Mark Hix's recipe for baked scallops with a herb crust

"As a kid growing up in West Bay, Dorset, I used to sit on the harbour wall and watch the small trawlers coming in with their catch. My friend Mark's dad's boat, along with all the others, would be stacked high with sacks of queenies that they'd dredged up only hours before, and Mark's mum would pack us off to school with a tub each of queen scallop meat doused in Sarson's vinegar and white pepper, to eat later as a playground snack."

"These days, however, our local scallop fishermen don't fish for queenies much any more, because the time it takes to shuck and clean them is more or less the same as that for larger king scallops, so they're no longer financially viable; also, instead of all those trawlers that Lyme Bay had in the past, it's now mostly divers who fish more sustainably for king scallops, without demolishing the sea bed in the process."

"They recently started experimenting with so-called disco scallops, which are caught in pots fitted with flashing lights that lure them in, which is much more efficient, crew-wise, than diving, because a boat with one diver is legally required to have a crew of four, comprising the working diver, a standby diver, a supervisor and a driver. Crazy, eh? That's why scallops come with a pretty hefty price tag."

As a child in West Bay, Dorset, queen scallops were abundant and sold off trawlers; children often took tubs of scallop meat dressed with Sarson's vinegar and white pepper as snacks. Queen scallops have declined because cleaning time rivals that of larger king scallops, making them less financially viable. Lyme Bay fishing shifted from many trawlers to mostly divers harvesting king scallops more sustainably without damaging the seabed. Two dive boats run by Jon Shuker and Ali Day have cornered the local market. They are trialing 'disco' scallops caught in light-fitted pots, reducing crew needs and winning an innovation award.

Read at www.theguardian.com