Bizarre plan that could see 'jellyfish served with chips at Mansfield takeaways'

Conservationists have revealed striking information which confirms that at least 92 endangered and 11 critically endangered species of seafood were caught in oceans around the world and ended up in meals.

UK regulations only require fresh, chilled, and live fish to be labelled with its scientific and commercial name, but cooked fish - like a battered fillet - has continued to slip through the net. Essentially, this means common menu favourites like 'fish' or 'flake' could actually be endangered species.

Continued efforts to protect the endangered species, in the not-too-distant future, popular chip shop favourites could be swapped with other more environmentally friendly species like jellyfish - which previous research have shown are multiplying.

One of the researchers behind the study of global fishing records, Doctoral student Leslie Roberson, from the University of Queensland, Australia, said: "The seafood industry is difficult to manage from a conservation perspective because it has supply chains that span multiple international waters, without a governing body.

"A typical situation might look something like - a fishing boat operating in Australian waters, owned by a Chinese company, with a crew of fishermen from the Philippines. Then one part of the fish might get processed in China, and the other can go to Europe.

"We don't know what we're eating, it's really hard to trace seafood back to its origin and species because the industry is such a mess."

Senior research fellow, Dr Carissa Klein, who is set to start further research on seafood consumption and find ways to make the industry more sustainable – although she will only focus on the industry in Australia, also said: "We would never consider eating mountain gorillas or elephants, both of which are endangered.

"It should be illegal to eat something that is threatened by extinction, especially species that are critically endangered - if we can better coordinate fisheries and conservation policies, we can prevent it from happening.

"When importing seafood from other places, we are displacing any social or environmental problems associated with fishing to that place, which is likely to have less capacity to sustainably manage its ocean."