Net benefits

Can we now eat cod, or not? And what about salmon? As a new, ethical fish restaurant prepares to open its doors, Annalisa Barbieri delves into the world of marine life and asks what the average consumer can do to help rapidly dwindling fish stocks

When looks were being handed out, fish were obviously too busy chatting at the back of the queue to budge up some; the only species they beat were the hyenas and cockroaches. This is how fish have ended up with such beauties as the plaice, all freakily placed eyes and a steam-rollered face not even its mother could love. Few fish are pretty, and looks matter when it comes to people caring about you. Doubly so when the subject of your sustainability is so complicated it makes even the most well-meaning consumers switch off.

When looks were being handed out, fish were obviously too busy chatting at the back of the queue to budge up some; the only species they beat were the hyenas and cockroaches. This is how fish have ended up with such beauties as the plaice, all freakily placed eyes and a steam-rollered face not even its mother could love. Few fish are pretty, and looks matter when it comes to people caring about you. Doubly so when the subject of your sustainability is so complicated it makes even the most well-meaning consumers switch off.

The matter of fish stocks, and how they are dwindling, has been covered extensively over the past few years, often with rather panicky headlines involving the words "unworkable EU policy" or worse, "no more cod and chips".

The biggest banners come in late December when the new fishing quotas are set for the following year, after details of stock numbers are published by ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Seas). It always causes uproar: the fishermen say it's too restrictive, but the conservationists argue it isn't restrictive enough. All the while the poor old consumer can but hang his head in confusion. The jargon associated with fishing quotas, fisheries and methods of catching couldn't be more divorced from the simple little white fillet on your plate.

Deep, a new restaurant opening in London next month, is trying to address some of this by making sure that its fish are from as-sustainable-as-possible sources. Although it is not endorsed or accredited by the World Wildlife Fund, the two have been in discussion about how best to promote a sustainable marine life: £1 will be added to your bill if you wish to support the work of the WWF. It will have touch screens where customers can learn more about the seafood they've just eaten, such as wild Swedish oysters and landlocked Atlantic salmon from Sweden (a subspecies that is apparently sustainable, unlike its sea-running cousins). It will also stock fish stamped as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, an organisation started by the WWF and Unilever in 1997 and which has the most widespread "good fish" labelling programme. Currently Deep is looking at serving MSC-endorsed Thames herring, mackerel from the South West, Hasting's Dover sole and pike and perch from south Sweden.

"In Sweden," explains the chef and patron Christian Sandefeldt, "we are much more environmentally aware and I wanted a more 'holistic' approach to the fish on the menu, I wanted to know where it came from." He admits that he is learning all the time. "Problems like the dredging of the sea bed were something I didn't know about. Now I won't let my children have cod fish-fingers, but they want fish-fingers, so what can I do?" Make sure they are made from Icelandic cod or New Zealand hoki, both sustainable fisheries, I advise.

This confusion is not unusual, even in someone about to open a fish restaurant and who is in constant contact with the WWF and the MSC. The paradox about fish-sustainability is that it's driven by the consumer, yet the consumer is given very little knowledge with which to make its choice. There is no universal method of labelling fish from sustainable sources and although the MSC's labels are a step in the right direction, its accreditation programme is a voluntary scheme. In other words, some fish from fisheries deemed as healthy, such as the aforementioned Icelandic cod, doesn't carry the logo. Since 2003 it has been mandatory for fish sold in the EU - whether in a supermarket or fishmonger - to state its common name, area of capture and whether it was farmed or wild. But not its impact on the environment or how it was caught. And anyway, this only applies to certain fish: raw, smoked, filleted or sliced in its "natural" state. It doesn't apply to fish that's had any ingredients added to it; so a piece of smoked mackerel with a knob of butter to one side of it would come under the legislation, a fillet of fish with the butter on top of it wouldn't.

Eating in a restaurant is harder still: there's no requirement for it to tell you anything at all. You can try but, whenever I've asked, the waiters have known very little. Even if a waiter were able to tell the average consumer where the fish is from, how many could differentiate between fish caught in the north Atlantic (Iceland is OK) or that caught in the north-east Atlantic (generally Norwegian, so not OK, although OK if it's from the Barant's sea)?

Then one has to keep up to date. A restaurant that may sell sustainable fish today, may not be able to make such claims tomorrow. Fish! opened in 1999 and was the first to work with the Marine Stewardship Council and sell its accredited products, but it no longer does, although it still "works closely" with the organisation. "At the moment," says an MSC spokesman, "there are no restaurants in the UK that stock MSC-labelled seafood although there are several we are in discussion with so we expect that to change this year."

Conran restaurants completely took cod off the menu five years ago and kept it off for two and a half years. Now all cod in its restaurants comes from Icelandic waters. The company focuses on small suppliers with traceability such as the Falmouth Bay Oyster Company which supplies Cornish Dover sole; Conran chefs are encouraged to buy fish in season - ie not when they're spawning. Loch Fyne Restaurants has 24 branches in the UK and they take advice from the MSC and the RSPCA.

It's easy to spread gloom and say fish such as cod or salmon will one day be relegated to memory, but this only makes us despair and think "what's the point then?" What's hardest is learning a little about fish so that we can make an informed choice. Mr Plaice may be ugly, but he's delicious. It'd be nice if he were around to delight us for a little longer yet.

ANNALISA'S ADVICE FOR THE BEST ETHICAL BUYS

* The best place to buy fish is from a fishmongers, but most of our fish is bought from supermarkets. The better fish (in terms of quality and sustainability) is sold at the fresh fish counter, if there is one, rather than pre-packaged.

* Cod from stocks in the North Sea is close to collapse, but only 20 per cent of cod sold in this country is from there. Look for Icelandic cod, which is from healthier stocks. Icelandic cod is air (as opposed to sea) freighted in, which makes it more expensive.

* Rotate the fish you eat, so as not to put too much pressure on any one species.

* Farmed salmon is often intensively farmed and best avoided. But there are some excellent, small farms that are run responsibly: the best of these is the Hebridean Smokehouse (see www.hebrideansmokehouse.com or tel: 01876 580 209); the fish are stocked at low density and not treated with any chemicals.

* Pick the species you eat the most of and educate yourself about them. www.fishonline.org is run by the Marine Conservation Society (see www.mcsuk.org) and has an excellent search facility that allows you to type in the name of a fish and find out all about its sustainability. The MCS also produces a book: 'The Good Fish Guide', priced £10, available on site or tel: 01989 566 017.

* The Marine Stewardship Council runs an accreditation scheme. Look for its logo (a white tick on a blue background) on fish in supermarkets, and visit www.msc.com - a treasure trove of information about the fish it approves.

* The RSPCA Freedom Foods scheme was set up in 1994. It sets minimum standards for farmed animals, including fish, and producers are inspected. See www.rspca.org

Annalisa Barbieri was fishing correspondent for 'The Independent' from 1997 to 2004. Deep opens 4 April, The Boulevard, Imperial Wharf, London SW6, tel: 020 7736 3337, www.deeplondon.co.uk