Highly commended – Direct Seafoods
For – sourcing fresh fish responsibly and promoting the most sustainable products
available. This wholesale seafood and fish supplier also provides comprehensive
information on its website relating to the sustainability of fish speciesHighly commended – Catchbox
For – its work, as a not-for-profit co-operative or “community supported fishery”
runbyunpaidvolunteers,withsmallfishermenwhouseresponsiblemethodsto
supply individual consumers on England’s South Coast with weekly boxesof fresh,
local, responsibly sourced fish. “This is a scheme that cuts out the middle man
and puts you, the fish eater, directly in touch with the fishermen in your local
harbour,” says Hugh Fearnley-WhittingstallC
ornish fisherman Chris Bean was 11 when he built
hisfirstboatanddecidedtogotosea.Thesonofa
cabinetmaker (who helped him draw up the plans), he
used to sail it up the Helford River, catching bass and bream.
He soon realised there was money to be made from selling
his catch to a local fishmonger – “more than from picking
potatoes or turnips on a local farm,” he says – and throughout
his adolescence this was how he earned his pocket money.
He then made a career out of it and, more than 40 years
on, he is not only still fishing but runs Kernowsashimi,
a family business that supplies quality, sustainable fish:
familiarspeciessuchashaddock,mackerel,whiting,red
mulletandcrabalongwithlessfamiliarkindssuchas
lesser-spotted dogfish, wrasse and gurnard (of the four types,
he says, “streaked, which are wider on the shoulders and
havesoftfins,arethemostdelicious”),dabandpouting.“You
can find a market for anything,” he says. “It’s all protein. And
everything has a value.”
The idea came from his Japanese daughter-in-law,
Mutsuko. “She was the prime mover,” he says, and Mutsuko
remainsintegraltothebusiness,asdohissonanddaughter.“She said people would pay extra money for fish of the quality
we were catching if we sold it into a niche market. My mother
said to me if you take fish from the sea and put it on your plate,
then you eat it; you don’t waste it. It’s silly to throw things back
thatmighthaveamarketvalue.Sowhateverwecatchnow,we
use. We don’t put anything back except for protected species,
which we’re legally bound to throw back. About 70 or 80 per
cent of the fish comes aboard the boat live so it survives.” He
also takes care to use “static gear so we’re not disrupting the
substrateorenvironment”,andlargemeshes,sotheycatch
only mature fish that have had time to breed.
Among the restaurants Kernowsashimi supplies are
several in London, notably the two Michelin-star Japanese
restaurant Umu in Mayfair, Moshi Moshi, and Riverford
at the Duke of Cambridge, in Islington, Britain’s first and
only organic pub.
Bean has teamed up with the Riverford Field Kitchen and,
from January 2015, has been holding a fish masterclass every
Friday, to teach people how to cook the fish he caught that day
–particularlythelesspopularspecies–andtoeducatethemin
thewaysofsustainablefishing.Winner–UKsupplieroftheyear*
KERNOWSASHIMI
Represented by its founder, Chris Bean
For–itscommitmenttosustainablefishingmethodsandfishmasterclasses
THE OCEAN AWARDS 2016
* Criteria – the UK seafood supplier that has shown the most consistent,
well-communicated and far-reaching commitment to sustainable sourcingJUDGE #1CHARLES CLOVER, EXECUTIVE CHAIR MAN
In 2004, Clover’s book The End of the Line was published. Then the environment editor of The Daily Telegraph, now a columnist for The Sunday Times, he was inspired
to write it, he says, by many things, not least a paper by the freshwater fisheries expert Dr David Solomon on dwindling fish stocks in the River Wye. Dr Solomon, says Clover,
“reckoned it had been overfished by recreational fishermen. I thought: ‘Well, if you can overfish a river with a fly or a prawn on a hook, then what is happening to the sea?’
So I began to look into it and found more and more cause for alarm.”
The success of his book prompted a film of the same name. Latterly dubbed “An Inconvenient Truth for the oceans” by The Economist and winner in 2011 of the inaugural
Puma Creative Impact Award for its success in changing consumer and business behaviour, the film had one of its first screenings at the 2009 Sundance Festival in Utah, the
best regarded showcase for independent productions. It was there that Clover discussed his next step with (fellow judges of the Ocean Awards) George Duield and Chris
Gorell Barnes, producer and executive producer respectively of the film. “We sat down and said: ‘What are we going to do now?’ And they said: ‘We’re going to save the sea.’”
The result was Blue Marine Foundation, a charity that funds private-sector solutions for the sea and a global network of marine reserves, of which Clover is executive
chairman and with which Boat International has created the Ocean Awards. “Awards give recognition to people who’ve done great things,” he says.
“And they attract more people to do great things, so they’re a very good thing.”
THE OCEANS 10 meet the esteemed judges who decided the winners of the inaugural Ocean Awards