FISH & CHIP SHOPS LEADING THE WAY

THE majority of Britain’s fish and chips shops are leading the way in sustainability compared to the Michelin-starred restaurants caught out by serving endangered species of fish, says The Frozen at Sea Fillet Fish Association (FASFA).

According to FASFA some 90% of our fish and chips shops use frozen at sea fillet fish caught in the well managed and sustainably fished waters of the North Atlantic and Barents Sea.

WWF (World Wildlife Fund) believes the Barents Sea has excellent prospects to become a world-class example of successful management and sustainable development.

This was reinforced during October's value-added seafood conference in London, when Morten Hyldborg Jensen, executive VP of sales and marketing at Aker Seafoods in Norway, told delegates that cod from the Northeast Arctic stock in the Barents Sea are plentiful and the spawning biomass is at its highest level since 1948.

Compare the humble fish and chip shops to a survey of more than 100 top restaurants where the picture is much different. The survey, looking into whether the restaurants are serving fish caught from healthy populations, found that nearly 9 out of 10 were serving at least one “fish to avoid” from overexploited stocks. A number of Michelin-starred restaurants were among the worst offenders.

The survey was compiled by the makers of the documentary film The End of The Line about global over-fishing, which had its TV premiere last night (Tuesday, October 20) on More4.

Tim Cartwright-Taylor, chairman of The Frozen at Sea Fillets Association (FASFA), said: “FASFA is a trade organisation representing trawler owners who only catch their quotas in the carefully managed waters of the Barents Sea and North Atlantic. With some 90% of fish and chip shops using frozen at sea fillets it would seem the traditional take-away is leading the way in sustainability and doing much better than most of the top UK restaurants.

"But we still want the public to check! As consumers we have direct influence on the world’s sea every time we eat fish. We can preserve their future by what we buy and we need to make sure retailers and restaurateurs source their fish from sustainable and well managed waters. So, if we want to eat fish in the future then we have to do our bit and ask the fish and chip shops where their fish come from.”

One way hungry punters can ensure their battered cod and haddock is sustainably fished is by looking out for FASFA’s ‘Ocean Wild’ mark or the ‘Fish Today - Fish Tomorrow’ posters in the local fish and chip shop. The mark is used by FASFA to inform chip shop owners and their customers that the fish they are about to enjoy comes from proven, sustainable stocks.

FASFA represents trawler owners from Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Russia, Spain and Greenland and UK distributors of frozen at sea (FAS) filleted fish.