Following the publication of two reports the Prince of Wales has called for sustainable management of fisheries to be applied more widely. Evidence of how this can be best achieved is illustrated in a series of interviews with representatives from 50 countries around the world. These include representatives for the Baltic Sea Cod Fishery, the Norwegian Discard ban and the Icelandic Groundfish Fishery

ISU towards Global Sustainable Fisheries

The Prince’s Charities’ case studies report

17 January 2012 (Sea Fish Industry Authority)

Seniors in Thornton, Lancashire, has been named the best British fish and chip shop after battering its rivals in the National Fish and Chip Awards 2012 on Tuesday (17 January 2012).

The shop, run by brothers Alastair and Dominic Horabin, was announced as Independent Takeaway Fish & Chip Shop of the Year 2012 by celebrity chef Richard Corrigan at a glittering awards ceremony in London’s Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel.

It’s a break out year for the north west chippy, which was also a finalist in the Independent Restaurant of the Year and Good Catch categories.

With Alastair’s wife, Sally, due to give birth later in the week, January 2012 will be a month to remember for the Horabin family.

Ten of the UK’s best fish and chip shops fought hard for the top place, with expert judges deliberating well into the night on Monday. Hanburys in Babbacombe, Devon, earned second place, while Quayside in Whitby came third.

Alastair said: “To be named the best fish and chip shop in Britain is an honour beyond our wildest dreams. We were delighted to come third last year and spent the past 12 months looking at the ways we can improve our business and add further value to the experience of staff and customers in the shop with this being our ultimate goal.

“We’ve had the same management with us since we built the shop from a car park in 2006 and our success is thanks to their hard work, passion and dedication. I’m overjoyed for them all and I’m proud to be their boss.”

The final 10 places were hard earned after an unannounced visit from industry judges. Shops were assessed on a wide variety of judging criteria including; product quality, customer service, food preparation procedures, hygiene, innovation, staff training and development, promotional activity and approaches to sustainable sourcing.

Organised by Seafish, the authority on seafood, the Independent Takeaway Fish and Chip Shop of the Year Award recognises the wealth of quality, value and choice offered by the nation’s much loved independent fish and chip shops. The title has in the past resulted in a sales increase of up to 100 per cent for the winning shop.

Awards presenter and chef-proprieter, Richard Corrigan, said: “Fish and Chips is an iconic meal, part of British culture. Its integrity is preserved by many of the nominees today as it is in Bentley’s where it’s served every day.

“Combining heritage with innovation, skill with approach, attention to detail with great produce, Seniors well deserve their title of the UK’s best fish and chip takeaway. A brilliant execution.”

Nikki Hawkins, foodservice and events manager at Seafish, said: “This competition has undoubtedly been our fiercest yet and we congratulate Seniors for their stellar effort in achieving the number one spot.

“The awards have recognised the best of the UK’s fish and chip shops for the past 24 years with 2012′s high standard of entries testament to the industry’s commitment to self-betterment and sustainability.”

With over 250 million fish and chip meals sold each year from over 10,500 shops across the UK, fish and chips remains the nation’s favourite takeaway.  Devotees can tuck into their fish and chips knowing that they contain 36 per cent less calories than a chicken korma and pilau rice, and 42 per cent less fat than a doner kebab with pita and salad.  Recent studies also showed that fish and chips had the lowest salt content of all the takeaways tested.

Full list of winners:

Independent Takeaway of the Year Award

FIRST:              North West: Seniors, Thornton, Lancashire

SECOND:         South West: Hanbury’s, Babbacombe

THIRD:            North East: Quayside, Whitby, North Yorkshire

Runners up: 

• Scotland: The Bay, Stonehaven
  Wales: Crispy Cod, Mid Glamorga
• Northern Ireland: Pit Stop, Kilkeel
• Midlands: The Big Fish, Stratford Upon Avon
• Eastern: Linfords, Market Deeping
• London & South East: Seafare, Guildford
• Central & South: Wigmore Fish & Chips, Luton

The Good Catch Award

Winner:          Harbour Lights, Falmouth, Cornwall

Runners up:   

• The Bay, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
• Frankie’s Fish & Chips, Brae, Shetland  

Best Newcomer Award

Winner:          Chamberlains Quality Fish and Chips, Oldbury, Birmingham

Runners up:   

