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OXFORD Street may be at the heart of London's shopping centre, but it is not the best place to go for sustainable fish, according to two environmentally-related organisations.
A survey by the group Fish2Fork and Zoological Society of London, found that too many restaurants and cafes in that part of the capital are selling seafood that is from endangered species or is caught in areas which are being overfished.
The two groups said that less than one in six establishments in the area, which also includes Regent Street, obtain their seafood from sustainable sources or provide enough information for consumers to make informed choices about what fish they eat. As much as 84 per cent of food outlets in the survey sold fish from stocks known to be overfished or endangered or they failed to give enough information for concerned consumers to discover where their fish came from.
But it is not all bad news, with some 23 fish restaurants and retailers out of the 146 surveyed were awarded a "blue fish" designation for sourcing sustainable seafood and providing enough information about it for consumers to buy seafood with a clear conscience.
Among those scoring a blue fish label were John Lewis, McDonalds, Marks and Spencer, the Abokado restaurant group and 11 eating places in Selfridges.
The study, carried out to coincide with the recent Project Ocean event in Selfridges, is thought to be one of the most in-depth studies yet carried out in any city centre.
Charles Clover, author of The End of the Line and editor of Fish2fork, said: "After all the publicity over the past couple of years about the world’s fish catches being in decline and the disgraceful state of most of Europe's fish stocks, I am honestly disappointed by the level of awareness of the crisis in the oceans among Oxford Street's retailers."
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