Plaice is fish of the year 2020
The fish plaice has been named fish of the year 2020 in Belgium. It is caught in large quantities by Belgian fishermen, but it does not often end up on Belgian plates. And are you thinking now: plaice? What is that? That’s what Flemish people call our old, familiar schol.
Just like ‘glass recycling week’ and ‘recumbent bike day’, an election for fish of the year is, of course, a major marketing event. The election is intended to encourage more Belgians to eat plaice. Only 8% of the plaice caught in Belgium is eaten there; the rest is exported. Last year, whiting won the prize, while the year before that, monkfish was the winner.
Plaice is flourishing
Plaice was overfished for a while, putting the species at risk. But the EU intervened, quotas were introduced, and since then plaice has been flourishing. In Belgium, it is often caught as bycatch when fishing for sole, but it is too delicious to throw back.
Rainbow certification
On viswijzer.nl, you can see that plaice has certifications in every color of the rainbow, from the blue MSC certification to the bright-red symbol for fish you should avoid. What’s the deal? Plaice caught from the North Sea using beam trawlers receives a red rating from the fish guide; plaice caught with gill nets or Danish seines is perfectly fine. If there were now also a way to know which of the two is lying at your local fishmonger’s, we’d have the whole picture.