• Fryday’s Fish and Chip Emporium, Old St Mellons, Cardiff
• Fylde Fish Bar, Marshside, Southport

Young Fish Frier of the Year Award

Winner:          Zohaid Hussain, Zero Plus Fish Bar, Cardiff, Wales

Runners up:   

• Sean Lloyd, Richardson’s Fish Bar, Fleetwood, Lancashire
• Cori Standing, Fish and Chips at 149, Bridlington, East Yorkshire
• Caryn Johnson, Frankie’s Fish and Chips, Brae, Shetland
•  Dean Chappelhow, Angel Lane Chippie, Penrith, Cumbria

Independent Fish and Chip Restaurant of the Year Award

Winner:          McDermott’s Fish & Chips, Croydon, Surrey

Runners up:   

• Hanbury’s, Babbacombe, Devon
• Quayside, Whitby, North Yorkshire
• Rockfish, Dartmouth, Devon
• Seniors @ Marsh Mill, Thornton, Lancashire
• Trenchers Restaurant, Whitby, North Yorkshire

Staff Training and Development Award

Winner:          Royal Fisheries, Whitby, North Yorkshire

Runners up:   

• Fish and Chips at 149, Bridlington, East Yorkshire
• Frankie’s Fish & Chips, Brae, Shetland
• Pieces Fish & Chips, Fleetwood, Lancashire
• Richardson’s Fish Bar, Fleetwood, Lancashire 

Contribution to the Local Community Award

Winner:          The Boundary, Market Deeping, Lincolnshire

Runners up:

• Taylor’s, Woodley, Greater Manchester
• Alf’s Fish and Chips, Weymouth, Dorset 

Best Multiple Fish and Chip Operator Award

Winner:          Fish’n'Chick’n Group, Hertfordshire

Runners up:   

• The Ashvale Group, Aberdeenshire
• The Frying Squad, Northern Ireland

Best Foodservice Outlet Serving Fish and Chip Award

Winner:          Old English Inns (Greene King plc), Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk

Runners up:   

• Marston’s plc, Wolverhampton, West Midlands
• Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, Bradford, West Yorkshire

As we head towards the annual EU quota round debate, headlines question the sustainability of cod in the North Sea but all too frequently overlook the very healthy supplies from the North Atlantic and Barents Sea

This is the centre page article which appeared in the Sunday Times on 27 November, 2011.

The article features Peter Fraser from The Harbour Lights in Falmouth. Peter is a finalist in the Good Catch category at the 2012 Fish & Chip Shop of the Year Awards and after talking about fish stock sustainability at his local school, Peter ran a cod-free week. The Sunday Times article quotes Peter saying “Cod is still our best seller but we have found sustainable sources in the cold Barents and Norwegian Seas” so is very clear in separating the problems facing the North Sea from the sustainable Fasfa supplies from the North Atlantic.

Peter is a well-known campaigner for sustainable fisheries and says:

“Cod & Haddock are by far our best sellers and I have always bought supplies from FASFA sources. Local Cod and Haddock is available but I am a firm believer that they are cold water fish and their quality improves the further north they are caught. For the last three years we have taken advice from the Marine Conservation Society on the sustainability of all fish we serve. Following their guidance we moved from Icelandic to Norwegian/Barents Cod about a year ago. I was thrilled when I discovered we could now purchase Marine Stewardship Council [MSC] Cod and Haddock via our UK wholesalers. I really want to take full advantage of the Harbour Lights being the only MSC certified restaurant in Cornwall & Devon.”

Peter buys his FAS fillets from Fastnet and Smales, both Fasfa members.

How do you convince someone that the fish they’re eating comes from a sustainably managed fishery? That’s the monumental problem facing both theUK fish and chip industry and suppliers to it.

So much has been said and written in the mainstream media about the fishing industry in recent years that many British consumers are now armed with a raft of misconceptions and half-truthes. Topping the pile is the assumption that the cod or haddock being sold in their local chippy comes from overfished North Seastocks.

Last week, I accompanied theUnited Kingdom’s top 10 independent fish-and-chip takeaway restaurants — the finalists in the Seafish-organized National Fish & Chip Awards 2012 — on a trip to Aalesund, Norway, to look at the frozen-at-sea whitefish industry. This is where a lot of their cod and haddock is actually coming from.

