IN 2005 Slow Food International held a meeting called Slow Fish which brought together small scale fishers, chefs and seafood companies to discuss how people could still continue using seafood without compromising responsibility. Three solutions were highlighted.

1. Support small scale inshore fishing and ancient methods of processing and preserving which are sustainable and produce outstanding products which are form part of cultural identity.
2. To consume fish lower on the food chain, such as smaller spinier fish that have long been part of the Mediterranean coastal cuisine
3. Supporting traditional low impact types of fish farming, such as oyster farming and low density fresh water pool systems that produce a tastier product than industrial counterparts.

In April 2009 the fourth edition of Slow Fish was held in Genoa and part of the Slow Food international challenge to all Slow Food convivia, Slow Food members, food communities, praesidia, cooks, academics and young people in the Terra Madre network is to organise small activities dedicated to sustainable fish. We are also asked to send recipes afterwards which will be used to create an online cookbook of good clean and fair fish and seafood from around the world.

The challenge instructions:

1. Find the fish: Avoid endangered fish such as bluefin tuna, Atlantic or farmed salmon, tropical shrimps, swordfish. Choose a local fish, i.e caught in seas or rivers near to you. This fish must be of the minimum size to reproduce (fish such as Orange Roughy reach the age of reproduction at 20 years). Fish must be caught in the right season, i.e. outside its period of reproduction.

2. Find a recipe: A traditional recipe or a recipe invented by you, which might become the tradition of tomorrow.

3. Cook this fish at home, in your restaurant or canteen: share it with friends, customers, journalists etc. Explain to your table companions why you have chosen this fish and why you ignored other species.

4. Send us the information you have collected about this fish: (its characteristics, how, where and when it is caught..) and your recipe—and if possible, a photo, or other material such as children’s drawing, a drawing of the fish, fishermen’s tales etc.

There are three months – May, June & July and up to August 15th for you to send your recipes to communication@slowfood.com
So we look forward to hearing from you.

N

FURTHER to the Slow Food international email that was recently sent concerning Slow Fish in Genoa in April 2009, The Ecologist has a couple of interesting articles about the plight of the world’s fish resources.

Whether it is wild or farmed is not a simple way to decide what fish to buy. Below are four points for consideration.

‘One of the most popular and regularly eaten fish in the UK is canned tuna. Most tuna is caught using methods that cause significant bycatch, or target juveniles, and all stocks of all species of tuna are fished at full capacity. If buying tuna, look for the MCS logo, make sure it is skipjack or buy from a responsible canned fish company such as Fish4Ever.

‘With farmed marine species, go for smaller fish lower down the food chain, or shellfish (mussels, scallops and oysters, which feed on things that naturally occur in water and improve water quality – not tiger prawns), and herbivores such as Tilapia (farmed in the UK in lakes) and carp. Organic is better than non-organic, as stock densities are limited, feed sourced sustainably and use of chemicals and sea lice treatments restricted.

‘Not all wild fish are off limits, but be choosy about origin and how it was caught. Go to http://www.fishonline.org/ for lists of which to avoid and which to eat. With salmon, for example, five species of Pacific salmon caught in Alaskan waters are MSC-certified – a much better choice than Atlantic salmon, stocks of which are severely depleted. Take pressure off the overfished species such as tuna, shrimp, salmon, haddock and cod by choosing lesser-known alternatives such as dab.

‘Use your voice to change the policy on fishing and marine issues. WWF is campaigning to establlish internationally recognised standards for eleven important farmed fish and shellfish. The Save the Sea Campaign aims to bring an end to illegal fishing and Greenpeace is campaigning to set up marine reserves in order to help threatened species time to recover and to protect battered ecosystems. Other groups such as Oceana have been campaigning for over 20 years.’

A recent article in the Ecologist by Andrew Wasley and Jim Wickens “Fishy business” examines in depth the problems of the West’s voracious appetite for fish