Hugh's Fish Fight

Last week I watched Hugh's Fish Fight on Channel 4, a 3-part series about how around half of the fish caught by fishermen in the North Sea are unnecessarily thrown back into the ocean dead. When they fish, they use massive nets which scoop up all manner of fish and due to fishing quota laws, they are only able to land a certain amount of fish, so all the fish they have caught above their quota gets chucked back into the sea - but they're dead.

Such a waste. And such a shame. No wonder so many species of fish are overfished and dying out - at least if they were thrown back alive they would stand a chance of growing bigger and maybe reproducing so that the numbers of these fish increase.

I had never really thought about this issue before. I buy Sainsbury's tuna because that is where I happen to shop - not because of the ethical issues surrounding it. But since watching these shows, I'm pleased to say that I do buy this particular brand of tuna as these are pole and line caught fish. This means that they are caught one by one, not in great big nets, so no other fish are endangered by this.

As well as Hugh's shows, Jamie Oliver did a cookery program that used lots of different types of fish, to help us stop eating really common fish such as cod, tuna and salmon. The idea being that if we diversify the fish we eat, the overfished species will have a chance to grow in number. Heston did a special edition of his Feast show... oh my God, seriously, one of my dreams is to eat in one of his establishments. And Gordon Ramsey did a show about Shark's Fin Soup.

Being Chinese, I do eat this dish. But not on a regular basis - not that that makes it okay - but I probably would have it 2 or 3 times a year made by my Mum on special family occasions. In the back of my mind, I knew what happened to sharks for this dish, but I don't think I ever realised the extent of the horror until I watched it on this program.

I watched it with my sister. We were both really horrified and shocked. All species and sizes of sharks are caught, even if they are tiny babies and endangered species. Their fins are sliced off their wriggling bodies and then simply thrown back into the sea as the rest of the shark is not used for anything. It goes against Chinese principles of using all of an animal and not wasting anything.

My sister and I have decided to give up eating Shark's Fin Soup. We have to somehow tell my Mum that we no longer want her to cook this dish. I'm not quite sure what we'll say, but we have to. I don't want this barbaric act to continue just for the sake of a soup. I don't want sharks to become extinct in my lifetime.

It will be easy to stop in the sense that I don't eat this regularly - I've tried giving up carbs before and I don't think I even lasted a day! But it will be difficult because I actually really enjoy eating it, and I associate it with happy family gatherings. Will it seem less special or that something is missing the next time we have a family occasion? Only time will tell...

While I'm not going to give up eating fish in general, or become a vegetarian, or start crusading for animals' rights, I am going to give up Shark's Fin, and I hope that any of you out there who eat this dish thinks twice before you next have it. Even better if you can give it up too. Oh, and do join the Fish Fight and sign the petition to stop dead fish being discarded into the sea :-)