Sport on our beaches

“These fish will satisfy your taste buds every bit as much as Mediterranean sardines”

OK, so your prospects of sitting outside a picture-perfect taverna on the shores of the Mediterranean, sipping Arctic-cold beer and eating finger-licking lush, charcoal-grilled sardines, have been seriously curtailed this summer.

But instead of crying into your lukewarm draught ale, why not seize the moment and go out and do something even better? Go and catch your own sardine. Build your own charcoal-burning grill. And prepare a perfect British seaside feast to rival any you might be served on the other side of the English Channel.

While you may be hard-pushed to catch a sardine off the English coast, mackerel stocks are doing well. Overall, their numbers have remained healthy, though in recent years there seems to be a trend of more mackerel migrating north to cooler waters. It’s as if the English Channel has begun to get too warm for them. However, so far this year, the Channel is