Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall really will have a fight on his hands if he seriously wants to persuade British consumers to forsake their favorite whitefish species, cod, in favor of less familiar fish. The White Fish Authority, the United Kingdom’s former seafood promotion organization and now part of the Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish), tried for years to achieve this goal and failed.
Ever since the cod wars with Iceland, when Britain tried to continue to fish in what is now that country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, the hunt has been on to find an alternative to cod.
First it was hoped that deepwater species such as grenadier and scabbardfish, which were then caught on an experimental basis, might do the trick. But the appearance of these fish with their bulging eyes and tapering bodies saw them christened “bug-eyed monsters of the deep,” and the popular press had a field day telling their readers these species would be found in fish fingers and other fish products. So that was the end of that particular exercise. In fact, the media speculation was enough for Birds Eye to launch a campaign saying that only the familiar cod would be used in its fish fingers, which was a hostage to fortune if ever there was one.
Apart from carrying out trials showing that people actually liked the taste and texture of the deepwater species, even if they intensely disliked their appearance, the White Fish Authority tried to popularize conventionally caught alternative whitefish species such as coley and whiting.
Coley, also called saithe, was mentioned as an alternative to cod by Fearnley-Whittingstall in his Hugh’s Big Fish Fight TV program on Channel 4 last week. The fact that coley has also been called “coalfish” explains why it has not been as readily accepted as cod, even though it’s usually less expensive. The color of the uncooked flesh is darker than that of cod, and at the time coley was dismissed as “cat food.”
The next species to be touted as an alternative to cod was blue whiting. This fish had the advantage over the deepwater species in that it was available in huge quantities off the British coast and didn’t require the same investment in fishing gear. However, blue whiting is a scrawny fish that would not have appealed to customers if presented on a fishmonger’s slab. Furthermore, it was difficult to process.
So, once again, although the taste and texture were deemed to be very acceptable in White Fish Authority trials, particularly in fish-and-chip shops, this species was also found wanting.
The authority also tried to persuade more British consumers to eat mackerel, another species Fearnley-Whitingstall highlighted. It didn’t try to promote this species as an alternative to cod, like Fearnley-Whitingstall, but as a species in its own right, because, again, it could be readily caught by British fishing vessels.
Whether the redoubtable Hugh will be able to persuade fish fryers and their customers to give up cod and chips in favor of his colleague’s mackerel baps remains to be seen, but the chances are not good as the program showed.
Why is today’s UK consumer so conservative when buying fish? Britons live on an island and are never far from the sea, which is teeming with different species. According to Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal, whose “Fishy Feast” was shown the evening after Fearnley-Whittingstall’s three “Big Fish Fight” episodes, the British in Victorian times were very adventurous in their choice of seafood. Even sea cucumbers, which would now be regarded with disgust, were readily consumed.
If Fearnley-Whitingstall can solve that problem, he will go a long way to winning round one of his fish fight.
