Caviar for Breakfast

“Cyclopterus is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cyclopteridae, the lumpsuckers or lumpfish. Its only species is Cyclopterus lumpus, the lumpsucker or lumpfish. It is found in the North Atlantic and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean.” (Wikipedia)

Lumpfish roe is a cheap substitute for sturgeon roe – £5 for 100 grams online or can be bought off the shelf at Waitrose, etc. I chop and change what I have for breakfast and right now I chop a hard boiled egg and put it on hot buttered toast with lumpfish roe. If unavailable substitute Gentleman’s Relish or even Marmite. That’s on the days I don’t have yogurt and muesli.

A female lumpfish lays anywhere between 50 and 220 thousand eggs and up to 8,000 tonnes are harvested annually, the vast majority in Iceland and Greenland. Unfortunately the female lumpfish hands in its dinner pail when her roe is harvested so we must be careful not to eat too much, mustn’t we.

Like cork forests and oil palm plantations sustainability is the watchword. Monitoring this is relatively new and data is not as complete as one might wish. However, the Marine Stewardship Council have certified as sustainable fisheries in Iceland and Greenland. The MSC says “fishing is sustainable if it leaves enough fish in the oceans and minimises impacts on habitats and ecosystems. For this to happen, fisheries must be managed effectively. Certified sustainable wild-capture fishing can also reduce the pressure on land-based agriculture as a source of protein. Seafood also has, on average, a lower carbon footprint than land-based animal proteins. Sustainable fishing has been embraced by fisheries and communities across Britain with Cornish hake, Shetland brown crab and Poole Harbour clams and cockles just some of a range of fish and seafood to have achieved MSC certification in the UK and Ireland.” This is reviewed every five years and the data relied on by the MSC can only become more comprehensive. For those in peril in the sea, protect them wheresoe’er they go, as the hymn nearly goes. Meanwhile I take comfort from the paternal pride of codfish and hope the lumpfish is equally protective.

“Unlike the male codfish which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons.” (Blandings Castle and Elsewhere, PG Wodehouse, 1935)