Fish were not only in the tank but on the menu too as hundreds of people descended for a seafood festival at a north-east aquarium.
The team at Macduff Marine Aquarium turned heads when they announced that an attraction usually devoted to celebrating the diversity of marine life would be given over to cooking it for a day.
But manager Claire Matthews, who spearheaded this weekend’s event, stressed that FishFest and its centrepiece fish pie cookery competition were about promoting sustainability.
“I think people have picked up on the sustainability message,” she said. “The chefs from North East College Scotland who have been doing the demonstrations have really been pushing how important seafood choices and local produce are.
“We can see the animals in the tank – as near to their natural environment as we can create – but we also exploring their biology and we’ve even done a dissection of a dogfish.”
She added the aquarium has been far busier than expected for a September weekend, and that the FishFest had generated a “great atmosphere” among visitors.
“The fish pie cook off went so well. We had a lot of entrants, plenty from Banff Academy. Usually it’s difficult to get teenagers involved but not this time.
“The five finalists had an hour to cook and they were so calm despite quite a tense atmosphere. There were lots of comparisons with Great British Bake Off – it was a lovely event.”
After a long deliberation process from the judges, the title of Young Fish Pie Master 2015 was claimed by 13-year-old Phoebe
Wiseman from Macduff. Phoebe was presented with a trophy and her winning recipe will be added to the specials board at the Banff Springs hotel.
Inside the aquarium there were fish biology demonstrations, fishing heritage workshops and presentations from a fisheries research scientist from Aberdeen University and a government advisor on marine conservation.