Eating Coarse fish: Food Programme R4 Today

[phil hackett]

On Radio 4’s “The Food Programme” today, there was a discussion about eating coarse fish.

A spokeswoman from the Game conservancy Trust advocated a return to wide-scale consumption of coarse fish as a nation, based on a sustainable management system. To illustrate the point, she filleted and cooked a perch for the presenter.

 

She also claimed that they (GCT) are carrying out vast habitat restoration work (News to me, I thought it was the EA) on rivers to conserve fish.

She went on to say “where there are to many coarse fish in a river, they should be removed and eaten and not wasted.” I didn’t know they were? I was always led to believe the EA found a new home for them elsewhere.

 

So, my question to you is –

“How do you feel about the UK’s Coarse Fish stock becoming a sustainable poplar commercial crop on the fishmongers slab, in the not to distant future, if the Game Conservancy Trust gets its way?”

[Ed Matysiak]

Catch fish for pleasure, not to fill your stomach. Im guessing the women speaker is not an angler herslef and knows not of the joy when catching and releasing!

[Eddie]

Koi Carp:

Catch fish for pleasure, not to fill your stomach. Im guessing the women speaker is not an angler herslef and knows not of the joy when catching and releasing!

Think I'd rather eat them than let the Black Sh1te get them!

 

For the record have not eaten coarse fish for forty years.

[Nugg]

Makes it sound as if you just march off to the nearest river and catch your fish, regardless of a licence, who has the fishing rights, or who owns the land. If this sort of thing were to continue, I see trouble ahead.

[nigelnibbles]

a lot of fresh water fish were eaten in victorian times,(my gran had a cookbook which was full of recipes for fish like roach, minnow, gudgeon,bream,perch,pike, you name it it had a recipe for it) it was a free source of food for a lot of people, have eaten freshwater fish myself, tench,minnow,bream. if some people wanted to try it these days as long as common sense is followed and the fish stocks are managed I cant see it being a problem

[Leon Roskilly]

Fish is an important part of a healthy human diet.

 

With very few exceptions, no where in the world has been able to develop a sustainable way of managing a resource that has common access.

 

The result is that many of the sea stocks are now at or close to biological collapse.

 

In future, our food fish are likely to come from privately owned stocks, supplemented by freshwater species.

 

The danger will be that waters will be intensively farmed.

 

Leisure waters will need to compete economically with food production waters - the cost of recreational fishing will go up considerably.

 

But you will be allowed to take your catch home to eat.

 

To avoid such a future, all anglers, not just sea anglers, should be campaigning now to save the oceans stocks.

 

Tight Lines - leon

Sea Anglers Conservation Network (SACN)

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/sacn

 

[ 23. June 2003, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[poledark]

I cannot see this eating coarse fish taking off at all, specially with the younger generation.

Descaling a roach and soaking in salt water overnight??

Removing the needle bones from a small pike??

 

 

Can you really see the modern housewife fiddling about with tasteless coarse fish when she has such a huge variety of other foods scources available?

 

 

Trout are fairly well recieved but they are so easy to prepare and eat, the bones easily removed in one piece.

 

Unless they are sold frozen, filleted and breaded, they will never catch on.

 

Den

[Leon Roskilly]

poledark:

 

 Unless they are sold frozen, filleted and breaded, they will never catch on.

Den,

 

How many people do you know, that are not from angling families, that know how to de-head, de-scale and de-gut fish?

 

That doesn't stop them buying prepared fish from the wet-fish counter, or more likely economy fish-fingers containing god knows what, or boil in the bag baby haddock (I've found more than 5 baby haddock sides per bag!).

 

Clever folks, these food processors, and they are running out of wild sea caught fish to process

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Rob Ward]

I'm sure I saw a documentary where a large food chain were investing heavily in Saltwater Fish Farming of Cod and Haddock.

[corydoras]

I have only ever eaten one species of coarse fish and that was a perch. This was not in the UK but as part of a wedding meal in France. It was delicious, served in a sauce made with champagne and mushrooms.

 

I do not really have an issue with people eating coarse fish but from what I have heard the vast majority of them do not taste that good.