Sustainable local fish - Pollock

Please feel free to copy, paste and adapt this page to support FISHFIGHT.NET

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LOGO/NAME OF YOUR LOCAL SHOP/GROUP

SUSTAINABLE LOCAL FISH

POLLOCK

SAITHE

(Pollachius pollachius)

(F) Lieu / Colin (D) Seelach (NL) Koolvis (E) Carbonero / Fogonero

Traditionally a popular source of food in some countries like Norway where Pollock is often prepared as fried fish balls or if smaller sized maybe breaded with oatmeal and fried as in Shetland. Year old fish are traditionally split, salted and dried over a peat hearth in Orkney.
The fish can also be salted and smoked and achieve a salmon-like orange color (although it is not closely related to the salmon), as is the case in Germany where the fish is commonly sold as Seelachs or sea salmon.
The Atlantic pollock is related to the cod and haddock, it is also called colin, saithe, lythe and coalfish (particularly in the United Kingdom).
Atlantic pollock is a lean fish with somewhat darker flesh than cod.
Environmental Information
In recent years Pollock has become more popular due to over-fishing of other species.
Atlantic Pollock is a local whitefish. Harvested from locally, pollock is caught by mid-water trawls and hand lines.
Nutritional Information
Pollock is very low in saturated fat and a very good source of protein, Vitamin B12, phosphorus, and selenium.

50% of fish caught in the North Sea are thrown back dead - this wasteful practice is called discard.

To end this practice You can be a part of a campaign called Fish Fight.
I would urge You to visit the site - WWW.FISHFIGHT.NET- and get informed and involved.
By supporting this campaign, your name will be added to a letter to be sent to Commissioner Maria Damanaki, members of the Common Fisheries Policy Reform Group, and all MEPs.

Your support WILL make a difference
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Hughs Fish Fight

I am not a great fan of the current cult of celeb's that seem to dominate our airwaves and newspapers.

However, there are those who do some great work in raising issues that civil servants and politicians like to brush under the carpet. Most notable perhaps was Bob Geldof when he arranged LiveAid all those years ago.

Recently Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a celeb cook and broadcaster in the UK started a very admirable campaign to reform fisheries policy in the EU.

The campaign is called Fish Fight, and I support it. I would urge readers of this blog to visit the site - fishfight.net- and get informed and involved.

I admire the campaign he has started

There is also a facebook page you can join to support the campaign -

http://www.facebook.com/hughsfishfight

Due to EU policy, determined by unelected and unaccountable EU bureaucrats we have the obscene situation where half the fish caught at sea are dumped.

There should be a greater moral outrage that perfectly good food is being wasted, and the bizarre practice means animals are needlessly and pointlessly killed, this when there are hungry and undernourished people in our own societies

For my part I have produced information sheets for some local butchers, with fish info on one side and a range of recipes on the other, to encourage people to use a wider range of fish.

Herring, Mackerel and Pollack are locally caught Connemara fish and are as good as cod or haddock and onthis blog I have posted info on al three types.

Any person who runs a business that sells fish - like a butchers - or who knows a local shop that sells fish is free to copy, download, adapt and reproduce any of the info posted on the 19th on this blog.
If you have a local store who you know, copy and print these off for them to display, its easy to do and who knows - you might get some free fish for your efforts!

I would suggest these fact sheets go on one side of an A4 sheet, and a recipe is put on the reverse side.

I will be posting some fish recipes in the near future.