Sales of sustainable seafood soar in UK supermarkets

Sales of "alternative" species of fish and seafood such as coley, dab, mussels, squid and sardines have soared over the staple salmon, cod and tuna after being championed in Channel 4's new Fish Fight campaign, the UK's leading supermarket have reported, according to the Guardian.

The cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has taken the lead in the new campaign. Programmes from fellow chef Jamie Oliver have shown consumers new ways of cooking less popular species such as mussels, squid and trout.

The programmed highlighted the wasteful use of "discard" in fishing practices while encouraging shoppers to take the pressure off popular fish stocks by being more adventurous in what they eat.

Sainsbury's said sales of "bycatch" from its fresh fish counter had been "promising" overall. Sales of organic salmon grew by 16 per cent and normal salmon sales remained unchanged.

Tesco, the UK's biggest fish retailer, said it had seen an increase in sales of between 25 and 45 per cent for fresh sardines, coley, brown crab, sprats and whiting in the week since the first programmes.

Waitrose said sales of seafood overall were up by 15 per cent – with most of this increase being attributed to species that have traditionally been less popular.

Asda reported "really strong sales across the whole of the fish category in the last week, up 10 per cent on the previous week" with particular growth in the sales of products included in Jamie Oliver's recipes. Sales of trout fillets, for example, rose by 56 per cent.

Marks & Spencer said it had ordered in over a third more stock than it did for its peak Christmas week.