Sole of Discretion CIC

Ethical online fishmongers and Community Interest Company, Sole of Discretion, was started by Caroline Bennett in 2016 after she found it virtually impossible to find socially responsible wild fish caught with low impact to the environment for her restaurant, Moshi Moshi, the UK’s first conveyor-belt sushi to open in 1994. So, she bridged the gap herself.

Operating out of Plymouth harbour in Devon, where the fish is landed, Sole of Discretion is committed to sourcing sustainable fish and shellfish caught by small-scale fishers (10-metre long boats or less) as these have the least impact on both fish stocks and the ocean bed as possible.

Unlike meat, wine or coffee, where provenance is celebrated and proudly communicated to consumers on packaging, typically in fishing, traceability is still often a murky world and is lost at the port.

Proving it is possible to turn this around, Sole of Discretion champions truly traceable fish, and was one of the first fishmongers to do this. Its fishers are listed on the website, and all fish and seafood sold has the name of the boat, skipper and how it was caught detailed on the packaging, so consumers can understand exactly how and where their fish was caught.

Sole of Discretion’s online fishmarket shows the available catch of the day and helps educate consumers on less well-known fish. Grouping fish by type, such as flat, white and oily, it gives prices per kg so consumers can better understand the similar and cheaper fish alternatives available. This helps to grow the British fish market wider than the usual choices of cod, haddock, salmon and tuna, encouraging more to swap hake for pouting, or halibut and turbot for flounder.