England’s Seafood Coast – the best catch in the world!

April 2019: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

England’s Seafood Coast – the best catch in the world!

From mussels in Devon to Cromer Crab in Norfolk, freshly-caught lobster in Yorkshire to oysters in Essex, the waters surrounding the English coast teem with hundreds of fish and shellfish, making it one of the world’s top destinations for seafood lovers.

The coastline brims with chefs passionate about using fresh, locally-landed seafood, and now for the first time restaurateurs, fish markets, boat trips, cooking experiences and more have been brought together under one brand, England’s Seafood Coast .

Part of the wider England’s Coast project which enables visitors to plan and book their coastal trip, the new initiative brings together top seafood eateries from Northumberland to Cornwall making it easy to enjoy the very best locally-sourced produce. Whether it’s the crispiest fish and chips eaten on the beach in Whitby or fine-dining at a celebrity-chef restaurant in the South West, Seafood Coast offers choice for every taste and budget.

Nowhere is seafood better served than on the English Riviera in Devon, home to the world-famous Brixham Fish Market where more than £40 million worth of 40 species of seafood is landed annually including lobster, crab, scallops, hake, brill, sea bass and much more.

Local chef and seafood ambassador Mitch Tonks believes there’s no better catch: “I’ve eaten seafood all over the world and the quality and diversity of the fish caught off our coast is the finest anywhere.

“We have a long-standing fishing community in Brixham, a thriving processing and export business and some of the best fish restaurants and seafood chefs.”

He’s not alone. Chef, food writer and TV presenter Valentine Warner is equally passionate: “We have an incredible choice of fresh seafood on the English Coast. I love brill and woodsmoke as an ingredient is amazing – then again there’s nothing like turbot cooked over charcoal. Best for fish and chips has to be whiting while green shore crabs smashed up make an incredible soup.

“I’m crazy for shellfish. Food tastes unbelievably good when taken so close to its source.”

Along with scores of outstanding restaurants, pubs and cafes serving the freshest catch of the day, the Seafood Coast provides visitors with a range of hands-on experiences. Visitors to the Northumberland Lobster Hatchery can combine a visit with a trip to the fresh fish bar to take home some tasty fish, shellfish or lobster.

Holidaymakers to Suffolk can head to the fish huts on Aldeburgh beach to buy oysters, crab, smoked sprats direct from fishermen’s boats, visitors to Dorset’s Seafood Festival in July will be treated to a host of fish and cookery demonstrations as well as the freshest catch from Weymouth’s historic harbour, while guests to Northumberland or Yorkshire should try kippers for breakfast straight from the smokery, a practice dating back more than one hundred years.

Visit www.seafoodcoast.com for more information.

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For more information please contact Sheron Crossman, Sheron.crossman@coastaltourismacademy.co.uk

The England’s Coast project is being run by the National Coastal Tourism Academy whose partners include P&O Ferries, Green Traveller, Visit Northumberland, Yorkshire Coast, Scarborough, North York Moors National Park, East Riding of Yorkshire, English Riviera, Teignbridge District Council, Kingsbridge and South Devon, Visit Cornwall, Visit Brighton, Eastbourne, Dorset County Council, Visit East Anglia, Suffolk Coast, Visit Hull and East Yorkshire, Visit North Norfolk, East Lindsey District Council, Bournemouth Borough Council.

About the Discover England Fund

  • In November 2015, the Government announced a £40 million Discover England Fund; an unprecedented opportunity for English tourism. The Fund aims to deliver world-class bookable tourism products joined up across geographies and/or themes; including integrated transport solutions to provide an end-to-end customer experience.
  • The Fund supports the growth of one of England’s most successful export industries, inbound tourism. Tourism is an industry that delivers jobs and economic growth across the English regions – contributing some £106bn each year to the economy and supporting 2.6 million jobs.
  • The Fund supported a number of pilot projects in year one (2016/17) that tested product development approaches. In years two and three, 2017-19, the fund will support:
  • A number of large-scale collaborative projects to be delivered over the two year period 2017-2019 that will create a step-change in bookable English tourism product for international consumers,
  • A smaller funding pot for new one year pilot projects (in year two), and
  • Continuation funding for existing year one projects that demonstrated early learnings (in year two).

    • About VisitBritain/VisitEngland

  • VisitBritain/VisitEngland is the national tourism agency – a non-departmental public body funded by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)

    • Working with a wide range of partners in both the UK and overseas, our mission is to grow the volume and value of inbound tourism across the nations and regions of Britain and to develop world-class English tourism product to support our growth aspirations. For further information and to access the latest in-depth market intelligence and statistics visit www.visitbritain.org or www.visitbritain.com and www.visitengland.com