Find out how to source sustainable seafood with help from Heston's Fishy Feast and his suppliers
It can be extremely difficult to identify which fish come from sustainable sources. To be truly sustainable, a fish must come from a fishery with practices that can be maintained indefinitely without reducing the species' ability to maintain its population and without a negative impact on the species’ ecosystem.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) operate a certification scheme based on sustainability criteria with fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard able to use the MSC blue ecolabel. It is a good idea to always ask the person you buy fish from where and how their fish is caught before you buy it. The Marine Conservation Society also provides advice about sources for sustainable fish at www.fishonline.org.
Scampi (Langoustine/Nephrops)
Langoustine is the most valuable resource landed into Scotland and over one third of world landings are made there. It is present in the UK in reatively high numbers and, as such, is considered a realtively sustainable product and is on the MSC‘s ‘fish to eat‘ list. The Stornoway Nephrops trawl fishery is currently the only fishery to possess full MSC certification, the majority of which is purchased by Youngs Seafood who plan to make it available thorugh a range of UK supermarkets as well as recently launching the UK’s first breaded scampi to be made with MSC-certified sustainable langoustine .
Two other Nephrops fisheries in the Clyde and North Sea are also currently in the process of assessment to MSC standard. Scottish creel-caught langoustine from other lochs are available in numerous supermarkets and fishmongers.
Youngs Seafood
Young's Seafood Ltd,
Wickham Road,
Grimsby
DN31 3SW
Tel: 0800 4968647
www.youngsseafood.co.uk
M&J Seafood
Enterprise Business Park
Ashford
Kent
TN25 4AG
Tel: 01296 333 800
Email: enquiries@mjseafoods.co.uk
www.mjseafood.com
Live Langoustine Company
The Ponds, Kallin
Grimsay
North Uist
Inverness-shire
HS7 5LZ
Tel: 01876 580334
Email: robkeltie@freeuk.com
Sea Cucumber
Sea cucumber is not currently widely available in the UK, Heston’s sea cucumbers were caught by a specialist diver from an area off the Scottish coast where they are numerous. Growing demand for sea cucumber products and this depletion of traditionally-fished stocks in Asia has led to the establishment of fisheries for new and more abundant species, including from temperate and polar regions. The establishment of a developmental fishery for the sea cucumber in Norway and fisheries in the Russian federation and in Iceland, where stocks are monitored and a limited number of licenses issued, might mean sea cucumbers could be coming to British stores in the future.
Atlantic Wolffish
According to the Marine Conservation Society, wolffish can be eaten if they are line caught from Icelandic waters, where numbers of the fish are increasing and fisheries are regulated. Wolffish have been over fished in some other areas and should therefore be avoided if they don’t meet these criteria. Although not widely available in the UK there are a few stockists (below) who are able to source sustainable wolffish. Sæmark Seafood, who export a large amount of fish to the UK, are currently undergoing MSC assessment for a sustainable Icelandic wolffish fishery so expect to see more of these on our shelves in the future.
James Nash and Son
Billingsgate Market,
Trafalgar Way,
London
E14 5ST
Garfish Export Ltd
Cross Street, Fish Docks,
Grimsby
DN31 3PU
The Fish Society
www.thefishsociety.co.uk
telephone: 01428 687768
email: yourfishguy@thefishsociety.co.uk
King Crab
After being introduced to the Barents Sea in the twentieth century, numbers of Red King Crabs have increased dramatically. Numbers are monitored and the fisheries abide by catch quotas. As such, Norwegian King Crab can be considered sustainable.
Hugh William Coulthard
Oceans5 (UK) LLP
Sturt Farm, Oxford Road
Burford, Oxfordshire, OX18 4ET
Tel: 07552 755031
King Crab
www.kingcrab.co.uk
tel: 01472 353 353
The Fish Society
www.thefishsociety.co.uk
tel: 01428 687768
email: yourfishguy@thefishsociety.co.uk
Trout
The Marine Conservation Society advises that wild trout should only be eaten if it is line-caught from a well-managed fishery. Avoid eating fresh (not previously frozen) trout caught during the breeding or spawning season (November to March). Fish from the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland should also be avoided. Farmed trout is on the MSC ‘fish to eat’ list. Farmed trout is widely available in many supermarkets and from stockists below.
Dragon Feeds, won the 2009 Sustainable Seafood Award, having been set up with the specific purpose of developing a sustainable alternative to fishmeal and is supplying many Welsh and UK fish farms with its innovative feed as well as using it to farm their own trout.
Dragon Marine Culture
Units 43 & 44
Endeavour Close Industrial Estate
Port Talbot
SA12 7PT
Tel: 01639 896777
Email: info@dragonfeeds.com
Purely Organic
Deverill's Trout Farm
Longbridge
Deverill
Warminster
Wiltshire
BA12 7DZ
www.purelyorganic.org.uk
Graig Farm Organics
Bob and Carolyn Kennard
Dolau
Llandrindod Wells
Powys
LD1 5TL
Tel: 01597 851655
www.graigfarm.co.uk
Thanks also to the following suppliers for providing goods and services to Heston's Fishy Feast:
The Scottish Sealife Sanctuary
Barcaldine, Oban, Argyll PA37 1SE, Scotland
sealsanctuary.co.uk
Tel: 01631 720386
Brighton Sealife Centre
Brighton
Marine Parade, Brighton, Sussex, BN2 1TB
visitsealife.com
Tel: 01273 604234
Huffkins Bakery and Tea Rooms
98 High Street, Burford,
Oxfordshire, OX18 4QF
Tel: 01993 822126
huffkinsshop.co.uk
Scottish Marine Institute
Scottish Association of Marine Sciences
Oban, Argyll, PA37 1QA
Tel: 01631 559000
Fax: 01631 559001
sams.ac.uk
Gústaf Gústafsson
Westfjords Marketing Office
westfjords.is
gustaf@westfjords.is
Tel: +354-450-4040 | +354-662-4156
Hotel Isafjordur, Iceland
hotelisafjordur.is
