Well, we all did actually – on his last series, it seemed old Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall used any excuse to kit up and roll off a rib.
But this time, it’s with a much more poignant purpose.
Hugh’s Fish Fight , a new series on Channel 4, highlights the shocking state of the fishing industries, where tuna nets are stripping the oceans and obliterating all sorts of species, and North Sea fisherman throw half of their catch back into the sea, dead.
It’s a subject that needs this level of publicity, and Hugh’s joined in his campaign by fellow chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay (also a keen diver) in a new series called The Big Fish Fight.
The chefs also aim to promote eating other types of fish, to try and reduce pressure on declining stocks of the three fish in greatest demand in Britain – cod, salmon and tuna.
In last night’s episode, Hugh travelled to the Maldives (jealous, much?!) to illustrate how the majestic manta rays are falling prey to the controversial and indiscriminate tuna fishing nets known as FADS.
In an interview with the Guardian, Hugh explained how he first got into diving.
“I learned to dive 22 years ago, in weekly sessions at a swimming pool in Swiss Cottage, north London,” says Hugh. “From day one I was dreaming of swimming with mantas. Since then, practically every foreign holiday I’ve taken has involved diving.
“I’ve dived in the Red Sea, in Thailand, in the Seychelles, in Madagascar, Mauritius and Tanzania, with sharks, octopus and basking sharks – not that I need the company of charismatic submarine megafauna to make a dive feel worthwhile.
“Seeing tiny wrasse busying themselves in the tentacles of sea anemones, or a velvet swimming crab waving its claws at me from its hidey-hole in a Dorset wreck is quite enough.
“But the manta itch has never been far away, and whenever I’ve arrived at a new destination, I’ve tentatively inquired whether mantas have been seen there in recent days/weeks/years/ever, often to be told, “You should have been here yesterday/last week/last month.”
But on his trip to the Maldives, Hugh struck lucky: “They were ridiculously big, and impossibly graceful. A ray came towards me, and then another. And another.
“Soon, I was in a slow-motion vortex of six of these flying paradoxes of bulk and beauty, each one the size of three big dining tables bolted together, yet each as graceful and weightless as a kestrel in a light breeze.
“Self-awareness is erased in the moment, lost in the pure pleasure of observing without influence the perfect action of a wondrous, unknowable being.”
Catch Hugh’s Fish Fight on Channel 4 this week and sign his petition to support the cause!
PS! How well do you know your fish? Take the Guardian’s quirky quiz to see if you know your John Dory from your Pollack!
You have to admire the Maldivians – last week, government officials joined President Mohamed Nasheed at a cabinet meeting held entirely underwater.
