The End of the Line Opens at London Cinemas

I first heard about the film The End of the Line on Twitter. Chefs such as Thomasina Miers and Tom Aikens were pledging to no longer serve endangered species of fish, and Stephen Fry exhorted everyone to watch the film.

The End of the Line is, in some ways, an old fashioned, tub-thumping documentary about declining fish stocks in the world. But it is a serious problem: on a planet where 70 per cent of the surface is water, some of our favourite edible fish are near to extinction. Within 50 years we could have no more, with species upon species disappearing.

This week I went to a preview screening of the film at Vue Finchley Road. The movie certainly treads carefully with its message; eat small fish such as sardines, anchovy, herring, and mackerel, not big fish whose populations have declined by 90 per cent. Above all do not eat Blue Fin tuna; large dolphin-like creatures that you see hacked to pieces. Any illusions that I previously held about fish being different to meat were blown away – they bleed.

Politicians don’t care. In Europe the Commission okayed a fishing quota of twice as much as advised by marine scientists. The fishing trawlers then fished twice as much again. Some of these ‘super trawlers’ have dredging nets so large that inside you could fit 13 large planes. The nets sweep up everything in their wake and chuck anything – turtles, dolphins and other creatures – that do not fit the order.

With modern technological equipment scanning the seas, the fish have no chance to escape. It’s an unfair fight that humans appear to be ‘winning’ – but at what loss for future generations?

Japan eats four-and-a-half times more fish than the British. The Chinese and the Indonesians have the biggest markets. In Europe the Spanish, Portuguese and Italians eat the most fish. However in Britain 50 per cent of the cod we eat is illegally caught.

There have been attempts to control fishing. In 1992, faced with declining stocks, cod fishing was banned in Canada, leading to a loss of 40,000 jobs. 15 years later, stocks have still not recovered.

Ask questions of your fishmonger, supermarkets and restaurants:

Is this fish legally caught?
Where was it caught?
Is it sustainably farmed?

Campaigners have influenced Wagamama and Jamie Oliver to remove endangered fish from menus and cookbooks. Now Birds Eye and McDonald’s use only farmed fish. But the fashionable still eat Blue Fin tuna at Nobu.

Afterwards I took my daughter to Yo Sushi. We ordered only vegetarian.

The End of the Line opens on general release at Vue cinemas this Friday 12 June.

www.myvue.com/theendoftheline