Say no to Flake at Fish and Chip shops

An estimated 100 million sharks are killed every year around the world, a number that far exceeds what many populations need to recover. One of the reasons the population of these apex predators is on the decline is from fish and chip shops misleading the consumer market and selling shark disguised as fish.

Flake rapidly became popular. With the taste and look of normal fish (such as Barramundi or Snapper), and a special advantage is that flake has no bones, because sharks are cartilaginous, combined with the ready supply and a low price, saw flake become by far one of the most common type of fish to be served in Australian fish and chip shops.

The vast majority of shark meat is sold as ‘flake’ in fish and chip shops. Flake is a term used in Australia to indicate the flesh of any of several species of small shark, particularly the gummy shark. There is currently no regulation that ensures all seafood sellers identify the species that the shark meat is from. Gummy shark from Australia mainly comes from stocks fished off Southern Australia, a fishery that’s managed by the Commonwealth Government.

The depletion of shark’s results in over-population and the loss of commercially important fish and shellfish species down the food chain. Sharks are a critical component in an ecosystem that controls our planet’s temperature and weather, and generates more oxygen than all the rainforests combined. Recent studies indicate that regional elimination of sharks caused disastrous effects including the collapse of fisheries and the death of coral reefs.