To understand why nine out of ten of this year’s Fish & Chip Award finalists use frozen at sea fillets, click here

These businesses are, without exception, fiercely proud of the products they serve each day. Apart from maintaining a large and loyal customerbase, the most important thing for them is sourcing a product that’s of a consistently high standard. This means, for nine out of 10 of the finalists, buying frozen-at-sea cod and/or haddock. And sustainability is an absolute must.

The Norwegian whitefish catching sector, of which Aalesund is regarded as the capital, does most of its fishing in theBarents Sea. In line with the healthy stocks therein, the cod quota shared by Norway and Russia in these waters will be 751,000 metric tons next year (an increase of 8 percent from this year), while the 2012 haddock quota has been setat 318,000 metric tons (an increase of 5 percent).

Atle Vartdal, operations manager with Vartdal, which owns the factory trawler Ramoen, told SeafoodSource that there’s a huge abundance ofNorth Atlanticcod, while the haddock now has the largest spawning stock on record.

“The fish up in theBarents Seaare in excellent shape and the fisheries are sustainably managed,” said Vartdal. “And by filleting and freezing at sea, we can deliver the high quality that theU.K.marketdemands.

“The product is usually processed and frozen within four hours of capture,” he said, adding that theUnited Kingdomis Vartdal’s main market.

In Aalesund, I learned a parallel exists between the fryers and the fishermen. While many chip shop owners are finding it extremely difficult to getcustomers to accept that the fish they are selling really does come from sustainable stocks (which is why it’s cooked from frozen), Norwegian factory vessel-owning companies like Vartdal are struggling, particularly in these austere times, to getonward supply chains to accept the higher price that comes with filleted, frozen-at-sea fish.

“We believe in catching and processing onboard the same vessel. It gives superb quality when compared with fish processed onshore,” said Vartdal. “But we see a [growing] tendency whereby fish is only being headed and gutted onboard vessels then frozen, then sent from Europe to China for further processing before being frozen again and sent back to Europe. Yetdouble-frozen isn’t the same quality as single-frozen.”

The company’s sales manager, Katrine Florvaag, explained there are currently eight Norwegian factory vessels that filletat sea but in one year’s time this number will probably be reduced to three or four as more buyers shift to the cheaper, double-frozen product.

“We need to charge a small premium to deliver the quality that you getin single-frozen,” she said.

This is where the Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC) comes in as the generic marketing organization forNorway’s entire seafood industry. It has launched a two-year campaign in theUnited Kingdomthat simultaneously targets trade and consumers with the intention of growing demand for Norwegian products, including Vartdal’s fish.

For NSEC Director Johan Kvalheim, the aim of the umbrella “Fisk.Forever” campaign is a simple one — “to educate theUKmarketthatNorwayis a sustainable choice when it comes to buying seafood, including marketfavourites like cod and haddock.”

Achieving this goal will of course be complicated. But as well as promoting the provenance and sustainability of Norwegian seafood to retailer, foodservice, hotel and catering sectors, it’s also targeting the British institution that is the chip shop.

It sees these businesses as a fast route to influencing the British public, so as well as hosting the chip shop finalists in Norway, NSEC is further ingratiating itself with the industry by giving every U.K. chippy the opportunity of winning one ton of Norwegian cod through a competition run on the website www.seafoodfromnorway.co.uk that encourages outlets to use point of sale marketing information.

How far such a ploy goes to eventually alleviating consumer concerns remains to be seen. Most of the chip shop owners that visited Aalesund already advertize where their fish comes from, but it’s clear that effectively communicating the reasons why they do this continues to be a big headache for them, yet the consensus among the finalists was that it’s a sourcing story that somehow needs to be told.

You can eat cod with a clear conscience is explained by this article in The Guardian’s GREEN supplement, Autumn 2011.

Copies of this page are available as display posters; please request on our “Contact” page.

Quality every time

A useful analogy to think of with FAS is that of frozen peas.  “Fresh as the moment when the pod went pop”, was the advertising slogan which went a long way in changing the public view of what is now a household staple and one the great success stories of modern day food manufacturing.  In reality it is exactly the same case with fish.  The catching fleet for FAS comprises of modern factory trawlers and having been caught, the fish are gutted and filleted on board and then immediately frozen to -20˚c using industrial freezers, this will always be within five to six hours but in many cases can take minutes.

