6 October, 2007

A SCOTTISH Euro MP is urging chip shops to stop selling a fish that is on the WWF's top ten list of endangered marine species.

Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson said last night that a small shark sold as rock salmon was seriously over fished and should not be on people's menus.

Mr Stevenson, the fisheries spokesman for the UK's conservative MEPS, has now taken up the issue with fisheries commissioner Joe Borg.

Mr Stevenson said: "Rock salmon is sold widely in chip shops throughout the UK. It is sold in batter and is a white, boneless meat which is particularly popular with children. Schools in Germany and France often have it on their canteen lunch menus.

"The species is S.acanthias or spiny dogfish and is a small species of shark typically caught in inshore waters around our coasts.

"However, vast over-fishing has led to the serious decline of this slender, white-spotted shark in recent years and it has now been placed on the WWF top ten list of critically endangered species facing possible extinction.

"I would urge all fish and chip shops to stop selling rock salmon immediately while I seek the intervention of the European Commission to take steps to provide this species of shark with proper protection.

"I have written to Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg urging him to ban all fishing for the slow-maturing spiny dogfish until the stocks have had a chance to recover."