Familiar North Sea fish species such as cod, haddock and whiting - caught in the shallow inshore waters above the continental shelf around the UK - have been fished so heavily that spawning stocks may never recover. Now deep-water fish with names such as orange roughy, roundnose grenadier, blue ling and black scabbard, previously beyond the reach of the fishing fleets, are being looked at as commercially viable alternatives to the regular visitors on fishmongers' slabs.