While wet fish and in particular white fish such as Cod or Haddock might have a shelf life for about six days after capture it will rarely be the case that shops or retailers can serve or sell fish that is hours out of the sea.  Wet fish, even kept in ice boxes at a low temperature will still begin to deteriorate slowly.  Although people might argue that FAS fillets can be in storage for months until used, the simple truth is that the freshness of the fish is preserved the entire time until defrosted.  Being a cold blooded creature fish is perfect for freezing and reacts almost instantly to the process.

So in reality even though frozen fish might have had a bad reputation many years ago, the technology on board today ensures that with FAS you are serving fish that is as fresh and more importantly tasty and nutritious, as possible.

A Clear conscience

The second consideration to make is that of sustainability and when it comes to this there really is no argument as to its credentials.  FAS Cod and Haddock fillets come from the waters of theBarents Sea, North of Norway and the North East Atlantic. The Norwegian, Icelandic, Russian and the Faroese fleets that are operating at the start of the FAS supply chain are doing so outside of EU territory, so when it comes to the issue of discards or sustainability, there quite simply is no issue.

The quotas are sustainably managed and the fleets operating for many years  with a no discard policy, and now with a large percentage already MSC accredited.  These fisheries have some of strictest, long –term policies in place to ensure the stocks are thriving for years to come and scientific tests have proven that the sustainable stock biomass is at its highest level for many years.

So, by serving FAS fillets in your shop you are serving a guaranteed sustainable product.  A claim that in certain cases cannot be as readily substantiated with wet fish landed closer to our shores.  Do your customers know this?

John Rutherford, newly appointed Director of FASFA, is also keen to re-enforce this message.  Commenting on the issue he states, “Chip shop customers can now be confident of enjoying FASFA supplied cod and haddock with a clear conscience as the fillets come only from fisheries such as the north-east Arctic where the enforcement of tough, scientifically tested stock management regulations have delivered higher levels of sustainable stock biomass than seen for more than fifty years.”

Benefits of Sea Frozen Fillets to the Food Service sector

1. Consistent high quality of taste.
2. Ocean wild, not farmed
3. No additives
4. Caught in well managed waters of Iceland and Barents Sea
5. Filleted and frozen within six hours of being caught
6. FAS fillets are fresher than variable fresh
7. Available in IQF(Individually quick frozen) form
8. Species – Cod and Haddock
9. Presentation – Skin on, skinless and skinless boneless
10. Blind taste tests 12 out of 14 chose FAS
11. No Smell
12. Minimal wastage
13. Superior quality to double frozen imports and ‘farmed fish imports’
14. Not subject to availability due to adverse weather conditions
15. Prices are more consistent than fresh

Britain has discarded nearly £1 billion in cod from one population in the last 50 years, a report has revealed. According to its findings, the wasted fish would have supported more than 700 jobs for 46 years. Had they been left in the sea with time to grow, they could have been worth around £2.6 bn to the UK economy.

Campaigners are calling for more selective fishing in the North Sea and the Eastern Channel which would allow stocks to develop.

The report comes just weeks after the European Commission unveiled sweeping reforms to the controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which aim to boost dangerously depleted populations. The plans centre on ending a long-standing system of catch quotas which encourage fishermen to dump surpluses back in the sea – the so-called “discard” problem.

Researchers from think-tank NEF, the New Economics Foundation, said the “piecemeal” approach fails to address the issue of widespread discarding of non-quota species and provides no incentive to prevent unwanted catches. NEF environmental economics researcher and author of the report Rupert Crilly warned against encouraging the consumption of certain species, suggesting such a solution could pile even more pressure on endangered stocks.

“Everyone can see that discards are hugely wasteful but far more wastage comes from overfishing: taking more than what the oceans can produce,” he said. Action to end discards must be accompanied with action to restore fish stocks. Avoiding discards in the first place is more important than the creation of markets for unwanted species. Promoting the consumption of unwanted species is a risky gamble which could lead to more demand for fish and put more pressure on our fish stocks. Eating more fish will do little to end overfishing.”

According to the NEF research, around £2.7bn worth of cod has been discarded in the North Sea, the English Channel and Skagerrak since 1963. Of this, the UK threw away £935 million, missing out on 711 additional British jobs. If fish had been left in the sea during this period, the cod population would have been on average 13.2 per cent larger year-on-year leading to an increase in profits and jobs, it found. Meanwhile, the small fish spared would have had time to grow and could have weighed up to 9.26 million tonnes – almost five times the weight at which they were actually discarded (2.14m tonnes). This would have been worth £2.6bn to the UK economy. Instead they were thrown away for nothing, the researchers said. Fish are usually discarded because they are unwanted, not profitable enough or do not conform to fishing regulations.

