Fish and Shellfish

AS A KID, I LOVED THE SEA AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT. Well, you would, I suppose, if sea gulls woke you every morning, and the sound of waves crashing on the beach replaced the buzz of the alarm clock. I fished as a kid in between playing golf and going to school, and why the hell wouldn’t you if you were brought up in such an amazing part of the country as Dorset? I would catch mackerel by the bagful, and other fish such as pollack, if I was lucky enough to get out on a boat. It was a natural way of life, even if it did kill my pleasure time. Unfortunately, these days, as consumers, we are raping the seas to please our stomachs without giving thought to conservation or the future of sea life. We are all to blame. We buy what the fishmonger sells and tend to end up cooking the most common species that we have been used to eating all our lives.