All set for tonight's Fish Fight - as Tesco wades in on the positive publicity.

On the eve of the start of Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall's FishFight campaign Tesco took the timely opportunity to announce that they were moving to source their own brand tuna from 100%pole and line fisheries as reported in this Guardian Online article.  Of course, within the industry, many will recognise that targeting a fishery like tuna is an easy way of gaining green kudos points in comparison to promoting fisheries targeting white fish like cod, whiting and haddock.  The range of sentiments and opinions a story like this engenders is all too evident from the comments at the foot of the online Guardian's article.

Quentin Knights holds a tagged albacore tuna on the market at Newlyn.

Melissa Pritchard from Client Earth who spoke on the Radio Cornwall this morning elaborated on a recently published ClientEarth report citing that retail outlets used terms in the promotional material associated with fish products that where often misleading or unsubstantiated as regards their provenance - similar to the made up Scottish place names supermarkets use to promote smoked salmon and other products - terms that suggest they come from some sort of officially accredited catching methods are alluded to and not backed up with the kind of formal certification that is enjoyed by Cornish Sardines, Line Caught Bass, Pollack or Mackerel.  A spokesperson from the consumer association mentioned the lack of clarity and level of agreement within the industry with regard to the management of certain fish stocks. The story was picked up by the Guardian and some of the reaser's comments at the foot of the page make interesting reading.


Locally, the range and scope of scientific fisheries research is not sufficient to cover the range of species involved.  Thirty years ago there was a substantial mackerel fishery as huge shoals worked their way around the South West during the winter months.  On yesterday's market there was half a box of mackerel in total.  Historically over the years, big changes in the appearance of pelagic fish like mackerel and pilchards have been recorded in Cornish waters.


Round one of the FishFight programmes will be screened on Channel 4 tonight.