Changing attitudes to eating local seafood

East Yorkshire’s crab and lobster fishing industry is the largest in the UK, contributing millions of pounds to the local economy each year.

Its fishing fleets have used the same traditional crab pot fishing techniques for the past 200 years, making crab and lobster a sustainable alternative to seafood landed by trawlers.

Despite this, very little of the crab and lobster caught off the East Coast is eaten in the UK, let alone locally; most is exported to France, Spain and other European markets.

Now, a new project called Fish on Fridays is being launched to help to develop a local market for East Yorkshire shellfish by encouraging people living in Hornsea, and elsewhere along the Holderness coast, to try crab and lobster, and showing them how to prepare and cook it.

Chefs from the region, including James McKenzie from the Michelin-starred Pipe and Glass at South Dalton, have given the idea their backing and will be taking part in a series of cookery demonstrations for community groups at Hornsea United Reformed Church.

East Yorkshire-based chef and food historian, Gerard Baker, who has appeared on TV programmes including The Hairy Bikers and is the author of the Mrs Beeton series of books, is among those involved. He said: “I grew up locally and members of my family were fishermen, so I’m intimately connected with the industry at a local level.

“We have a valuable resource in the East Coast and we don’t make enough use of it. I’ve just written Mrs Beeton’s Fish and Shellfish, which is due out in November and is all about showing people how to make the best use of seafood.

“In East Yorkshire, we have the best crab in the country, but people see it as a seasonal treat when they go to the seaside. It’s actually at its best in winter, and it’s a healthy food resource. There’s so much value to crab and lobster; you can make stocks and soups with the shells in the same way that you would with a chicken carcass.”

When Gerard takes his turn to cook for the people of Hornsea and the surrounding area, he will demonstrate how to get maximum use out of crab and lobster, and how to prepare it safely. He’ll be serving up a risotto, among other tempting dishes.

The Fish on Fridays project has also won the support of the Holderness Coast Fishing Industry Group, a body representing 71 of the 73 commercial boats based between Flamborough Head in the north and Spurn Point in the south. The largest port on the coast is at Bridlington, but shellfish is also landed at Hornsea, Withernsea and Easington.

The group’s chief executive, Mike Cohen, said: “The East Coast has the UK’s largest crab and lobster fleet, and the shellfish industry is worth £9m to the local economy at the point of sale, although the total benefit is even greater. Recently we’ve become concerned about the economies of some of our key markets, such as France and Spain, so we’ve been looking at how we can develop more of a market locally, and in other European countries. We think that the Fish on Fridays project is great idea.”

He explained just how important the industry is to the local population: “More than 200 people are directly employed on the fishing boats, but others are employed by landing companies, holding facilities and other associated industries. In all, around 400 local people owe their living to the industry. The nature of crab and lobster fishing is very traditional; most boats still have skipper-owners.”

Although the techniques used by the fleet may have changed little over the last couple of centuries, Mike explained that one of barriers to selling the catch locally is that there is no tradition of eating shellfish in the UK: “One of the migratory species that the fleet lands are velvet swimming crabs, which are not eaten at all in the UK but are a delicacy in Spain, so the entire catch is exported. Although other types of crab are more popular, lobster is seen as a luxury food. The price per kilo is cheaper than beef but most people wouldn’t think of buying it. I think part of the reason is that we have a tradition of eating fish and chips, rather than shellfish, but also that people are scared of cooking them. I think the cooking demonstrations will really help to develop more of a local appetite for crab and lobster.”

Mike believes that the people of Yorkshire should be proud of the industry’s responsible and sustainable approach, adding: “You hear so many horror stories about trawling for fish, but with crab and lobster fishing we use crab pots so there is no by-catch issue and any undersize animals are put back. We use clippers to put a v-shaped notch in the tails of any lobsters that are too small, or females carrying eggs, so that no-one else can land and sell them. The notch remains until they shed their shells when they grow larger. For bait, we use offal from the salmon industry, which would otherwise be sent to landfill sites.

“Lobsters and most types of crab are not migratory, so the stocks stay still, relying on a particular seabed habitat. It’s a perfect habitat here in East Yorkshire and the fishermen are well aware of the need to protect it.”

Due to launch this autumn, Fish on Fridays is one of a series of projects introduced by the East Riding Local Strategic Partnership, a partnership between public, private and community sector organisations in East Yorkshire.

How new idea will work

Carl Duck, local strategic partnership manager, explained: “Fish on Fridays will promote local seafood through bi-monthly cookery demonstrations carried out by local chefs. Each time, the focus will be on a different cooking style, such as Asian or French. Quarterly food events are also being planned to promote seafood and we’re looking at other ways to exploit shellfish sales in the area. For example, shellfish isn’t available for sale on Hornsea seafront and local restaurants don’t use locally caught fish as a unique selling point.”