Hi °C | Lo °C Britain's coastal waters are so overfished that they can supply the nation's chip shops, restaurants and kitchens for little more than six months of every year, research has shown.
Overfishing has caused so much damage to fish stocks across Europe that the quantity landed each year to satisfy the public appetite has fallen by 2% on average every year since 1993.
So great is demand that next Sunday, July 16, has been dubbed Fish Dependence Day — the day on which imports would have to be relied upon because native supplies would have run out if only home-caught fish had been eaten since January 1.
Last year it fell on August 3, almost three weeks later, and in 1995 it was six weeks later.
The demands made on UK and European fisheries are making them less productive, and unless they are better managed the supply of fish will dwindle and thousands of jobs will be lost, the report shows.
