Eat Ethically Tom Aikens' sea quest

Date Published:

15/07/2009

4Food's Charlie Cottrell caught up with Tom Aikens at an exclusive screening of the film The End of the Line to find out why he is calling on his fellow chefs to make the change to sustainable fish - and whether quality food always has to be expensive

What was your reaction when you first saw The End of the Line?

Just that the shock of it, really. I had read the book first so I knew the facts and figures about how much fish we were catching - thousands of millions of tons - but actually seeing how much fish we were taking out of the ocean was incredible.

What do you hope the film will achieve?

The impact of the film will hopefully give the message to people that we're not in a desperate place quite yet, but we need to do things now to move away from that.

The message to the chefs here is, myself and these other chefs are the first people that can make a difference and make a change when it comes to serving sustainable fish in our restaurants.

As a chef, you are more in touch with large scale fish buying than most consumers. Were you aware the situation was so grim?

Yes. I read quite a few books about it; Charles Clover's [The End of the Line] was the first. There are, and there have been for the last 10 years, lots of reports on the way we are overfishing the seas, so we knew we were going to have a problem. Look at what happened with North Sea cod - it's been horrendous.

Is it too late to save our favourite fish?

We can still get away from that horrendous situation and back into a more positive relationship with the sea.

There has been a huge amount of great work done. I'm in touch with a conservation group called Good Catch, basically people from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), the Marine Stewardship Council (MCS) and some chefs as well. They are getting people more informed about sustainable fish and they run workshops as well. There are more people now getting the message out there.

Supermarkets as well are doing the right thing now. The likes of Marks and Spencer and Waitrose supported sustainable fish and now Sainsbury's and Asda are getting on the bandwagon too. Once the film is out I think it will have that momentum that will really make things happen.

Are you using sustainable fish in your restaurants?

It's difficult, because we don't have the resources quite at the minute of getting, every day, fish where I know where the fish was caught, what time of day it was caught, who the fisherman was, what tack he was using - it takes a lot of time to set that up.

At the minute there are three fishermen I do use; the problem is getting a consistent supply, getting it from A to B. I think once we have a bigger group of people working with sustainable fish, we can share that information and support it financially.

Is the problem more about the type of fish in danger or the way it was caught?

It is about the fish as well because we know there are certain species that have been overfished. The popular ones; the cod, the haddock the plaice, Dover sole, sea bass - all those types are under threat.

We need to give consumers an alternative like gurnard or flounder or dab. Once you start to educate them about other species, there will be a demand for those fish and fishermen will start to catch them as well. Right now they catch flounder but, because they don't have a value, they ditch them.

Cod and chips is a national treasure - what should we have with chips instead?

You can still have cod if it's from a MSC certified fishery. I went out with some cod fishermen in the southern part of the North Sea that line-catch cod. They are part of a responsible fishing scheme. I get line-caught cod from them when I can get it.

Are we eating too much fish in general? Is it time we cut back on the protein?

I think it is. We're a lot more heath conscious than ever before and for a lot of people, being more health conscious means eating more fish.

I wouldn't say we eat a huge amount of fish in the UK because it is a luxury product. Fish is hugely expensive now. When I look the prices I used to pay 10 years ago, I can't believe fish was that cheap.

People are on tight budgets at the moment - can they afford sustainable fish?

Every year fish prices go up and the cost to the fisherman goes up. The cost for his licence, his nets, insurance, fuel, everything. At the end of the day he is left with hardly anything. The guys that I've been out to sea with have said that after a whole day's fishing they're lucky if they come home with £200 in their pocket.

Is food too expensive?

Getting good food, quality food, be it fish, be it organic food or whatever, is hugely expensive. But we have to, somehow, equate what the expense that we're paying for really is. At some point we have to look at the two sides, manufactured food and organic food, and see if there's a bit of a middle ground. There needs to be some sort of a change because the way food prices are going up is not sustainable.

What sort of change?

I think in terms of what people can afford because not everyone can spend a huge amount of money on food. Take organic chicken. I buy organic chicken from a farm because I thought it would be cheaper for me to buy straight from the farmer, but it still costs me £12 per bird. It is an amazing chicken but it is an expensive product. It's cost and effect all the way down the line and it's the same with fish.


Read the top 10 scary facts about fish from End of the Line

Hugh's guide to sustainable British fish

Read the Film4 review of End of the Line

Watch the Q&A with Charles Clover, author of End of the Line

Find out which restaurants are tackling the fish issue on the Fish2Fork blog

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