Fish are hard work

I've said it before and I'll say it again - fish is a difficult subject for anyone trying to "do the right thing". The photo is me in Hastings visiting their fishing fleet of 40 boats that's trying to be as sustainable as possible. They have three fish stocks in the Hastings Fisheries - herring, mackerel and Dover sole - that are Marine Stewardship Council accredited. That means that the fish stocks are in good health and are well managed. Individual boats that want to use the MSC logo have to adhere to strict rules on how to catch the fish. The visit was organised by London Food Link as part of their excellent work to help the capital's restaurants become more sustainable.

I want to do the right thing when it comes to eating fish. I don't want to eat fish that are disappearing because we're catching too many of them. I don't want to eat fish whose capture entails a large carbon footprint such as tiger prawns from Asia or air-freighted fresh fish. I don't want to eat fish that will be bad for my health like tuna that contains high levels of mercury or farmed salmon containing antibiotics, growth promoters and dyes. And I certainly don't want to eat fish from farms that are an ecological disaster which many are especially the prawn farms in the Far East. (For more on fish farms I recommend John Humphrey's excellent book "The Great Food Gamble".)

What I want is to eat is:

• Fish that's good for me ie oily fish which contains omega 3 and no chemicals - herring, mackerel but not tuna because of the mercury;
• Fish that has a low carbon footprint ie preferably from UK or European waters;
• Fish that is sustainably fished ie meets MSC requirements; and
• Fish from farms that are not an eco disaster - ie organic farms although not salmon farms because they need 3kg of wild fish to produce 1 kg of farmed salmon which is crazy.

Difficult. As I said, fish is probably the hardest thing to get right if you want to do "the right thing". Here are some restaurants in North London that sell MSC-accredited fish:

• Duke of Cambridge 30 St Peters Street, London, N1 8JT - 020 7359 3066
• Konstam The Prince Albert, 2 Acton St, London, WC1X 9NA - 020 7833 5040
• Moro 34 - 36 Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QE - 020 7833 8336
• Moshi Moshi 24 Liverpool St, Islington, EC2M 7PY - 020 7377 5005

Let them take away your fish troubles!