Rating*****
Plaice
Pleuronectes platessa
REASON TO AVOID
Plaice is a long-lived species and subject to high fishing pressure. Stocks in the Celtic Sea and Western Channel are overfished whilst stocks in SW Ireland and W of Ireland are in decline and substantial reductions in fishing effort are required to achieve sustainable stock levels. Large numbers of undersized plaice are discarded in particular in beam trawl fisheries for flatfish (sole and plaice) in the southern North Sea. Avoid eating immature plaice below 30 cm and during their breeding season January to March.
ADVICE / ALTERNATIVES
Plaice stocks in the North Sea and Irish Sea are classified as healthy and are fished sustainably. To increase the sustainability of plaice from these areas choose fish caught using seine or gill nets as they are less damaging to the marine environment.
The following is a list of fish available to the UK and European consumer which have been given a rating of 5 and which MCS believes are most vulnerable to over-fishing and/or are fished using methods which cause damage to the environment or non-target species. The list is in alphabetical order not order of threat or impact. Select a species to find out more. Click here to download the 2008-2009 version of the MCS Pocket Good Fish Guide (Adobe PDF). A new version of this guide will be available soon.
1.  Brill (from all areas except Baltic Sea)
2.  Chilean seabass or Patagonian toothfish (from all areas except the South Georgia fishery)
3.  Cod, Atlantic (Avoid wildcaught from all areas except Northeast Arctic and Iceland)
4.  Dogfish or spurdog or rock salmon or flake
5.  Dublin Bay Prawn or langoustine or scampi (from Spain and Portugal)
6.  Eel, conger
7.  Eel, European
8.  Grouper
9.  Haddock (from the Faroes and West of Scotland fisheries)
10.  Hake, European (Southern stock)
11.  Halibut, Atlantic (Wild Caught)
12.  Halibut, Greenland
13.  Herring or sild (from West of Scotland, West Ireland, and Great Sole fisheries)
14.  Ling (except handline caught from the Faroes)
15.  Lobster, American (from Southern New England stocks)
16.  Marlin, black
17.  Marlin, blue (from Atlantic longline and purse seine fisheries)
18.  Marlin, Indo-Pacific blue
19.  Marlin, white
20.  Nursehound (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
21.  Orange roughy
22.  Plaice (from the Western Channel, Celtic Sea, Southwest Ireland and West of Ireland and Baltic Sea)
23.  Prawn, tiger and King(except organically farmed, or GAA/GlobalGap certified)
24.  Ray, blonde
25.  Ray, sandy
26.  Ray, shagreen
27.  Ray, smalleyed (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
28.  Ray, thornback or roker (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
29.  Ray, undulate
30.  Salmon, Atlantic (Wild Caught)
31.  Seabass (Pelagic Trawl only)
32.  Shark, mako
33.  Shark, porbeagle
34.  Shark, tope
35.  Skate, common
36.  Skate, longnose
37.  Skate, Norwegain or black
38.  Skate, white
39.  Sole, Dover or common (from Irish Sea)
40.  Starry smoothhound (from Bay of Biscay and Iberian stocks)
41.  Sturgeon, caviar (Wild Caught)
42.  Swordfish (Longline and Gillnet fisheries in Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Central and Western Pacific)
43.  Trout (Brown or Sea, wild caught from Baltic)
44.  Tuna, albacore (Longline and Trawl caught from the North and South Atlantic and the Mediterranean)
45.  Tuna, bigeye
46.  Tuna, northern bluefin
47.  Tuna, Pacific bluefin
48.  Tuna, skipjack (Purse seine from W Atlantic)
49.  Tuna, southern bluefin
50.  Turbot (Wild caught)
51.  Wolffish
   
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