10 years ago I was at a famous food market in London on Sunday morning when I overhead a stallholder saying to a customer “You can’t get fresher than that, it was swimming in the sea last Wednesday”. Oh, so just 5 days ago then!
How things have changed since then (unless you buy from supermarkets or buy imported fish – and 80% of the fish we eat is imported). These days you can have your fish delivered to your door within 24 hours of being caught, and you can’t beat fresh fish!
No one can have missed the news about the plight of UK fishermen (sorry but I can’t bring myself to call them “fishers”).
Britain’s inshore fleet has been devastated by Brexit and Covid. In 2020 the value of UK landings dropped 19%. 15% of all fishing jobs were lost.
For the past four years, Pesky Fish, the start-up that Ben King co-founded with Aiden Berry in 2018 has been working to connect fishermen directly with customers in their homes.
Pesky’s goal is to transform the fishing industry so that fishermen can keep more of the value of their catch, customers get a wider choice of fresher fish, and UK fish stocks are protected.
Pesky are committed to ensuring that you’ll only ever find fish on the Pesky market that are:
From abundant stocks
Old enough to have repopulated their species
Caught using low impact fishing methods
How does the Pesky Fish market work?
Pesky fish is a daily market that lets fishermen deliver their catch directly to customers at home within 24 hours of it being caught.
Every day from Monday to Thursday the mornings catch is loaded onto the Pesky website and you can choose what you want to order. Landings will change from day to day depending on the weather and the season.
The fish is offered at a fixed price so it’s not an auction but remember that because there’s limited availability, when you add an item to your basket you’ll see a message that it’s reserved for 15 minutes; this gives everyone a fair chance to get their chosen fish.
The banner at the top of the page tells you when your fish will be delivered and how long you have to place your order for the next available delivery day.
The great thing is that you can buy fish from more than one boat with just one delivery slot and a single delivery charge.
Transforming the fish supply chain
The UK exports 73% of the fish caught, but imports 80% of the fish eaten! Imagine the impact this extended supply chain has on the environment. It’s just not sustainable.
By buying on the Pesky market you can help transform the economics of the UK fishing industry in three important ways:
- By cutting out middlemen, fishermen can get the highest price for their landings
- By using abundant, bycatch species the total catch value for each boat is maximized
- By using coastal packing partners we can help create local employment opportunities
Carbon neutral delivery and Recyclable Packaging
Pesky use fully kerbside recyclable boxes supplied from the team at TemperPack. Orders are sent by DPD overnight delivery arriving with you the following day.
DPD are one of the leading companies for delivering fresh, ambient, and chilled products direct to the home.
Next day delivery costs £7.99 or you can get free delivery if your order comes to over £40 for Monday-Wednesday (weekday delivery), or £60 for Thursday (Saturday delivery).
How to change or cancel your order
You can change or cancel your order before midnight on the day of ordering by sending an email to ahoy@peskyfish.co.uk.
Where do Pesky Fish Deliver to?
Pesky Fish deliverthroughout mainland UK (for now they can’t deliver to the Scottish Highlands, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man & Isle of Wight).
Traceability
Every touchpoint in the Pesky fish chain is 100% transparent both ways, the labels have the boat name front and centre. This means you can share exactly how you got on with your fish – whether that’s Darren’s Brill, Dean’s Bass or Matt’s Mussels.
What to do with the fish you buy
Many of us love to eat fish and appreciate it’s wonderful health benefits.
But most people choose fish when they eat out, they don’t eat so much at home, the reason for this is that many of us are less confident about cooking fish than meat.
The Pesky blog is full of great, new, easy to follow recipes designed to make cooking fresh fish easy, it’s a good way to get confident in cooking fish.
You should also sign up for the Pesky fish emails, they’re full of useful fishy tips, hints and market news.
Give a Pesky fish Gift Card
This is a great way to nudge your friends and family into eating more (healthy) fish. Give them a gift card, with values between £10 to £100, they just need to enter the number when they check out.
Where are Pesky Fish based
Pesky fish are based in Marlesford, Woodbridge, England, Close to Ipswitch in Suffolk. They have operations in the local ports they represent and the orders are packed and delivered directly from the port.