Why is Fish so Expensive in Ireland?

loveisdivine

The quota's are there for a reason though. Just because fishermen always over catch and then complain that they have to throw dead fish back, doesnt mean we should increase the quota. It means we should look at different ways of fishing so we dont over fish and have to throw dead fish back. Then when cod etc have reached a suitable level again, we can maybe increase the quota till we get the right balance.

previous user

op, Lidl and Aldi do good deals on haddock, cod and coley fish.

smash

loveisdivine wrote: »

The quota's are there for a reason though. Just because fishermen always over catch and then complain that they have to throw dead fish back, doesnt mean we should increase the quota. It means we should look at different ways of fishing so we dont over fish and have to throw dead fish back. Then when cod etc have reached a suitable level again, we can maybe increase the quota till we get the right balance.

Quotas should be shared among ships. Which they're currently not. Also, if Bass can not be commercially fished by Irish trawlers, then foreign trawlers should be told to fúck off too, but they're not and they still come to exploit Irish waters.

saywhatyousee

previous user wrote: »

op, Lidl and Aldi do good deals on haddock, cod and coley fish.

The smoked coley they do in Lidl is a lovely piece of Fish

previous user

saywhatyousee wrote: »

The smoked coley they do in Lidl is a lovely piece of Fish

It is, I'm having some tomorrow for dinner

mikemac1

Wasn't there some survey last year that Irish takeaways were serving all sorts of weird and wonderful fish when all you wanted was cod

Cheaper for them to buy and they would just pass it off

livinsane wrote: »

Ling tastes like Cod and Haddock

Flounder and Dab taste like Plaice (all flat fish). Flounder is far superior in my opinion.

Gurnard is firm like Monkfish and can be used similarly

I don't know what any of these new varieties are

I'll stick to what I know
And I think this is the attitude of lots of customers

livinsane

gbee wrote: »

I believe you're allowed 8 Mackerel and they have been scarce for a couple of years already with small shoals and non predictable paths.

First I've heard that, I find they are almost a pest when fishing. I will say that they used for bait just as much as for food. They are one fish you would never throw back in cos if you're not going to eat it, you're going to use to it catch something that you will. Most serious anglers would probably stock a freezer full to keep them going as bait over the winter.

Must look into that fact.

gbee

smash wrote: »

Quotas should be shared among ships. Which they're currently not. .

After years of 'dangerous fishing' the in the Bearing Seas, when quotas were open for a period of time depending on how fast the quota was landed, this share basis has been pretty successful since it's introduction on the last five or so years.

44leto

A French girl asked me once, why do you Irish not eat more fish?

I don't know why, a lot of Irish don't even like it, me included, I eat Cod and that's about it.

Cardinal Richelieu

Most of the Irish catch is exported, hard to buy fresh herrings because most is exported to Spain were it commands better prices. A huge amount of less eaten seafood like razorbills is exported to Asia too.

ScumLord

It's all the catholic churches fault we don't eat much fish.

44leto

ScumLord wrote: »

It's all the catholic churches fault we don't eat much fish.

I thought they encouraged it, apparently some of the apostles were fishermen, so agreed to follow Jaysus new church only if fish on friday became a commandment.

Logical Fallacy

chin_grin wrote: »

Wait wait wait wait wait...........we're an island? :eek:

"For your crimes you are being sent to Monster Island...but don't worry, that's just a name."

*later, being chased by monsters* "I thought they said it was just a name!!!!"

"What they meant is Monster Island is actually a Peninsula".

ScumLord

44leto wrote: »

I thought they encouraged it, apparently some of the apostles were fishermen, so agreed to follow Jaysus new church only if fish on friday became a commandment.

Eating fish became a more of a penance.

44leto

ScumLord wrote: »

Eating fish became a more of a penance.

I see so it backfired on them.