Ian Campbell, from Ocean2012, a group which campaigns for reform to the CFP, said: “We’re calling for a carefully implemented discard ban aimed at reducing unwanted fish and by-catch, not the creation of new markets for them.”

Fisheries minister Richard Benyon said: “This report shows exactly why we need to end the unacceptable practice of throwing dead fish back to the sea.

“It’s a terrible waste of perfectly good food and one of the biggest failings of the Common Fisheries Policy. The current CFP has not given us healthy fish stocks and it has not delivered a sustainable living for our fishing industry.”

• £2.7bn – Estimated value of cod discarded in North Sea, English Channel and Skagerrak since 1963
• £935m – The value of cod discarded by Britain since 1963
• 13.2% – How much bigger the cod population would be if the discards had not happened

Letter Page – JR/Fasfa letter to the editor, The Scotsman

Sir, your article today drew proper attention to the latest report from NEF, the New Economics Foundation, pointing out the appalling economic loss of discarding cod and other highly valued species over the last 50 years, a loss of around £2.6 bn to the UK economy.

The author, Rupert Crilly, suggesting the consumption of certain species could pile even more pressure on endangered stocks was himself economical with the truth however in one crucial area. Cod consumption in the UK has depended on supplies from the North Atlantic, in particular the clear Arctic waters around Iceland, for well over two hundred years. Norway and Iceland have led the way in establishing science-based and rigorously enforced fisheries management ever since the Cod Wars, and No Discarding is a long-proven element of their policy.

You can eat cod with a clear conscience. British fish and chip shops rely on cod frozen at sea within five hours of being caught to ensure they always have both the best quality and sustainable supplies.

Yours truly,

John Rutherford
Executive Director, Fasfa Ltd.

Let’s Revolutionise Britain’s Favourite Take-away.

The aim is to get mackerel on the menu in Fish and Chip shops across the UK. By offering a more sustainable alternative to the habitual favourite Cod and Chips you will be helping to save our fish.

Background

Back in October Hugh and Head Chef Tim, spent an afternoon at the River Cottage Canteen in Axminster devising a way of getting a delicious and most importantly sustainable fish into the lives of the British public.

There seemed one very obvious portal for doing this, the UK’s favourite take-away; the local chip shop. If they could convince the owners and consumers alike to swap their standard cod and chips for something more sustainable, they might just start a mini revolution!

The aim? To get mackerel on the menu in at least one fish and chip shop in every town across the UK and with over 10,000 shops in this country, they were aiming high!

Why Mackerel?

Our experience over the last few years at River Cottage is that there are few more tasty, and often under-valued fish, than the great British Mackerel. In this country we are lucky to be surrounded by the sea, and it’s true to say that we have a plentiful supply of this species – with careful management of this fishery there’s no reason why this shouldn’t continue to be the case.

In fact thousands of tonnes of this species are landed in British ports like Peterhead, every year. What’s even better to know is that mackerel is fished in a controlled and sustainable way.

The huge quantities of these shoaling, fast growing, pelagic fish available, means that the cost to the consumer is considerably less than that of bigger predatory species such as cod. Plus, it’s tasty, cheap and has great health benefits (rich in Omega 3s), a perfect choice really!

JR/Fasfa web posting re Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight campaign on Channel-4 TV:

“Excellent news about reform of EU fisheries so now can we consign all talk of mackerel baps to the pages of women’s magazines titled “101 interesting things people say they eat when pregnant”.

What matters to Hugh F-W and all who support his responsible campaign is to end once and for all the pernicious habit of throwing away (discarding) unwanted fish, and let’s now unite behind this to make sure our politicians don’t lose their nerve when the time for voting comes.

Cod sold in fish & chip shops does not come from the North Sea in any meaningful quantity and is entirely irrelevant in 99 out of 100, so make sure your customers are properly informed. The fish they enjoy so much is as good as it is because it was frozen immediately it came out of the water, and fisheries in the North Atlantic are scientifically proven to be both well managed and highly sustainable.

The threat we face is not from the EU but from mis-informed public opinion so let’s be in no doubt what we stand for – You Can eat Cod with a Clear Conscience!