Forget cod – there are plenty more fish in the sea

When it comes to seafood, Britain is a curious place: surrounded by water, in which you can find some of the best fish and shellfish money can buy, and yet so often we are averse to eating it.  

There have been numerous campaigns promoting British fish led by just about every chef on television. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is one. It seems almost every month that the River Cottage fellow is trumpeting the virtues of our fish stocks. Rick Stein is another; a little more successfully, from his empire in Cornwall.

And yet by far the most popular fish eaten here is cod, the sustainability of which is under constant scrutiny; salmon, much of it farmed, much of it poor in quality; tuna, from a tin, and from far away; and prawns, often imported from Indonesia and the like.