For some time now I’ve tried to reduce the amount of meat in my diet, knowing full well, meat can be expensive in price and cause greenhouse gas emissions.

In fact UN figures suggest that meat production puts more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than transport. (1)

I’ve been sea fishing since I was a kid and this year for my birthday I chartered a fishing boat in Dorset, so all my friends could share the enjoyment.

It wasn’t until I got back home that I really appreciated how sustainable the trip had been. Line fishing must be more sustainable than fishing by trawler. Firstly you only pull out a few fish at a time; secondly you have greater control over those you keep, and the those that go back. Trawler fishing in Europe, means you are at the mercy of mindless fish quotas.  These quotas stipulate you are only allowed to catch a specific weight of each species, and it is hard to get fishing nets to discriminate. Over catch – and they frequently do – and the dead “extras” must be thrown back to the sea as waste.  At this point I should stipulate the problem here isn’t fishing but the quota system.  Better to limit fishing by the weight of all fish caught, however each solution has it’s own problems.  Maybe it would be better to remove all quotas and let people fish themselves into bankruptcy?

All day charters vary in price depending on how long you want to go out for, whether you have your own fishing tackle and where you go to. A day’s wreck fishing can cost around £50-70 pound in the UK, Wreck fishing tends to be productive because fish like sniffing around old boats on the sea bed.  But there are a number of different options at much cheaper prices. Go local, whether it’s in a river, fish farm or supporting a local skipper at sea.

Our greedy cats eat £10 worth of fish per month.  So using crude maths I’ve decided that if I can get enough fish for 3 months I’ve already covered half my costs.  Factor in my substitution of fish for meat and I reckon I could break even, have a great trip on the water, and take another step up the self sufficiency ladder. I think I might need a chest freezer though. (Freecycle here I come).

Fishing can be a fun way to get in touch with your food, and improve your self-sufficiency even for the squeamish – by the end of my birthday even the girls were threading their own bait onto the hooks wondering what they were originally protesting about.

Links
(1)    Shun Meat says UN Climate Chief.  BBC News