Fish Restaurant - Kent Uk

Asda's Shock Move In Sustainable Seafood Policy

As well as banning the sale of Monkfish in Asda stores, pressure from environmental campaigners has swayed Asda's chief seafood buyer into calling on all chefs, particularly celeb chefs, to boycott Monkfish in their menu sourcing policy.

Asda spokesperson Chris Brown, said: "Our customers expect us to do everything we can to protect fish stocks, so we've decided to ban monkfish sales as a precaution until the industry takes appropriate action to ensure its long-term survival.

"We are concerned about some of the catching methods used and the impact this has on the ecosystem.

"Monkfish are slow to reproduce, therefore the species is more at risk than others and more needs to be done to protect it. We would like to see celebrity chefs take monkfish off their menus until the long-term viability of this species is clearer."

Environmental campaigners Greenpeace welcomed the store giants' action.

Spokesman Ol iver Knowles said: "With significant amounts of monkfish coming from the beam trawl fishery, Asda's decision to stop selling this species is a significant step."

However, Uk fishermen have hit out against the policy especially the Scottish and Cornish fishermen who catch most of Britain's monkfish.

The Scottish fishermen point out that they have adopted a significant sustainable monkfish harvesting policy, in recent years, in order to protect monkfish from over expolitation. They say that these policies are working well due to the fact there have been increased quotas (+10% for 2007) for monkfish in the areas in which they fish.

Some fishermen have been working closely with marine scientists for the last few years in building an accurate assessment of the Scottish monkfish stock through a collaborative research programme.

Bertie Armstrong, Scottish Fishermen's Federation chief executive said: "There is absolutely no technical basis behind this move by Asda, which completely ignores the science and the fact that Scottish boats are fishing for monkfish responsibly and sustainably.

"Part of the reason put forward by Asda to impose a ban appears to revolve around concerns about the environmental impact of beam trawling. We would point out to Asda that there is not a single beam trawler in the Scottish fleet."

The South Western Fish Producers' Organisation whose membership is mainly from Devon and Cornwall, called for an immediate "u-turn" in Asda's policy, calling it a "schoolboy error".

Whichever school of thought you subscribe to it's still crystal clear that beam trawling is not a sustainable way to catch any kind of seafood.

The way in which monkfish reproduce also hampers its sustainability. Males die in the breeding process in order to successsfully fertilise the female.

Whilst fish quotas will help in protecting fish stocks not enough is yet known about sustainability of monkfish in the future to fully warrant its wholesale return to our cooking pots.

Posted By: Andrew

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