waitrose

sounds good at first glance but if you delve deeper these policies are not so good.

Yer not wrong, Grant. Renaming skate 'ray' won't resolve the fact that the last one I saw a wing for sale it would have nicely fitted a blackbird - and there are so many immature fish being landed.

Tuna's in big trouble... but still for sale in Waitrose. Likewise swordfish.

Codling 15 inches long haven't had a chance to breed.

It's getting to the stage with me that I'm nervous of eating any fish if I didn't catch it myself, on the basis that if there are enough fish around that the village idiot of fish can be caught by my crap angling, there must be enough!

In the Waitrose policy it refers to "New Forest Barramundi"

http://www.nativefish.asn.au/barramundi.html

They are the same species that often feature on Rex Hunt's programs from Australia.They are being reared indoors in the UK and they are sold in my local Waitrose.

In 2003-2004 the entire Autralian production of farmed Barramundi was 1560 tonnes.The UK fish farm is actually produing 400 tonnes a year so its a very big operation indeed with a huge number of fish involved.

Waitrose do have some pretty sound policies on sourcing their food but on this one i think they have got it utterly wrong. I cannot see how encouraging farming of an alien fish species in the UK is a reponsible policy.


Even with very strick controls history demonstrates the inevitability that we will end up with a feral population of Barramundi in the UK.

What damage that will do is anyones guess but Barramundi are predators that grow large (up to 6 feet and 130 lb)and can live in both fresh and saltwater so it could be enormous.

The EA will no doubt then act surprised and come up with a useless plan for erradicating them.

The EA and/or the British Government should have stopped this.

Fisheries policy and practice are so far apart in this country that its a joke.

If any Barramundi get out into British waters I don't see them lasting too long. From what I know of the species they are very aggressive predators and are very good to eat.

However there is no doubt that certain anglers will want to catch them and preserve them, just as they are doing with catfish, zander and ratfish.

We always seem to think that the answer to our environmental problems is farmed fish.

Well, how do you make fish food? You go to sea with nets and catch millions of tons of capelin andf sandeel, which get mashed up and made into pellets.

Result? Half the seabird colonies of Europe are starving to death, literally, and all the bigger fish which rely on capelin and sandeel as the summer diet suffer too.

So actually fish farming is LESS sound than catching wild fish.

Well put, Mark!