Sustainable Fish Recipes: Join The Big Fish Fight to Save Our Seas

There are undoubtedly some who think the publicity afforded to declining fish stocks amounts to little more than the paranoid rantings of extreme environmentalists, with a warped vision of reality. They will glance at a related story on their TV or in their newspaper before quickly dismissing it and happily tucking in to their cod and chips. It is imperative, however, to realise that this is by no means the case. There are many species of fish in our seas and oceans - around the world - which were once plentiful beyond counting but which have now been decimated to a fraction of their one time stock levels by over-fishing and by inappropriate fishing practices. I have personally seen the evidence of this in a number of locales - only on a small scale - but it was enough to break my heart on each occasion.

I was introduced to sea fishing/sea angling as a very young child in the 1970's, both from shore and from boat. How well I remember the delights of fishing from a pier or a small boat in the sea lochs and sounds of the West of Scotland (such as Loch Fyne, pictured.) It seemed that every time a line was dropped in to the water, it would come back up with a plump and edible fish on the hook. It took no time at all to catch enough fish for a delicious poached, fried or baked dinner. As I grew older, in to the 1980's and particularly the 90's, I ventured further afield, enjoying my fishing as much as ever and the later culinary delights which my catch provided.

It is difficult to pinpoint precisely when but sometime around the late 90's, I began to notice a very definite slump in the numbers and types of fish that not only I was catching but also that my friends and others fishing particular venues were catching. Often, blank fishing trips would occur, or the irritating dogfish would be all that were caught. No, this is not, "Fisherman's tales," or rueful reference to, "The one that got away!" This represented a definite reduction in the numbers of fish in these once bountiful waters.

This was illustrated never more clearly than when I revisited that idyllic scene of my earliest childhood sea fishing experiences - a small village near Oban - for the first time in more than twenty years, around 2003 or 2004. It was a beautiful May Bank Holiday weekend and a group of us had travelled north for a weekend of camping, fishing by day and sampling the liquid delights of the local hotel bar by night. I saw immediately that the village had changed (as had to be expected in a twenty year plus interval) but nothing prepared me for the shock of what I found when we asked the locals for fishing mark information. Most of them thought we were joking! "There's no fish here, lads," I remember one old man telling us. "They're long gone."

A large part of the problem in Scotland's once fish rich sea lochs is the fishing method known as, "Dredging." Imagine a mechanical digger clearing the ground where a new road is to be built, scraping away earth, rocks and all in its path. This is essentially what was done to the sea beds, scooping up not only all the fish in their path but leaving a once rich marine environment an underwater desert.

Inappropriate fishing methods such as dredging, nets which scoop up under sized fish and fishing quotas which actually mean many fish caught in nets have to be returned to the sea dead are combining to put fish on the table for future generations in very serious jeopardy.

We have to act...and we have to act now.

PS - At the time of creating this page (February 2011,) I hadn't been sea fishing in more than five years. I had reached the stage where I was simply torturing myself on each occasion with memories of what used to be... That changed in late April, 2011, when I made my first sea fishing trip in several years and I have made a dozen or more to different locations in the interim, fishing both from boat and from shore. Sadly, my experiences have more than borne out my expectations.

Spring is the time of year most symbolic in nature of new life, new hope and new beginnings. Buds appear on plants and trees, certain animals awake from hibernation and new born lambs gambol gaily in the fields, as Mother Nature begins to emerge once more from her Winter slumber. As Spring turns to Summer, this new life flourishes and grows, refreshing and replenishing our planet.

It is up to all of us to ensure that Spring and Summer 2012 are symbolic also of hope for the fish in our seas and oceans and that a new beginning is afforded in terms of their sustainability and very survival. Please, support The Big Fish Fight via one of the links further down this page, take account of sustainability when deciding which species of fish to put on your table and help put a stop to the senseless and meaningless slaughter which is destroying the vast waters of the world in which we live - before it becomes all too little, far too late...

Remember: we all of us are but the trusted caretakers of Planet Earth. This means that the fight belongs to each one of us...

Fish Forever:
The Definitive Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy, Delicious, and Environmentally Sustainable Seafood

Shopping in the UK? Buy this book from Amazon UK via the link to the left.

There are in many cases a perceived shortage of recipes relating to freshwater fish in comparison to seafish. This is perhaps due to the fact that in many countries, the variety of saltwater fish from which it is possible to choose in comparison to freshwater is considerably greater. This incredible e-book, however, means that this issue need never again prove to be a problem. Containing over three hundred recipes for freshwater fish, from North America and from Europe, it is the answer to the prayers of those who enjoy eating freshwater fish but have struggled in the past with finding new and innovative recipes.

Click on the link below for full details:

Freshwater Fish Recipes

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