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BRITAIN'S fish eating public will be urged this week to cast aside traditional cod and haddock and try new and relatively unknown species.
On Tuesday the high profile food expert and chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall will launch the much heralded Fish Fight series on Channel 4. He will highlight the controversial practice of discards - throwing perfectly good fish back into the sea simply because they are over quota. But his three-night programmes (they run until Thursday) will be supported by programmes featuring celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's Fish Suppers, Heston Blumentall's Fishy Feast and Gordon Ramsay's Shark Fight.
Jamie Oliver will front10 shows of five minutes each, giving tips on cooking one of the lesser-known species; Heston Blumenthal will explore what dishes can be made from the few sea creatures that may escape overfishing, such as sea cucumber and jellyfish and Gordon Ramsay will investigate the catching of sharks to make the Chinese delicacy shark-fin soup.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall said: "If you're someone who cooks these fish and rarely any others, then you need to change." He told The Radio Times: "For every meal you have of cod, tuna, or farmed salmon, you owe it to yourself to eat another using a different species of fish. There's no shortage to choose from. Look for gurnard, black bream, mackerel, flounder and dab."
Next week, Defra will announce a research project to investigate why the British are so stuck in their ways in which species of fish they buy and eat. Supermarkets are already altering their practises.
However, some fishing leaders are quietly worried that the programmes, although good intentioned, may be too simplistic, giving the wrong impression that all fish are in danger.
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