Tuesday 24 April 2012

Lamprey Pie

The Daily Mail Wails:
For the people of Gloucester, it wouldn't be a Jubilee year without a lamprey pie.

In a custom stretching back for centuries, the city marks every one of these royal milestones - as well as Coronations - by sending the monarch a traditional dish made with an eel-like fish native to local rivers.

But this time around the uniquely British recipe will have to be prepared with lampreys from abroad, due to a shortage of the species in Gloucester waters.
So instead we have to import them from Canada:
The Canadian sea lamprey are set to arrive in Britain on May 4, when Dr Marc Gaden of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission will present them to Gloucester City Council.

It may seem an enormous effort to spare one pie's worth of Severn lamprey, but Steve Axford, the Environment Agency's principal fisheries scientist, said it was important 'to protect them and conserve stocks'.

He told the Daily Telegraph the Severn Estuary is home to all three species of lamprey and has been designated as a conservation area.

'We have a duty to protect them, and safeguard rivers,' he said.
Well of course we have a duty to protect them...they have a conservation status as per Annexes II and V of the EU Habitats Directive. Funnily enough after 40 years of EU membership the Mail still can't bring itself to mention details like this.

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