February 7, 2019 — University of Exeter researchers, studying the DNA of shark products sold in fishmongers, fish and chip shops, and Asian wholesalers in England, believe they have uncovered serious cases of mislabeling and a potential trade in critically endangered species.
However, their findings have been largely dismissed by the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF), which said in a statement that the fish sold in fish and chip outlets is all legally sourced.
The scientists found that 90 percent of products sold at fish and chip shops under umbrella terms such as huss, rock salmon, and rock eel, were actually spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). Landings of this fish into the European Union by E.U. and third-country vessels have been prohibited from the Northeast Atlantic since 2011 because it is classified as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species.
Other species identified include blue sharks, Pacific spiny dogfish, nursehounds, and starry smoothounds, most of which are not in threatened categories, but they only made up a small minority of the samples.