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Where to eat eco-friendly fish
By Charles Campion, Evening Standard 09.11.06
Fish could soon be off the menu
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According to the American International Food Policy Research Industry, on average we each eat 17.4kg of fish every year, which may be good news for our health but is bad news for the fish. Very bad if you believe a new headline-grabbing report from Stanford University, California, which claims that sea fish could disappear from our diets by 2048.
Professor Steve Palumbi's four-year study revealed that populations of a third of the species fished since 1950 have collapsed or declined by 90 per cent. Cod, our great favourite, is now particularly under threat.
When it comes to eating fish we prefer cod. As stocks of it decline, prices rise, and you would think that market forces would turn diners away in search of a cheaper meal, but there is no sign of any such response.
Cod remains the most popular option in most chippies. So what can we do to prevent this fish being off the menu - permanently. Here we reveal the best places to get fish and chips in London and the tasty alternatives to cod that you really should consider trying.
The Golden Hind in Marylebone has been frying fish and chips since 1914, and cod is the biggest seller followed by haddock. But they also offer plaice, skate, halibut and rock salmon, so on your next visit, as well as marvelling at the now decommissioned antique fish fryer which has pride of place in the dining room, opt for an alternative.
For die-hards: £6.90 for a large cod and chips, £7.20 for haddock (eat-in).
Eco-friendly alternative: skate wing, £7.70.
Golden Hind, 73 Marylebone Lane, W1 (020 7486 3644)
Fred Hassan has run Fish Central in the Barbican for 38 years and has seen momentous changes in the business. "Over the past 10 years everyone has been saying that fish stocks are depleted. I don't really believe them. They are bringing in fish from all over the place. What is happening for sure is that the price goes up and up. Last Friday we paid £58 per stone for cod fillets and I can remember the fuss we made when the price hit £1 a stone."
Very few businesses have seen the cost in their raw materials rise by a factor of 58 and survived, but Fish Central is a large and successful restaurant where, in addition to cod and haddock, it offers Dover sole, halibut, plaice, skate, rock salmon, sea bass, and smoked haddock.
For die-hards: £6.95 for a large cod and chips, £6.95 for haddock (eat-in).
Eco-friendly alternative: Dover sole, £14.45.
Fish Central, 149 Central Street, EC1 (020 7253 4970)
Masters Superfish is a large, busy chip shop much favoured by cabbies working Waterloo station's ranks. Cod is the most popular choice closely followed by haddock. But in addition it offers huss, skate, halibut and plaice.
Die-hards will pay £8 for a large cod and chips and £6 for haddock (eat-in).
Eco-friendly alternative: huss and chips, £6.50.
Masters Superfish, 191 Waterloo Road, SE1 (020 7928 6924)
Olley's has won the coveted title of Britain's best fish and chip shop. Notable for excellent "twice-cooked" chips and a bustling restaurant they also offer a large range of fishy options including plaice, lemon sole, hake, monkfish, mahi-mahi, sea bass, and skate. You will also have to decide whether you want your fish fried or grilled "Cod is hard to get and the price is going up but it is still the most popular."
For die-hards: £6.95 for a large cod and chips, £7.40 for haddock (eat-in).
Eco-friendly alternative: sea bass and chips, £12.45.
Olley's, 67 Norwood Road, SE24 (020 8671 8259)
Fryer's Delight on Theobald's Road is an excellent, non-nonsense, oldstyle chippy that still fries the traditional way in beef dripping.
Ozzie, the man behind the fryer, is adamant. "Cod is the most popular, when we run out of cod people go mad; for every 10 portions of cod we sell, we do three or four haddock and maybe one plaice. "The exception is when Northerners come in, they always want haddock. When Americans come in and ask for 'the best fish' we give them cod." There are other options such as plaice, rock salmon and skate.
For die-hards: £6 for a large cod and chips, £5.70 for haddock (eat-in).
Eco-friendly alternative: rock salmon and chips, £5.40.
Fryer's Delight, 19 Theobald's Road, WC1 (020 7405 4114)
In a perfect world we would all stop eating cod, it is a salutary thought that despite the complete closure of the Canadian North Atlantic cod fisheries, 14 years ago, the stocks have not revived.
Thankfully, for fans of the chippy, there are other fish which will fill the gap: we can all make a difference by laying off cod and starting to ask for "rock and chips".
YOUR GUIDE TO GUILT-FREE FISH AND CHIPS
1. Say "no" to cod, hake, halibut and even plaice (which is usually caught by bottom trawling which destroys the seabed).
2. When shopping, choose farmed fish with the Marine Stewardship Council label. Some chippies and restaurants sell farmed cod and sea bass.
3. Ask about the fishing methods; there is less waste involved with line-caught sea bass, monkfish, skate, mahi-mahi and haddock.
4. Sole, lemon sole, and mackerel are generally sound and sustainable options.
5. The best fish option of all is one that used to be a favourite with Londoners - rock salmon.
6. Instead, feel like ordering saveloy and chips?
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Reader views (7)
Skate and rock salmon are definitely endangered species and face extinction if not protected asap.
- Ana, Henley, Oxon
Whilst fishermen might lament the depleting stocks and the balmy euro quotas, what do they do but take from the sea and put nothing back? A farmer plants and reaps his rewards, a flower nursery does the same but fishermen just go and pillage the oceans of fish belonging to all of us. It is unsustainable and it is about time that they were forced to pay for the rearing of fish to be released into the wild for future generations to capture. We expect our wood to come from replanted forests, about time we demanded the same when it comes to fish.
- Dieselden, Kingston, Surrey
Good article though I doubt that I will ever visit those exotic places you mentioned. Just wanted to add to the first letter's misplaced comments. It does not take 5 tonnes of fish to make a tonne of farmed fish. It is closer to 1:1 as the feed used now is partially vegetable-based. With research and experience, this number will also improve.
With what is going on in the world, doesn't it make more sense to farm the oceans, rather than to rape them? How can we protect wild fisheries by eating them?
Try tilapia. It is very abundant, is sustainable now and is a white fish. It may be the perfect substitute to cod.
Cheers from the colonies.
- Islander, Campbell River, BritishColumbia, Canada
Farmed fish is not eco friendly. It takes five tons of wild fish to produce one ton of farmed fish.
What is really sustainable is handline caught mackerel, pollack and bass.
European quotas have caused the wastage of tens of thousands of tons of wholesome fish dumped back dead into the sea this madness continues.
What is needed are closed seasons and areas to protect breeding fish and curbs on all methods that are not sustainable.
The shortage of cod in the north sea may be due to climate change as much as overfishing. As the cod have diminished the bass population has exploded. Nature will never tolerate a vacuum some species or other will always fill the gap.
- Blackjack, Redruth Cornwall
Fish Central is not in the Barbican it is in Central Street, off City Road Kings Square to be precise. It is execellent and reasonable. the best fish and chips in London.
- Bash, London, london
Both South African hake and Pacific halibut have been certified as sustainable against the Marine Stewardship Council's independent environmental standard. Readers can spot fish from sustainable fisheries by the MSC's bold blue eco-label on fish available in most of the UK's supermarkets and at a selection of fishmongers and restuarants. Also, the MSC only applies to wild catch fisheries, not fish farms, which face a whole different set of environmental problems!
- Jessws, London, UK
Skate is most definitely NOT eco-friendly. The common skate is, in fact, critically endangered.
Dover Sole is also overfished too as is huss (aka rock, dogfish).
- Deadly, London