Actually that is interesting, IMO eating fish is a penance.

muracan

I have worked in the fish business all my life.Some of the comments on here are misinformed and comical to say the least!
I also work in a fish shop in West Cork.
If anyone wants to pm me I will direct them and give them a good deal!:D

Firstly fish is not all landed in Killybegs,virtually no whitefish is landed there,mostly pelagic fish ie mackerel, scad, herring and bluewhiting.

Secondly most of the whitefish is caught off the south coast (Dingle, Castletownbere, Union Hall Schull Kinsale and Ballycotton)with a certain amount off the North (Greencastle) East (Howth and Clogherhead) Southeast (Dunmore East and Kilmore Quay) .

Some boats concentrate mainly on prawns, others on Monkfish , others on Spanish fish (megrims and hake).The Irish market is a tiny compared to the continent.Also the prices are far better there too.

Just a small calculation for you, when you fillet fish your yield varies per species.A fish for example, fillets out at about 50%. ie you throw away 50% of the weight of the fish so if the fisheman was paid 3 euros per kg for the whole fish the filleted price therefore would be 6 euros per kg.There are then the overhead costs, transport,packaging, labour, ice etc to be added on plus a small profit margin to be added so even "cheap" fish can be made dear very easily!

I hope this helps! By the way meat is getting expensive too!

Markcheese

I'm in cork and there's plenty of choice at reasonable price, enough for 3 to 4 people ( hake, haddock, ling,plaice,ect)
Good fishshop Carrigaline
Two fish mongers in Mahon Thursday Market
Cornmarket st. sat morning market
Mallow friday morning farmers Market

Good luck .

Nothingbetter2d

muracan wrote: »

I hope this helps! By the way meat is getting expensive too!

damn right it is.... have you seen the price of a rack of lamb? :eek:

Solair

It's mostly because the Irish and the Brits have a weird dislike of fish. I am not entirely sure what the reason for this is, there must be some sociological explanation.
It's not down to just the Catholic Church fish on friday thing either, as the same mentality persists in the UK. Until quite recently the average working-class British home only consumed fish in the form of Fish and Chips or Fish Fingers. i.e. the most bland fish of all : Cod!

Most people still do not even distinguish between types of fish and say things like "I don't like Fish".

Where as they'd be far more accurate when telling you that they like pork or they hate beef.

However, the result of this is that the market for fish is relatively small in Ireland and in the UK. Small market means very limited economies of scale and high distribution costs, particularly for a very perishable good which needs constant refrigeration and rapid distribution to market, which results in very high fish prices.

Basically, we're just the two weird islands that don't eat fish!

I'd suspect that it's down to something like the feudal system banning people from fishing in the past which created a situation where there was no culture of eating fish or it died out.

Or, some association that fish was poor people's food.
For example, in Spain a lot of snooty people / social climbers wouldn't eat rice until quite recently as it was associated with poverty + disease. Paella was very much off the middle class menu until it was repopularised.

gurramok

Fish can be lethal to human health when not cooked properly(the ones that are supposed to be cooked!), perhaps its a reason of too much potential for food poisoning for the lack of takeup among the population?

Sindri

Where's Martin when ye need him.

Don't ye know he's mad about fish!

44leto

gurramok wrote: »

Fish can be lethal to human health when not cooked properly(the ones that are supposed to be cooked!), perhaps its a reason of too much potential for food poisoning for the lack of takeup among the population?

But the same could be said for pork, or anything for that matter. I think scumlord hit the nail on the head, fish in Ireland is seen as penance.

Solair

44leto wrote: »

But the same could be said for pork, or anything for that matter. I think scumlord hit the nail on the head, fish in Ireland is seen as penance.

I'm not so sure about that one. I've heard that explanation before but, it wouldn't explain why the Brits also have an odd disregard for fish too.

There's been a bit of a resurgence of fish consumption in both countries though. However, it's still a bit limited to good restaurants and foodies.

I would suspect it has something to do with fishing been deemed poaching under old-style British fudal law. It wasn't easy to fish without the local Lord/Tyrant's permission in the past. This may have reduced fish consumption.

