A Guide to buying fish in the UK

Many of the world's fish stocks are seriously depleted, largely due to over-fishing. Shops and supermarkets will continue to stock threatened species as long as customers buy them, thereby creating demand for these species in the fishing industry. Informed shoppers can modify their buying patterns to purchase only those species that have safer populations instead of endangered species; if there is no demand at the point of sale to the public, fisheries will be forced to change their practices and target species.

The table in our fish buying guide shows which fish to buy and which to avoid in (mainly) UK and European shops. In order to allow stocks to recover, we strongly recommend not buying fresh fish during the breeding season, only buying each species during the season shown in the table.

The species names in column 1 of our fish buying guide are also links to descriptions of the species. The most highly recommended species are indicated by a green tag in column 2 ("RECOMMENDED"), whilst those species that should never be bought are marked with a red tag in column 6 ("DO NOT BUY"). The tags detail the area of origin, the fishing method and the sub-species, where appropriate.

As of January 2002, the labelling of fish (whole and fillets only) for origin and species became mandatory in the EC. Labelling must include the commercial name of the species, fishing or production methods (caught at sea or in fresh water, farmed or cultivated) and the area where the fish was caught. If you encounter a shop that does not display this information or is unable to provide it, please report this fact to FishOnline using their questionnaire form - this is run by the Marine Conservation Society who are actively campaigning to improve labelling and to enforce good practice.

The season in column 7 shows which months of the year each species should be bought in order to avoid the breeding seasons. "MSC" refers to the Marine Stewardship Council.

This data was researched by Project Ocean Vision from a variety of sources, including the Marine Conservation Society. A pdf version of our fish buying guide is available for printing and reference.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED