Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Restaurants urged to support responsible fishing

An estimated 28,000 people eat fish and chips every week as part of JD Wetherspoons’ Fish Friday promotion alone
An estimated 28,000 people eat fish and chips every week as part of JD Wetherspoons’ Fish Friday promotion alone

Conservation groups are urging three pub and restaurant chains to pledge their commitment to using only responsibly-caught fish on their menus.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), Fish2fork and Sustain are targeting JD Wetherspoon, Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia in their Point the Fish Finger campaign.

Each of the restaurant and pub groups is being asked to promise to take “appropriate steps” to buy and promote sustainable seafood in order to protect precious marine environments and fish stocks, and also “good fishing livelihoods”.

To measure progress, the trio will be assessed by Fish2fork and given a sustainability rating.

According to MCS, the three groups serve more than 185million meals a year and represent around 12% of the high street restaurant market.

An estimated 28,000 people eat fish and chips every week as part of JD Wetherspoons’ Fish Friday promotion alone.

A recent survey by MCS and Fish2fork found that several restaurant chains were “failing to demonstrate publicly that the seafood they were serving was sustainable”.

MCS fisheries officer Sam Stone said: “We hope that, by receiving messages from our supporters, these brands will realise how concerned people are about last month’s survey.

“Our supporters tell us that they want to see sustainable fish on the menu, but high street restaurant chains just aren’t doing enough to either buy sustainable seafood or to inform diners about the seafood they’re selling.”

Ruth Westcott, Sustainable Fish Cities project officer at Sustain, added: “These companies are more than overdue a shakeup of their fish policies.

“There are plenty of sustainable fish options available and in fact they may be doing some good things already, but without a clear commitment and strong, meaningful and publicly accessible fish policy, customers are left in the dark.”

Fish2fork managing director Tim Glover said: “The choices restaurants make about which fish or shellfish to use have a direct impact on the health of our seas.”