Is cod off the menu?

Shark and chips, alligator and chips or red mullet and chips? It just won't excite the customers as much as cod and chips, will it? And yet, the popular media would have us believe that cod and haddock have been so overfished that we are getting to the stage where there will soon be none left.

It's true that both these species are endangered, but taking them totally off the menu is not the answer, according to Ed Davison, Director of Foodservice, Young's Bluecrest. "There will be 900,000 tonnes of cod caught this year," he says, "mostly from responsibly managed fisheries in the North Atlantic."

Davison claims that the problems of the shortage of cod and haddock is not long-term. He says: "If you look at fisheries in Iceland, for example, the quota on cod is down but long term, they are rebuilding it - it is forecast to increase. The overall supply has been in decline for a number of years, but it is being arrested."

In the Baltic, the number of cod and haddock is stablising, he says, and an increase is predicted at both these fisheries.

One of the initiatives being introduced is a new size of fishing net with a grid, which allows juvenile fish to escape, so only the more mature fish are caught. This means there's a plentiful supply of large mature fish supplied in a whole fillet format. Ed Davison says: "The UK market for cod has relied on small cod (3,4,5oz), but the immature fish is not being caught because of conservation measures. So you'll need to portion up large mature fish, which produce a different shape and presentation on the plate. So you're going to be selling portions of a large cod rather than small fillets."

He warns that the price of cod is not going to get cheaper. "There's going to be a major inflation in the price of cod because of the reduction in supply and huge demand. It's going to get more expensive in the next few years until the fishery management programmes kick in. Supplies will increase with the new development on cod ranching and farming, not immediately on a significant scale, bit in three to five years it's likely to be on a bigger scale."

Haddock comes from smaller fisheries and over the last 10 years the quotas have fluctuated between 230,000 to 400,000 tonnes a year - it's about 320,000 tonnes a year now, according to Ed Davison.

What other fish can be served in place of cod or haddock?

Ed suggest hoki, pollack and hake as they are cheaper than cod. "Capitalise on offering a wide choice of fish on your menu," he says.

The Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish) suggests white round fish alternatives from the same group as cod and haddock such as coley, whiting, pollack, ling and huss. Seafish launched a huge promotion last month - Seafood Week - to educate consumers about different species of fish. It seems that over 90% of the UK population is not aware that there are over 100 different seafood varieties currently in the UK today. Cod, plaice, haddock, prawns and salmon account for almost 70% of seafood sales.

Part of the promotion had 500 fish and chip shops featuring exotic species like moonfish, parrotfish and red snapper on their menus.