UK Climate News - 29 January 2008

Top chefs Raymond Blanc and Tom Aikens will be joining forces with Greenpeace tomorrow (30 January) to urge other chefs to use only sustainable seafood on their menus. They'll also be urging food writers to drop unsustainably caught fish from their recipes.And the campaign has already attracted the backing of multiple Michelin-starred Heston Blumenthal and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. A host of chefs and writers, including Antonio Carluccio, Brian Turner and Rose Gray, are expected to attend tomorrow night's launch party, at Old Billingsgate Fish Market in London. Raymond Blanc, Tom Aikens and Greenpeace boss John Sauven will be asking those assembled to choose sustainable seafood. All the guests will be asked to sign a pledge to stop using or promoting unsustainable fish species and to support the creation of marine reserves to help fish stocks recover. Raymond Blanc said: "Protecting the diversity of fish in our seas is as important as looking after wildlife on land. Those of us who are passionate about cooking and serving seafood will be equally passionate about using only sustainable species, as the fish we cook and eat now will determine what we have in the future." Sarah Shoraka from Greenpeace said: "No-one wants to see fishy favourites disappear from dinner plates, but that is what the future holds, unless we change the way we catch fish. Making large areas of the ocean into marine reserves, where fishing doesn't take place, would allow depleted stocks to re-build. "Chefs and food writers can help to save the world's oceans by putting sustainability as a vital ingredient on every menu." The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution - who advise politicians and the Royal family on green matters - has calculated that only 0.006 per cent of England's territorial waters are designated as 'no fishing' areas to protect damaged stocks (1). Greenpeace is calling for 40 per cent of the world's oceans to become p...

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