Tag : Flaky

Colchester: According to new research, the UK's growing mismatch between the fish we catch and the fish we want to eat has serious implications for our future food security. The study was published in the journal, 'Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries'. The study, led by the University of Essex and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), provided the first comprehensive, long-term analysis of how major policy changes in the last 120 years have influenced patterns in UK seafood production, trade, and consumption. It shows that even if we changed our fish-eating habits away from choosing flaky white fish such as cod and haddock - that are largely imported from other countries - to the species more common to our own waters, like herring and mackerel, UK seafood production would still be unable to meet domestic demand or the Government's healthy eating recommendations. Luke Harrison, who led the study while at Essex's School of Life Sciences, explained: "Our research highlighted that policy changes in the mid-1970s, particularly the introduction of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and the UK joining the European Union, drove a growing mismatch between the seafood produced in the UK and what we ate domestically. "Exacerbated by stock declines caused by fishing, climate change and habitat loss, this growing disconnect far out-scales any previous mismatches between availability and consumption - including those seen during both world wars - and we have seen an increasing reliance on seafood imports and a decrease in domestic landings." Fish is now one of the most traded food products in the world and there has been a rapid increase in the UK's seafood imports, which were relatively low before the 1970s. Th ...