While Brexit is serious business for the seafood trade in the United Kingdom and Europe, it is the target of many an April Fool’s Day prank this year.
Webjet Australia was in on the joke, offering AUD 1.00 (USD 0.71, EUR 0.63) international flights departing daily from all major U.K. cities.
“You may have heard about the U.K.’s decision to leave the E.U. Hell, you might even be one of the lovely people who voted for it. Why would you want to go to Europe after this?" the Webjet promotion stated. "Webjet Australia are here to help so you don’t have to stay and deal with the no deal.”
Meanwhile, Travel Money Oz introduced “the pouro, the official transition period currency for Brexit.”
“This nifty little number is here so you can say, ‘See E.U. later, Euro’ and be rid of that Great British pounding headache,” Travel Money Oz said in a press release. “Ready for use throughout the transition period, the pouro will be accepted throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. That’s right, folks, one currency to exchange and carry across 27 countries in Europe and four countries in the U.K.”
Brexit wasn’t the star of all 2019 April Fool’s Day jokes, however. For instance, one major U.K. supplier went the faux product route by launching “fish-flavored biscuits.”
In its annual April Fool’s Day prank, The Saucy Fish Co. launched “Fishcuits,” three fish-flavored biscuit varieties.
“Several people on Twitter…contacted the business demanding ‘Biscuits that taste like fish. But not kippers,’” Saucy said in a press release.
Biscuit flavors include Custard Breams, an update on the U.K. favorite, Saucy explained in its release.
“The sweet cream center has been replaced with a delicate bream-flavored cream. Blending the flaky white fish with the finest Cornish cream, this latest release is expected to be a fintastic addition to a tea break,” the company said.
Another Fishcuits flavor is Clammy Dodgers, a “jammy-centred product” made using “luxurious rope grown clams from the North of Scotland,” Saucy said. Expected to be a “best sheller,” the product begs the question: “[Do] you eat the biscuit or the jammy center first?!" the company queried.
“We are delighted to be entering the snacking category with this bold line of fish-flavored biscuits, that work as a tasty, savory alternative to the usual sugary treat. After experimenting with various flavors and formats – including Iced Squid Rings, Jaffa Hakes, Wagon Eels and CodNobs – we settled on three palatable fishcuits for our initial launch. We hope this new range will become a must-have in the biscuit tin,” said Amanda Webb, sales and marketing director for Saucy, regarding the April Fool’s range.
“Rest assured, each product in the range has passed the ultimate biscuit quality test – they taste delicious when dunked in a cup of tea. And being fish-based they float rather than sink to the bottom of the cup, leaving those nasty mushy bits nobody likes,” Saucy added.
In the United States, Hodinkee, an online magazine reviewing high quality watches, declared in a breaking news story that the “appetite for salmon [watch] dials is critically endangering the wild salmon population, Monterey Bay Seafood Aquarium Seafood Watch reports.”
The publication details a lengthy fictional history of the salmon watch dial, including the “fact” that the first salmon dial is thought to have been produced around the 13th century, for the famous Salmon Dial astronomical cathedral clock, in the Belgian city of Liège. At the time, salmon stocks were so abundant that production did not affect the millions of fish available, Hodinkee alleged.
“We appeal, therefore, in the strongest terms to both industry and enthusiast alike: Stop the madness. True, serious enthusiasts will only accept salmon dials made from real salmon, but we can no longer ignore the consequences of our untrammeled and indeed, ugly and indefensible appetites,” Hodinkee wrote.
The publication urged its readers to read Monterey Bay Aquarium’s white paper: “Landlocked Pathologically Secretive European Nation Is Harming Ocean Fish Stocks, Somehow?”
