Fishless FISH
We are all eating less salmon, hake and tuna since destructive modern fishing practices came under the environmental spotlight – but do the vegan alternatives cut the mustard?
AS eco-campaigners rushed to denounce meat for destroying the planet, very little was said about fish. Generally praised for its nutritional value, full of protein and omega-3 oils, and lacking the cuteness of calves and lambs, many carnivores happily converted to become pescetarians.
But then came the Seaspiracy bombshell. Earlier this year, this Netflix documentary shone a brutal spotlight on global fishing practices. Presenter Ali Tabrizi found that 46 per cent of the collection of marine debris in the north Pacific – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – consists of plastic fishing waste. He found, too, that illegal fishing on a huge scale is perpetrated by criminal gangs behind drug and human trafficking, and that many vessels are manned by slave labour. ‘We hear a lot about blood diamonds,’ he says. ‘This is blood shrimp.’
Importantly, he highlighted the problem of ‘by-catch’, which is the 50 million sea creatures, including dolphins and porpoises, which are accidentally netted by the fishing industry each year. Only 40 per cent are thrown back – and most of those die before they reach the water. Tabrizi says 300,000 whales and dolphins are dying yearly as a result of this reckless practice.
The film-makers maintain that reassuring labels such as ‘dolphin safe’ are unenforceable and meaningless.
Farmed fish are little better, the documentary suggests, with lice-infested salmon farms and epidemics of infectious diseases.
Certainly the statistics show there has been a more than threefold increase in overfishing since 1970, while one 2006 study from the University of Halifax in Canada predicted that, at current rates of loss, there will be ‘no more viable fish or invertebrate species available to fisheries by 2050’ – a situation that’s since worsened.
After watching the film, many people found it difficult to justify eating fish, and significant numbers turned vegetarian or vegan overnight. No wonder, then, that supermarkets are hurrying to add ‘faux fish’ to the shelves, alongside the hugely popular variety of plant-based ‘meat’ products.
But while ‘plant-based meat’ impresses with its texture and taste, the unique flaky and marine-flavoured qualities of fish have been harder to replicate. Manufacturers have largely relied on flavourings to create a ‘fishy’ product, with varying levels of success.
Chad Sarno, plant-based chef and brother of Tesco Wicked Kitchen’s chef, Derek Sarno, has recently launched Good Catch, which uses a combination of peas, chickpeas, lentils, soy, fava beans and navy beans to create the flaky texture of tuna. To this is added farmed algal oil to impart flavour and the healthgiving benefits of omega-3 oils.
Some of us have attempted to make our own – as a vegetarian, I marinated tofu in seaweed, dill, parsley and lemon juice in a reasonably successful attempt to replicate the elusive flavour – but creating the correct texture is an elusive skill. Big manufacturers, however, have the development teams and budgets to make it work.
So which faux fish will you be trying – and which is a less tasty catch? Read our taste test panel.
‘This Netflix documentary shone a brutal spotlight on global fishing practices’