Britain: Fish and chips on the brink of extinction due to warming seas

Britain's traditional fish and chips might soon be on the brink of extinction due to warming seas, researchers warned on 13 April.

According to research by the University of Exeter scientists, haddock, plaice and lemon sole are set to decline in great numbers as the North Sea warms by a predicted 1.8C over the next 50 years.

"Our study suggests that we will see proportionally less of some of the species we eat most of as they struggle to cope with warming conditions in the North Sea," said postgraduate researcher and research author Louise Rutterford, reported France24 News.

The researchers conducted the study to predict how future warming of seas will affect popular fish species and calculated the high risks as fish can only survive in set water temperatures, habitats and depths.

Travelling to cooler waters will not be an option for some fish species that are only suited to certain depths that are not available northwards.

"Our models predict cold water species will be squeezed out, with warmer water fish likely to take their place," said fellow paper author Steve Simpson who is also a senior lecturer in marine biology and global change.

"For sustainable UK fisheries, we need to move on from haddock and chips and look to southern Europe for our gastronomic inspiration."

The North Sea, which stretches between Britain, Norway, Denmark and Germany, has warmed by an estimated four times more than the global average in the past four decades.

The research paper Future fish distributions constrained by depth in warming sea has appeared in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.