John Doe1

I know its a load of old kingfisher:mad:

Seaneh

Deleted User wrote: »

Coz we've fished it all away and there isn't that much left and what's left is becoming rare and expensive.

untrue.

Would make sense for Cod/Salmon, but in reality it's because there is no demand for the stuff here.

Most of the stuff we land here gets sold in markets in Holland, France and other european countries because there is no value in it here.


On top of that, over 80% of all fish landed in the EU is taken from Irish waters, that's a **** ton of fish.

We were stupid to give away so much of our waters.

mikemac1

Now this has me wondering

Ireland has the Great Famine but I've never heard anything about fishing being expanded.

I've seen the hookers in Galway, why did Co. Galway starve when the Claddagh and its people was based on fishing?
Or Clare when Kirush and Kilkee are known for fishing

I'm off to the history forum

44leto

Solair wrote: »

I'm not so sure about that one. I've heard that explanation before but, it wouldn't explain why the Brits also have an odd disregard for fish too.

There's been a bit of a resurgence of fish consumption in both countries though. However, it's still a bit limited to good restaurants and foodies.

It is strange we are both Islands and we have one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, plus a lot of rivers, yet it is not really a national dish.

There has to be some reason for it.

When I do go fishing in Mullaghmore we usually leave the catch to the boat owner, but the owner was telling us, he has some french regulars, they drive over and put all their catch in refrigerated boxes and take them home.

Solair

There's a very odd lack of certain food cultures in both Ireland and Britain though. It's quite hard to explain, although I'm sure there must be research done on it.

For example, there's very limited interest in cheese production. OK, there's been a lot of interest in it in recent years, but that's a relatively new thing.

Also, unlike the continent, there's been relatively little interest in baking. Bakeries largely disappeared by WWII. They've re-emerged, but again it's more a foodie-specialist thing.

Likewise, there's no great tradition of spicing / smoking / preserving / processing meats. In general we have very limited ranges of processed foods which were mass produced, rather than local specialists.. Where as on the continent you've a vast array of hams and sausages and various other products.

I'm not saying that these things absolutely didn't exist in Ireland and Britian but they're *much* less prevalent than they are in France, Germany, or anywhere on the continent.

I don't think that it can all be explained by the famine and the Catholic Church's fish policies as both islands are very similarly lacking in these areas.

There's just something strange about the lack of food culture here and also in England/Scotland/Wales.

It extends way beyond just fish!!

It has to have been down to something more fundemental in the social / political structure of the old British feudal setup.

Zzippy

The quota system is a joke. Every year the fishery scientists calculate the current stock, from that they work out what should be allowed to be caught so the stock can sustain itself or rebuild, that info goes to the fisheries ministers who promptly ignore it and award much higher quotas to the fishermen whose lobbyists have persuaded the ministers that they know better than the scientists. Every f*cking year the same...

What happens then is stocks are overfished and declining. Fishermen have to spend longer at sea and travel further to catch the same amount of fish. So their costs go up. Rising costs = rising price of fish.

Then you have total disregard for sustainability. Up to 3/4 years ago, Iceland and the Faroes took about 4% of the mackerel catch between them. The recession hit, and they decided f*ck it, we're going to catch as many as we can and f*ck the consequences - Iceland now takes 23% and the Faroes about 24%, leaving less for the EU countries and Norway, who, you guessed it, are hardly going to reduce their quota to compensate, so its a free-for-all where the only loser is the mackerel population.

mike65

There is a huge foodie culture in the UK these days and not all of it is just sitting in the front room watching other people preparing and eating nice grub!

The conservative palate is an issue though, many types of fish aren't considered - its the usual cod, plaice, haddock and if you are feeling posh (in a Ferrraro Rocher way!) farmed Salmon. So much else out there be it fresh or sea water - Bass, Hake, Squid, Trout, Skate, Pilchard, Sprat, Herring, Pollock, Monkfish, Turbot, Tench, Carp and so on.