People buying generic fish such as rock could in fact be eating a
range of shark species
Thu 31 Jan 2019 10.00 GMT Last modified on Thu 31 Jan
2019 18.55 GMT
Fish and chip shops and fishmongers are selling endangered sharks
to an unwitting public, according to researchers who used DNA barcoding to
identify species on sale.
Most chip shop fish sold under generic names such as huss, rock,
flake and rock salmon turned out to be spiny dogfish, a shark species
classified as endangered in Europe by
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list.
Researchers at the University of Exeter also found fins of shark
species unknowingly sold by a British wholesaler included scalloped
hammerheads, which are endangered globally, as well as shortfin mako and
smalleye hammerhead sharks.
Other species sold in fish and chip shops and fishmongers included
starry smooth-hounds, nursehounds and blue sharks.
It was illegal to catch spiny dogfish in the EU until 2011 but the
fish is now permitted to be sold as bycatch – when it is brought up in nets
that target other species.
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