ways Yet it’s a good time to be eating from the waters More fish of excellent quality are available more widely than ever before, and they come from all over the globe, offering the opportunity to discover new ingredients and new pleasures At the same time, their variety and variability make it challenging to choose and prepare them well Fish and shellfish are more fragile and less predictable than ordinary meats This chapter will take a close look at their special nature, and how they’re best handled and prepared Brillat-Savarin on Fish Fish are an endless source of meditation and astonishment The varied forms of these strange creatures, their diverse means of existence, the influence upon this of the places in which they must live and breathe and move about… — Physiology of Taste, 1825 Fisheries and Aquaculture Of all our foods, fish and shellfish are the only ones that we still harvest in significant quantities from the wild The history of the world’s fisheries is the saga of human ingenuity, bravery, hunger, and wastefulness evolving into a maw that now swallows much of the oceans’ tremendous productivity In 1883, the eminent biologist T H Huxley expressed his belief that “the cod fishery, the herring fishery, the pilchard fishery, the mackerel fishery, and probably all the great sea fisheries are inexhaustible; that is to say that nothing we do seriously affects the numbers of fish.” Just over a century later, cod and herring stocks on both sides of the North Atlantic have collapsed, many other fish are in decline, and the U.N Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that we are harvesting two-thirds of the major ...Fisheries and Aquaculture Of all our foods, fish and shellfish are the only ones that we still harvest in significant quantities from the wild The history of the world’s fisheries is the saga of human... numbers of fish.” Just over a century later, cod and herring stocks on both sides of the North Atlantic have collapsed, many other fish are in decline, and the U.N Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that we are harvesting two-thirds of the major... herring fishery, the pilchard fishery, the mackerel fishery, and probably all the great sea fisheries are inexhaustible; that is to say that nothing we do seriously affects the numbers of fish.” Just over a century later,