You don't need to shout if you're talking into a microphone

What a brilliant week! So Petition Fish and I were at Holker Garden Festival on Friday which was hot, I mean great. For those not in the know, Petition Fish is the Wildlife Trust's Living Seas campaign for marine protected areas around the UK. We are asking people nationwide to show their support by signing the gorgeous shimmering scales and sticking them onto our big blue fish. I have managed to work out how to add a slideshow (eyes right) and if you watch it, after an undefined period of time a picture of Petition Fish will come along.

The campaign is going brilliantly so far and I am already onto my second fish, however at Holker I did find it a little challenging to engage interest and, save telling the back of someones head all about the campaign, there was not much I could do to reel them in (hehe I thank you). I think it might have been the Armageddon-esque heat discouraging people from stopping to chat (oh sorry did I drip a bit of sweat on you while signing your petition?). Still, it was an awesome day to be out and about and getting the signature of Lord Cavendish himself made me slightly weak at the knees. Plus I had an infinitely better day than the falcon display man whose falcon, upon release ready for its big performance, went and hid in a tree.

On Saturday I was in Whitehaven for the Summer fete at St Nicholas church, a special event to bring the community together a year after the shooting tragedy. Organiser Gerard Richardson kindly engaged a little chef to do some demonstration of cooking with mackerel, sea bass and Dover sole - all donated by Donnan's Quayside Fisheries and I believe that the bass and sole were locally caught and landed in Whitehaven.

Mackerel we have talked about before - a win:win fish. M to the A to the C to the K...
Bass is a bit trickier; most of the sea bass you'll find offered up to us is farmed, probably in Greece. Wild-caught bass is around but appears less commonly and will probably be more expensive (but I would think that you get what you pay for). Capture methods can include pair trawling which is not brilliant in terms of bycatch (unintended catch such as dolphins) but locally to Cumbria it is more likely to be caught by a fixed net which is much better. So local, wild caught could be your best bet for bass unless you can find line-caught.
The story I've heard for Dover sole locally is that since the Belgian beam trawlers have ceased activities offshore there are rapidly increasing numbers of sole inshore. In general it is a good flatfish choice and most especially if it is not beam-trawled (most likely it will be otter-trawled if caught by a local inshore boat, which is slightly better).
I will get around to putting up some explanations of the fishing methods soon I promise.

If you haven't thought about using fish in Indian cooking before then think again my hungry friends because the chef did a great job of showing how well the fish takes on the Indian flavours. He also bravely took on the task of scaling the bass on stage - too easy when you've got a tap to hold the fish under, a perfect storm of flying scales otherwise and very unfortunate for anyone standing nearby (*typing with one hand while the other picks scales out of hair*). During the demonstration I attempted to address the audience to explain why we were cooking with those fish, which definitely would have been better if I had remembered what those fish were. I also deafened two old ladies by talking as if I didn't have a microphone, into a microphone. But the cooked fish was enjoyed by all and I extend my thanks to the wonderful chef for his work (and for cracking me up by speaking 'privately' to me through the microphone).

Thanks also to Jon for his help on the stand (but not for eating my cupcake), and finally thanks to the seagull who released a world of misery on top of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust marquee. I fear it is not worth cleaning it before the 3 day, harbour-based, seagull party that will be the Whitehaven International Festival; luckily for me, Petition Fish doubles up as an ideal personal shield!