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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
recently. 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. FASFA's head office is in Hull and if you would
like to know more go to www.fasfa.co.uk, www.twitter.com/FrozenAtSeaFish,
or find its fan page on Facebook by searching for Fish & Chips
(FASFA Frozen at Sea Fillets Association).
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