Endangered sharks are commonly being sold at chip shops and fishmongers in the UK, an investigation has found.
Of the 78 samples from chip shops in southern England, roughly 90% were found to be shark.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Scientists also found fins of scalloped hammerhead sharks, which are globally endangered, being sold by an Asian food wholesaler in England supplying Chinese restaurants, The Times reports.
The study’s authors said they could not tell if any rules had been broken as spiny dogfish caught as by-catch in EU waters can be sold under strict conditions, the paper adds.
“It’s almost impossible for consumers to know what they are buying,” said Catherine Hobbs, one of the authors of the study.
“People might think they’re getting a sustainably sourced product when they’re actually buying a threatened species.”
Shark meat is typically sold under general names such as huss, rock salmon and rock eel.
This form of labelling is permitted, but the findings have prompted calls for more stringent food labelling so people know exactly what they are consuming.
“There are also health issues,” Hobbs says. “Knowing what species you are buying could be important in terms of allergies, toxins, mercury content and the growing concern over microplastics in the marine food chain.”
-
'Animal Farm' at 80: Orwell's parable remains 'horribly' relevantTalking Point George Orwell's warnings about authoritarianism and manipulation have been weaponised across the political spectrum
-
Will Ukraine trade territory for peace?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Kyiv’s defences are wearing thin but a land swap is constitutionally impossible and crosses Zelenskyy's red lines
-
Quiz of The Week: 9 – 15 AugustQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
Pros and cons of oat milk: what are the benefits?Pros and cons Oat milk is now the most popular dairy alternative in many countries – but how healthy and 'green' is it?
-
How the UN high seas treaty aims to protect the world’s oceansfeature Nearly 200 countries agreed to a legally binding protocol that has been two decades in the making
-
‘Serious conversation’ needed over release of carp herpes into Australian watersSpeed Read Flooding means ‘bottom-feeding pests’ are appearing in huge numbers
-
Is the freeport to blame for loss of marine life in Teesside?feature Bitter row has broken out between the government and fishermen over mass die-off of crabs and lobsters
-
The climate crisis in 2023feature New legislation, activism and business paths could change the picture this year
-
Shell’s North Sea oil U-turn: ‘a first victory in a longer war’?Speed Read Controversy after oil giant pulls out of proposed Cambo project
-
Fires, floods and storms: America’s ‘permanent emergency’ has begunSpeed Read This summer of climate horror feels like the ‘first, vertiginous 15 minutes of a disaster movie’, says The New York Times
-
Hot air and empty rhetoric: is the UK acting too slowly on climate change?Speed Read ‘Every day, new evidence accumulates that humanity is on an unsustainable path’
