
I demolished an exemplary fish supper from Richardson's shop in November (Maimai FR432 was the fishing boat, if you're asking), and was pleased when it was awarded Best Fish and Chips in the UK at this year's Fish and Chips Awards. According to Richardson, six out of 10 of the finalists had bought fish from his supplier in Peterhead.
Tuesday 2 April 2013
First market after the Easter break, busy enough.
Early one morning just as the sun was rising...
just as the waves crashed on the prom...
auction time...
still plenty of aged cod about...
and a good smattering of ray on the ground...
bright eyed gurnards cut a dash...
even the cuttles are still thick on the ground...
more rays...
amidst the yellow wellies...
and mighty megs...
on comes the results of net mending Freddie's labours...
a bin at a time...
classy ocaen going cat is an ealry sailing season visitor...
that's a serious bow the Emma sports...
twin rigger Crystal Sea II...
from green to grey to white...
back tomorow then!
Fish provenance - the Irish are on the ball!
Picture this: you are out shopping in the company of your smartphone or android, and you spot some tempting tuna, or cod or hake. The price looks good, but you are an ethical Irish Times reader. So, naturally, you want to know more.
Thanks to a new project currently being developed by two State agencies, you should be able to use a phone or tablet app to scan the barcode, link in to relevant websites and find out where the fish was caught, how, by whom and when.
What’s more, the same links should even suggest some useful recipes, and give suitably impressive details on the sustainability of the stock.
The E-Locate project, as it is called, is a joint Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM)/Sea Fisheries Development Agency (SFPA) initiative which promises to give a 21st century level of traceability to the 21st century consumer.
Labelling regulations
Funded by the European Commission, it has been devised in response to yet more EU legislation on weighing, labelling and traceability of fish – a “positive approach” to something potentially onerous, in the words of BIM’s fisheries development managerMichael Keatinge.
It will have particular benefits for fish-lovers who are keen to buy catch caught by Irish boats in these waters.
“Irish fish” has been something of a misnomer since the State became a member of the EU, and signed up to shared waters under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
Current labelling regulations make it almost impossible for the seafood industry to identify wild fish, caught in shared European waters, as distinctly Irish.
“North-east Atlantic” is about as close a location permitted on retail fish stalls for most species, except for farmed salmon which can be described by nationality.
It’s one of the reasons that the Responsible Irish Fish (RIF) label was initiated byFrank Fleming and fellow catchers four years ago.
Supported by both BIM and Bord Bia, the label guarantees that the fish is not undersized and has been caught in a sustainable way.
More than 100 Irish vessels and all four main fishing co-operatives have signed up to the RIF label, and it has resulted in a small increase in price for catches, Fleming says.
‘Five times the price’
However, some 75 per cent of seafood sold here is imported, due to restrictions on Irish whitefish quotas, while better prices abroad have resulted in some 75 per cent of catches here being shipped away.
“It’s a crazy situation, especially when we have second largest sea area in the EU,” Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation (IFPO) chief executive, Francis O’Donnell says.
“We have had to live with small quotas, but this is not translating into higher prices for the primary producer,” he says. “It’s very difficult to explain why some fresh fish is being sold for five times the price that was paid at point of landing.”
A spot check which the IFPO conducted last week found that monkfish which had fetched €4 a kilo on landing was retailing at €31 a kilo in a Cork supermarket.
Support your fishing communities in the UK - they need you now!
Pressure from environment has left every fishing port in the UK under with a sense of persecution and concerne for their very existence.
Now fishermen from aorund the coast are coming together making their voices heard. Using the power of the web to share ideas and provide a platform from which to proclaim their cause the fishing communities of the UK are urging people to ask their fishmonger, "is it local?"
If you are a fishing boat, get some of these printed and put them on your fish for auction:
If you're a fishmonger, print these off for your fish display counter:
Saturday 30 March 2013
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