The wet fish slab here in Portugal looks very different to
that in the UK. Firstly, red meat is much pricier than at home and there are
fewer cuts available. Poultry is similarly priced (chickens come with their
heads on!) and there is much more duck and also offal. A tray of duck’s hearts
seems popular. Fish seems to constitute the bulk of animal proteins consumed,
and the Portuguese are far more catholic in their tastes.
UK consumers are loathe to move away from five main species –
cod, haddock, plaice, salmon and prawns. There are many more delicious and
sustainable fish which we can land but are not consumed. Instead, these ‘low
value’ fish are either ground up for animal feed, discarded dead or sold to the
continent. Many of the cod family are equally tasty, and I saw “poor cod” – a
beige mini-cod – on the slab here.
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| Black scabbardfish - a vulnerable deep sea speices |
Of more concern were the less sustainable species I also saw
on sale. Around 15 years ago, man started exploiting deep sea species, such as
orange roughy and black scabbardfish. The MCS firmly puts all these species in
their “fish to avoid” category:
“Deepsea fish are highly vulnerable to over-exploitation and
have a low resilience to fishing. There is currently very little data on the
deepsea ecosystem and fish stocks, thus it is almost impossible to manage and
enforce deepsea fisheries sustainably. Due to the international nature of many
of the deep sea fisheries on the high seas, compliance with any regulations can
be low, and due to the difficulties in enforcement on the high seas, there can
be large problems with Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported catches. Deepsea
fishing gear is often comprised of heavy bottom towed gear which is extremely
detrimental to the ecosystem and can decimate productive deepsea areas such as
seamounts and oceanic ridges. Static gear has less of an impact on the seabed but
is still detrimental to fish stocks. It can be easily lost and will then
continue to ghost fish for a long period of time, causing further detriment to
deep sea stocks. Deep sea fish in general have very low productivity, a high
age at maturity and tend to live a long time. Many populations have decreased
significantly. There is a tendency for deepsea fish to form discrete
aggregations which are susceptible to sequential depletion. Avoid deepsea fish
species.”
Campaigning and education meant that it is now rare to see
these fish in UK fishmongers (and they’re very ugly!) but the slab was packed
with them here, and they were sold at rock bottom prices, so encouraging
further trade. Other deep sea species were on offer.
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| More deep sea species |
The cartilaginous fish are very susceptible to any
exploitation. In the UK, the so named “common skate” is nearing extinction. It
grows to 3m size, much larger than it’s more widespread cousins, and so any
minimum catch size for skates will allow capture of both adult and juvenile
common skate, so not leaving enough to breed and sustain the population. In
Cascais, it was sad to see very small juvenile rays on the slab. There Is no minimum
catch size in EU waters outside 6nm but an ICES report explains that
individuals smaller than 40cm have not had opportunity to breed yet and should
be avoided. All rays and skate are on the MCS “Fish to avoid” list.
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| Very small rays - individuals need to reach 40cm to breed |
The slab
also boasted an intact small shark. Again, this species is slow to reproduce
and populations have tumbled in recent decades. At least this one was killed on
capture and not stripped of its fins before begin thrown back alive to slowly
suffocate, as is the fate of so many of these wonderful predators, even in EU
waters. Shark fins continue to fetch an artificially high price and MCS
campaign for fins to be landed naturally attached until we can campaign to
remove the demand for such products.
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| Shark on the slab - at least its fins are attached |
On the plus side, the marina is also home to good numbers of
large barrel jellyfish which we watched hunt this morning. It was a good lesson
in how similar these look to a grubby supermarket plastic carrier bag when
lolling in the water and my children are keen to ensure they pass on the lesson
of ensuring plastic waste stays out of the sea.
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