Eccles has its cake, Yorkshire has its pudding and Bakewell is known for its tart. Now Plymouth is angling to become famous for fish fingers by putting seafood bycatch on school dinner plates.
The UN estimates over 9m tonnes of fish, equivalent to 10% of global catches, are discarded annually. In the UK, 80% of fish consumed are the so-called big five: salmon, cod, tuna, haddock and prawns.
But in Plymouth, a collective of small-scale fisheries is using the humble fish finger to turn taste buds on to lesser-known, locally caught species. “This is about food security and social justice,” explained Caroline Bennett, founder of ethical fishmongers Sole of Discretion. “It’s giving local people access to their local fish.”
