In a major blow to enironmental pressure groups, leading international scientists and medical experts have made it official; eating seafood benefits human health!!

Why Seafood is good for us.

There are four major health advantages from seafood consumption;

1. Cardo-vascular benefits which reduce the risk of heart attack.

2. The anti-inflammatory properties of

omega-3 products in the body.

3. Childhood brain and sight development.

4. Likely anti-cancer benefits.

(source Seafood and Health conference 2005)

People have been catching and eating fish for as long our history itself. Fish is one of the few food resources that man still hunts which make certain species harder to source at certain times of the year. In the United Kingdom we have in the past been limited to the species of fish we have been able to eat due to what could be caught in our rivers and coastline.

Until the twentieth century we only had small sailing boats which had a limited range therefore inshore fish were our staple diet, fish like herring, mackerel, dabs, cod and plaice. With the coming of the steam boats the range became larger and the haddock, halibut and sole were more readily caught.

The situation went practically unchanged until the latter part of the century when fish farming started to develop in a large way. It started with salmon and trout but now encompasses sea bass, sea bream, mussels, oysters, halibut, cod, turbot……and the list goes on. This of course led to a more stable supply of fish and a more stable price. Also in the latter part of the twentieth century with the advent of package holidays, British people were being introduced to different food cultures and started to source exotic seafood at home.

With air transport this was easily achievable and now fish is flown into the United Kingdom from all over the world. Fish such as snapper, barracuda, tuna, marlin, swordfish and many more. We have become a multicultural society in many ways and especially in the eating of fish.

Peter Keracher