Fish Restaurant - Kent Uk

In a bold move the Whitstable Fish Market recently invited their local fishermen and representatives of the Seafish Organisation to come together to discuss the Responsible Fishing Scheme initiative. Phil Palfrey from Seafish gave a talk and slideshow in a bid to explain to the boat owners the benefits of the scheme.

Virtually the whole of the Whitstable Harbour fishing fleet agreed to join the Seafish Responsible Fishing Scheme last week. They are the first ones along the south east coastline to do so.

Click here for our previous article

Whilst the responsible fishing scheme doesn't directly address the concerns over sustainable seafood it does directly address concerns over fish quality and crew training. This has to be a huge step in the right direction as each boat has to be inspected, crew training documents scrutinised and health and hygiene issues are also addressed. Believe me when I say that unlike farmers, the fishing industry quality standards have always been down to the discretion of the fishermen themselves.

One of the big issues in accepting fish for consumption from smaller boats like those found in Whitstable harbour is refrigeration during the warmer months. The responsible fishing sheme will require fishermen to have on-board chill capacity or to take flake-ice to sea to chill fish as soon as it's landed.

The fish-market is looking forward to the results of the initial applications from the boats and has pledged to pay for the accreditation of all the boats that have applied.

Watch this space...

Posted By: Andrew .