UK's favourite fish ruled 'off menu'

Almost all the fish most popular on British tables are endangered or rare and should no longer be eaten, says a leading conservation body today.

The Marine Conservation Society says 17 fish species, ranging from chip- shop favourites such as cod, haddock, skate, hake, halibut and salmon, to more recent introductions like monkfish, bass, and swordfish, have either been fished to extinction in at least part of the Atlantic, or are heading that way.

Today, it publishes the Good Fish Guide in an attempt to steer fish lovers towards less vulnerable species.

The plight of the cod, the haddock and the hake may come as no surprise. It was first highlighted by the closure in 1992 of the Grand Banks fishery off Newfoundland, once seemingly inexhaustible but reduced to catastrophic collapse.

Warnings have been sounded about salmon, too. But this is the first time a major body has spelled out to consumers exactly what effect their preferences can have across.

Many species, the society says, should not be eaten at all. Skate, once one of the most common species in the Atlantic, "has probably been fished to extinction in the Irish Sea and is extremely rare in the central and southern North Sea."

Another chip-shop staple, dogfish or spurdog, normally sold as rock salmon, should also not be eaten because it is facing extinction.

Hake has been heavily overfished and is now scarce. Trawling for bass targets immature fish and kills dolphins and porpoises. Shark, marlin and swordfish, grouper, ling, Chilean seabass (properly known as Patagonian toothfish), trawled haddock and halibut and any tuna except that caught on rod and line should be off the menu.

Monkfish is "particularly vulnerable to over-exploitation" because it takes up to 11 years before it reaches sexual maturity and mature females are extremely scarce. Serious commercial fishing for monkfish began only about 25 years ago.

Stocks of wild Atlantic salmon have reduced by 50per cent in the past 20 years. Only responsibly and/or organically farmed salmon should be eaten.

All of which leaves the choices for dedicated sea-foodies looking decidedly thin. So far, the society has awarded its certificates to fish from only six fisheries: Australian rock lobster, Thames Blackwater herring, Alaskan salmon, New Zealand hoki, Burry Inlet cockles and mackerel caught on hand lines in Britain's South-West.

? Fears that tons of illegal "bush-meat", suspected of causing the foot and mouth epidemic, are being smuggled into Britain every day could lead to a range of devastating new plagues, experts warned today.

A spot check at Heathrow last week found 350kg of illegal food cut up and carried in suitcases by passengers on just one flight from Africa. The haul included beef, chicken and an African delicacy consisting of dried pig or cow skin with fat attached.

Other checks have found dried and smoked bushrats, haunches of antelope and monkeys.